William Dupuis Photography

Fall Foliage

2010-10-26T19:09:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to create a quick post to share a few small tips that I've learned about photographing the fall foliage.

One thing that I often do when photographing the fall colors, is that I often underexpose my photos by 1/2 to 2/3 of a stop. It helps get more saturation in the color of the foliage (fall photos are all about the color, right?)

Another thing I like to do, is to photograph the fall foliage over a body of water, such as a lake. This does a couple of things. First the reflection of the trees in the water doubles the amount of color present in the photograph. And second, you can use the water to create a sense of contrast between the cool colors of the water and the warm colors of the foliage.

If you are taking photographs in the middle of the day when the sun light is pretty harsh, try using a polarizing filter. Tree leaves reflect a lot of light believe it or not. When your camera picks up that reflected light it tends to wash out some of that precious color your trying to capture. The polarizing filter will help with that reflected light and also has the added benefit of pulling more detail in any clouds that you may have in your photo.

Lastly if it's overcast out, don't worry, the soft filtered sunlight often helps you get deeper and more saturated colors in your photos (just don't underexpose your photos like I mentioned in my first tip). The only thing to really keep in mind when taking photos in these conditions is to try and minimize the amount of grey sky in your photos.

So get out there and get some great fall foliage photos before its too late. And if your so inclined upload them to my FaceBook page and share them with others, we would love to see them.

Will

If you don't at first succeed try, try again...

2010-03-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

Well, I tried my hand a photographing the Moon again tonight. I put what I learned last night to use and ended up with some photos I'm pretty happy with. Now I'll be ready for the next full Moon. I guess the moral of the story is to not get discouraged. If you don't pull off the shot your trying to get, take a moment step back and try again.

I will say that getting the focus and exposure correct was a little tricky. So, I ended up taking several photos and experimenting to get a result I was happy with.

You can view a larger version of my Moon photo by clicking on the thumbnail image of it in this post.

Will

Full Moon Failure...

2010-02-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

On Friday, I discovered that we were going to have a full moon this weekend and I wanted to try and capture it using my new lens. Unfortunately, the weather has not been very cooperative the past few days. So, tonight I happened to look out and see a break in the cloud cover and the moon rising over the horizon in it. I figured I had a good 20 minutes to get my gear together and run outside to snap a few shots before the cloud cover got to it. The Moon was gorgeous, very large, and a nice rust/orange hue to it. I got everything together, beat foot outside, set things up and began to try and get a properly exposed photo. About 15 minutes passed and the cloud cover reached the Moon and I realized that my window of opportunity was over.

I immediately headed inside, transferred the photos to my computer, and discovered that not a single was was very good. They were either improperly exposed or not as sharp as I thought they should be. After a few minutes I realized why they were not sharp. It was the very reason the Moon had that awesome hue and looked so large. I was trying to photograph the Moon when it was near the horizon, so I was seeing the Moon through a lot more of the Earth's atmosphere than I would have if the Moon had been directly overhead. The atmosphere not only magnified the Moon, and gave it that beautiful hue (caused by the particles and pollutants in the air), it was also distorting it.

I think my Girlfriend was the smart one, she stayed inside and enjoyed the Moon rise from the warm confines of the house. I'll know better the next time.

In the meantime, I'm going to do a little research on photographing the Moon, and search for sites like this one to get some tips on getting decent photos of the Moon. You can find a table showing this years Moon phases by visiting Astronomical Applications Department of the US Navy .

I'll try again next month! (That is if the weather cooperates)

Will

Getting ready for a new season...

2010-02-25T21:49:00.000-08:00

It's about that time of year again where I start preparing to spend a lot more time out and about taking photos. The first major trip that I have planned this year, is visiting the Middle Creek Wildlife Pre serve. During the first few weeks of March, tens of thousands of snow geese stop there during their spring migration. The first year I visited there the area was inundated with approximately 190,000 snow geese and about 3500 tundra swan (yep, you read that right 190,000). This trip can be tricky to plan for far in advance, because you never know when the bulk of the geese will show up or when they will leave to continue their migration. Once they decide to leave, it's usually a matter of a week and most of them are gone.

In years past, I've been a little frustrated because the lenses I owned were not quite long enough to get the kind of photos that I was looking for. So for this year I purchased a new lens, and hopefully things will work out and I'll end up with some photos I'll be happy with.

You may be wondering why I have a photo of a Blue Jay in a post where I'm discussing snow geese. Well, that sort of leads me into a photography tip that I want to share. From time to time, I'll try and post some tips that I've learned about photography. I can't guarantee the frequency or quality of the tips, but will share them when I can and would be interested in any comments you may have about them.

So, on to the tip. Anytime you get a new piece of gear, whether it be a new lens or a new camera bag, try to take the gear out for a few small trips before going on any big trip you may have in mind. This will give you a chance to do a couple of things. First off, it will let you know if the new piece of gear is going to do what you are expecting it to. If it doesn't then you will have enough time to return and replace it with something that will. More importantly, taking your gear out for a few test runs will give you practice using it. There is nothing worse than being out with a lens or other piece of gear that you barely know how to use. You'll end up worrying and wasting a lot of time that you could be taking photos trying to figure out how to use it.

So why the Blue Jay again? Well, I just purchased a new lens and I've taken it on a few test runs. One being in a State park not far from me and I happened to catch the shot of the blue jay on that trip. You can take a closer look at the photo and a few others from that day by clicking on the photo of my little furry friend below.

So far, I'm pretty happy with the lens and have started to get a pretty good idea of how to use it to get some decent results.

Will

Dupuisphotos.com Reloaded...

2010-02-25T21:29:00.000-08:00

Those of you who are Matrix fans will understand the title. I've just re-designed Dupuisphotos.com (my photography site) again and hopefully it will be quite some time before I decide to do it again. I've lost track of how many times I've reworked the site over the years. In my previous attempts I did quite a bit of coding to get and keep things in order.

This time I think I've found a solution that will let me concentrate on taking and sharing photos rather than wasting a lot of time editing HTML and PHP code. If you have visited my site in the past, you may notice that the new site is a lot cleaner looking and much less complicated to navigate.

The new site will also allow me to sell prints and other products directly from the site. I currently have this feature disabled and will be turning it on once I get pricing and a few other details worked out.

If you have a few moments to spare, visit Dupuisphotos.com, check the site out and let me know what you think.

Will