Talking with Pete Ramsden - Techniques for Photographing in Challenging Conditions, Advice on Light Painting, Capturing the Northern Lights and More

In this episode of The Wild Photographer, Court sits down with fellow photographer, naturalist and expedition leader Pete Ramsden for a wide-ranging conversation about what it actually takes to make great photographs in some of the more challenging environments on the planet.

They start in the rainforests of Borneo, where heat, humidity, and surprisingly low light can be challenging for both photographers and their gear. Pete shares some of the systems he has developed over years of guiding, including using silica gel and dry bags to fight moisture, acclimating cameras before heading outside, keeping lens cloths dry, and taking advantage of modern image stabilization to shoot at shutter speeds that would have seemed impossible not long ago. From there, the conversation moves north to the Arctic, with a deep dive into light painting and northern lights photography, including focusing in near-total darkness, composing around the aurora and experimenting with long exposures.

Court and Pete also get into the bigger picture of photography today. What does it mean to actually be "successful" as a photographer? How important is social media? How should photographers approach editing, culling thousands of images and traveling with increasingly complicated camera kits? Pete shares his Lightroom workflow, favorite travel tricks, current Sony setup and the one piece of gear that has become an unexpected game changer in the field.

Links & Resources Mentioned

Pete Ramsden

• Pete Ramsden's Nat Hab bio, photography and upcoming trips
• Nat Hab Borneo Wildlife Photo Expedition

Light Painting

• Light Painting Brushes
• Light Painting Brushes Starter Kits
• Luminosify Choobs light-painting tubes

Travel & Camera Carrying Gear

• Pelican 1535 Air Carry-On Case
• Cotton Carrier G3 Camera Harness
• Peak Design Capture Camera Clip

Pete's Camera Gear

• Sony Alpha 7R V
• Sony Alpha 7 V
• Sony FE 200–600mm f/5.6–6.3 G OSS
• Sony FE 70–200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II
• Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM
• Sony 2x Teleconverter
• Sigma 24–70mm f/2.8 DG DN II Art

Gear Court Mentions

• Canon RF100–300mm f/2.8 L IS USM

Court's Websites

• Check out my photo portfolio here: shop.courtwhelan.com
• Sign up for my photo and conservation blog at www.courtwhelan.com
• Follow me on YouTube (@courtwhelan) for more photography tips
• View my camera kit and recommended camera gear

Sponsors and Promo Codes:

• MPB.com - Buy, Sell, or Trade Camera Gear
• ArtStorefronts.com - Mention this podcast for free photo website design
• BayPhoto.com - 25% off your first order (code: TWP25) 
• ArtHelper.com - a photo community to learn, share and be inspired
• Arthelper.Ai - Smart tools to promo and showcase your art.
• LensRentals.com - WildPhoto15 for 15% off

Transcript

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Court (00:00)
Hey friends, welcome back to the Wild Photographer Podcast. Today I am joined by my friend and fellow photo guide, Pete Ramsden. Pete is a photographer, naturalist, expedition leader who spends a huge part of his year guiding photographers in some pretty spectacular corners of the world, from dense rainforests of Borneo to Arctic landscapes around Arctic Canada. And that range of experience gives us a lot to talk about.

So we start the conversation in Borneo digging into the very real challenges of rainforest photography. And a lot of what we talk about is very evergreen for

Tropical areas and rainforests around the world. We talk about humidity, fogged lenses, low light, and keeping your camera gear, frankly, just alive in one of the wettest environments imaginable. From there, we head north and we talk about light painting and photographing the northern lights, including some really practical techniques for focusing and composing images in the dark. We also get into editing, traveling with camera gear, and some of Pete's favorite equipment.

we also have a really great conversation about what success in photography actually means today. There are a ton of practical takeaways in this one, but also some really good thoughtful perspectives from someone who frankly spends a lot of his life dedicated to helping other photographers get better. So without further ado, here's my conversation with Pete Ramsden.

Court (01:18)
Pete, welcome. So great to have you on here.

peteramsden (01:21)
Hey, good to be here, Court Thanks for having me on board.

Court (01:23)
I want to start off by talking about Borneo. I haven't talked a lot about Borneo on this podcast before. And it's this lush, dense, wild rainforest. And it happens to be the darn logo of the podcast. So it's about time. And as a Borneo photo expedition guide, this is the perfect time to kind of break into it.

And talk not just about Borneo, but also just general kind of rainforest photography tips and tricks and thoughts and advice. So you have guided all over the world and you do a ton of stuff in the Arctic and Churchill with polar bears and beluga's and northern lights, and we're certainly gonna get to that. But I do want to start off with one of my favorite places on the planet. so when you're prepping for a Borneo trip, a rainforest trip by proxy, what's going through your mind? You know, I'm thinking prepping for wet weather.

I'm thinking of the wildlife you might encounter in rainforests when they they reside in the canopy, like telephoto reach, but I don't want to put too many thoughts in your head. What's what's going through Pete's brain when prepping and starting out and even getting into photography in Borneo in rainforests?

peteramsden (02:28)
That's a great question. And the first time I ever set off guiding to Borneo, there was a lot of unknowns. you're thinking about exactly what you just brought up. What's going on with the weather? How wet is it truly gonna be? You know, it is a rainforest that we're heading to and it can be incredibly variable when we go to Borneo. We could be dealing with blazing sunshine and then five minutes later also torrential.

rain in the same instance within a twenty minute span and then it evens out. So for me it was trying to figure out some sort of system for camera gear that I could have everything really accessible and how that was gonna work. So the first thing I started to think about was luggage systems. What is gonna work the best when I'm out on a boat in the middle of the Kinnebatangan River. I don't have

shelter to get my camera gear away quickly. so number one thing that I actually brought was a poncho that I could pull out of the front of my bag and I could throw it up and over all of my camera gear. if in the instance I needed to get stuff protected right away and I couldn't get the the gear away into my bag. So poncho is something I carry when I'm out on the river specific. the other thing that I really wanted to look at was

a

like a fully waterproof backpack dry bag, which I use frequently. I can get my camera away into there as well. and I can keep gear that I'm gonna need, perhaps a lens cloth, some sort of lens cleaning device, dry because as soon as that kind of stuff gets wet, it becomes really difficult to use out in the rainforest. So I'm always thinking about systems for keeping things dry.

and my number one thing that I do go and get as soon as I arrive in Borneo is a lot of silica gel. and silica gel is quite easy to come by. But when you get to Borneo, I wouldn't necessarily recommend going to try and find a camera shop to go and find this silica gel the way that I get mine. I go to the w we stay in Kuching to begin with on a trip and I have a little pharmacy that I go to and Borneo is so

hot and humid. They use silica for transportation of all of their medical supplies or the tablets. So they just have rafts of it in the the pharmacies. So I go and ask them and I've got my I've got my lady now and she sees me about once every three or four months and I show up and I get a new supply of silica gel. So that's one of the main things that I need. And we used it a lot on this trip. We had a a traveller that was struggling with

his camera device or his lens that was connecting to the DSLR. And we might we were able to save his trip through using all of this silica gel. It dried out his camera, put the camera down into a a dry bag. He left it overnight and it sucked the moisture out and his camera became functional again. So that kind of stuff is not for show. It it serves a real purpose in Borneo. So silica gel is one of the main things that I want to be carrying

Court (05:51)
Interesting. So these

are probably like little packets of silica gel, like like the small little almost like a sugar packet that you would put in the dry bag,

peteramsden (05:58)
Exactly.

Court (05:59)
seal it so more moisture isn't getting in, because you know, spoiler, Borneo is very humid. But you just you just load a handful of those little silica gel packets in a dry bag and that just zaps the moisture

peteramsden (06:10)
Yeah.

