I´m Dusty Doddridge, ask me anything

[Dusty_Doddridge]

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Hey Ya’ll…big hello from Nashville Tennessee!

I’m excited to be here for the AMA and meet some new people and maybe hear from some old friends. One of the things I love most about photographing nature is actually the photography community—made up of like minded people pursuing a shared adventure and some form of creative expression. I think we’re at our best when we’re operating as free range humans…!

The landscape is my favorite subject to photograph and am lucky to be based here in Nashville, just outside the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau and about halfway between the mighty Mississippi River and the Great Smoky Mountains. I started photographing back in the ancient days of 35mm film as a result of wanting to come home with an image or two from some backpacking that I was doing in Arctic Sweden. I really fell in love with wilderness areas and still enjoy spending time in places that are mostly untouched by human development. Photography quickly became a fantastic creative outlet to combine with outdoor adventure.

Looking back, there are a lot of pieces to my background that led me to this season of life at the moment. I grew up playing sports and also spent a fair bit of time with family and friends on the lakes, rivers and forests where I grew up around the city of Memphis. Yes, I have Elvis stories too…I ended up enjoying a 30-year career working in a university setting, mainly directing the campus career center but also did some coaching in the athletic department and taught some courses in a few academic departments. Was a ton of fun getting to talk to people about what they wanted to do with their lives, both traditional age students and re-careering adults. I was especially interested in those who were passionate about careers in the arts. It was also a great joy to work with people from all over the world. Most people, even locals don’t realize that Nashville is now a city where 135+ languages are spoken, so much more diverse than most people might imagine. Lots of compelling stories over the years.

My father was a hard working entrepreneur and allowed me to join him in his businesses when I turned 14 years old. And my mom was a life long educator in the arts. So, my path into pursuing photography, including the business side, is no surprise!

I started my photography business back in 2010 and have been focusing on leading tours around the world and the U.S. And enjoy doing some writing here and there and really have a blast when speaking to groups.

I have lots of tales of adventures…and misadventures…

No topics are off the table, let er rip! Cheers!

Website: https://www.dustydoddridge.com/

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[Paul_Holdorf]

Thanks for being here Dusty. I was looking through the galleries on your website. You’ve got some great images from the Redwoods and some Cyprus swamps as well. I particularly love Forest Magic and Redwood Gathering. I live in Montana where even in most forests, there is a lot of available light. I visit the Redwoods often and always struggle with the lighting. What tips might you give me to make images in the Redwoods that maintain the dark mysterious spirit of the forest without to much shadow lightening?

[PaulD (Paul DeCesare)]

Hello Dusty! I really like the tones and exposure in your shots, what’s your approach for shooting and processing, do you utilize things like multiple exposures doing HDR or Luminosity Masks, etc?

[Dusty_Doddridge]

Hi Paul,

Many thanks for your question and kind remarks! Yes, absolutely love the Redwoods. There is a certain majestic scale there, that is hard to capture at times and also there’s some dramatic light that I love but can be a challenge to figure out how to work with. I really like to work with some diffused spotlight there. This leaves some detail in the shadows while the spotlight can highlight an interesting visual element in the scene without becoming too harsh or overly contrasty. So, part of the equation is just being there a lot and waiting for that kind of light to appear. And once you have that kind of light, then it’s easy to have a gentle approach to processing those images. Ideally, you’d like an early morning with some fog and then skies that are partly cloudy. Not too much to ask for right? I do have a free ebook on Forest Photography and you’re welcome to download and e-mail questions down the road if you like. Cheers! https://www.dustydoddridge.com/blog/2022/9/18/photographing-forests-and-trees-free-ebook

[jeff9 (Jeff Trapp)]

Thanks for this Dusty, Question about sharpening. Usually pay little attention to this, not a pixel peeper at all, seems silly for online stuff and most of my images are in the moody or expressive vein. But still curious. What’s your view and in addition does sharpening ideas or importance change from a color to black and white image?

[Dusty_Doddridge]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the good word and taking time to send a question! Been working on some high contrast images this morning so your question is timely! There are so many types of light to work with in nature, but maybe over time, you begin to be drawn toward certain types of light. I really like soft, diffused light in general and especially enjoy reflected or bounce light. And enjoy light that may be more subtle. One of my favorite aspen groves in Colorado is very small. But, it gets some early morning indirect light before the sun crests the mountain ridge behind and to the side of the grove. So, there is a soft side light in the grove and also some really pleasing reflected light as the light is bouncing off the trunks of the aspen trees in the opposite direction of the sun. Very special kind of light to experience and photograph. Similar in way to the bounce light in the slot canyons but in the forest instead. Rarely do exposure blending these days with the high dynamic range sensors except in the case of a bright sunrise/sunset sky and deep shadows in the landscape, then I’ll do some exposure blending. Guessing though that a small percentage of my images include the sky, maybe 15% or so? I have been using the TK action panel since all the way back in 2008. That seems like a lifetime ago! I do like having the ability to make fine adjustments to tone and a few other features that Tony has built into the panel over the years. I like using some moderately advanced tools in really simple ways–generally speaking. So, my processing time is usually just a few minutes per image. This morning’s work though involved a fairly dramatic sunset that I shot with the Tilt Shift lens. So, there was some focus stacking, exposure blending and shifting to piece the image together. That’s about the limit of the complication level that I’m willing and able to work with…! But that kind of image is by far the exception…

[Dusty_Doddridge]

Hey JT!

