Archive for Ian Plant
About Ian
Ian Plant is a full-time professional nature photographer and writer living in Virginia. He is a frequent contributor to several leading photo magazines, including Outdoor Photographer. Ian is the author/photographer of nine print and electronic books, including most recently Chasing the Light and The Ultimate Guide to Digital Nature Photography (2009). Ian leads several nature photography workshops, digital photo tours, and online classes each year. To view more of his work and online tutorials, visit his website www.ianplant.com or his blog www.ianplant.com/blog.
I can’t get enough of back-lighting. Back-lighting can be used to create magical images (especially at sunrise or sunset when the light is a rich golden color), and it works great for both wildlife and landscape images alike. Although some photographers live by the maxim “shoot with the sun at your back,” I’m always on the
In the first part of my series about night photography, I presented a landscape image taken at night using flash to illuminate foreground features. Night photography isn’t just for landscape scenes, however; wildlife can be fun to photograph at night too. You just have to be able to find them in the dark!
Twilight is a great time to
The dark of night is the closest thing to a blank canvas that we as photographers ever get. It is the only time when we are not merely at the mercy of the light falling on our chosen scene. Instead, the photographer can choose which parts of the scene get illuminated, using artificial light sources
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Personally, I find this expression somewhat trite, and perhaps a bit depressing—although suffering must sometimes be endured, it isn’t exactly the kind of thing I get excited about. Nonetheless, I must conclude that every nature photographer should write this expression on a scrap of paper and staple it to their forehead. Yes, I know, stapling something to your
Few people outside of the mid-Atlantic know about Smith Island—for that matter, few enough people living in the area know about it either. Smith Island, located in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, is a timeless place, a throwback to earlier and simpler times, steeped in history, wildlife, wild lands, and the charm and spirit of
Summer is the time for storms. Too often, photographers pack up when they see inclement weather on the horizon, which is a real shame. I always tell my workshop students that bad weather for most people is good weather for photographers. “Storm light,” as I like to call it, can produce great conditions for nature photography. Dramatic
I just got back from two weeks of shooting the Grand Tetons, Wind River Mountains, and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Although I have been to Yellowstone several times, it has always been in the winter, to photograph elk, coyote, bison, bighorn rams, the occasional geothermal event, and even geyser eruptions at night. This was my first
When you were young, your mother probably told you to never stare into the sun. What is often good advice for most people, however, is often bad advice for nature photographers. Although you certainly should still be careful about burning your eyes, shooting into the sun can add drama and power to your nature photographs.
The
I’m currently shooting in the Tetons, and this morning I passed a scene I photographed a few months prior during winter. I couldn’t resist stopping and taking a quick snapshot of the scene to share with the OP community, as I think it demonstrates the importance of waiting for the right moment to take a
“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”
—Loran Eisely, The Immense Journey, 1957
Nature’s magical moments—those rare moments when stunning light and mood come together perfectly—these are the moments all nature photographers chase. Figuring out when and where these magical moments will occur is something I talk about frequently in my articles and
