When it comes to camera settings, shutter speed is the most important variable for bird photography. That’s because it’s the setting that you need to control the most. Optimizing your shutter speed is really the only way to maximize the amount of light you’re getting, while also freezing the bird’s motion.
Post Archive By Jason Polak - Page 2
How to Simplify Compositions in Wildlife Photography
Imagine a parrot on a branch about to fly away, or a monkey peering its head around a tree. Do you want to hit that shutter right away and take a shot? How could you not? It's a beautiful animal - and surely in wildlife photography, we can't control much......
Black and White and Wildlife
Splash on that color, those bright blues and greens and reds! Soft feathers and golden light, warm fur and rich browns, smooth exoskeletons with a mesmerizing plethora of endless iridescence all beckon to the lens. How can the wildlife photographer resist the epic array of beautiful color from the world...
An Alternative to Eye-Level Photos in Wildlife Photography
A great technique in bird and wildlife photography is shooting at eye level. Eye-level shots are often more intimate - they give better subject isolation and are typically more engaging. Libor and Massimo have recently written about how much they love this approach to wildlife photography, and I don't disagree. But...
Catching Up with the Photography Life Team, ’24 Edition
One year ago, I decided to sit down with some of my fellow writers at Photography Life and talk a bit about photography. What about in 2024? This year, I definitely wanted to get hold of Spencer, Libor, and Nasim, and get them to reveal their secrets about how they approach photography!
A Journey with the Photographic Mind
The photographic eye can perceive great compositions, notice patterns, find great light. But what of the photographic mind? The thoughts, the wishes, and the imagination – the idea of scenes dripping with the golden drops of sunlight? How does the photographic mind influence your style?
Tips for Duck and Goose Photography
Ducks and geese form the family Anatidae, and there are 174 of them in total! Moreover, they are large birds that are easy to see - and thus make good photographic subjects. But like all animals, ducks and geese have their own sort of behavior, and that means there are...
How to Work with Plants in Wildlife Photography
“To hills of green and shadows cool,” wrote Rudyard Kipling in his poem A Coming May. And although green vegetation is always welcome after harsh winters, lively plants can complicate bird photography. Grass and leaves can sometimes be overpowering in their distracting randomness and in their crazy effects on background blur.
Adapting Lenses for Fun and Profit
It seems that once you’ve bought into a camera mount, you’re stuck there unless you switch systems. But, in the dark realm of photography, there’s a way to cross the mysterious border between lens mounts. That’s adapting lenses – in other words, taking a lens from one system and mounting it to another.
Dockcase Studio 8-in-1 Review: A Smart USB-C Hub
Photographers constantly have to copy photos from their memory cards. And in this day and age, there are four main card formats being used in new cameras: CFExpress A, CFExpress B, SD, and occasionally micro SD. The most common way to read these formats is through a card reader. Unfortunately...