Anyone who's ever used a camera soon discovers that it's very easy to end up with dark black or bright white "blown out" areas in a picture. This occurs because cameras are only capable of recording a certain range of light - from bright to dark. Any areas of the picture that are outside these bounds simply become "blown out", unrecognizable areas in the final picture. This usually results in black or white "blobs" of missing detail in an image.

Russell's technique is to specifically take a series of pictures to capture the entire range of light available in the scene and then combine them with a computer. For example, if you take a picture of your house with the garage door open, under normal circumstances the camera will pick your house as the primary subject and expose it correctly. The dark contents of your garage will go completely dark and become unrecognizable in your final picture. By the same token, the sky will be so much brighter than your home that the sky will "blow out" to an unrecognizable bright white region in your final picture. Shooting this same scene, for example, Russell would take at least three pictures of this scene - one exposed for the house, one exposed for the garage, and one exposed for the sky - and then combine them on the computer. The end result is a photograph which maintains detail throughout.Russell's photographic art is a complex process of precise photo taking, image merging, and computerized digital compositing. The Photo Shoot:
Russell carries a lot of equipment for his photo shoots. Each component of his pack is used for a specific purpose which helps to create a premier product when his work is finished. He shoots with two Canon digital Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras - a Canon 300D/Rebel for pictures taken in inclement weather and a Canon 5D for the great majority of his work. He shoots almost exclusively with Canon "L" Series Professional Lenses (some of which have Image Stabilization). This equipment is bolted down to the very secure tripod heads made by Really Right Stuff on top of a Carbon Fiber Manfrotto/Bogen tripod. His images are backed up onsite with a portable 70GB hard drive. The rest of his backback is stuffed with lens cleaning equipment, battery chargers, rain protection equipment, and lens filters.Because of the very technical style of his work, a typical panoramic image takes more than an hour to shoot - sometimes several hours - and dozens of 1 GB memory cards. Russell hand calibrates his equipment for each image and takes an exorbinant amount of care in making sure his work is done precisely. A typical finished panoramic will consist of dozens and dozens of pictures. For example, his "Capitola Beach" panoramic is the result of three hours of shooting and over 600 individual pictures composited to make the finished work.Russell shoots almost all of his work with his camera in manual mode. He has a series of tutorials available on his website to help you master your own SLR camera and replicate some of his techniques, click here to access them. Computer Compositing:Once the photo shoot is complete, the images are loaded into a computer and blended together to create the final image. This consists of three discrete processes:1. Keeping in mind that no amount of digital processing can make up for poorly taken pictures, Russell uses RAW format for maximum exposure latitude and capture detail - so images are slightly enhanced (brightness, contrast, etc.) as they are converted to 16-bit TIFF format.2. Compositing the images into a panoramic. This is done with a series of photos specifically taken for this task. Onsite, Russell takes a series of images to make a panoramic using the traditional "stitching" method. This allows a quick visualization of what the final image might look like. This is often done with an automatic stitching software for speed and easy of use.3. Satisfied with the "rough draft" panoramic, now the true work begins of joining pictures individually in layers with Adobe Photoshop. Russell recomposes the stitched image in Photoshop manually and uses geometry to calculate a precise alignment for the addition of the "layered" images. Images are layered upon the panoramic. Some of these images are taken at different focal lengths to capture specific details of a scene, others are taken to capture a certain range of light from a scene, and still more are taken to help blend the seams between other pictures which were taken. All images need to be taken based on the same nodal point (or optical center) of the lens - but not necessarily with the same focal length. Using layers, particular areas of one exposure might be better than another - so Russell brings out the best part of each individual exposure taken and then blends them to make the final image appear to have been taken in one instant.Printing and Presentation:Russell currently works with three photographic processing companies. Each specializes in a particular output format - whether it be film emulsion photographs, large format prints, or canvas printing.

Russell and his staff work together to mat, frame, and otherwise prepare his work for customers. Through the entire process from print to finished frame, they wear cotton gloves to protect the final product and work in a clean environment.