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National Parks

The Legacy of the Land

Nature and landscape photographer Don Gale offers tips for getting landmark snapshots on the national parks circuit.

It's 2.p.m. on a sunny July afternoon, and the crowds gathering in the shadows of the imposing El Capitan are jostling for the best view of the towering granite edifice. But there's one person you probably won't find fighting Yosemite's midday masses to vie for a front-row vantage point. Renowned nature and landscape photographer Don Gale is more likely to be wandering off the beaten path in search of the park's best lighting and compositional elements, rather than seeking out some elusive photographic holy grail that might not even exist.

Gale has captured the majesty of Yosemite, the Appalachian allure of the Great Smoky Mountains, the geyser-dotted scenery of Yellowstone, the surrealism of Joshua Tree, and the extreme contrasts that define Death Valley. Yet no matter what type of landscape he's documenting, Gale keeps an open mind (and an open lens) to secure some of the most compelling shots of the country's national parks. "I’m not necessarily going to the parks to get a shot of a specific location or animal," he explains. "I’m just going there to see what happens to be lit properly while I’m there. That way I’m not disappointed if I don’t get a picture of a specific iconic benchmark, because I probably found something else that was lit even better that inspired me. I’m not under that kind of pressure to replicate something I’ve already seen. Whether it’s a famous landmark or not doesn't really matter, as long as it’s lit well and there are good compositional elements in that scene. For me, that’s as satisfying as getting something that’s familiar."

The 18-250mm: Taking on Mother Nature

Gale recently started shooting with the Tamron 18-250mm Di II lens and has been amazed at its versatility and all-in-one capability. "When I have that lens on the camera, it reminds me of when I used to do some video work," he says. "Those video cameras always had these remarkably long ranges on the zooms; we never had that on the still cameras. Using the 18-250 reminds me of the old days when I’d be doing video work and thinking, 'Wow, why can’t I have this on my still camera?' Now, with the 18-250, you can. You really feel as if all you need is this one lens. There are few exceptions where you’d need anything wider." Gale does his homework before he heads off to parks known and unknown. "If I’m going to a place I know has great potential but I haven’t been there myself, then I’ll go onto the park's website," he says. Since your time spent at the park will probably be limited, says Gale, it's often useful to get the lay of the land by checking out both the Web site, the park's visitor's center, and perhaps some postcards to determine what about each park appeals to you and to derive some shooting inspiration. "Now with the Internet, you can get specific info you couldn’t get just five years ago," he says.

Unless you're a commercial photographer, you won't have to get permits to shoot in the parks, and you won't have to worry about trademarked landmarks, since the national parks fall under public domain. "You don't need to fear the trademark issue in the national parks, whereas if you take a picture of Monterey's Lone Cyprus, you can't publish it because it's trademarked [by the Pebble Beach Golf Club]," explains Gale.

Even if you've scouted out the locations you want to shoot in, keep in mind that so have thousands of other people (the total number of recreational visitors to the country's national parks in 2006 was 272,623,980). "Sometimes I avoid the national parks because of the crowds during the summer," Gale says. "Unfortunately, the best photographic times are during summer vacations when there are the huge crowds—you can’t avoid it. We just work around the crowds, or go out early and shoot later so you don’t have people in your pictures or competing with you for a shot. As a photographer, you're not allowed to obstruct anyone’s experience or ask anyone to move so you can get a better shot. So, if a big panoramic scene is crowded with a lot of people, you can concentrate on macro images or work on other things. Or you also can just get on a trail and walk a couple hundred yards, and you’ve eliminated 90 percent of the people right there. People tend to stick right next to their vehicles or tour bus, so if you just make a little bit of an effort, you can get away from the crowds."

Gale adheres to the tried-and-true mandate of getting out there early and staying out later than you think you need to for artistic purposes as well as for crowd control ("it may sound cliché, but the light will always be better at those times of day"), and he advises to always bring a tripod. "Even though the 18-250 is so sharp, a tripod will ensure you get better results," he says. "A lens shade is crucial, too, as is a polarizing filter. These may also be things people have heard before, but people won't try them for years, and then one day they finally will use that tripod and say, 'Wow, I've heard you're supposed to use a tripod my whole life, but until today I didn't realize it made such a big difference.' Yes, it's a significant difference."

The 18-250's performance after the sun starts to set is stellar. "Especially in conjunction with a tripod, the lens does incredibly well in low light," says Gale. "One of the pictures I took at Yosemite was basically taken in the dark. It was a dogwood blooming like crazy, with cedar trees behind it that we couldn’t even really see—we only knew those trees were there from when we were down there earlier in the day. I stopped and set up a tripod with the 18-250 on the camera; the exposure time was 10 to 15 seconds at f/11 with no wind, and the image was tack-sharp."

Getting the Big Picture

Sometimes you can even use a random visitor or two to your photographic advantage. By adding a little perspective and context to your images by putting people in your shots, you can illustrate the true greatness of the natural phenomena before your lens. "I think when you’re trying to show size relations of things that are so unbelievably huge, like some of the redwood trees in the parks, without a person in there, you really don’t get a feeling for what the size of those things are," explains Gale. "Another national park example: In Yosemite, you can look up the side of El Capitan and say, 'Wow, that's just a big chunk of granite.' Then someone will point out that there’s a team of climbers that you can’t really see unless you pull out a spotting scope or binoculars. That really puts everything into perspective."

Panoramas are the money shots that everyone hopes to come home with, yet they're the hardest to get. "Panoramic is always an objective because it’s so dramatic," says Gale. "But because the panoramic scene covers such a huge area, you’re less likely to find that big of an area or scene that’s well lit or full of suitable subject matter. Macro can prove to be a safe outlet, because you might just need a half-inch or three-quarters of an inch or a one-foot-square area."

In fact, it's this obsession with getting the perfect panoramic shot (or a well-known landmark) that can lead to disappointment for many people, he warns. Don't expect to replicate a famous scene in one afternoon, he advises, and you'll be much happier with your shots. "To get there and have all the conditions be right for that big wide-angle shot are pretty slim," he says. "You think about guys like Ansel Adams who lived in Yosemite for years and took advantage of those few times when every condition was right. To think you're going to go there on vacation and spend a couple of hours in the middle of the day and get that same shot—that’s probably disappointing for a lot of people. A lot of people are going much like hunters go: They want a trophy to show when they get home. You have to find out what time of day, what time of year that shot of Half Dome or Yosemite Falls was taken, because you could be there when there’s the exact wrong light and not have a chance at it."

As for those tempted to fool around in Photoshop when they get home, Gale offers a caveat. "Landscape photography is a sacred category," he says. "I used to do advertising and marketing and wedding photography; in those arenas, anything you can do to make those pictures better is OK. In landscape photography, though, there’s this unwritten rule that if you show us a picture of a lake at sunset, with a certain cloud configuration and some wildlife around the lake, that’s really what you saw. You didn’t add or subtract anything; you may have altered the color a little bit to represent how certain film would handle it, but adding anything, like putting a bird in there—that’s a line nobody would cross if you’re a nature photographer."

Check out the specifications for the Tamron 18-250mm Di II lens.

Interested in the Tamron 18-250mm Di II lens, use the Tamron dealer locator at http://www.tamron.com/dealers.php to find a dealer near you.

If you're planning a trip to any of the United States national parks, make the National Parks Service's Web site (www.nps.gov) the first stop on your journey.

For more information on Don Gale's images or for a schedule of his upcoming workshops, go to www.photographybydon.com.