Sean Arbabi - The Complete Guide to Nature Photography: Professional Techniques for Capturing Digital Images of Nature and Wildlife

Copyright 2011 by Sean Arbabi
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Amphoto Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.amphotobooks.com
AMPHOTO BOOKS and the Amphoto Books logo are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arbabi, Sean.
The complete guide to nature photography : professional techniques for capturing digital images of nature and wildlife / Sean Arbabi. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-0-8174-0017-0
1. Nature photography. I. Title.
TR721.A73 2011
778.936dc22
2010046695
Front cover by vest design
Front cover photograph by Sean Arbabi

v3.1

I must thank the many who have played a part with this second book and throughout my photographic career. Rarely can you accomplish your goals without the help and trust of others.

To my gorgeous wife, whom I met more than 18 years ago, thank you for the best years of my life. You have allowed me to be the person I need to be, encouraged me to follow my dreams, and supported me in every way. Through all of lifes struggles and successes, I couldnt be prouder of the family weve created. And to top if off, you continue to get more beautiful each yearhow lucky I am.

To my lovely daughters, to watch you grow into such wonderful young girls makes me smile every day. I can see the effect of my passion transferring to you both through your own art and vision, and I couldnt be happier. Sharing my love for nature as your father is a true joy, and I look forward to all of our adventures around this amazing planet.

To my parents, for all their support through my artistic careerI knew this was my destiny, but your love and support helped make my dreams come true.

To all my dear friends and family who have enriched my life in so many ways, you make the time on this earth so much more meaningful. I have always considered my friends as part of my family, and my family as my friendsthank you for all the care, laughter, and love.

To Galen Rowell, Ralph Clevenger, Tony Stone, John Grossman, Julie Coyle, Mark Burnett, Maggie Perkins, Alan Avery, Tim Mantoani, George Olson, Mary Risher, Jose Azel, Timmi Wolf, and all the various friends, clients, editors, art buyers, and art directors who helped my career flourish, and whom I have had the pleasure of working with over the past 20 years as a commercial photographer, thank you for the advice, the articles and assignments, the photo shoots, and the stock sales. Each and every one of you allowed me to follow my ambition, and I thank you for your trust and business.

And finally to Julie, Victoria, Autumn, and the Random House crewthank you for the opportunity to author my second book, for believing in my work and efforts, and for your patience and assistance. Together we created a book I could not be more proud of, an excellent source for all nature photography enthusiasts.

To my wife, Ursula
I met you early in my days, and I look forward to spending my sunsets with you.

A panoramic of an oak grove along the western slopes of Mount Diablo, the original homeland of the Bay Miwok Native Americans, captured in a state park near my home in Northern California. Captured with a 12-24mm F2.8 lens at f/22 for 1/6 sec. using ISO 100.

Some of the first photographic images were of the natural world. Today nature remains the most popular subject in photography, dating back to the late nineteenth century, when photographers like William Henry Jackson and Carleton Watkins were capturing the frontiers of the American West, documenting locations such as Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks. By permanently recording the natural world for millions to see, Jackson, Watkins, and others started the process that led to saving lands, protecting species, and eventually preserving habitats around the world. Thus the power of the still image was born. Illustrating the awe-inspiring force of nature has been an important form of communication as well as a tool for educating. Trees that were seedlings before the time of the pyramids, waterfalls thundering down half a mile into lush valleys, deep canyons carved over millennia, the smallest of living thingsintricate leaves, alien-looking insects, and delicate wildflowersall have been captured on camera and are changing our perception of the world.

I was inherently drawn to the outdoors as a kid. It frightened me a bit, the unknown and its strength; it probably still does in small ways. Even so, I found nature to be an amazing, exciting, and unpredictable experience. Whether I was pulling up the rear on a family walk, rock and shell hunting, searching with the secret hopes of finding a history-changing fossil along a Northern California beach, or fishing for trout and catching water snakes from a paddleboat in Karag Dama lake nestled between the Caspian Sea and Tehran in northern Iranit was all a world of discovery for a small boy, fraught with beauty, danger, and wonder.

Nature is the closest thing to religion in my life. Derived from the Latin word natura, which means birth, it is where my belief in self-education was born and my spirituality was found. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, there is no closer place to God than to be in nature. John Muir wrote, I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in, describing the cerebral journey that occurs just as much in nature as anywhere else. Whether sacred or secular, this is what I was most drawn to about the natural world; that is, a transcendent place where you learn on your own, push beyond your limits, stretch your imagination, and discover a peace you cannot find anywhere else.

When I found photography early on I could not have known how it would enhance my life and expand my interest in the outdoors. Recording nature onto film was my first photographic love, and although I capture a mix of commercial outdoor and travel work in digital form today, creating images of the wild still remains my favorite. From taking pictures with a 110 camera on my seventh-grade Albany Middle School class camping trip in Yosemite Valley, to treks as a teenager through Californias Sierra Nevada, my fervor for photographing the outdoors quickly formed. Traveling to the far corners of the globe as a young pro, I rafted down class IV rivers in Argentina and carried a 75-pound backpack through the rain-soaked jungles of Borneo. The camera has pushed me to go places I never would have gone and to do things I never would have done had it not been for the thrill and hope of returning with great images. Through it all, a plethora of amazing moments were added to my life, yet I had my fair share of less-than-positive experiences, too. Ive been attacked and stung more than 25 times by wasps in Mendocino, experienced back spasms while hiking trails in the Caribbean, acquired food poisoning on assignment through the Mexican Riviera, ran out of water backpacking through Yosemite, and even felt the dreaded homesickness while camping in the Channel Islands. None of it cured me of the wanderlust to see more of the world. In fact, most people assume I love nature wholeheartedly, but I dont see it that way. I describe it more as having a full relationship with the outdoors. I have felt enlightenment, fear, joy, frustration, exhaustion, vulnerability, solitude, and exhilarationevery emotion that makes you feel alive.