Fall Upland Tales is off to the printer, and should be arriving in your mailboxes soon. This issue features a stories on pheasant hunting, dog training, and GPS. Our cover photo highlights our Kids Doing Conservation article on a group of youth, who with the help of Iowa’s Aldo Leopold PF Chapter, won Disney’s “Planet Challenge” contest with a quail habitat project. The triumph took them to Disneyland and landed them on national television!

Mystery Photo
The birds are migrating snow geese photographed eating in a corn stubble field in southeast Colorado last November. Before humans started planting crops on their migration route, many snow geese died during their spring and fall migrations between the arctic and the Gulf of Mexico. Now, because the geese fatten up on waste grain, more of them survive the stress of migration. Unfortunately, the expanded flocks are now ruining their sensitive arctic nesting grounds for themselves and other wildlife. more…

Congratulations to our summer photo contest winners, and thank you everyone for your fantastic submissions!

Our First Place Winner is Cody Murken, 9, of Starbuck, Minnesota. Judges comments: The subject, captured in Palisades State Park, South Dakota, was unique and the focus was sharp.
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Migrators Big and Small — From pronghorns to hummingbirds, life gets on the move when the weather changes
Pheasant Hunting —  A Game of Strategy
What’s That Tree? — Take a forest or backyard hike and find out
Wildlife Haven — How North Dakota’s Jessi Hummel, 16, built a wildlife home on the range with help from the Sakakawea PF Chapter
Go Explore! — Custer State Park
Positive Reinforcement — Pigeon Games

By Benji Kohn, Freelance Photographer

In this photo the butterfly is backlit so bright sunlight shines through its wings.

Photo technology is moving forward at the speed of light. Gone are the days when you took a picture, dropped your film at the corner store and a few days later got a first glance at your work. Today you can snap endless photos, view them right on the camera, download them to a computer and adjust them in many ways.

Even though technology has changed the process, the principles of photography remain the same. Lighting and composition are what make a great photograph. So let’s go over some tips and ideas you can use even with a basic point and shoot camera to capture great photographs.

Lighting
Lighting is one thing you have little control over. Time of day, cloud cover, trees and pollution can affect the quality of light. Generally, lighting is best in early morning or late afternoon. During these times you can get warmer colors and few dark shadows. Try using light to your advantage. Sidelight, front light, backlight and indirect lighting all give different effects to your photo. Backlighting can be used to highlight a small object and make it stand out from the background like the butterfly photo below. Backlighting can also be used to silhouette people or objects like a tree at sunset. Cloudy days are great for indirect lighting! more…