Court (06:11)
out into the packets, yeah.

peteramsden (06:14)
Yeah, exactly. So we actually we separate the the lens from the actual camera body to make sure that it's got maximum effect. and I will add a disclaimer, don't try putting the silica packets too close to the actual mirror system or the actual camera. they can just be in the bag with the lens and the camera. They don't need to be packed close up against it. You don't want to risk

scratching any kind of sensor or anything like that. But so long as it's in the bag, the bag's sealed and you've got that moisture barrier between the camera body and the system and the the hot humid air that you were talking about, it's worked miracles. And it's a learning experience, Borneo. You know, there's there's a lot of variables. And my first year there when I was guiding, I had one of those issues myself. I brought a telephoto zoom lens.

And

I thought this thing was gonna be like the lens that was gonna do everything that I needed in Borneo because it had this bright aperture and it was it was a little brighter than the camera lens that I was using prior. So historically I've shot an F five six to F eight, one fifty to six hundred super telephoto zoom lens, and when I was thinking about Borneo, I was thinking about low light.

And what was going to be more beneficial. And so I did away with some of the reach in favour of a wider aperture, just for those low light shooting situations. The more amount of light that you can get through into your camera sensor, the better. but it was difficult because that lens unfortunately ended up sucking some moisture down in through the barrel. So I made some adjustments after that first trip and decided to go with one.

a camera lens that didn't have a retractable zoom on it. So everything's done internal now on the lens that I've opted for for the future. and it just mitigates against any potential errors from moisture coming down in through any seals. So I have made a a a change and it seems to be working really well. I've not had any of those issues anymore. but that was one.

I guess stumbling block that I came across my first year out in Borneo was just that first lens that I had. it needed to be replaced quite quickly.

Court (08:45)
Yeah, I think you you hit on something that I've been thinking a lot about. So I also guide Borneo photo expeditions and it's that constant balance of reach versus quote unquote speed or the bright aperture, you know, a low F number. Cause you really it's so hard in photography to have it all, like a big reach and an F4 or an F two point eight. And you know, I think so many of us were constantly iterating. You know, we're we're so fortunate to be able to go back and back to these places.

And I am, you know, when I'm headed back to Borneo, my number one pick for a lens will actually be a shorter lens, but trying to get F two point eight. So like for instance, Canon makes the 100 to 300 and it's F two point eight throughout. And yeah, 300 is not a super big telephoto. And you are photographing wildlife across the river on the Kinabatangan, up into trees in the Danim Valley, across sandy beaches and Baco National Park.

So you would like to have a four or five, six hundred millimeter, but I I do think that my method going forward is something faster. and you know, cameras, they have such great megapixels these days, you can crop in. so shooting it at 300, I think is gonna be my my go-to because you'd be surprised how dim the conditions are. I mean, I think our eyes adjust so rapidly, especially when we're under the canopy of a rainforest. And this isn't just Borneo, this is Costa Rica, this is Peru, this is Ecuador, this is Indonesia.

This is Madagascar, you know, any place with a big rainforest canopy, speed is just so paramount. So I think, you know, echoing your thoughts, my takeaway is when you're trying to have it all, you want to err on the side of a little bit faster lens versus a little bit longer lens. Like a lot of the lenses that get to 600, like you said, that's F eight. my Canon 100 to 500, that's F7.1. If you can instead get that down to F4, you're you're basically like almost.

quadrupling the amount of light you can get. So yeah, it's a big deal in Borneo. So I want to talk a little bit about technique in photographing rainforests, but since we're on the kind of weather sealing topic, I wanted to ask you one of the the fundamental questions that people may or may not be thinking about when it comes to rainforest photography is camera fogging. This is the the the thing that happens when you are in an air-conditioned room or even just moderately air-conditioned.

And you go out in that humid rainforest and your camera lens fogs up immediately. I'm wondering what what is your strategy for dealing with that specifically to Borneo? And if you feel like it, maybe parlaying a little bit to the other side of the equation in the Arctic, because you you get camera fogging there too, very different, you know, reasons going from hot to cold versus cold to hot, but kind of the same principle. So

Let's start off with Borneo. Like what's your game plan for starting the day when you might come from a a slightly cooler room to a warmer, humid outside with with camera gear?

peteramsden (11:44)
I know camera fogging inside and out at this point in my career in photography. It's it's something that is just a natural part of what you have to deal with. And you could be the best photographer in the world that understands gear, but you you're always going to get some small amount of camera fogging at the start of a day. and the biggest thing for me is when I wake up, coffee's on in the morning and I'm starting to get ready.

at that point I will actively make a check around an area wherever I'm staying. and if I've got somewhere safe that I can just pop my rucksack out for the day, then that's one approach. I could get my bag outside and just allow my gear to come up to temperature at a an organic rate, which will just allow the lenses chance to come up to that temperature so you're not getting the the fog in.

And so fogging is just condensation hitting the outside elements, hopefully, unless you have moisture inside of your camera lens, which was one thing that I dealt with. but if it's just on the outside of the lens, which it most typically is, it just needs to come up to the ambient air temperature outside or within a couple degrees. So best practice is to allow that to happen and give yourself time before you start to shoot.

if you are coming outside and you are starting to try and shoot a a a rhinoceros hornbill that's flying in the early morning light right away, then you're likely going to struggle with that camera fogging. So if you can get your cameras outside starting to warm up 10-15 minutes before you start to shoot, fantastic. And for me, I leave my lens caps on when I'm starting to bring the the cameras up to temperature. It again just is

a small amount of moisture barrier. you could put your camera in a dry bag if you wanted and allow it to come up to temperature that way. it forms just that moisture barrier and stops any kind of condensation from from getting on the lenses because you you then have to clean your lens in the morning after you've probably been through the effort of doing it that pre that previous night. it's really important in Borneo at any given point.

Doesn't matter whether it's the middle of the day or the night to make sure that you've got access to a lens cloth and some sort of maybe lens pen. I carry about five or six lens pens on a trip because naturally they're going to saturate and they're going to get wet. I give them out to travelers, and it's it's a way that you can clean your lens on the fly when you need to, but ultimately they don't last forever, so make sure you've got additional spares.

my lens cloths I now carry in ziploc bags because they will absorb moisture. so I prefer to keep them completely separated from the elements and then when I know that I need it in the moment, perhaps a guest is struggling and they've accidentally dripped sweat down onto the camera lens and I need something there and then because the orangutan have come down and it's that intimate moment that you've been hoping for and that you've spent months preparing for.

You don't want to get you don't want to miss the shot for the sake of a couple drops of sweat or a little bit of moisture hitting that lens. So I do have some emergency failsafes for trying to get moisture off lenses. And if you're planning on heading to Borneo, I'd recommend ziplop bags and multiple lens cloths. and just make sure that they're they're clean because it's nothing worse than smearing three weeks worth of

dirt and grime back onto the lens after you've cleaned it. So so multiple lens cloths is a really good thing to bring with you to Borneo and keep them dry.

Court (15:46)
Yeah, so I wanna underline a couple key points and some practical takeaways there. I do a very similar thing and I I think your your advice of putting the bag out early is fantastic. I will just for for practicality's sake, I am thinking, you know, for the audience here, something like 30 minutes is kind of like my

my

peteramsden (16:04)
Yeah.

Court (16:05)
goal. If I can get it out 30 minutes the longer the better, honestly. But

peteramsden (16:08)
Yeah.

Court (16:09)
30 minutes is kind of my sweet spot. I I def five minutes is not enough, ten minutes is really not enough.

So roughly aiming for a half an hour, by the time you, you know, you start making coffee, you walk down to breakfast, you're getting ready for the day, it should be very, very doable. I will sometimes, again, safety in mind, meaning like animals aren't around or otherwise, as I'll kind of unzip my camera bag a little bit as well, because it's all about that slow bring-up process, that slow acclimation process. And then the final thing there with the lens fogging, just to echo your thoughts, yeah, do not take your lens caps off until.

