"Hey Rick! What's your f-stop?" That's the question I get asked most on my photo workshops. I reply, with a smile, "My friend. What is your creative vision, what is your goal?" Those are the important question - for photographers to ask themselves.

In this blog series I will share with you my goal and camera settings for some of my favorite recent photographs, which will be featured in my next (#37) book, Evolution of an Image (September 2016 publication).

Here goes.

Location: Iceland.

Goal: Convey the beauty of the grounded icebergs – gems of frozen water – framed by the slow and graceful moving surf, and positioned against a background of powerful, crashing waves.

Thought process: Compose a scene that includes the icebergs, the beach, the waves and the sky. Experiment with different slow shutter speeds, from 1/60th second to several seconds, to convey the power and beauty of nature.

Tech info:
Camera: Canon EOS 5Ds
Lens: Canon 24-105mm IS lens.
Filter: Tiffen 0.9 ND filter.
Tripod: Really Right Stuff tripod and Really Right Stuff ball head.

Camera settings:
• Manual focus – to maintain sharp focus, because the moving waves could change the AF focus point, as well as slow down the auto focus process;
• High frame rate – to capture the subtle differences in the flow and position of the waves;
• ISO 100 – for shooting at long shutter speeds, f/20 – for good depth-of-field, 1/6th second – to blur the movement of the water. EV -0.67 – to prevent highlights from being washed out.

I hope you can participate in one of my photo workshops, where no question is too basic or too simple.
2016 Workshops
2017 Workshops
2018 Workshops