Thanks for the question buddy! Yeah, I think you’re on track with your thinking about “end use” being part of the driver for your decision making around sharpening and processing in general. I tend to think about processing in terms of creating a master file that could be used to make a large print. And from there, I can use the TK panel to down res the image (after automatically duplicating it) for posting on the web, for example. There are entire books and lots of tutorials around sharpening so you can get into the weeds pretty quick and is normally the case, there are a lot of very strong opinions around sharpening. All well and good. I like using a little bit of high pass sharpening on most of my images in Photoshop after applying some input sharpening in Lightroom–as part of my import preset. Tend not to do very much local sharpening but there’s a use case for that, depending on your goals. I do think it’s important to have a handle on it, especially if you’re making prints. Images can maybe suffer a little bit if they lack the detail you want to include or they can suffer from some artifacting or make the image appear a little too crispy --if that’s not the look you’re going for. As for black and white, I don’t know. I don’t do a ton of black and white conversions but tend to spend time thinking about general and local contrast when working on black and white images. I suppose you might have a black and white image that maybe has some shadow detail that you want to bring out and maybe, as a result, might want to do some local sharping on that region of the image. I don’t recall having done that before but I could imagine a use case for that. Or maybe the opposite direction, adding less sharpening to clouds or moving water in your black and white conversion. It’s a good question! I do love black and white work that’s really well done and a lot of my favorite photographers work in black and white…! Thanks JT!

[David_Starr]

Hi Dusty,
Thank you for taking time to share your experiences. Love your photography. Especially your southwest photos. I’m planning on making two major photography trips next year. One will be to the southwest, which I’ve visited a number of times in the summer months. From your experience, what are the best months to visit the southwest? Locations on my list are New Mexico Badlands, various parks and monuments in southern Utah and Death Valley.

[barb_degraves (Barbara DeGraves)]

Hi Dusty,
I’ll never forget how much I learned from one of your photo workshops I attended in the Smokie Mountains. Your background has prepared you to be an excellent educator & master landscape photographer! (hope to attend another workshop soon)
Aside from composition & subject matter, are most of your images horizontal or vertical crops? Any suggestions on why you would crop horizontal or vertical. For example, magazine covers are about 8.5" x 11", but FB covers are horizontal. I know most greeting cards are vertical because more cards can fit horizontally in a display rack. What about for websites, business cards & viewing images on a phone?
Will you use a landscape image cropped different ways for different purposes? (I know only 1 question, but it is related, I hope).
Thanks ahead for your answer. -Barb

[Dusty_Doddridge]

Hi David, really appreciate the kind words and taking time to send in a question! Whew, lot to love about the Southwest isn’t it? Just an other worldly landscape and would take 10 lifetimes to even scratch the surface of the photographic possibilities there…Much depends on your style of photography and the types of images you’re most eager to make. So, if you have special interests in storms or night skies, then that might dictate certain times of the year to photograph monsoon weather or milky way for example. Death Valley can be a touch on the warm side, outside of the winter season. So, I’ve focused my time there during December to February. Did catch some fairly heavy rain and a wildflower bloom a few years back, which was in February I believe. New Mexico can be interesting across the seasons, for sure. Last visit there included White Sands and also the Badlands area up north. That was in the late winter and we actually had some rain, snow and fairly cold temps. Believe that was in March. It was fun shooting. Southern Utah…If that’s Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, and Escalante (and beyond) then you’ve got a lot to explore… A lot of people aim to shoot canyon country with the potential for fall color in the cottonwoods and maples. That color can vary from year to year and vary within the region. Early November is usually a time frame to consider. Winter can be very interesting, especially in Bryce. We caught about 5" of snow up there one year, pretty special. Zion of course of is pretty busy year round these days but maybe Summer is the most busy. If I had to pick a favorite month for southern Utah though, would likely pick late Oct-early Nov just for the chance at fall color…can be fantastic…!

[Greg_Vaughn]

Hey Dusty! Great to see you here, and thanks for the opportunity to ask questions.

