Shapeshifter by tpoulton001

What does the future hold for us? I feel like a young boy looking at a crystal ball hoping to see myself travelling the world capturing amazing landscapes and maybe inspiring a few people along the way.

Then again – which one of us doesn’t want that? A future full of riches and amazing experiences, I am not going to debate whether we can change the future or not, but I am going to say that we ought to do everything in our power to make that future we desire ours.

I don’t know whether I will be able to change my future or not but I sure would love to do everything in my power to get what I feel very strongly about. Sometimes it just becomes secondary whether you get to your final destination or not.

And if it simply means changing a few habits, then why not? Are these habits really bigger than our dreams?

Thanks for an awesome year, please be safe and enjoy the holiday season!

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Celestial Chess by tpoulton001

When I first started in landscape photography back in 2009, I knew no one in the scene. I had never been to any of the locations in my gallery and I had an insatiable desire to make something in the art world.

As the year draws to an end and the touring and workshops are all finished, I can’t help but feel a little empty inside. I have to admit this year has been a real battle to just do what I do best, and that is travel the world capturing all the amazing scenes. I can handle pretty much anything the planet has to offer; freezing my arse off in the mountains, getting soaking wet in torrential rain, endless hours at the wheel with very little sleep, all of that is easy compared to the hate and jealously in this industry. Next year I’m going to make a concerted effort to help as many people achieve their dreams, travel to places they have always wanted to, capture and spread the love of landscape photography, I’m asking you to do the same, be happy for others success, maybe some of it will rub off on you.

I believe in being strong. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

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Ghost In The Light by tpoulton001

Having run tours and workshops to Mt Cook many times I wanted to capture something unique so we hiked some of the not so beaten tracks and on the final day of the tour found this amazing little collection of tarns never before captured. Setting up camp for days waiting for the right light, running out of food and spending 2 days in gail force winds and torrential rain it really tested our resolved. starving, burnt and in depurate need of sleep we stuck around for sunset and with a slight breeze at our backs and the ghost like clouds rolling in we captured the amazing scene. The celebratory drinks and pizza at the bar was so sweet.

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Beneath The Black And Purple by tpoulton001

It’s amazing how we have boogey locations that always fail us with conditions and locations that always produce the most epic light. Mount Cook in New Zealand is notorious for bad weather and so many people walk away with nothing. I’m blessed with the most amazing luck and have amassed a fine collection of images from the highest peak in New Zealand, all you have to do is search Mount Cook on 500px you’ll find some of that luck. Yesterdays sunset and astro was no exception, with light wispy clouds, all purple and red and the way the light captured the peak, took my breath away. Conditions were perfect with only a light wind and the temperature was a comfortable 10°, plenty of Steinlarger to get us through the night and only the wildlife to keep us company.

For tours and workshops check out our website oneofakind.photography

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Rush Hour by tpoulton001

Aoraki / Mount Cook

With Hooker Lake at the highest level I’ve ever seen and 60 – 70km winds the ferocious water at the mouth of the river was insane. Mt Cook locally know as the Sky Father turned on an incredible show with clouds dancing around the peak and catching the finally light of the day.

Captured using the Schneider 28mm Tilt Shift with my shift-flip technique, stitching 2 frames for a vertical pano. Benefits of this technique is natural vignetting of the lens, perfect stitching and nice overlap.

oneofakind.photography

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Northern Sojourn by tpoulton001

Captured on the recent OOAK Canadian Rockies tour with legends Sarah Hatton and Chris Collacott.

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.

For tours and workshops check out
oneofakind.photography

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Awakening of the Beast by tpoulton001

There’s so much composite landscape photography getting around these days, that whenever someone produces something real it’s almost implied it’s fake. The effort required to capture these scenes really isn’t that hard, but you’ve gone to the trouble of travelling to the location, spend the money on good gear and invest the time required to build up the skills to capture the scene. All you need is a little help with the execution.

With my latest image, I have added a link to my Facebook page with screen shots of the Raw files and a brief description of how I captured the two sets of images. I then included the blending technique to make it all look realistic. Seriously, stop giving your money to all these stock image companies, the photographer gets bugger all from the sales. It’s so easy to fall into the trap!

I was running a workshop in Canada for OOAK and towards the end of the trip; we had a few nights at the amazing Mt Assiniboine British Columbia. Now the first thing you need to do is check the weather, this sort of image will be impossible with complete cloud cover and it’s not much point hanging around, waiting for the bears to eat you, if the clouds wont part. So with clear skies, you find the right composition and get set up for many hours, you first need to capture the twilight scene and then wait, beer in hand for the milky way to appear.

