1. There are a couple of factors that produce
the colors you see. First and foremost is the time of day I shoot. The
majority of my best shots are taken during sunrise and sunset. There
is just no substitute for the kind of light that can be witnessed during
those "magic hours." By no means are you guaranteed to get
a great shot if you wake up early for sunrise or sacrifice dinner to
a sunset shoot. However, you do give yourself a better chance for something
special if you consistently try to shoot during those times. Keep in
mind that the best colors often occur in the 20-30 minutes before
sunrise and and shortly after sunset. It's worth it to get up just a
little bit earlier or stay a little bit later than everyone else.
Another contributing factor is my choice of film. Velvia (see my answer
in #4 below for more details) is a fine grained
and very saturated slide film that truly captures great color. And in
situations where I use a long exposure (e.g., more than a few seconds)
the color actually "collects" on the exposure.So, some of
the color on the long-exposure shots pictures (e.g., the Waikiki shoreline
at night or the SF bay sunset pictures) can be attributed to the film
I use but most of the credit goes to the fantastic areas I have been
fortunate enough to visit.
2. Aside from the skylight filters I keep
on my lens for protection, I only use two other filters; a polarizer
and a Singh-Ray two-stop neutral density filter. I'm sure most of you
know a polarizer cuts glare and will darken blue skies. The neutral
density filter has absolutely no effect on the color of a landscape.
Instead the top half of the filter is darkened and the bottom half is
clear. When placed in front of the lens the dark part of the filter
will cut down, by two stops, the amount of light it lets through. So,
for a typical sunset/sunrise situation in which the sky is several stops
brighter than the foreground I'll use the filter to "even out" the exposure.
That way I can get a more evenly exposed picture instead of settling
for say, great sunset clouds and a black foreground. I don't suggest
purchasing the widely available Cokin graduated filters since those
aren't "true" graduated filters and are meant to actually affect the
color of the scene.
[Sing-Ray actually markets a whole line of "Galen Rowell"
ND filters, which is essentially what I have. I just happened to buy
mine long before they were marketed under this name. If you have trouble
finding ND filters you can always order the Singh-Ray ones directly
from the Mountain Light website, http://www.mountainlight.com/filters.html]
I also recently came across an 81A warming filter among some old gear
of mine. I'll be giving it a try out in situations where I need to correct
an exposure that I know will go blue or cold (e.g., long exposure of
rocks and river in shade).
3. I've always used Nikon equipment and my
current camera is a F5. I've listed all of my equipment below.
4. I shoot Fuji Velvia film exclusively.
It's a professional film (ISO 50) that is very saturated. That explains
why a lot of my pictures have such intense colors. Also note that it
is slide film. I still strongly believe slides are much better than
negatives when it comes to color and sharpness. Print film is good in
that it provides more exposure latitude and you can salvage a print
from a poorly exposed shot. However, I just have not seen prints from
negatives that can match prints from slides. Besides, slide look terrific
when projected during a slide show.
Velvia is not cheap, though; about $9/roll in local stores (or $5.25/roll
if you get it through mail order). I order all of my film (and equipment)
from B&H Photo
in New York. They are a very reputable and professional mail order business.
5. Currently I have original prints for sale.
Sorry, no books or calendars are available at this time. You are more
likely to run across my pictures on a CD cover or in a CD-ROM (e.g.,
Maptech's National Park Digital Guide). If you are in the Bay Area you
can see my current exhibit at San Francisco Stereo and Theater Systems
in Berkeley. They are located at 921 University Avenue (map).
