Experimenting with color and light in the natural world.
info@xakuhrand
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I’ve had an appreciation for photography since I was a kid. My uncle was an accomplished hobby photographer, predominantly focused on wildlife, and we always had a few of his pieces hanging on the walls. I really started pursuing it on my own in high school when I used my dad’s EOS 650 to take pictures of random things, mostly my friends and whatever we were getting into. I bought point and shoot cameras over the years but, like most, my phone was my go-to. That was until I started getting into photography seriously in early 2021 after buying a camera to have a friend shoot my wedding.
I started taking pictures of the dogs, then started experimenting and found a passion reignited. Street photography, landscape shots when camping, pets and random birds in the backyard turned into waking up at 3:30am on weekends to get out and scout for spots to take pictures of local wildlife. Spending the early morning hours walking around downtown. Driving out to scenic spots. Walking around the city at night experimenting with light. Being the introvert that I am, I came to realize that it was the perfect excuse to avoid the crowds and hyper focus on a hobby that could be taken anywhere. I would see a shot driving into work and obsess for the rest of the day about how, “if I only had my camera I could have gotten the shot.” I started bringing it with me daily and would skip out on work as soon as I could. It became an obsession. It’s how I see the word now. I’m always framing shots in my head… Thinking what focal length to get the composition I see. What aperture to get the right depth of field to isolate my subject. What shutter speed will get me a tack sharp image of the animals I’ve been watching for hours but still leave the motion blur of the rain soaking me to the bone as I sit and wait. Over the last year I’ve been drawing a lot of color grading inspiration from films for my edits; experimenting and trying to artistically evoke a mood with a single image.
FAQs
What camera/gear do you use?
I use Canon cameras. I’ve cycled through a number of them over the last few years, but the two I have landed on as my main bodies are the R5 and R6II. The 45 megapixel resolution and high dynamic range of the R5 lends itself to incredible details. The R6II is my go-to for most wildlife, as the low-light capabilities of this camera are just incredible.
For lenses, the RF 24-105 2.8, RF 135 1.8, and RF 100-500 are my standby. I utilize the rental department of my local shop regularly to use their 600mm f4 and 400mm 2.8.
I use a number of Polar Pro lens filters, most notably the Shortstashe Everyday polarizer/black mist combo. It rarely leaves my lens. For video I use the Polar Pro Helix system of VND filters, both standard and with black mist diffusion.
What gear do you recommend for a new photographer?
Short answer to this is get what you can afford. I’ve bought most of my early gear used from sites like keh.com, mpb.com, or local shops used section. If you’re going to spend money on anything, make sure it’s on your lenses. A 10 year old camera with a good lens will produce better images than a good camera with middle of the road glass will. Don’t get hung up on getting a lens for everything, a 24-70 and a 70-200 will allow you to take anything from landscapes, to street photography, portraits, sports and wildlife.
How do you get your images so sharp?
Two ways to do that: close the distance to your subject, or invest in crazy good glass. For me, I have yet to buy a large prime lens. Someday I will, but for now, I have an incredible local shop here in Portland called Pro Photo Supply that has an amazing rental department.
So how do I close the distance? It depends on what I am trying to capture. For most birds, just walking around and taking the shot as soon as I see it, not hesitating, typically gets me the results I’m looking for. For deer, it’s 50/50 of shooting from a blind or just out on a trail. Time of year and area plays a huge part in that too. For something rather difficult to capture, like a King Fisher, I have laid for hours under camo, multiple days in a row, just to get 30 seconds before it realizes i’m there.
Another part of the equation, which arguably is the most important part, it so use proper camera setting. 1. Shoot at a high enough shutter speed to freeze frame your subject 2. Use an aperture that allows the most light in but that also allows you to show your subject in complete focus (or if you want that short focal length look of subject isolation, shoot the lowest setting possible), 3. Use ISO to get the proper exposure. That last one really freaks people out, especially new photographers, but ISO is your friend. I regularly shoot up to 12,800 ISO with no loss in image quality, AS LONG AS THE IMAGE IS PROPERLY EXPOSED! If you think you’re going to shoot at 3200 ISO and crank the exposure up 2 stops to make up the difference, you're going to get noisy, degraded images. Some of my best pictures were shot at 10,000+ and you would never know if I didn’t tell you.
General Rules for Shutter Speeds:
1/200-1/500 for Portraits
1/800-1/1250 for slower moving/predictable mammals
1/2000-1/4000 for birds, especially small birds and birds in flight.
Where do you get your presets?
Funny story… I used to use some presets that I adapted and modified over the years, that was up until January 4th 2024. I was experiencing a number of issues with Lightroom bogging down that made zero sense, and Adobe’s suggestion at the time was to do a full factory reset of my system. I was out of town on a trip and only had one hard drive with me, so I created a folder of all the important stuff to save and transferred that to my hard drive. I went to go and exit out of Lightroom and, not thinking, I saved the Lightroom backup to my desktop and proceeded with the factory reset… about 2 min in I realized that by resetting the system, I was also deleting that backup, along with 3 years of presets and edited photos… I did have a number of images saved on the hard drive that I had exported the settings as separate xmp files with the idea I would use those files to showcase the presets when I decided to monetize them, but it was 8 total. I have spent the last 8 months building back my presets to just under 40 that I use, all of my own creation. That one slip up though I feel was the best thing I have done for my editing. It forced me to take a fresh approach and really helped me to refine my editing style to what I really feel is my own.
Do you sell your presets?
I told you all that above to tell you this: I most likely will. I need to work on how to market them… If you’re in the market, I’m holdin’ ;)