This part can take several hours but patience is the key requirement. I find shooting with a group helps with passing the time or an electronic distraction device of your choice, to help the wait seem a little less agonising, or to ward off the paranoia of potentially becoming bear food.

Once you have shot the two sets, it’s time to hike back to the campsite, avoiding the now starving bears and get some well-earned sleep, here’s a tip for you, try not sharing a tent with a snorer.

Once I’m safely back at my computer I then process the two sets individually, as the settings for both sets should be completely different. The twilight set would be at the lowest ISO setting, tack sharp for the whole scene and the best DOF. The Milky Way set should be high ISO to capture all those amazing stars and coloured galaxies focusing on the sky, not the foreground.

Once you have the two sets open in Affinity Photo or whatever software you use it’s time to start aligning the two sets, blending them for realism and then doing your normal processing to give it the WOW factor we all desire.
So now you have the tools to do this without much fuss, get out there and give it a try, I’d love to see the final results. If you have any questions please just give me a shout!

RAW FILES

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Great Divide by tpoulton001

Timothy (Pano King) Poulton’s Top Ten tips for shooting Pano’s successfully.

Let me just say there are a million ways to shoot pano’s and whatever works for you is the right way.
This is a rough list that I have put together whenever I get asked the question, “How do you shoot panos”, and trust me I get asked a hell of a LOT!

Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t need the right gear; companies like RRS, Novoflex, and Nodal Ninja to name but a few, haven’t built massive companies with tens of thousands of sales worldwide, for the fun of it. My complete kit costs over 20k and I wouldn’t get the results that I do, without it. I’ve spent time researching the best out there, to optimise my setup to shoot. The right pano head takes all the hassle out of guessing. Doctor Google will help you find the right one for you.

Now I’m not going to tell you all the basic settings, but if you’d rocked up to a car lot looking to buy your first car, get the one with the manual gearbox and drive it like you stole it. Like anything in life, the more practice, the better you’ll become.

Just because you started shooting pano’s doesn’t mean you have to change your approach. Except for a few set-up changes, I still shoot like I’m shooting wide-angle single frames. Speed is another factor, I can set up my kit and be shooting my first frame in less than 45 seconds, anyone that can beat that time I’ll shout you beers all night.

Get to the location before anyone else, the last thing you want is a bunch of muppets in the frame just because you struggled to get you lazy arse out of bed. And tell everyone around you that you’ll be shooting pano’s and if they get in the way, look out!

Think about the audience viewing your work, put them in the scene, contrary to what everyone says about shooting landscapes for themselves, we do this for people to admire our work and get hits on social media; bums on seats right!

Timing is everything when it comes to shooting pano’s and I’m not talking about golden hour either, I’m talking about shifts in light, shadows and colour, nothing is going to ruin a sweet pano than massive variation in your frames.

Unless you’re after than mega wide, 360º “little planet” rubbish, keep it simple and within your field of vision, remember the wider you go the more distortion and curvature you’ll get in the final result.

Make sure you check all the settings on the camera, many times I’ve been out shooting with a crew for astro or even a little candid work and the ISO is left at one million or they decided to shoot in Jpeg mode, nothing is worse than capturing that epic scene to only find later you fucked up the settings.

Epic shots come from epic effort, there are no shortcuts. The next time I hear someone say you don’t need to travel to get the epic shots I’ll knock them on the head and send them off to the passport office to get a life. New, stunning locations not only keeps the audience interested, it will inspire you to strive for the better, learn and create more interesting images!

Finally, anyone feels like disagreeing with me on any of this or giving me pathetic constructive criticism can #EABOD

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O R I O N by tpoulton001

You have just stepped into my gallery so a little quiet please!

The only thing real to me is that the sun rises and sets, everything else is just bullshit!

Please note: This image is created using two stitched pano’s from the same location with the same tripod position at different times, 6 Steinlarger Pure’s and many a shiver!

Now before you all start with the rubbish I know it’s not Orion and is just for conceptional purposes as I was feeling a little fantastical!

You can also see the two stitched frames that I blended for this image on my Facebook Page.

Clarity

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Green Machine by tpoulton001

Captured on the final sunrise of our epic 12 day photography workshop for OOAK with Sarah Hatton from Iso100 Photography at the amazing Moeraki Boulders New Zealand

I’ll be honest, when NiSi Filters first contacted me, I wasn’t entirely certain who these guys were, as I’d never heard of anyone using a filter by that name. I’ve been a faithful Lee Filter user for well over 6 years – it was going to take a lot for me to change!

Continue reading my NiSi Filter Review…

NiSi Filter Review

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