I know from past discussions with you that you are a big fan of developing continual practice habits to help improve your photography away from field trips. Can you give us your thoughts on ways we can improve our skills away from the camera? I noticed a great list of resources on your web site regarding photography books and I’d like to hear your thoughts on how you review or analyze books and how this ties back to continual practice.

Also, and maybe more importantly, can you discuss the importance keeping your workshop groups appropriately caffeinated?

[Dusty_Doddridge]

Hey Barbara–

Really appreciate the kind words. We did have a big time in the Smokies, such a fantastic place and so close to home…

Yeah, it’s a very good question actually. I think the topic of Aspect Ratio is super important and probably one of the more under discussed topics. I think for me at least, the more standard 2x3 aspect ratio doesn’t often work as well as other aspect ratios that tend to be more square such as 4x5 or 6x7. I’m especially drawn to those aspect ratios in a vertical orientation given that there is more vertical “depth” to include in the scene. And as someone who’s drawn to adding depth in a scene with a near/far composition, those more vertical, more toward square aspect ratios seem to catch my eye. When shooting with my good buddy/business partner we kid each other about shooting the “vertical square” knowing what we mean, but still kinda funny, for us photography geeks…! After the 4x5 or 6x7 aspect ratios, I like the square (vertical or horizontal…!) and then a horizontal pano in the 2:1 or maybe 2.5:1 aspect ratio. Also not often discussed is how camera sensor aspect ratio and crop overlays can affect your shooting. My sensor size is 4:3 and also has crop overlays, which I really like using. The point being is that it’s pretty easy to kind of be overly tied to the camera’s native sensor size/aspect ratio which can inadvertently limit your thinking about the aspect ratio. Haven’t mentioned anything about shooting for commercial or editorial applications, which can obviously be very important if that’s your desired end use for some of your images. Just not something I do very often so am not thinking on those terms, generally speaking. But I enjoy thinking about and discussing the importance of Aspect Ratio and we have a PDF on the topic that we include with the set of our PDFs for all our workshop/tour participants.

[Dusty_Doddridge]

Haha!

Right on Greg! Yeah, it’s a fun topic…Appreciate the question and the shared adventures over the years…!

Before jumping into the topic of Deliberate Practice, maybe some background might be useful on why that topic has some natural appeal to me. I grew up in a home with parents who were heavy into entrepreneurship and also art/art education. Dad ran a couple of businesses and worked around 100 hours a week (for about 14 years) which is way over the top but you learn work ethic (and eventually finding balance). And Mom was always involved in some form of education and usually art education. Add to that home environment, I was involved in sports quite a bit, so around intense coaches, competitive environments, etc. All that to say that from an early age I was around people and situations where continuing to improve/evolve and expressing yourself through work, art and sports was just a way of life. Am very thankful to have had that background and have done my best to pass that on throughout my own work life in sports, arts and education.

Now, circling back to the topic of Deliberate Practice as it relates to photography. First, Deliberate Practice is just one way to practice the art and craft of photography and may not hold appeal for everyone. But, I do think when you pour your heart and soul into something, you really want to make your best effort possible. And perhaps even more so in an artistic pursuit when your work is so closely related to who you are and what you’d really like to share with the world.

I wrote a short journal post on my web site about Deliberate Practice in photography, that might appeal to some. https://www.dustydoddridge.com/blog/2023/12/16/deliberate-practice-making-art-in-landscape-photography.

So, photography books are an important part of my own photography practice, when not in the field or processing images. When I think of photography books, the first piece for me is inspiration. So much time, energy and effort goes into the making of a well crafted photography book that I think it’s the medium that offers the highest quality of work and can be the highest form of artistic expression in photographic art. Now, that’s just one opinion but maybe communicates how strongly I feel about it. There’s just so much more to a book that involves sequencing images, pairing images, creating rhythm and breaking patterns, creating visual cohesiveness and story telling. Not to mention the craft side of book making. All of which is pretty far beyond what any one single image can do standing alone–generally speaking. And if photography books represent (most often) the highest quality work then there’s a ton to be learned. Looking at books of photography has an infinite number of benefits but might include things like inspiring you to explore new subject matter, new styles of image making and may help you refine your own vision and style. You might take notes of compositions that appeal to you and experiment with those ideas in the field. And you might consider different approaches to processing images. The list goes on and on. It’s particularly interesting to listen to podcast interviews by those photographers who’ve produced high quality photo books over the learns. Lot to learn about the process, if you’re considering a book project in your future. All that to say…check out the Deliberate Practice post and you’ll also find some favorite photo books listed here. https://www.dustydoddridge.com/resourcelist If your own photography book isn’t on the list, feel free to send me a copy…! Kidding, kind of…

And finally…caffeine…very important topic but won’t comment too much other than to say “appropriately” can mean too much or too little…both of which can lead to some interesting outcomes…! Appreciate the good word Greg!