The absolute last moment, like until you're about to get a shot, because the longer you can acclimate, the better. And it's really your lens tip. It's like it's the glass itself that's most at risk. Yes, you have the issues of maybe some fogging and some condensation on the camera body itself. Yes, you have the risk if it's not properly weather sealed of that getting in the camera. But the real functional aspect is the lens tip itself. So yeah, keeping that lens cap

peteramsden (17:07)
Yeah.

Court (17:07)
on. If you do nothing else, that's kind of like the biggest and best takeaway.

But yeah, excellent advice there. And yeah, I like the ziploc bag idea for lens class. That's that's clever. you'd be surprised in rainforest across the world, how that humidity just seeps into absolutely everything. so I think I'm I'm gonna wait to hear about your Arctic condensation techniques until we get into your northern lights section here, because I've got some questions on that. But I wanna stay in the Borneo theme just for just

peteramsden (17:36)
Yeah.

Court (17:37)
a touch longer. Borneo and rainforest. Remember, all these things are very

Practical for rainforests across the world. So an interesting way to frame this question is like thinking of yourself as being a a guest or a photographer, a traveler, getting to Borneo for the first time. Like, what are one, two, a small handful of things that you might wish you had learned or knew going into the trip? So day one was most successful.

another way to think of it is, you know, like what what are some bits of advice to give people a leg up, a little bit of an advanced start for photographing in rainforests? This might be challenges, this might be opportunities. I'm gonna keep this very broad. and then how might you overcome those? So in my mind, I'm thinking of like wildlife distance or we already kind of covered weather, but dimly lit conditions. What what's going through your brain as like the first couple of lessons you teach people or what things had you wish you known?

before your first foray into rainforest expeditions way back in the day.

peteramsden (18:41)
so the the first thing that comes to mind for me is like new camera systems that have come out. And it doesn't matter whether it's like a beginner level, entry-level, mirrorless camera that's got IBIS built in with your your lens that has some sort of image stabilization. But for me,

an

essential that's needed for any kind of low light shooting situation where you've got that camera in your hands and you're shooting without tripod, without monopod, which typically because of the variability of rainforest photography, unless you are posted up in a hide waiting for a specific shooting scenario, I'm always handheld in the rainforest. I'm always moving as my subject moves. So

I really find monopods, tripods to be just cumbersome, to be honest, over anything else. So I don't use them. what I do use religiously is IBIS, which is in body stabilization. I make sure that it's running at its highest level. some manufacturers have a sport level, some are just at set as a a base IBIS on or off, but

The way in which you can take pictures now versus twenty years ago is remarkably different. I can stand and I can hand hold with practice. so if you're looking for a a hot tip, go out and shoot at dawn or dusk, when the lighting conditions are not great, and see what the the minimum shutter speed that you can actually stand there and catch a sharp, sharp handheld with.

it's a it's a good base level shooting situation to practice with when you arrive in a rainforest. for me if my subject is still, i.e. there may be I don't know, a pied hornbill up on a vine and they are watching and waiting for food and it's it's dusk, I can stand and handhold and it can almost be dark and I can capture a shot now because of Ibis and the fact that I can shoot at

down to a thirtieth of a second sometimes. And it's it's alien to a lot of people to try that for the first time. but it's amazing seeing the realization of what these new cameras can do and what you can try. And there are definitely higher failure points in that the hornbill may move its head slightly, but when you actively stop, watch, and you anticipate wildlife behavior and you capture them,

in between those movement points and they are still you can end up with some incredible sort of low light photography shooting situations and some some amazing shots come out of that. So for me, I think running with IBIS and making sure that my camera had some sort of inbo in body stabilization for rainforests, for jungle, regardless of where you are in the world. even sometimes for polar bears.

like when we're up there and we shoot up in Churchill or up into the Arctic, we're dealing with less than ideal light conditions because the sun doesn't rise for very long in the day. And so we work with poorer lighting conditions at times, and so you have to shoot slightly lower than what you would like to with your shutter speed to to facilitate enough light and to try and mediate how noisy that image is gonna be.

at the end. There is a baseline shutter speed that you have to hold sometimes, and that would come from any sort of wildlife movement. And so that changes the shooting scenario if we are now dealing with animals that are moving, for example, perhaps the the hornbill is hopping along the branch and it's not staying quite as stationary as you would like. You have to bring up that shutter speed to compensate accordingly, which will

change your your ISO eventually. but as some of the photographers out there would be familiar now, there are a variety of different post processing softwares that if you've had to shoot at a higher ISO than what you felt comfortable doing, don't fret. There are tools that we can use. And one of those that has just absolutely blown my mind over the last

probably five years as it's advanced is a denoising software in Lightroom Classic and it will allow you to on a sliding scale remove some noise from the photo. And I use that cautiously because if I jacked my denoising up to a hundred percent, eventually your image is going to look some some sort of degraded

sort of finished product because it will change the image, but somewhere on the range of 15 to 40 percent denoise, and you can remove a lot of that noise that's that was introduced in a low-light shooting situation. So for me going to Borneo, something I wish I'd known ahead of time was in-body stabilization in these cameras. And I know that we all have varying price points as to what is

an acceptable amount to spend on cameras because they are expensive pieces of kit. but the newer mirrorless cameras or your micro four thirds, whatever we're we're talking about there, they do a wonderful job in low light, allowing you to stand there and shoot lower than what you've ever done before. And it's part of the enjoyment for me is working in between those failure points until you get those shots and everyone in the group.

Finally nails the shot at a lower shutter speed because it's typically something they haven't done before. And so to push yourselves out of your comfort zone and and get into that shooting situation where your photo guy is saying, We're not done here, we can keep shooting. it's not twenty years ago now and we can still get the shot and this is how you do it. Seeing the change on people's faces when they walk away and they look at those pictures, whether it's that night or they come to you at breakfast the next morning.

They're just blown away like smiles ear to ear. So a camera that has IBIS is is or some sort of in body stabilisation is a a massive benefit to you in the in the jungle in the rainforest.

Court (25:30)
Yeah, and think your your advice early on in that about doing some lens tests or some camera tests is so valuable. it's something that I'm gonna echo and underline here because it's something we don't immediately think of. It's certainly I wouldn't say it's fun per se. It's kind of laborious. You're you're taking a half an hour out of your day to get photos that you're not gonna use for anything. You have to go, you know, take some tests at different focal lengths and put them your computer and use a magnifying glass and zoom in to see if it works. But that's such a great

thing to do if you carve out 30, 45 minutes before your trip, go out at dusk when the light is desperately low, find a tree, find something that's not moving, and shoot at various focal lengths to figure out what is your minimum shutter speed. And you said one over 30, that's an aggressive one. And like you said, there is a higher chance of failure, but you will start to learn that well, maybe I need to do one over 40. Or if I'm at one over 30, I really need to be at a wider focal length because it is very, very perfect.

proportionate or at least correlated to how much you're quote unquote zooming in, how much telephoto you're using. You can get away with a slower shutter speed at a wider angle, 100 versus 400, for instance. So I think that's great advice. I I really love that. And I think it's something that I would really, really encourage the audience to do before any sort of rainforest expedition. So that that's that's great stuff there. So I want to move on

Beyond Borneo and beyond Rainforest, and I want to talk about some of your northern lights photography and expeditions. and this is not directly related, but something I've seen you do throughout the years that I am really enamored with, and and that's light painting. You have some really cool strategies for not just practicing once the northern lights come out, but getting some really cool shots of epic light painting. so

I'm not gonna seed the question too much, but walk walk me through your your light painting endeavors. What what's the process? What kind of gear might you be thinking about? any settings that you think are good to start off with. If people want to experiment at home, maybe, maybe they're not on an Arctic or Northern Lights trip, you can do light painting in your backyard and it looks pretty amazing. So yeah, talk to me about that.

