P#27 Q5A: The Equipment "Must Haves" of Expressive Nature Photography

Your Expressive Nature Photography Arsenal

Brenda Tharp: I've been using Canon equipment since 1993. I currently work with the extraordinary 1DS Mark III and I also have a 5D, but not the new one that does video. I have the regular 5D that's out.

I use a variety of Canon lenses from 16mm all the way out to 500mm, so it's really a range. I don't carry that all with me when I go out every time, but it is a wide range of lenses.

When I'm doing my expressive nature photography, it might require the 500mm on a landscape when a lot of people think about a 500mm being used for wildlife. I like to create 500mm landscapes. I'm extracting a piece of the scene with that 500mm and maybe bringing out the texture of the hillside of trees for example.

I also love working the extreme wide angle as an expressive way to create an image because the wide angle forces you to get up close. It brings something into the viewer's face when they're looking at the picture and creates a way for them to enter into the space you've captured and really experience it.

I really love that range of lenses. As far as other equipment, I use Singh-Ray's variable neutral density filter to slow my shutters down when I'm doing abstracts that have to do with movement. That would be moving water, moving animals. The Lensbaby is also something I've have added to my assortment of equipment.

The variable neutral density filter goes from two to eight stops. That allows me to really darken the light to slow the shutter down to get what I want in the middle of the day, which is really terrific for expressive nature photography.

I also use Singh-Ray's graduated neutral density. I use those to balance the light in a landscape situation where my sky may be brighter than the land or it might be the reverse where the sky is dark and the snow field is bright. I use those to create a better balance.

There are a lot of people who do these things digitally thanks to the gradient tools in Photoshop. There are even ways you can blend two exposures together, but I'm the type of person that likes to work my craft in the field and know that I'm getting it right. If I can get it all right inside one digital image file, that's less work for me at the computer, and more time to be out in the field having fun.

To Sum Up

It seems there's quite a few tools you're going to need if you want to get out there and photograph. Fortunately, Brenda Tharp offers us a good place to start. A good camera, a few lenses and some filters, as Brenda described, are all you really need to start out in expressive nature photography.