Your Personal Favorites

[Matt Tucker]

This was the topic on another forum that I participate in off and on, and it made for some interesting reading and viewing if enough people participate. I am headed down to the White River this weekend, but will check the thread when I get back, and can't wait to see some photos.

Regarding my photos, all of the shots below were shot with a Nikon D70 and most were taken in 2005 (the year I really put down my fly rod and chased subjects with a camera). Most of the shots were lightly edited in photoshop, but I don't have that great of a knowledge in it to really alter much of anything and all were resized for the web with smaller file sizes. In 2005 I was shooting in .jpeg format, but now I shoot in RAW exclusively. So, here are five of my favorites in no particular order.

Fish Hard,

Matt Tucker

Photo # 1

This photo was shot at Maremac Spring Park and is the first photo I ever shot where I think I actually ended up with what I had hoped to end up with. This is also the first photo I ever felt worthy enough to print in large format.

Photo # 2

This photo was shot in 2005 and is of a turkey that walked up on me at Lone Elk County Park in St. Louis, MO.

Photo # 3

Out of all my photos this shot was complete luck. I happened to be driving through the county park and looked out the window and saw a deer. I parked the car, grabbed my camera gear and hurridly tried to get a closer look. I didn't have a decent prime lens at the time (still don't have the 300mm 2.8 that I so desparately need) but this was captured when I really thought it as too dark and required some photoshop work to lighten the image up. You gotta love big bucks shedding velvet.

Photo # 4

This is my first silouhette image that I shot worth a darn, and will always have a place in my book. Silouhette's are alot tougher than they look because of the sun placement and background. The subject is an elk at Lone Elk County Park near St. Louis.

Photo # 5

This is another phot from Lone Elk County Park (there is a trend here, and if you are a photographer you need to make a trip to this place) of a buck I followed quite alot in 2005 and 2006. I had attempted to shoot this buck's antler growth through the season for a calendar, but couldn't get him shedding his velvet or him dropping his antlers. I put alot of time towards this buck in 05 and 06........he is truly a giant.

[Phil Lilley]

Very nice. My favorite is pic #1. The others are a close second.

Thanks

[Danoinark]

Matt, I have seen your pictures before and know how great they are..

#1 is my favorite also. Can you explain in layman's terms how you get the soft edgs of the falling water, and how do you increase vividness of the colors like you have in this picture.

Dano

[Matt Tucker]

With landscape photos such as this one you have all the time in the world to set up your shot as the subject isn't going to move. The lighting may change or someone might walk into your frame but the landscape isn't moving that fast. So take your time on landscape shots and ALWAYS shoot off of a tripod or some form of super stable platform. During landscape shots I touch my camera as little as possible once i compose the scene in the viewfinder. I use a shutter release remote to trigger the shot once all my settings are dialed in.

The water is pretty simple in all you are doing is slowing down the shutter speed and keeping your subject in focus and letting everything else around it continue to move. But you need to keep the camera completely still for these types of shots. Shutter speeds can also be reduced and a photographer can pan with thier subject to create a motion effect as well -- but in the case of water you want to keep the camera still. Some shoots the shutter is open for 10 seconds some only 1 second but all can create varying senses of motion.

With regards to the coloring of this photo, you need to wait for the right lighting and understanding your camera settings (specifically white balance in this case). This shot was actually shot around 9am or maybe a little later but it was in an area not brightly lit. In my opinion, colors are more vivid when not in direct sun light. I did use photoshop to bring out some of the colors, but again I don't know how to use photoshop very well so that I believe was minimal.

Hope this makes sense Dan and thanks for the comments guys. Let's see some other photos.

--matt tucker

[patfish]

Matt, you and my girlfriend are going to be best buddies. Her father was a photographer in the military, so she has "the background". She says I have a good eye, but I shoot film from a cheapo 35mm that someone gave me. Great shots. You ever do any i-Stock stuff? She makes a little pocket money doing that, mostly recycles it into camera gear.

[Danoinark]

Matt

Thanks for the explanation. I don't know the capabilities of my little

Canon 7mp but it sure has given me some impetus to read the manual closer. I just know you take some picture postcards.

Dano

[duckydoty]

Nice pictures Matt. I like them all

duckydoty

[damselfly]

i have a pic i'd like to post, but not sure how to do it on this site....help??

[Danoinark]

Damsel

There are a couple of ways. You can upload your picture to a picture hosting site then use the link generator (the little tree on the reply section) to paste your picture here. You have to paste the url into the picture section of the reply. Or the simplest way is to do an attachment. At the bottom of the new post or reply screen is an area you can browse your pictures on your ocmputer and attach it from there. As to a picture hosting site there are many out there. I use www.picturetrail.com these sites are generally free.

Dano

[damselfly]

Dano --- Thanks! Here's my pic -- taken at Bennett Spring after a rain. love the fog....