Beyond The Lens Podcast

Beyond The Lens Podcast

Beyond The Lens

Beyond The Lens Podcast

Beyond the Lens Podcast
Podcast
Podcast
Podcast

Beyond The Lens Podcast

This photography podcast takes you beyond the lens, exploring the arts, travel, conservation, entrepreneurship, creative culture, and more through deep-dive interviews with some of the world’s most influential and inspiring people.

Host Richard Bernabe is a renowned photographer, intrepid world traveller, explorer, author, and champion of wildlife and endangered species. He’s been hailed as one of the “Top 30 Influential Photographers on the Web” by the Huffington Post and Influence Digest’s “20 Photographers Changing the World Through Social Media.” He has travelled to more than 60 countries, capturing photographs and writing for clients including National Geographic, CNN, The New York Times and the BBC.

Beyond the Lens is published bi-weekly on the Official Beyond The Lens Website and podcast publishing platforms all over the world.

Subscribe to Beyond The Lens on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Castbox, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Also listen on the official Beyond The Lens Website.

Wildlife Photography Book

Wildlife Photography Book

Announcements

Wildlife Photography Book

There is nothing quite so satisfying as capturing a stunning wildlife photograph; a good one will reflect practice, patience, careful equipment choice and dedication. Those challenges are perhaps why so many enthusiast photographers aspire to perfect their images in this area; to get their work recognised by the photographic community as well as record their experiences.

This captivating wildlife photography instruction book, written and illustrated by renowned travel and wildlife photographer, Richard Bernabe reveals more world-class images with every turn of the page with a practical approach to the photography techniques for capturing such images including chapters on recommended equipment, exposure, composition, light, autofocus, getting the shot, strategies, and travel. There are also wildlife photography travel guides to many of the world’s wildlife photography hotspots. For every lesson, concept, or tip that’s taught, there is at least one photo (with captions) included as an example.

Wildlife Photography Book
Wildlife Photography Book
Wildlife Photography Book

Bear Necessities

Bear Necessities

Bucket List

Bear Necessities

bear necessities

I’m at 36,000 feet on a flight from Seattle to Anchorage, blissfully dreaming about another rendezvous with Alaskan Coastal Brown bears in a remote, fly-in lodge. Suddenly my body is overcome by a wave of paralyzing dread. Have you ever had a dream where you show up for a final exam in college, but you forgot to study? Or you attended no classes? Or you weren’t wearing pants? Well, that’s the feeling.

The meaning is obvious and unmistakable. There’s an upcoming event for which I’m unprepared. This could be the result of packing fantastically light for a remote photography location in the Alaskan wilderness. For example, I’ve packed only two lenses. On my first trip to Alaska more than ten years ago, to offer context, I hauled in 37, give or take a few. Doctor Freud could easily have demonstrated a symbolic link between the number of lenses carried and pants – or the lack thereof.

However, the anxiety would wane within moments as my left-brained rationality laid out the game plan for this expedition. I had two Canon R5 camera bodies, a Canon 100-400mm lens with EF-RF adapter, a Canon 24-105mm lens, and 4 TB of Lexar CF Express cards. That’s all my photography gear.

The practical excuse for this minimalism was the weight limit imposed by the air service from Anchorage out to the lodge. If you wanted to board the plane, your clothes, boots, jackets, toiletries, photography gear, and anything else necessary for five nights in the Alaskan hinterlands couldn’t exceed 50 pounds. In years past, this limit was more of a suggestion to help reign in chronic over packers. I was advised this year would be different.

But even before the newly enforced restriction was known to me, I had decided to leave the 500mm f/4 lens, bulky tripod, and gimbal head at home and adopt a light and nimble approach to the bears this year. I was convinced that super-telephoto primes were becoming less necessary for most wildlife photography and, in many cases, a liability. To creatively compose or to ensure I achieved the right balance of negative and positive space in the image frame, I would need to continually “zoom with my feet” – moving closer and farther away with every shooting encounter. Zooming with the lens while keeping my feet stable and in one place is a tremendous advantage.

bear necessities

“Illiamna” Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA

Then there’s the obvious fact that bears are large mammals and don’t require the same image magnification as songbirds, for example. Coastal brown bears in this specific area were relatively well adapted to a human presence, so I could approach these bears closer than grizzlies in the interior parts of the North American continent. The 45 megapixels of the Canon R5 also allow generous latitude for cropping in post, making the decision even easier. In fact, replacing the heavy prime telephoto lens with the 100-400mm wasn’t really much of a radical option at all.

