Woodland WanderingsLiz Huston travels light on local nature hikes with her Tamron SP 70-300mm VC lens. |
Article By Jennifer Gidman Images by Liz Huston |
Eaton Canyon Natural Area is a scenic, 190-acre preserve located at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Pasadena, California. With its abundant trails, native plants and wildlife, and natural habitats, the spot is an ecological treasure. |
It's also a photographic paradise, and Liz Huston, who lives just a few minutes' drive from the preserve, heads there once a week with camera in tow. Her "Blue Symphony" portfolio was the result of one such trip in November, in which she was able to bring the ethereal landscapes before her to life with her Tamron 70-300mm VC lens. "Our natural world is mystifying, and this is how I see it," she says. |
Framing Mother Nature in Natural Light |
When Huston embarks on her woodland expeditions, she tries to convey a sense of the place's feeling, not simply its appearance. "It often feels different than it looks," she says. "The colors are really vibrant (there's always blue sky in LA), but it always feels much more mysterious than that. I look for how the light plays on different kinds of trees and search out how the sun lights the scene to evoke that feeling." |
Exploring the remote areas of Eaton Canyon is often risky and can fatigue even the most fit photographer, so having the lightweight 70-300 (weighing in at just under 27 oz.) helps Huston streamline her gear bag and her hike. "There are plenty of easy trails in Eaton Canyon, but I don't like easy!" she says. "The places I like to go to are harder to get to, so my equipment can't be overburdening. It's a huge bonus to have a versatile lens that can deliver exactly what I need without breaking my back." |
Because carrying a tripod would be similarly unwieldy (the entire "Blue Symphony" series was shot handheld), the 70-300's Vibration Compensation (VC) feature comes in handy. "My hands are pretty steady, but in these situations, the VC really helps," she says. |
In her "Still Waters Run Deep" image, Huston followed the sound of the water to discover the access point to a series of waterfalls. "I actually climbed into the stream and took the shot while I was standing in the water," she says. "I had my camera braced on a giant boulder, shooting it at 2 seconds at ISO 100 at 70mm. I shot it at F/32 so I could get maximum depth. It went on forever, standing in the middle of the stream in the cold water, but I do it all for art!" |
Huston shot all of her "Blue Symphony" images before noon to take advantage of the morning light, although certain scenes presented definite illumination challenges. "In 'The Whispering Tree,' I was standing in deep shade," she says. "I shot this image at 1/10th of a second at F/4; the far background is kind of blown out because I was in such shade and I didn't have any lights with me. In post-processing, though, I didn't add any brightness, which is kind of shocking. Aside from playing with the colors, the image is pretty faithful to how the scene really was." |
Scaling Great Heights |
To make each image unique, Huston is ready to go out on a limb - literally. "I'm not afraid to climb, crawl on the ground, or hang from a tree," she laughs. "I'll do whatever it takes to get a different perspective. It's fun for me to try to figure out that vantage point. When I see scenes like this, I get a feeling of poetry and music, and I'm trying to show that 'rhythm' in each image." |
For extraneous elements that might distract the viewer from her stemmed subjects, Huston blurs out the background, as shown in "Entanglement." "We get huge windstorms in Pasadena that blow everything down, so the trails were a wreck, with broken-down trees everywhere," she says. "I shot that image at F/4 at 70mm and got a nice, natural blur." |
Huston's post-processing technique lends a unique hue to each photo in the series. "I created my own formula in Lightroom that's based on tonal ranges and other factors," she says. "It's more complicated than simply desaturating. I really just play with the hues, toning down the saturation and bringing up the vibrancy. So, instead of adding more color, I'm adding more light in color. I also play with split toning." |
Although Huston tried to use the same chromatic formula across the series for consistency, certain images had to be tweaked. "It doesn't always work with every image, which can be frustrating," she explains. "I have a couple of presets, with one that makes the image more blue and one that makes it more green. I love the end results - it"s bringing to life the fantasyland that's in my head!" |
To see more of Liz Huston's work, go to www.photomonium.net or her Facebook page. |