PICTURING NATURE.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

From sea level to ski level, Oregon offers some of the most photogenic natural scenes and outdoor adventures to be found on the planet.

But many people fail to capture their weekend and vacation outings in the best light for the family album.

Avoiding washed-out photos of sand castle scenes at Cannon Beach and pictures of sultry sunsets over the Cascades that turn out black is not difficult if you take time to put a little thought into "making" a photo rather than just "taking" a snapshot, according to professional photographer David Stone of Eugene.

Stone has been teaching nature photography courses at Lane Community College since 1996. He also leads several nature photo tours in the West each year and conducts workshops on nature, travel, garden and waterfall photography at Mount Pisgah Arboretum. His photos have been published by National Geographic and the National Audubon Society, as well as in several Oregon publications.

Last week, Stone wrapped up a workshop on "Nature Photography in a Digital Age."

And the era of photos on a computer chip means there's no longer any excuse for not ending up with good photos, said Stone, who has converted to the new camera technology almost exclusively.

Digital cameras offer the advantages of "immediate feedback and unlimited shooting," Stone said.

If you've made a poor picture, a glance at the camera's liquid crystal display screen will reveal that, allowing you to try again.

Plus, the photographer is no longer limited to the two or three dozen frames available on a roll of film. Some digital cameras can accommodate hundreds of frames on one memory card.

"And you can delete digital" to make room for more if need be, Stone said. "You can't delete film."

Stone made the switch to digital after photographing insects with a borrowed digital camera outfitted with "my 20-year-old, $80 Bi-Mart special lens with a close-up filter."

"I wanted to do butterflies and dragonflies, but shooting dragonflies with film is almost impossible," he said. "They're so fast, you've got to shoot a lot in hopes of getting something, and then you have to shoot some more in case you didn't get it."

To test the digital camera, Stone photographed bees on flowers.

"You could see the pollen on their legs," he said. "I went right out and bought a digital camera and have not looked back. All my film cameras are dead now."

Digital photography also offers several other advantages, Stone said. Those include greater flexibility in dealing with rapidly changing light conditions (`film speed' can be changed from frame to frame) and providing a computerized record of the camera's settings on each frame exposed. The latter makes it easy for the photographer to see the effect of different aperture, ISO and shutter speed settings.

Stone was a social worker when he decided he'd rather do something that made him happy. So he "took the plunge" into being a professional photographer by going to work for Dot Dotson's photography store in Eugene. He sold nature photos at Eugene's Saturday Market for a while, but most of his income came from photographing weddings.

He "stumbled into teaching" about 10 years ago, when a friend teaching a darkroom class asked him to substitute for her one day.

Stone's nature photography class at LCC includes six classroom sessions and two field trips. The course covers composition, lighting, exposure, lens choice and tips on landscape, wildlife and close-up photography.

"Half of nature photography is knowing where to stand," Stone said. "And another third is knowing when to stand there."

Stone advises all of his amateur photographers to use a tripod.

"A tripod makes more difference than anything, except maybe another lens," Stone said. "A tripod does more than hold your camera still so you can use a slow shutter speed. ... (It) will slow you down, which is a good thing. It will make you pay attention to what you're taking a picture of.

"How many times have you come back with a picture that's a great photograph except there's a beer can down in the corner, or a car in the background that you didn't notice? When we look through a camera, our mind focuses on the subject and tends to ignore everything else. With a tripod you can get the composition you want, then look around the whole border, checking for those beer cans and cars and stuff before you shoot it."

Stone said many amateurs "don't shoot enough" frames. He encourages his students to try different exposures, shutter speeds, "white balance" settings and angles.

"I teach people to shoot on manual, to take control yourself," he said. "Don't depend on the camera to make decisions for you."

After all, the best nature photos are made, not taken.

To learn more about David Stone's photography courses, workshops and tours, call [phone] or log on to: www.wildlandphotography.net.

TEN STEPS TO MAKING BETTER PHOTOS

Fill the fame of your viewfinder with the image you want to photograph; move in closer or `zoom in' if need be.

Photograph with the sun to your back.

Watch for and avoid distracting elements such as litter in the foreground, unwanted cars in the background or poles rising from the head of your subject.

Photograph landscapes at the "sweet light" times of day - two to three hours after sunrise and before sunset.

Include people in landscape photos to add interest and provide scale.

Use a polarizing filter to eliminate glare on lakes and rivers, make a blue sky more dramatic or saturate the colors of vegetation.

Use a tripod and slow shutter speeds ( 1/4 to 1 second ) to get that "silky" look to water flowing over a waterfall.

Change the point of view. Rather than settling for just a horizontal shot taken from eye level - try the same scene in a vertical format, or from ground level or higher viewpoints.

Use fill flash if photographing people in a forest, or to help erase shadows on faces that are not fully lit by the sun.

When photographing wildlife, focus on the eyes, or just in front of the eyes. Also, position them in the viewfinder so they are looking into or moving into the frame.

- David Stone and Mark Gardner, author of "Photography Outdoors"

CAPTION(S):

Nature photographer David Stone focused on the eye of a dragonfly in this photo he made at the West Eugene Wetlands. David Stone Stone likes November for photographing the offshore rocks at Bandon Beach silhouetted against a sunset. David Stone Stone used a four-hour exposure to photograph this celestial star trail in the western sky over Hart Mountain. Thomas Boyd / The Register-Guard David Stone teaches a course on nature photography at LCC.