peteramsden (27:47)
l light painting has been kind of my my baby over the years that I've been going up and running northern light strips. And it started with an understanding that, you know, when we are actively out looking for northern lights, there can be times where we don't have them or or we're waiting for something to happen with interactions of solar particle matter and and atoms.

within our upper atmosphere. And ultimately I decided that there was more that we could do with photography during nighttime hours and that I'd seen some images and it was one of the first things that I started to do up in Churchill. And it started with so I went to a pet shop and you can buy these these glow sticks for dogs or or whatever animal that you

walking at night, no prejudice, you might be walking your cat or whatever else you've got. But you can get a ver variety of different light tools from pet shops, from kids' toy stores. And I I took some things up and started experimenting. And initially it was just glow sticks and we were drawing behind people. And so what essentially happens is when you leave your camera's sensor open

Regardless of where you are for multiple seconds, it's going to continue receiving light information at night because the light information that I'm sending towards it is much brighter than my person. I can draw through a picture and it's just a temporary sort of imprint that we can leave on a landscape. And after the fact, once we've

made that temporary imprint, it's gone forever and each shot is completely different. but yeah, we started waving these light sticks around and then from there we jumped up and we said, well, why don't we start to make bigger tools? Why don't we make essentially light ones? And people usually laugh when I say, Would you like a a lightsaber battle to begin with? But as soon as those pictures start being taken,

They they see the purpose and they understand the the I guess the interest in light painting and and why it's so unique. So we started building light painting tools myself and a fellow guide Petta. And w it snowballed. now we snap up as soon as they come in fluorescent halogen light tube casings, which are these plastic flexi tubes that don't snap up in the Arctic cold.

And we fill them full of like photo gels and that way you can create different ones for different shooting situations. There's all sorts of different colours. even just electrical tape. If you're at home, you could get some sort of plastic tubing. it might be something that a pack of cookies have come in or w whatever it is, so long as it's plastic and it's it's see through, you can you can use it as a light painting tool.

And you can do it with friends, family. You can take it away your back garden if you're having a wine night or you've got kids over for a barbecue, whatever it is. If you are a keen or interested photographer, use them as subjects and say, Hey, I've I want to play around with this and these this is what I've got. So you leave your camera open for multiple seconds and you can move through. you can light your subject in the foreground as well.

by using a light from behind the camera source and you can create some really unique compositions using those light painting tools. So that was the draw to it. And it was one of the first things that I started to work with when I was getting into photography. 'cause I was interested in night photography. That was my my drive and low light photography.

Court (31:50)
Yeah, I think it really helps understand the concept of low light photography, even just general light in photography. And especially if you are gearing up or on an Aurora trip, it helps you figure out how to focus in the dark. It helps you figure out, well, how long is a good long exposure in these scenarios? So I've got a couple of follow-up questions. One, I was wondering if you can recommend or rattle off like the name brand of a light tube, like if if someone could source it from BH photo or Adorama or something online.

Just to give listeners something to maybe Google for. And then also if you could rattle off some really general beginning settings. I mean, I think changing the settings is all the fun of it. You know, you do five seconds and then 25 seconds. But like what would you start with as far as focal length, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to get maybe to wet your whistle for this light painting. Again, knowing that you're gonna adjust these, but general settings, and then yeah, what what kind of light tube can people search for?

peteramsden (32:49)
So the the light painting brushes, well it's called light painting brushes. so you could Google light painting brushes. there is another manufacturer called Choobs C H o O B S, and they will ship worldwide. So you can look at both of those. Light painting brushes have a variety of different options where you can build yourself a starter pack and they will come with a variety of different tools.

So we use those alongside some of the things that we build as well, depending on our shooting situation. Your portrait lens would be absolutely perfect for getting out at night, setting up on a tripod, something wide angle is where I'm going, something anywhere from ten to thirty-five millimeters. but we're trying to capture a landscape and the wider the lens, the more light painting you can fit into your image.

so I would say wider versus telephoto for sure. I'm definitely not putting on my seventy to two hundred to take these pictures. And really t what I'm what I'm doing is anywhere from ten to twenty-five seconds will allow me chance to move through a scene and to actively use the paintbrush.

so there's a couple different ways in which you can light paint. You can either as an individual set a timer on your camera and you can then allow yourself time to move into the frame that you want to light paint, which is what I end up doing sometimes with travelers. So five or ten second timer and then run in fifteen seconds to begin with, and it will allow me to go through the scene fifteen seconds and I keep moving.

until I'm out of the scene as well. If I stop at some point throughout light painting, it means that there's a light that has been shone at the camera sensor for multiple seconds if I don't turn it off. And ultimately it will overexpose that particular point in your frame in your scene. So you have to be mindful of that. I have gotten to the point where I'm using multiple different light tools that I have positioned

in the frame or hidden behind something. and I can pick up different ones and I can turn the other one off. So have and plan your scene as well. use someone else to help you use your your model or your friends, your family to hide one. Maybe they've got it held behind their back. But somewhere in the region of 10 to 15 seconds and then your ISO is going to be important as well.

I'm s running somewhere around a thousand to twelve fifty ISO and I'm at anywhere around F two eight to F three five if your camera sensor sorry, your your camera aperture doesn't allow for F two eight. As I start to shoot for longer, I actually narrow my aperture down and I will go down to

F four five or f five six just because there's more light then coming into the camera's sensor over a longer period of time. But it allows me more time to create a more elaborate light painting picture. But as a base level setting, F two eight, fifteen seconds, somewhere between eight hundred to twelve fifty would be a good starting opportunity for for for light painting, and that is in complete darkness.

Court (36:37)
Cool. And I I think I understand correctly is that the real trick is consistent fluid movement of the light source. Like you don't want to pause or spend more time in a certain area than another. Or if you do, you're just gonna get a much more intense light source. You know, the colors will be brighter, the light's brighter. So if you want something that looks like a ribbon going throughout your frame, you kind of need to think, okay, I'm gonna move from left to right in five seconds, and I'm not gonna speed up or slow down this light source.

because that's what's gonna give me this nice even ribbon like lighting. And of course you can do all sorts of weird and wacky stuff. You might want to pause so there is a a stronger point of light, but it sounds to me like consistency, fluidity is the best way to at least start to see the fruits of your labor.

peteramsden (37:25)
You really hit the nail on the head there, Court. fluidity is key. making sure that the motion is a uniform motion and it's not jagged, otherwise your your initial or your finished product perhaps won't come out as you anticipated. So keep it fluid and keep moving through the scene. Absolutely.

Court (37:48)
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Court (38:56)
So next, I wanna pick your brain on Aurora photography. When you go out for the night and shoot the Northern Lights, what are the elements that you're specifically looking for in a great photo? Perhaps it's foreground or composition. What's going through your head when you're trying to get a next level shot of the northern lights?

peteramsden (39:16)
foreground is definitely one. And the places in which I guide up in Churchill, Manitoba, primarily and the surrounding area outside of Churchill, we have a variety of different options from mural paintings to boreal forest to the big vast expanse of the Hudson Bay that we're sometimes looking out at. And so I am looking for foreground.

but I'm also looking for big sky alongside that. And sometimes, you know, we have these these rules of thirds where you maybe want to position two thirds of the sky as opposed to one third being the landscape. But when the sky really erupts and changes, my initial plan for the shot may then change and I may transition and move and shoot directly up at the sky at different points through the night. But

as a general rule when I'm getting out to start shooting, I'm looking at somewhere between two-thirds sky and one-third of the the landscape that's out in front. And I'm I'm trying to frame that in a way that you have the northern lights dancing above the the boreal forest, or perhaps it's if it's the Hudson Bay that I'm shooting at.

