What I've learned after more than 10 years of photography from a kayak, plus a joyful wildlife encounter.
Kayak photography – the ups and downs
One shot – before and after (#2)
A quick dive into Lightroom to make small changes for maximum effect.
Arizona Landscape & Sky Masking
Fix polarized skies and more with this Lightroom tutorial.
Stacking for Macro – Part 1 – Capture
Field techniques & best practices for photo stacking. Learned the hard way.
The Power of a Project
Projects are terrific tools do expand your photography. Here are my top reasons for starting one!
New year, new habits
Breaking the old, making some new - photography habits can be good and bad. Here's some thoughts.
Welcome that spring sun!
Ideas and techniques for working in direct sunlight with wildflowers and still getting beautiful photographs!
Looking up to mushrooms
An up from under look at getting low to show off the beauty of mushrooms.
Do you fuel your fire?
Do you fuel your fire or let it go out? Today I went with a friend to shoot the sunrise. I know this lake fairly well and know how few places there are with compelling or even just plain usable foreground elements. It's always a tough shoot unless you have a lot of time or... Continue Reading →
Lickable Light – white balance and how it will make your photos their best!
In the course of a day I look at hundreds of photographs. By participating in Google+, forums, flickr, 500px and other photo communities it's easy to do. One thing that has been getting my attention is that people don't seem to understand white balance and its importance. Mainly I notice it when there is water... Continue Reading →
What’s Your Major?
Recently I participated in a discussion that stemmed from a person wondering about the composition of a very famous photo by a very famous photographer; Henri Cartier-Bresson. Specifically the person wanted to understand why this image is composed so amazingly well. It got me to thinking about photography and the importance of concentration in the... Continue Reading →
Mono Lake and Musings on Travel Photography
So I’ve been thinking about this blog post and putting it off because I didn’t have an angle, a theme or a cohesive idea to pull it together. As with a lot of my writing it just needed time to brew, like a good pot of French Press coffee. (Four minutes with 200 degree water... Continue Reading →
Smoke On the Water
Often when I post photos of moving water looking all smooth, silky or smoky I get comments asking how I achieve that result. So I decided to write this post using my latest batch of images to illustrate things (and give you a couple of Lightroom tips in the bargain). Don't say I never gave... Continue Reading →
Photography Field Tips #1
One of the earliest lessons I learned in photography was to cultivate good field habits. That is to establish habits and routines that not only help you stay organized, but keep you from going crazy if you have a lot of gear. Accessories are the kiss of death sometimes and unless you have a way... Continue Reading →
Black and White Photography 201
The next step along the monochrome brick road is manipulating images once you've converted them and done the basics like cropping, white balance and sharpening. Sometimes the color palette we're presented with isn't as dynamic in monochrome as we want it to be. I mean that the gray values of the colors aren't separated, they're... Continue Reading →
Photography Resolutions – checking in
A while back I said I'd report on my progress from time to time. It's part of my attempt to be more aware of the state of my photography and where I want to take it. Now if I can only remember what they were. Oh right, here they are - 1. Improve composition; read... Continue Reading →
Landscape Photography Light – Myths and Misunderstandings
How are a landscape photographer and a vampire alike? Neither goes outside at noon. Seriously, it makes you wonder doesn’t it? Blood-sucking fiend and Fun-sucking fiend, both taking the joy right out of life. I recently stopped following a landscape photographer’s blog because he just kept going on and on about only shooting at the... Continue Reading →
Black and White Photography 101
The other day someone asked what made a good black and white photograph. He went on to say that he only uses black and white processing when he’s trying to achieve an old photo look, but noticed when someone converted one of his color images to black and white it looked better because the distracting... Continue Reading →
Goals for 2011
For 2010 I had a few specific goals in mind for my photography. Here they are - 1. Be more methodical and deliberate; be a more thoughtful photographer 2. Organize digital files better 3. Purge digital files 1 - partial win. I did envision specific photographs ahead of time and go into the field to... Continue Reading →
Organization Resolution
Recently a thread about 2010 photography resolutions was resurrected on a board I post to on occasion. Scrolling through the replies I found mine. One of the 3 points on my list was to have better organization when it came to my picture files. While it wasn't a complete fail, it also wasn't a complete... Continue Reading →
Answers from photographers
Thanks to everyone for their considered comments on my last post. I got together with my friend the other day and even though she knew I'd be bringing mine, she didn't bring her camera. This tells me pretty much all I need to know about her stage with it right now - snapshots only, nothing... Continue Reading →
A question for photographers
All 3 of you who read this blog. How did you learn to do what you do? Assuming you're capable of making the camera give you the results you want, how did you figure it out? I ask because I have a friend who just bought her first SLR in ages...or maybe ever. She knows... Continue Reading →
