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A basic knowledge of photography is
assumed,
if you are a complete beginner, you should invest in a good book to introduce
you to the subject.
Photography is a skill and like karate, needlepoint, and
being a Jedi master it requires practice and hard work to get good at it.
If you do get good at it you will have a valuable skill that will repay
you with a wonderful record of your life and travels.
Practice before you go. You will be taking pictures
of wildlife and landscapes, so practice on these if possible, pets make
a good substitute for wildlife as the difference between an ok photograph
and a great one is timing, position and lighting, not just subject. If you
go to Antarctica and the last time you picked up a camera was the office
party or your best friends wedding, then the pictures probably won't be
so hot.
Get the photos developed as soon as possible and assess
them critically. Why are the good ones good? Why aren't the bad ones better,
think about what you did and what you could change next time. Also, show
them to some-one else and get their opinion too. I often find that the
pictures that I take that I think are fantastic get a "yeah it's ok" response
whereas the ones I think are just ok are the ones that get enthused about.
The difficult pictures to get - that take the most effort - aren't always
the best.
When practicing, limit yourself to a standard lens to
begin with, you should be spending most of your brain power on getting into
the right place and clicking the shutter at the right moment, not on which
gadget you need.
 A
phrase coined by the great French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson sums
up what makes a great photograph. In essence it is knowing exactly when
to take the photograph. You have a found a good subject and are in the perfect
position, but things are changing, one moment the picture would be ok, the
next, when expressions have changed - truly memorable.
Cartier-Bresson mainly photographed people and so it is
easy to see his point. The same principle applies to nearly all photographs
irrespective of subject. With wildlife the animal is almost constantly moving.
Don't just point and shoot (despite the advertising and "ease" of use message,
this only makes for quick photos, not good photos). Set yourself up, sit
and watch the subject through the lens, don't just click away hoping for
the best, wait for the "decisive moment", if you miss it, wait, it may happen
again.
The same applies to landscapes, but this time it is the
lighting that is changing. Antarctica is windy and so cloud is frequently
blowing by making it sunny one minute, cloudy the next. Sunsets evolve,
they build up and fade away. Waves wash over the bow of the ship or over
the shallow reaches of an iceberg, whatever is happening will change the
photograph. The legendary American nature photographer
Ansel Adams would
frequently wait for hours in one position, for the elements of sun, cloud
and sky to come together perfectly for the best possible picture.
Take the phrase "point and shoot" and
put it out of your head, it sells film and cameras - it doesn't make good
photographs.
  I
don't like photographic gadgets and accessories are best kept to the absolute
minimum. However, there are two accessories that are totally invaluable
to the photographer and most of us are fortunate enough to already have
them in full working order. They are your legs.
I have seen so many people in Antarctica and elsewhere
trying to take good photographs from where they happen to be standing at
the time. It is unlikely that as you come across the best photographic
opportunities you will automatically be in the best position.
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A good photograph
is knowing where to stand.
Ansel Adams
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Think about framing, what is in the background? Do you
really want a picture of that gentoo penguin and chick with some tourists
in red coats behind it? You may have the most wonderful view of mountains
and glacier from the ship, but do you want a radio mast towards the side
of the shot?
Perhaps if you walked up the slope of the hill a little,
you could avoid that dull expanse of featureless rock that takes up the
bottom third of your picture of that dazzling iceberg off shore.
Get used to seeing everything through the lens as the
finished picture and move yourself around to include or exclude elements
of that picture for best effect.
One of the main reasons for producing less
than wonderful pictures is that the photographer looks through the lens
at the subject and disregards whatever else he or she may see. Everything
you see through your viewfinder will be in the picture.
Background - What is behind your subject?
Does it add to the picture or does it distract. Out of focus ice and sea
behind many Antarctic wildlife shots add atmosphere, bare rocks less so,
so why not move position. Are there things in the background that you don't
want? If you are taking a picture of a seal, don't have a mass of penguins
behind, unless that is the photo you really want to take. Decide what your
subject is and take a picture of that and only that. On a more mundane note,
bits of ship, boat, tourist etc. in the background generally don't make
for a good picture.
 Sloping
horizons. Look at the horizon, it's level, that's because we
perceive it that way. Make sure any horizon in any photograph you
take is horizontal, sloping drunken horizons are the tell-tale mark
of a poor photographer. |
Being on the level. Not sloping horizons
this time, but being at the same level as your subject. Most animals you
will photograph, penguins, seals and pets are much lower than you are. Get
down to their level, otherwise you get a picture that implies you are outside
of their world gazing in, rather than being a part of that world. (The same
applies for small children).
Nearly all cameras these days come with a
built in exposure meter to measure the amount of light around and to tell
you how the camera recommends that you deal with it in terms of which shutter
speed and aperture, or "f-stop", to use. Many will set these for you automatically.
Light meters work to render the scene that
they are faced with as an average overall shade of grey. This is fine for
the majority of scenes and the actual range of highlights and shadows mean
that a light meter reading is accurate.
Many light meters however have a problem
when faced with large amounts of highly reflective snow and ice. The
actual reading from the meter if used directly will give a too-dark exposure.
When we see snow and ice, the scene is largely white, consisting of far
more highlights than shadows so we frequently need to over-expose the scene,
that is to give the film more light than the light meter says that it needs.
This is best done by "bracketing" exposures, take one at what the light
meter is telling you and then take another at one or two stops more than
this.
I was fortunate in that I discovered that
the British Antarctic Survey standard issue grey moleskin trousers that
I wore in Antarctica were just the right shade of grey for a perfect exposure.
When faced with a tricky exposure situation I used to take a light meter
reading from the standard grey shade of my leg and then ignore anything
else the light meter told me. This is the equivalent of using a Kodak "grey
card".
There is an old rule of thumb with 35mm cameras
that you can hand-hold the lens at a shutter speed of about the reciprocal
of the focal length. In other words, a 50mm standard lens can be hand-held
at 1/50th of a second (usually 1/60th as this is the nearest option), a
135mm lens at 1/135th (1/125th) and so on.
I take this one step further where possible
and go another shutter speed. So for a 50mm lens, take 1/60th as a start
and then don't use any more than 1/125th of a second, the faster the better.
The difference in sharpness is marked and noticeable.
Camera shake is one of the easiest and
most effective things that you can change to improve the technical quality
of your pictures. If you carry around and use a tripod, then the results
are even better, though this is a bit much for most people.
A cheap and easy alternative is a small bean
bag, put it on a rock and press your camera against it when taking pictures,
you won't use it for every shot, but for those that you do use it for you'll
see a difference.
For hand-held shots, brace yourself before
taking the picture, pull your elbows into your body and hold your breath
just before squeezing (not jerking) the shutter.
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