Todd and Brad Reed Photography Blog

Each year, June 15 is designated Nature Photography Day by the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) to promote the enjoyment of nature photography, and to explain how images are used to advance the cause of conservation and protect plants, wildlife and landscapes both locally and globally.

With that in mind, as a NANPA member, I set out this morning to explore one of my favorite spots on earth, the 200 acres of diverse land and water along the Pere Marquette River our family owns and has placed in conservancy so it will remain a beautiful, natural place for wildlife and plant life for time on end. The famous river itself was years ago chosen and designated as a National Wild & Scenic River so that it would be preserved and protected for generations on end.

Within minutes of arriving at our property this morning, I spotted three sandhill cranes in a neighbor’s adjoining field. A few minutes later, as I was noticing how tall some wild grasses were growing with the recent rainfalls, a doe and its young fawn popped up and scampered away. I did not pursue them because I did not want to increase their anxiety over my presence. I walked on until I found some flowers that on my last visit had not yet blossomed but today looked new and glorious. This new life, I thought, would be a beautiful, upbeat subject matter for these anxious times.

My son Brad and I teach our photography workshop students our Twice As Close Rule. Basically, when you think you are close enough, shoot. Then move roughly twice as close and shoot again and shoot. Keep following this approach until your camera can’t focus, or shoot it out of focus just to study the composition and learn how badly you want/need to own a macro lens so you can shoot tighter. Today I shot some drawn-back, group of flowers, shots with my 180-400 Nikon lens at 400 millimeter to reduce depth of field and compress the flowers together. I liked the look and feel of a couple of the telephoto images.

Now it was time to put on my Sigma 105 macro lens and move a lot closer to zero in on one flower. I chose a flower with a bug on it because it provided an added ingredient. After making a second shot for insurance, the bug and I moved on.

I made one more image of a field of wild flowers but quickly decided It was not as pleasing, and walked on. Nothing else caught my eye, but I saw a lot of beautiful trees and grasses and several song birds. All in all, it was a glorious morning to walk alone and appreciate nature. It was a perfect Nature Photography Day.