Maybe that runs along the the very bottom of the image to to really highlight that vast expanse of sky and just how big the northern lights displays can be as well. So as the northern lights come on in intensity, I'm more so drawn to highlighting them as this the the main subject, the main feature, and so perhaps I creep up and whereas it was one third

foreground perhaps it then becomes one sixth and more of the night sky. So I'm looking and seeing what's happening with intensity of northern lights at any given point. The first thing I'll do with a group of photographers when we arrive on location, if the northern lights aren't out already, we'll go for a walk and we'll look at different aspects of where they may want to go. and a really important thing is is movement throughout the night.

I feel that sometimes when we get there people develop a a rigidity and it could be because it's cold and you become so transfixed with the northern lights in any given area that you you forget about the composition of the image sometimes because they can be incredibly mesmerizing the northern lights. but it's important to move through plan different shots that you want to walk away from each night with.

And all of that comes from preparation either in the day prior or on arrival to a location. Okay, this flagpole tree is something that I want to photograph, so I'll spend some time there getting that with the northern lights, but then make sure that you don't go home with the fifteen hundred pictures of the flagpole tree and and nothing else because like the boreal is absolutely stunning and

the tundra skates that we have the opportunity to shoot when we go up and I'm working on photo trips in Churchill. So being mindful and cognizant that you do need to move. I might sometimes call out into the night. Have you considered moving and trying different composition? Like even as much as three or four steps could be the big difference or bringing your camera down from eye level once you've got your focus point.

and bringing it lower to the ground to allow for more of that night sky to be picked up with your your camera. So it's all about movement and walking around and planning that initial preparation for your your shots and taking that ten, fifteen minutes before you then set up and start shooting. I would also say with Northern Lights specific, you know, we're shooting in a a full manual mode where the camera's not auto focusing.

we're heavily reliant on our own eyes and perhaps your camera has some sort of focus peaking that could help you out. But revisiting and making sure that your shots are sharp at a variety of points through the night so that you've not accidentally caught your foc at the beginning and then you know your everything is just slightly out of focus. That's a big one, and you can get some.

lens retraction or swelling, depending on where you are in the world when you're photographing. And it might just be that your lens is adjusting, your camera's adjusting to the overall cold air of of Churchill or typically wherever you're going to be shooting northern lights. And that could also adjust your focus point on a small amount. So revisit, check your images and and do it often to make sure that you're attaining focus properly before you're

You know, you you get back to your your room and you go to process your pictures and everything is just slightly off. So yeah, it's important to walk around and check your check check your composition points where you want to potentially shoot and and then when the northern lights sometimes rage, get you know you know exactly where you're gonna head to to to get those shots.

Court (44:56)
Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the focusing thing. This is something I wanted to ask about. is you know, how do you focus on the northern lights? And it's kind of a funny thing. It's it's a little bit controversial, only in the sense that if you ask five different photographers, they'll probably focus in five different ways. I've tried them all, I've evolved through the years, I've changed, I've had my favorites. But I'm curious, when you are trying to focus, what's what's your technique? Do you start with autofocus? Do you go full manual?

You mentioned focus peaking, which is a very valuable tool in newer mirrorless cameras. Yeah, what's your strategy for focusing in the cold, in the dark with this weird celestial phenomenon going on?

peteramsden (45:35)
my focus game typically these days, you mentioned it is a newer technology, but it's fantastic and it really works incredibly well. And so for myself, I use focus peaking and it allows you to select a different color. So for northern lights or foreground, when it's completely dark, I use red against a primarily black background, and so when I'm

starting to attain

everything in focus, I will start to see red around the the I guess this silhouette of the subjects that I'm trying to focus on. So it might be trees but also stars. it will highlight each pinpoint star as it's focusing on them. So I can see with focus peaking everything that's in focus from my

closest focus point all the way out to the the furthest star in our solar system. So that's what I use. I think it works very well. Sometimes when I'm working with different DSLR cameras, for example, they don't necessarily have that functionality and that's okay as well. And a lot of that comes down to trial and error. So

it's micro adjustments.

focus to a point where you know I may use a flashlight on a tree and then I can focus on that and it gives me some initial focus point and I'll start to play around and you will have some throwaway shots as you're attaining focus and that's okay. but I will work with travelers and we'll take shots and we'll adjust accordingly at that point that we find focus on

those specific cameras, I would tape the focus ring in and I would lock it into the night because it's much more difficult to adjust throughout the evening if you then catch it and you have to revisit that focus point. It gives you a good basis to where your focus starts. And then you can make micro adjustments with a piece of could be hockey tape. that works really well. It generally stays pretty stuck down through the cold winter nights.

So new mirrorless cameras, focus peaking, older DSLRs. I will use a flashlight to help me actually see the foreground to begin with, and it will give me a focus suggestion. and I'll make micro incremental adjustments. If it starts to become too blurry one way, then I know I've gone too far or too soft. And I will dial back the other way until I find it. And it could take

five shots to find that focus point. but patience is the biggest thing that you can carry with you in Northern Lights photography. Patience for the cold, patience for the focus points. And so they would be the ones that I use these days.

Court (48:39)
Yeah, it's an excellent takeaway point. I want to just quickly clarify and walk through the focus peaking thing, just in case folks in the audience have not used this before, because it's actually really darn good for landscape photography too. And the basic gist is that with a mirrorless camera, because it doesn't have well, it's just different working parts, we'll leave it at that. You can go into your menu system and it's almost always called focus peaking, you know, whether you're

With OM or Sony or Canon, Nikon, Fuji, like it's pretty much always called focus peaking. So you'll find that in your menu. And when you turn that on and switch your lens to manual, as you rotate that barrel ring, you'll see it usually is defaulted to a red color, at least in the cases I've seen. You'll just see the the intensity of red in your LCD viewfinder get more pronounced and less pronounced.

On various parts of the scene. So if you want to make sure that the stars are in focus, you'll get these little pinpoint red dots. If you want to make sure your foreground's in focus, the whole foreground will look red. And I won't go into any more detail here because it's something you really need to just practice with. But along the lines with the the dim dusk kind of blue hour photography with handheld and getting those shutter speeds, that's another great thing to practice on at home, is just seeing how focus peaking works because that's really revolutionized.

my game for focusing on northern lights and and astrophotography. It used to be in the DSLR world exactly as you said. You you shine a light, you use autofocus, you lock it in the manual, and then you might literally tape the focus ring so it doesn't move, so you don't bump it. So there isn't what's called focus creep 'cause sometimes your lens may just through gravity or whatnot, actually acclimation to the cold or heat may creep and move in and out. So taping it is a legit

legit way to do that. I love that. So yeah, try focus peeking, whether it's on a trip or in your backyard, it's a really, really valuable tool, especially when you know you don't have the light to focus on, because most of these focusing mechanisms on autofocus relies on contrast. You need to have that light and dark contrast. But if your whole scene to your eyes looks pretty dark, then you're gonna have some challenges. So yeah, focus peeking, great, great stuff there. So I want to move on and talk a little bit more about some

I don't know, philosophical stuff with with photography in today's day and age. And I'm wondering, Pete, what what do you think it takes to be successful or how might you define success with photography in today's day and age? You know, there's been a lot of changes in the last five to ten years. Wondering if you can comment on maybe how it's changed or things that you're taking away as, you know, what it what it takes for maybe a young up-and-comer or someone

Looking at photography as a second or third career or just as a passion project. Yeah, what does it take to be successful in photography in 2026?

peteramsden (51:33)
I think that we'd all agree that success looks different to everyone. to each individual, success is measured differently. And you have to look at ultimately what you want to achieve with photography. for myself, it's about not just photographing animals or photographing people, northern lights. I'm passionate about making sure that people understand

the plight or or the conservation status or the the ecology of an area that I go to photograph and to educate. So for me, photography is a medium for education of greater ecosystems. And I work as primarily a a naturalist alongside being a a photo instructor. So that was really what I was hoping to achieve when I got into photography is

education of more people in different landscapes ecosystems that I could take them and highlight conservation that way. for other people it may be it's definitely changed over the last ten years. You are correct and it appears as though like Instagram, Twitter, the sort of YouTube

