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Flora
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CCCC
IAATLT

The content of this site, including the text and photographs, are the exclusive property of Steve Fredrick.
This means you are welcome to view and enjoy; however, you do NOT have rights to copy, store, print, or republish any of the content without the written permission of Steve Fredrick.

Let me know what you think about the site or the images. Send me an email .

Nature and Landscape Photography

What's Here

Use the links on the left to select a type of photography that you would like to view. Under each these broad categories you will find a number of galleries that contain images.

Flora--mostly flowers

Landscape Photography

Wildlife Photography

I'd like to hear your comments on any of the images. Send me an email.

CCCC is the Chester County Camera Club. This page describes the club and shows some of the images I have entered in club competitions.

The IAATLT page is a link to It's All About the Light Tours. This is the site I use to promote photography classes I teach and photo releated workshops and tours that I lead.

What I Used to Make the Images

If you don't care about the equipment go ahead and use the links to the right to check out the images. For those of you who might care, here is a brief description of equipment I used while creating these images. The foundation of my equipment is Nikon cameras. The camera I most frequently use is a N90s. I also use a N8008. This camera is used most often when I want to use a different speed or type of film. For example, when a higher speed film is needed to freeze action or B&W film is used for effect. The N8008 also gets used quite a bit when on a scuba diving trip because the N90s is in the underwater housing.

While most people ask about first is, what camera do you use. In actuality the most important set of tools in the kit are the lenses. Here is a list of lens I currently use:

Sigma 12-24 f/4.5-5.6

Nikon 20mm f/2.8

Sigma 24-70 f/2.8

Nikon 80-200 f2.8

Nikon 105mm Macro f/2.8

Sigma 400mm f/5.6

Sigma500 f/4

Kenko x1.4 and x2 Teleplus Pro 300

Kenko Extension Tube Set

Where possible I use a tripod. When I am using the 500mm lens it is absolutely required to get a sharp image. I also tend to do a lot of wide angle and macro/close-up compositions from a very low camera position. (I'm on the ground a lot.) The tripod is indispensable in setting up and holding a particular composition. When photographing from the car I have found that a bean bag over the lowered window makes a stable platform. Compared to a window mount, I think the bean bag is quicker to set up and more flexible, like moving over and shooting out the passenger side. (By the way, if you are not aware of it, a car makes an excellent blind. For some reason a lot of animals are not threaded by the presents of a big noisy car.)

I am not keen on the use of "gimmick" filters but do employ:

Polarizer

	reduced glare saturates colors
	darkening the sky permits detail and color instead of washed out skies.

Split Neutral Density

hold back the brightest part of the scene (usually the sky) to "even out" the scene's brightness

Warming

used on telephotos to minimize all the blue (reflections from the sky) between the lens and the distant subject

Enhancing

used to "pop" the reds and yellows, mostly in fall foliage. But, in my opinion, the filter often over does the effect, producing an unrealistic looking image.

When shooting with a DSLR, I almost always shoot in RAW format with the White Balance set to Auto. When I "develop" the RAW file in the converter I can tweet the White Balance to a color temperature that is pleasing for that image. This does away with the decisions associated with what film to use and if any color correcting filters (warming or enhancing) are required.

Enough of this technical stuff--go look at some images!!!

Flora

Landscape

Wildlife

Chester County Camera Club