About John Sherman

John “Verm” Sherman is one of only 25,000 wildlife and nature photographers based out of Flagstaff, Arizona. In 2012 he was awarded Flagstaff Photography Center’s Emerging Artist of the Year award. He has since submerged into internet notoriety but comes up occasionally to contribute to Arizona Highways Magazine.

Post Archive By John Sherman

Crisis in Condor Country

The individual condors in Northern Arizona/Southern Utah are not given names - they get numbers. This is supposed to help the biologists not get too attached to individual birds, lest one of their favorites dies. It doesn’t work. I’m a photographer, not a biologist, but condors are my favorite subject....

Dawn Kish: Photographing Tad’s Emerging World

Imagine Yosemite without Half Dome, Zermatt without the Matterhorn, or Iceland without scores of photographers fighting for position to shoot the same waterfall posted a hundred times already on Instagram that morning. As photographers, it’s easy to take our grand landscape opportunities for granted. But in some cases, landscapes aren’t...

How to Crop in Lightroom and Why

There are two kinds of photographers. Those who admit they crop, and those who claim they don’t. The latter are glistening bastions of photographic purity whose souls glow at a constant Zone 10. They graciously lecture us heathens on the evils of cropping and try to exorcise the post-processing devils...

Nikon 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR Review

Recently I’ve been experiencing one of those existential photo crises. Low motivation, cliché results, slumping Instagram likes. When I get bummed about my photography I do what any self-respecting unprofessional photographer would do – put on some soft jazz, pour myself a fine single malt, then pull out my favorite Zeiss lens...

Nikon 200-500mm vs Tamron 150-600mm vs Sigma 150-600mm C

At long last they’re all out, in stock and making every aspiring wildlife photographer on a budget scratch their head and wonder which one they should own? Of course I’m talking about the Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 VC, the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG Contemporary and the Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E VR. These...

Read These Books and Become a Better Photographer

Better technique and appropriate gear can help you take better photos, but that will only take you so far. To reach the next level in this pursuit you need to become a student of photography. A student of photography is somebody who dives into the pool of photo history, soaks...

How to Avoid and Reduce Noise

Noise is the sleet storm Satan drenches our photos in when we stupidly leave our tripod in the trunk thinking VR will save our lazy butt, but instead we end up shooting at quadruple digit ISOs. In this article, we will take a look at a couple of techniques on...