There is more of a call in for some sort of video component alongside also photo creation. And that's not for everyone. if you want to display your work primarily, then maybe you look to your local I guess your local town, your local settlement, wherever you find yourselves, and maybe there's a way to display your

images that way in an in an analogue fashion where people can go up and spend time with the work that you've created. For me, that is a a different measure of success where you can have your work displayed for people to go and see or purchase. so contacting local cafes if you if you're just starting out, maybe there's a way that you can get some four by sixes up onto like a a postcard sized rack like that.

for me is a a different measure of success. And it's a way that people can actively have a take home and could send and continue sharing your photography that way. So Instagram is not the only measure of success prior to country belief. I think that the digital world for me right now is a very challenging space to move through because it can lead to photographers

feeling lost or or not feeling like they've got a voice because no one's interacting with those posts. But if you ever get to that point, go back to analog, go back to cafes, go back to places that you can display your work and you can actively print that work. There's nothing better than printing off something that you've created that you spent time with because the person that you're then going to be sharing with is maybe

right next to you in the room and you can have that discussion and remove yourself from screens. I'm quite passionate about our voices being shared with each other in the same room over at coffee or wherever you find yourselves as opposed to a lot of online discussions. So there's a lot of different ways in which you could define success in photography in this day and age. for myself it's about

working with travelers around the world and taking pictures, watching them develop as photographers as well, and giving them the tools for success in that respect. And and that defines, for me, success in photography is is helping other people. so depends on what you're looking for, would really be what it comes down to. It might be that you are sharing

carousels and you're sharing reels to go alongside your photography and you are highlighting different conservation based aspects that need to be shared and need to be talked about. And that is also what I would consider to be successful as well. I don't think it's measured in any one specific way. so just because someone else is doing something that works for them doesn't necessarily mean that you have to

do that for you for you to be successful and measure your your own success for yourself. Don't compare yourself to what someone else is doing. you know, focus on your own goals and make sure that you are looking after yourself. It's a it's a challenging industry and so make sure that you are protecting yourselves out there as well when you you're sharing your work and

hold that space for yourself and understand that you have created something wonderful and if photography should should be something that makes you happy at the end of the day like that is success for me. If you've been out and you've had a day shooting and you've walked away with an image of something that you've been trying to get for a long time as a a hobbyist photographer

Like regardless of whether anyone else sort of sees or interacts with it online, you've done something that you were hoping and dreaming for for maybe months or years in some circumstances. So for me that's a measure of success in itself.

Court (57:26)
Wow, I have to say that is a beautiful answer, Pete. Really, really nicely said. Very refreshing and inspiring. Great stuff there. I love that.

Court (57:35)
Alright, quick pause here because I want to share something that has genuinely changed how I approach the business side of my nature and wildlife photography. And that's my website through art storefronts. Like a lot of photographers, I'd much rather be out in the field creating photographs than sitting behind a laptop trying to figure out how to market and promo and sell my work. That side of things can feel, frankly, very overwhelming and daunting pretty quickly. And if you're not consistent in doing that kind of stuff, you're putting yourself on the back foot.

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That help you stay consistent without much added work at all. and importantly, there is real human support behind ArtStoreFrom. So you're not trying to figure everything out on your own. You are handheld through the process. And that's something that I very much appreciate

And here's something really great for listeners of the Wild Photographer. If you mention this podcast, Artstorefronts will set you up and optimize your website for you completely free. That's an eighteen hundred dollar value. So head on over to artstorefronts.com, check it out, and make sure you mention the wild photographer to get that full setup included. All right, back to the show.

Court (58:51)
So you you have a long photo career ahead of you, but I'm wondering it's this is a question I ask a lot of folks, and I'm certainly keen to get your thoughts. What what would the Pete of today tell the Pete just starting out in photography?

peteramsden (59:06)
That's a great question. And perseverance would be one and you simply cannot know everything that there is to know about a subject in the first moment that you start to work. And so ultimately continued study, continued reading, like I use I do use YouTube quite frequently.

I know some wonderful photographs out there. I listen to podcasts. This is one that I've been listening to for a long time. And there are a lot of topics that come up and it's really helped with development. And you know, it sounds corny, but trusting the process is is a big thing. Like getting out there and actively practicing and sticking with it, that was something that I've

feel like I'm very proud of in terms of how I've transitioned and moved as a photographer. so what would I tell myself several years ago is stick with it and things do become easier over time. but understand that it takes practice and that if you are working with a new shooting style or a a new a new to you shooting

situation just because you don't nail it the first time it doesn't mean that it's not gonna come and it it comes incrementally, it comes from practice. So keep practicing, keep getting out there. Don't be disheartened if it doesn't happen the first time and the person next to you, you feel got a better image. That's just because they practice more in that instance. So yeah, the age old saying practice makes perfect comes to mind.

And you know, the more you get out there, the the better you will become. It's a natural progression.

Court (1:01:04)
Couldn't agree more. I want to pick your brain on the computer side of things, like the editing, but I have a question here that I don't want to skip because it's it's always a fascinating one. maybe a little bit selfish, but I think it's gonna be great for the audience as well. As, you know, you you travel a lot. I'm wondering if you, you know, do you have any tips and tricks for traveling with photo gear, whether it's

working with airlines on weight allowances or that sort of stuff, or are there any simple traveling packing tips you might have, anything that might be of interest to to me or the audience on the the traveling with photo gear end of the spectrum?

peteramsden (1:01:44)
Yeah, I I I do travel an awful lot with camera gear and actually the the thing that has helped me the most was a Pelican case or somet or it could be a a different brand, something very similar to that though. it's a hard sided case that looks professional and ultimately it for me it's maximum size dimensions that fit in

most aircrafts. There it are some exclusions to this rule and Southeast Asia would be one of those exclusions. But if I'm flying around North America, Europe, anywhere where the plane size that I'm getting onto is reasonable, I use that Pelican case and I believe it's fifteen thirty five is the the specific model.

And

as soon as I get up to the desk and I let them know that this is photography gear, number one, there's no more questions about that. I've I've never been questioned on the fact that it's photo gear. but number two, it has allowed me and very little have I've been questioned to bring another additional bag that is a similar size, maybe it's a little smaller, a thirty to thirty-five litre bag.

so it allows me to double my capacity going onto planes because the the cases are generally accepted. In Southeast Asia that is a little different just in the case that some of the plane sizes that they use are smaller. So I have a smaller bag to compensate for that. I've actually started using packing cubes quite frequently for my camera gear, and I can pack things away into smaller

smaller bags, smaller pieces of luggage. And ultimately when it comes down to it, in Southeast Asia, if they are a little bit difficult with moving with travel gear or foot photography gear, which I have encountered as well. I've made sure that I'm carrying enough slings that I can attach to my cameras. and I have I'm no stranger to walking through an airport with my 200 to 600

on my side and then putting away at a later time because that has been requested as well. And the weight that you can carry on your person versus the weight that goes into a bag for whatever reason with airlines is is okay. So I've had camera lenses in padded pockets. I've also had two cameras over my my shoulders because that was quite literally the only way that those cameras were going to come with me.

so making sure that I can carry what I've got outside of the pack if I was to be questioned and I had to, they're still gonna let you through, albeit maybe begrudgingly, with those camera lenses in pockets. So make sure you've got something additional. It might be just literally be the camera lens wipes that we talked about, something that I can wrap the camera lens in and put inside a pocket before I go through the airport.

But most of time, hard shell case in North America has been fantastic. It's been revolutionary for me. It keeps my camera gear protected and I've I've never been questioned with it. And I fly between Europe and North America quite frequently. So that would be my go to. Some sort of hard shell case should allow you to carry more.

