Gerlach John and Barbara. - Close Up Photography in Nature

Close Up
Photography
in Nature

John and Barbara Gerlach

First published 2015
by Focal Press
70 Blanchard Road, Suite 402, Burlington, MA 01803

and by Focal Press
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Focal Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2015 Taylor & Francis

The right of John and Barbara Gerlach to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Gerlach, John.
Close up photography in nature / by John and Barbara Gerlach.
pages cm
1. Nature photography. 2. Photography, Close-up. I. Gerlach, Barbara.
II. Title.
TR721.G47 2014
778.93dc23 2014006536

ISBN: 978-0-415-83589-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-50211-2 (ebk)

Typeset in Slimbach and Helvetica
By Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton

Table of Contents

The many thousands of photographers who have attended our classes over the past thirty-five years deserve our heartfelt appreciation for their probing questions, helpful hints, inadvertent mistakes made in the field that allowed all of us to learn, and their good humor about their mistakes and ours. There is no better way to learn photography than to live it day to day while teaching it to so many incredibly smart clients. Many of the most effective shooting strategies explained in this book come directly from student questions or observations. When we surround ourselves with many brilliant workshop participants, some of their wisdom manages to rub off on us. This back-and-forth sharing of knowledge helps us enormously to constantly expand the shooting system we use to make the art of quality nature photography easy, efficient, and fun. Special thanks goes to one of our brilliant clients and friendsJason Steinlewho we travel with every year on our own private photo safaris. His good humor, keen observations, and redemption dinners are greatly appreciated.

The tremendous group of gifted biology instructors at Central Michigan University in the mid-1970s when I attended deserve special praise. During my early college years when I was mainly interested in birds and mammals, my professors taught with enthusiasm while encouraging me to develop a keen interest in all forms of life including insects and plants. Thanks for helping me learn that birds and mammals need the rest of nature's players to survive and thrive! It really is the ecosystem that is importantnot just the individuals.

Professional nature photographers Larry West and John Shaw were instrumental in helping me effectively photograph small subjects. I first attended their weekend photo workshop at the Central Michigan University biological station when I was in college. Later that summer I enrolled in their week-long photo field workshop at Houghton Lake. Although I did not know it at the time, those experiences encouraged me to change my career path to nature photography. When I decided to become a professional nature photographer in 1978, I drove to the southwest to photograph birds, butterflies, landscapes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals that I had never seen before. To save money, I slept under the stars for several years. I enjoyed my homeless lifestyle and cherished the remote wild places where I spent so much time while learning the business. I worked my way north to Washington, Idaho, or Montana in the spring and followed a convoluted path south to southern Arizona or California for the winter. Eventually, it all worked out beyond my wildest expectations.

The late Mike Kirk, along with many others, was instrumental in my career. Mike was a skilled machinist who could make anything. I occasionally asked Mike to build flash brackets for me, or to modify them to help me achieve my photo goals. Eventually, Mike launched Kirk Enterprises, specializing in making equipment for photographers. Mike's proud tradition continues with his able son, Jeff, at the helm of the company today.

Producing a book is a huge undertaking. It takes far more time and effort than most people realize. Thanks to Deirdre Byrne of Taylor & Francis for her ongoing support and encouragement during this long process. I am not the easiest person to contact since I spend so much time in remote countries far away from internet and cell phone reception. Deirdre deserves a ton of credit for keeping me on scheduleno easy feat!

My four volunteer editors, Al Hart, Woodice Fuller, and David and Kim Stringer, all helped enormously in keeping the text both accurate and easy to understand. Typos and other errors creep into the text, no matter how careful I am. Although these errors are obvious when pointed out, there reaches a point where my brain simply passes over them. I need fresh eyes to spot the problems. My typo editors kept me busy fixing this and that, and we all appreciate that kind of attention to detail. From experience with past books, I know that no matter how many people edit the book, some typos somehow (perhaps mischievous bad elves) slip through. I hope you can forgive me if you find one. Thanks so much for each of you volunteering to edit this manuscript. You really help this accidental author make this book far better for everyone! I say I am an accidental author because I never had any desire to write a book and certainly not four of them! I feel compelled to write books to share the shooting strategies we use to capture pleasing images. At first, I thought the audience was mainly Americans and Canadians, but our books are sold all over the world, so the audience is far larger than I ever imagined.

Barbara shot two exposures to create this artistic interpretation of a blanket flower. The flower is sharply focused for the first exposure. Then she made the flower out of focus and shot the second exposure. Both images are underexposed 1 stop to get the optimum exposure. Nikon D4, 200mm micro, 1/250, f/4.5, ISO 100, Cloudy, Aperture-priority.

My family deserves a huge round of applause for understanding why I must spend so much time working on books, shooting images while traveling the world, and figuring out new photo strategies. We don't get to interact as often as we all would like to. Barbara, especially, gets short-changed because early morning on bad weather days is such a perfect time for me to write when she would prefer to drink gourmet coffee with me. We enjoy our coffee a little bit later in the morning instead.