importance of light

So here is a great example of the importance of light. I took these two images back to back, separated by only 10 seconds; the only difference is the light. It was a cloud filled day, meaning that there were constantly great big beautiful clouds drifting through the sky. Any guesses which photo was taken when a cloud passed in front of the sun?

One of the first things I learned as a nature photographer was that if the sun is not hitting your subject directly because of clouds, DO NOT INCLUDE THE SKY in your photo. The sky is too bright compared to the shaded landscape, so the sky goes all white. Now if there are clouds in the sky they are actually acting light a huge soft box (or lamp shade) that makes shadows pleasing to the camera and makes colors POP, so take advantage of those days…but just don’t include the bright sky!! There you go, the secrets I had to learn over a couple years in one lesson! Oh, the other end of this is to start off with good light, and the easiest way to do that is to get your lazy butt out of bed and catch the morning light…oh I wish I wasn’t so lazy.