Court (1:05:30)
I I really like your take on that, that it makes you look more professional. And and you know, this is not an ego thing, but I I have seen this. I I do not carry a pelican hard shell case, although I'm considering it and you may have sold me on that. Maybe my next investment. But I have noticed a bit of empathy or understanding from the commercial airlines, like bigger, you know, airport type airlines. We're not talking about bush flights here. That's a you know, that that's usually much more restrictive, but

peteramsden (1:05:56)
Yeah.

Court (1:05:58)
s even smaller airlines, smaller flights, smaller planes, but commercial airports, when the ticket counter or the checking counter, you know, you you kill with kindness, you go up there and you say, Hey, I I'm a photographer, I have this gear, it's it's mostly lithium batteries, it's very, very sensitive. You do get this wonderfully refreshing reaction, at least I have, that was like, well, yeah, of course we're gonna help you out here. Like w we get it. I mean, you know, everybody everybody and their brother out there that might have, you know,

16 iPads in their suitcase, maybe not quite as empathetic, but there's something about when we're like, hey, we're working professionals. we're we're trying you know, we're trying to get to this place with our camber gear intact, and they do take a little bit of different spin. So I like that that exudes that professional level simply by carrying the case, which also is, you know, absolutely loctite, waterproof, and just so so sturdy. So yeah, great, great thoughts there.

okay, indeed, getting into editing, I'm wondering, you know, well, I'll I'll step back and I'll say, you know, just like I've said many times, editing is so dang important these days. I mean, it is like the X factor, it's the last leg of the relay race. it's hard to have great photos routinely, consistently, abundantly without editing. And I'm wondering, what is your approach to editing? And I'm asking this in a general sense of

You know, are there any tricks you've found for culling or going through your images? Anything that has just, you know, been absolutely adopted in your workflow, as well as any editing sliders per se, like any any parts of the editing process you're like, yeah, this is what I do for pretty much every photo. And then if you have anything that you're like, well, I've found this nifty little trick in Lightroom or Camera Raw that I think does a really, really great thing for my wildlife or landscape or Aurora photography. So

A big question. I'm happy to repeat any of that. I've rattled a lot off there. But the basic gist is, yeah, what's what's your approach to to editing? Let me hear how Pete edits and thinks about that side of the the the photography equation.

peteramsden (1:08:00)
Editing

is definitely a very personal thing and that is the the first thing that I approach if I'm delivering a a Lightroom, which is what I use. I use Lightroom Classic for most, if not all of my editing needs. it's a it's a large software, but it's very well broken down and you've got access to a numerous different panels that you can work your way through and you can change

An image incrementally to suit your vision. For me, what I would typically do with any image before I actively start to work with different sliders is I look at the different aspects that I want to pull out of an image. where do I want to make the subject shine? what am I not too interested in? And I will mask.

I use a variety of different masks to alter an image overall and it allows you to play with an image on a local scale as opposed to global. So if I was to jump through into my initial sliders, the whites, the darks, contrast, saturation, vibrance, then everything I pull on there is going to make adjustments to the whole image, but

As soon as I start to build these masks, I can work with individual aspects of it an image. So I might be able to increase exposure of an orangutan or an elephant ever so slightly, and then it makes it or helps it pop from the background. And I use blended masks more so than specific subject masks because I feel it.

allows it to fade into the it's less of an abrupt stop. If you use an exposure tool on your subject and you haven't used it and faded it and blended it to the rest of the image, it can look quite unnatural. so things like radial gradient or a linear gradient are are my friends in Lightroom. I find that I go to them very, very frequently and it's how I start to change different aspects of

of an image as well. vignetting is something that has been used in photography for many years and sometimes I don't necessarily like the standard vignetted look to an image and it's not something that I wanted to work with. So I again I would use a radial mask and then invert and I can change the different aspects that I want to

either darken or lighten on the fringes of an image as well. And it allows me to take more control over how I would darken darken and lighten or or vignette or whatever I was hoping to achieve with a specific image. So that's something I do quite frequently. What I find myself going for or reaching for within that drop down set of tools and sliders now.

you know, if I've got an image that is twelve thousand eight hundred sometimes even sixteen thousand ISO, which is something that is viable to shoot at now if you know it's not the ideal shooting situation to be at sixteen thousand ISO. it's something's very dark or you need it to capture stop motion. But in that instance the denoising software is something that I

would go to and and play with to see where I would find it acceptable to bring that noise reduction down to to create a potentially workable image. So they're the things that I lean into. In terms of colour grading, I find myself using the the point color tool quite frequently. It allows me to isolate a specific colour. It might be

the purples of fireweed in a lovely fireweed meadow in the subarctic. It may be the the the oranges or the the rusty browns of of an orangutan in the forest. I can adjust that specific colour independent to the entirety of the rest of the image. So it's it's a very powerful tool and you need to move carefully with it, but with small adjustments, it could really make your image sing.

Court (1:12:48)
Yeah, you mentioned denoise again, and this is something I I actually wanted to mention earlier, but I think it's a really important point is that when you do denoise, it doesn't have to be an all or nothing. You know, I think

peteramsden (1:12:59)
No.

Court (1:12:59)
especially if you're just starting out with denoise, you might see that it's it's it's a hundred percent or it's nothing, or it's on or off. But the reality is a hundred percent is pretty harsh. it actually will unsharpen and then resharpen your image. So it almost has a little bit of an AI look, like AI photography these days. So

I think you you mentioned a great point is that sometimes you'll just do like fifteen or or forty four zero percent denoise because it takes some of that harsh, really gnarly, scratchy noise out of the photo, but it doesn't do it so much that it really changes the the integrity of the photo from a baseline level. So I think that's a really, really great point is that sometimes you can denoise, but just use it like you would any other slider. Just do a few points of it, you know, fifteen, forty. some some images you do need a lot. You need eighty, you need a hundred, but

Yeah, being able to play around with that and knowing that you can play around with it is a really, really great tip. so before I get into the gear section, I I just wanted to ask you in brief, because we could do a whole probably a whole presentation, a whole whole podcast on this, but when you're going through your images after a trip or whenever it might be, maybe it's during a trip, do you have any real kind of rough or dialed in way to sort through your images? Like I want this one, I don't want this one. Any process or workflow that you can share?

peteramsden (1:14:19)
so things have changed over and that kind of leads us into gear, but I was listening to yourself actually, and you were talking about the difference between shooting at ten frames a second versus twenty or thirty frames a second, and you know.

The difference in the quality of image that you're gonna end up with sometimes when you are getting that twenty, thirty frames a second is dramatic. You you are capturing more of the moments that you are looking for. You're not in between where a polar bear's dealing with a snaggle tooth and is looking kind of funky. You're you're getting the big iconic images more frequently, the more frame rates or the the higher frame rate you're shooting in.

So it is a challenge and

I do carry a lot of storage with me. so for me I carry four terabyte SSD drives and things get loaded onto there. And I will sort through in my Lightroom catalogue. I'll drop specific subjects into quick collections. I have quick collections for just about everything. And then I will link it into my trip codes as to who I'm working with as well. So that if I need to

work my way through Lightroom and find polar bears, for example. I can move to my quick collection, which has been incredibly useful. And I can cycle through and I'll have polar bears at sunset, polar bears on snow, polar bears in autumn fall colors as sub labels so that it allows me to move through my Lightroom catalogue, which is quite extensive.

