Digital Nature Photography

Text copyright Kevin Ferris, photography copyright Mark Hardgrave
All rights reserved

Mark and his wife Becky have been using digital cameras in their portrait studio for some time. Mark has recently begun to take a digital camera with him for his nature photography. Here are some examples of his digital photos.
A very nice feature with digital cameras is the ability to check your compositions (similar to using a Polaroid). This photo was taken on the trail to Ptarmigan Lake in Colorado.
This photo was along the trail to Mount Belford.
Digital cameras are a little more vulnerable to dust and sand. Therefore, Mark could not use his digital cameras once he was on the sand dunes.
This is an example where the digital camera has an advantage over film. Mark took two photos. The first was exposed for the sky, and the second for the foreground. The two pictures were combined to get the photo to the right. This eliminated the need for a split ND filter.
The photo to the right is an old mining town,outside of Cotopaxi, Colorado.

Classic Colorado Aspen trunks.

This panoramic photo is actually three standard 35mm photos "stitched" together. It compares very nicely with the photo taken with the Xpan that is shown here. For more information regarding this technique, as well as the technique Mark used in place of the split neutral density (ND) filter, e-mail Mark.