The decision not to bring a tripod was more psychologically uncomfortable, however. Before I left for Alaska, I experimented with some settings. I knew at 400mm I would need at least 1/1000 of a second to ensure consistently sharp images when handholding the camera and lens. I tested the combination of 400mm and 1/1000 of a second in a variety of lighting conditions I expected to encounter while working with bears in Alaska. Under no reasonable lighting situations did I need more than 4000 ISO to produce a shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second. Most ISO settings were at least half of that, and in sunny conditions, I could use ISO 400 or less. With the low-light capabilities of the Canon R5, I felt those numbers were easily manageable. Plus, handheld photography gave me more freedom and mobility to capture those decisive moments that make wildlife photography so captivating. I’m confident I captured images handheld on this trip that I would have missed had I been using a tripod.

A second camera body is an essential safeguard against accidents or electronics failure, especially in a remote place like Alaska. I mounted the Canon 24-105mm lens on the second R5 body for wider “bearscapes” with background tree lines, mountains, clouds, and sky. Environmental portraits are some of my favorite wildlife images.

In the end, the two camera bodies gave me a necessary peace of mind, the 24mm to 400mm range offered no unnecessary overlapping focal length redundancies, and the 4 TB of storage in the CF Express cards allowed me to leave the computer and external hard drives at home. Best of all, I made no real sacrifices to the quality of my photography work while still weighing in a few ounces under the limit.

Sometimes the bear necessities are all you really need.

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA – AUGUST 2021

Essential Composition: Balance

Essential Composition: Balance

Creativity

Essential Composition: Balance

Balance

The concept of balance in composition is one most people can easily understand, even those who don’t consider themselves artists or photographers. After all, the idea of balance can be a lifestyle goal; balanced time, a balanced diet, and just trying to stay balanced and upright to keep from falling over are things to which we can relate. Balance is a universal concept.

In gestalt theory, the Law of Symmetry states that the human mind will constantly seek balance in all visual information it receives from the eyes via the optic nerve. It says that if something appears unbalanced, the viewer will waste valuable time trying to resolve the problem instead of focusing on the scene’s contents. Concerning photography and composition, photographic balance refers to “visual weight” within the image frame and how it’s arranged. The placement, size, and brightness values of all the visual elements will determine if the image feels in equilibrium or not. Photographic balance is harmonious. When an image is out of balance, it can give the viewer a negative or uncomfortable feeling or sensation.

There are two types of compositional balance used in photography, art, and design: formal and informal balance. Symmetry is a type of formal balance where two sides of a photo are mirror images of each other. Symmetry can refer to vertical balance – where the top and bottom are essentially the same – or as horizontal balance – where the left and right sides of the image are equal.

Balance

A reflection is one of the few instances where bisecting the photo through the center of the image frame is effective compositionally. Symmetry works when the photographer wants to communicate or project equality, equivalence, uniformity, or even fairness. There is little visual tension with this arrangement, and all the visual elements are harmonious.

With informal or asymmetrical balance, visual equilibrium is achieved by counterpoising two or more elements at opposite ends of the image frame. The arrangement can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. Image balance is achieved by strategically placing two or more of these strong visual elements and distributing them equally within the photograph. While formal balance creates symmetry, informal balance leads to an asymmetrical composition, yet it’s still balanced.

Balance
Balance
Balance

When positioning two powerful visual elements at opposite ends of the image frame, you give the image informal balance and trigger powerful visual tension and energy by moving the viewer’s eye back and forth between the two elements via a virtual diagonal line (see above). These elements could be two competing focal points with varying sizes and colors, as long as they are conspicuous. The result is an image that achieves photographic balance and harmony and is also dynamic. You can learn more about photographic balance and many other compositional concepts in my e-book, Creative Composition: Image Design Masterclass.

KelbyOne Outdoor Photography Conference

KelbyOne Outdoor Photography Conference

Announcements

KelbyOne Outdoor Photography Conference

Before you read what I’ve written below, be sure to first watch the video posted above. That should be enough inspire you to join me and 17 top notch photography professionals for the KelbyOne Outdoor Photography Conference on May 18 and 19, 2021. This is the third KelbyOne Live Event I’ve had the privilege of participating in (Landscape and Wildlife as well) with each event professionally produced and packed with some of the best photography instruction you will find anywhere on the Internet. 

I will be presenting a course on “Wildscapes: Fusing Wildlife and Landscape Photography” on Wednesday, May 19 but there is so much more than just my class. There are courses on outdoor sports photography, macro photography, astro photography, underwater photography, environmental portraits, post processing and many many others. See the entire schedule here.

Register here and get the early-registration special before the event begins. Watch the event live on your computer or at your convenience. Each class is recorded so you can go back and watch any class you like at any time. 

See you there!