Amalia Elena Veralli - Nature Photographer Research

Amalia was born in Ne York and developed and ran a successful pottery business in Warren, VT.  When she retired, she pursued her passion for photography.  Originally working in black and white, Amalia began her exploration in photography while on a trip to Europe in the late 1960's.  During the last few years, she moved to colour film and digital photography.

Amlia specialises in macro photography.  Her floral prints have been compared to the paintings of Georgia O'Keefe.  She is developing a growing fine art photography market with corporates and private collectors.  She also provides framed fine art photography to enhance the interior design of her corporate and private clients' interiors.

Below is a example of her work:-

Reportage Photography

Reportage photography is all about capturing images and pictures of people without their knowledge.  This is something that you would find at weddings, carnivals, street photography, firework displays and other events.  The photographer will move round, quite freely, taking images of people, food and other things present and worthwhile.

Capturing natural images of people without their knowledge can prove quite difficult.  If the person knows that he/she is being photographed, they may try and pose, change their facial expression or even walk away fro the camera and then the whole natural image is lost.

Sometimes reportage photography can help gather some very memorable and precious moments, and it is these moments and pictures that are worth a laugh or a tear in the future.  A reportage photographer could also bring out the real person in the image as when the image is taken naturally, then the person is caught unawares.  They could be sharing a moment of laughter, something funny from the past, or even a joke.

Reportage photography can also record an event, i.e. maybe a wedding, and this would be wonderful to look at not only after the event but in years to come.  The bride as she's building up for her big day, sharing a moment with her mother or bridesmaids or even the bride and her fathers expression as they walk down the aisle.  These are images that are worth capturing.  Too much can be forgotten and natural images taken by a photographer can bring it all back to mind.

This is why I have chosen Disney as my theme.  It is going to be one of those once in a lifetime moments, and I want to capture lots of images for not only my course work but for my family, especially my 5 year old daughter and my mum and dad.

Nature Photography

Nature photography refers to a wide range of photography taken outdoors to display the natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants, birds and insects.

Wildlife photography is all about capturing interesting animals in action, such as eating, fighting or in flight.  Normally in wildlife photography, wide apertures are used to achieve a faster shutter speed, freeze the subjects motion and blur the backgrounds, while a landscape photographers prefers smaller apertures.  Wildlife photographers would normally be shot with a long telephoto lens from a great distance and a tripod is usually necessary, as the longer the lens, the harder it is to hold.  To photograph insects, a macro lens is required, as this lens gets close up and personal with the subject that you are trying to capture.  You get to see detailed images of wings, legs, eyes and markings.  Images also good for the macro lens are leaves, tree bark and stones.  Tiny plants or mushrooms also make for interesting images.  Macro photography is something that I love, so there will more than likely be quite a few macro images amongst my work.

Art Wolfe - Nature Photographer Research

Art Wolfe is a professional photographer that I really admire.  Art was born on 13th September 1951 in Seattle, Washington.  He was the son of commercial artists. He graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelors degree in fine arts and art education.

Within 4 years of graduation, he had undertaken assignments for National Geographic magazine and produced his 1st photo book documenting Northwest Indian Baskets.  He has since gone on to produce more than 65 books and instructional videos of photographic techniques.

Over the course of his 30 year career, At has worked on every continent and in 100's of locations.

Below is an example of Art Wolfes work:-

5 Images in 5 Locations

I have been asked to take 5 different images in 5 different locations.  In each of the images there needs to be a person somewhere and they are required to be either holding the item or wearing it.

Shutter Speed 1/10, F Stop 5.0, ISO 2500

Tamron 90mm Macro Lens

Shutter Speed 1/10, F Stop 5.0, ISO 1600

Tamron 90mm Macro Lens

Shutter Speed 1/30, F Stop 5.0, ISO 2000

Tamron 90mm Macro Lens

Shutter Speed 1/8, F Stop 5.0, ISO 1000

Tamron 90mm Macro Lens

Shutter Speed 1/250, F Stop 5.0, ISO 200

Tamron 90mm Macro Lens

Shutter Speed 1/30, F Stop 5.0, ISO 3200

Nikon 18-105mm Lens

Lamp on in room

All images had to be cropped to 8x8 format with 300 dpi.  I actually ended up doing 6 images.  The 1st image was the very 1st one that I took.  I feel that it's a little dark, which is one of the reasons why I have included it, so that I can look back and compare.  I still like the image but I just feel that it needs lightening.

School Holiday Nature Images

Well, its been the school holidays and what do I do with an active 5 year old - take her to the seal sanctury.  Show her some baby seals, fish, ducks, plants and goats.  Or, was this trip just organised so that I get to practice???

All images were taken with my Nikon D90 with Nikon 18-105m lens.

Shutter Speed 1/50, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/50, F Sop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/50, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/50, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/100, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/40, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/80, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/80, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/80, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/80, F Stop 5.0, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/40, F Stop 5.0, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/40, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200      

Shutter Speed 1/40, F Stop 5.0, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/13, F Stop 5.0, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/25, F Stop 5.0, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/25, F Stop 5.0, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/25, F Stop 5.0, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/25, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/40, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/13, F Stop 5.0, ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/20, F Stop 5.6, ISO 200

Evaluation

I really enjoyed taking these image.  I took loads more but there's only a certain amount of seals that you can look at.  I normally walk into a situation and take a random photograph of nothing in particular to try and get the correct settings.  Sometimes they come out too dark and sometimes they come out too light but at least I'm now getting the hang of changing the settings on my Nikon and more often than not, I will get it right.

My Equipment

The main part of my equipment is my Nikon D90.  After wanting a DLSR for quite a while, I finally plucked up the courage to purchase my Nikon last July after selling some gold.  I had 2 heavy gold curb chains that I had for a number of years.  Since losing some weight after the birth of my daughter they kept falling off my wrist which worried me.  I refused to have links taken out of them because this would decrease their value, and after storing them in my drawer for 8 months, I finally told my husband that I was going to have them weighed and I was going to buy a DSLR instead. 

I'm not stupid enough to sell gold to someone who stands in a shopping centre or to put it in an envelope and send it away so I took it to Birmingham Jewellery Quarter and did it properly, got top price for it and bought my Nikon the same day.  I got it home, charged it up and went around taking pictures of anything and everything.  But there was something missing...... I've always been fascinated with macro photography.  So, at Christmas, I was lucky enough to receive a macro lens, and I think that this has become my favourite lens.

Below is my current equipment:-

This is the body of the Nikon D90

This is the Nikon 18-105 mm lens which came with the camera

This is the Nikon 55-200mm lens which also came with the camera

This is a Tamron 90mm Macro lens



This is a Cam Link 2500 Tripod



8gb Memory Card



Camera Bag

I'm not sure which additional lenses I will require at the moment.  I would love a good telephoto lens which funds wont allow.  So, I need to have a look at reviews etc and find one that I would be happy with within my budget.  I would also like a wide angle lens as sometimes you feel that you are a bit too close and a wide angle lens would compensate for this to enable me to get the bigger picture. It's not always needed but sometimes I feel it would be useful.