So to pick your way through building those sub collections has worked incredibly well. When I'm actively working through photo removal, that happens sometimes months after the trips that I'm finishing, because I'm known to guide multiple trips at a at a a time in any fixed

Period of the year. And so that requires fast editing, working through, pulling out. So I'll look through a collection of images on Lightroom, decide on the image I'm I'm going to work on within any individual set, and then I'll move on. So you know, I encourage you to spend a lot of time with your images. if you wanted, sit there for an hour, two hours, eight hours with a picture and

Work with the sliders, go back, revisit. For me, when I am putting images out for a group at the end of a trip, that could be as quick as a minute to five minutes with all of the masking that we talked about, the playing around with the colours, the denoising and bringing the image through to something I'm happy with to send out to a group. because I have to build a an album, a collection before the end of the trip.

So the way in which I use Lightroom is probably vastly different to the way that others would. so sub collections is my friend and and and building those collections and then I will revisit at a later date to to cull

Court (1:17:48)
Excellent. Well indeed switching gears here. I want to talk. last few questions of of this is gonna be about your gear. So I'm I'm wondering what platform are you shooting on, like what camera system, and what is your favorite lens?

peteramsden (1:18:02)
Mm-hmm.

so I I have two different camera platforms, two different camera systems, and right now my ultimate overall go-to is Sony. I have the A7R5 and I just picked up Sony's new body that they released, the A75. it's kind of got all of that trickle down technology that the A1s and the A9s have

had developed over the last couple of years in a cheaper price point camera. So it's got AI autofocus technology, it's got 30 frames a second and it it does a huge amount. So it's it's 33 megapixel camera, which is a large amount to be able to crop into an image after the fact. And typically I've been using that with

my 200 to 600.

which is an incredible versatile lens which works in lots of different shooting scenarios. and I will couple that with my A7R five. And I have a GM two seventy to two hundred on that, which is just the most beautiful boke that you could get from a lens. It's so crispy, it's it's so incredibly sharp, you know.

Some photographers are chasing every whisker being this pinpoint sharpness, and that is the lens that will will do that for you. but it's not always the way that I use that lens. Sometimes I use that lens in the jungle in Borneo and I'll couple it with a 2X telephoto converter. And for long days out in the field, there's a numerous different ways in which you could shoot, but that system

with the two x converter on means that my lens is probably half the weight of the two to six hundred and it's all of the focus reach that I need. So you know it it's not always essential to go into the rainforest into the jungle with the biggest, heaviest, all singing or dancing lens. You can sometimes use a two X converter and it will reduce weight of your overall system. It means that you can handhold for longer

you can stand there while you're waiting for the subject to move and you may get more shots that way as well. And it can sometimes work out to be cheaper to pick up a converter as opposed to a whole brand new lens. and it means that you've got one lens then that can serve two different purposes in a singular trip just through the use of a converter. So converters sometimes might be the best thing that I have on a trip to

adjust the focal range of 70 to 200. and at sort of 200 it would be pushed to 400 and that will then double my my F stop as well. It will narrow my aperture, but F56 is a perfectly usable and bright lens in the jungle in the rainforest. And I've been very happy with the results of that. So they're the two lenses that I find myself using most.

Often in a jungle situation. I've got an incredibly crispy fourteen mil F one four, which I use for primarily northern lights and big vast landscapes as well. It's a wonderful landscape lens. but it sometimes can just be an X factor lens where it's only coming out twice in a trip. it might be super early morning.

in the rainforest and there's mist falling through the the big expansive canopy of of Borneo and I bring that lens out for one morning and it's the shot that I'm most happy about over the entire trip. but I'm not going to use it in every situation because it's it's very specific and it's very unique as a prime lens. So that's that's the other lens that I sometimes carry. And

you know, every photographer has something in the range of twenty four to seventy or an eighteen to fifty five within their kit, be it a kit lens or something slightly elevated. so I have a Sigma twenty four to seventy that that comes with me everywhere that I go as well.

Court (1:22:39)
Okay, so

last question here. what is a piece of gear for your nature photography exploits that is surprisingly helpful? It's a little bit of a goofy question, but it's one I ask all the time. Surprisingly helpful that people may not think about. And it might be something you've already mentioned, but I'll give you an example. Like, you know, Eddie Savage, his his thing was a towel. Always bring a towel. So that that kind of vibe, like what's something that's not

peteramsden (1:23:05)
Hmm.

Court (1:23:05)
a lens, not

a direct piece of gear but you're like, Wow, that this thing lives on my person or in my camera bag and rarely leave home without it.

peteramsden (1:23:16)
for me now, and this comes from Eddie Savage and I a while back he started using something called a cotton carrier. And it's an X factor piece of gear for me because historically I've been using camera slings and I've been using your traditional style where your camera's hung by your side the whole whole day and you know

By the end of the day, you're rubbing your neck and you're just incredibly painful. And that comes from carrying big pieces of gear all day. As an expedition leader, sort of take it back a step and highlight what a cotton carrier is. It's a chest plate harness and it removes all the weight off your shoulders, or off a singular shoulder, and it transfers it down through your back and it allows your camera to be sat right by your chest, accessible and

It doesn't get hung up on any bag straps or anything like that. So it just makes my camera so easily accessible at any point that I can wear that through the day. and it means that I can be hands-free when I'm instructing and my camera is completely out of the way and it's not swinging around and it mitigates against any damage. So if you are someone that is really struggling with the weight of a camera over one shoulder.

And you are looking for a different option, like cotton carrier or something that has a chest plate on it, has been fantastic. It's been a a game changer for me, especially when I'm out on rover machines, like roving across the the Arctic tundra and I'm talking and and interpreting to guests, it means that I'm at far less risk of even catching someone with a camera swinging or moving around.

and I know where that is all the time. It's locked in on my chest. So that would be that would be my X Factor piece of gear right now over the last six months that I've been using it.

Court (1:25:21)
Yeah, I I have a similar system and love it. And I'll I'll underline that point that it's not just for comfort, it's really for protection. Because I've found, you know, with adventure travel, this kind of stuff where we're constantly getting in and out of vehicles, airplanes, up steps, you know, on trails, and a swinging camera with a seventy to two hundred or larger is just a wrecking ball that will wreck itself. And having some sort of camera clip system, a cotton carrier, one, you know, peak design makes a great one. There it yeah, it might.

If I were to answer my own question, that might actually be mine as well. Good point. well this is great, Pete. so final, final question people are no doubt going to want to see more of you, follow you, check out your work, see what the rest of you is all about. Where can people find ya?

peteramsden (1:26:07)
right now I'm on Instagram at Pete Ramsden. it's just Pete Ramsden. you can find me on there. otherwise I guide for a wonderful company, Natural Habitat Adventures, and that is my primary sort of guiding photography trips that I run. and if you wanted to come and explore the wilds of Borneo or something like that, then you could reach out to them and see whether it would be possible to get onto a trip like that.

so come explore with us. we have a wonderful trip offering. and I will also add there that we have just a phenomenal set of photo guides that work around the world. So if you're looking for another company that's isn't necessarily the the multimillions of followers Instagram

famous or or famous photographer and you want to actively get into a trip, you want to learn and you want to develop as a photographer, you want to learn new skills and you don't just want to travel with someone that's famous. Explore our trip offerings because we we will teach you exactly what you want to learn and we will do our absolute best to help you progress as photographers as well. So either online or if you want to come see me in person,

Give natural habits adventures a shout.

Court (1:27:33)
Wow, well put. You're hired. That was that was a great explanation. And yeah, we didn't even get into some of the other things. I mean, Pete, the the the other stuff you guide, I I now know I'm definitely gonna have to have you back on the show because we didn't even touch on your polar bear photography expeditions or your Beluga and Arctic summer expeditions. So yeah, there's a lot more to talk about, a lot more to see in the world of Pete. But for now, we'll we'll call it a show and just want to thank you so much. as always, I learned a lot. Great spending time with you, great catching up.

Conversing. Pete, thanks so much for joining.

peteramsden (1:28:05)
Thank you very much for having me, Court. Appreciate your time. And I'll see you somewhere in the world on a trip, I'm sure.