To be brutally honest - some plans are doomed to erupt in flames the moment they meet reality. That isn’t a surprise; the only twisted part is that we almost always know what’s about to happen, yet keep chugging along anyway. I found myself in that position last week while...
Post Archive By Spencer Cox - Page 9
PL Chronicles: Nasim and Spencer
Now that we've started posting frequently on our YouTube channel, one overdue video is simply an introduction: who we are (Nasim Mansurov and Spencer Cox), and how we came to be running Photography Life. If you've ever wanted to know how we got started and who's behind the articles you...
Your Favorite Piece of Camera Equipment
Imagine a cascading waterfall, or a sand dune in a storm. A bird hopping in the air; a person stepping into a crosswalk and out of the shade. For photographers, in moments like this, the best camera equipment is invisible. It doesn’t slow you down or require troubleshooting. After a...
Understanding Camera Lenses: A Beginner’s Guide
Lenses. They’re arguably the most important piece of equipment a photographer can buy - even more important than the camera itself. But what makes lenses so useful? Why are some camera lenses so much better than others? The answer goes beyond simple things like sharpness and image quality. Instead, lenses...
Mastering Wide Angle Lenses
The first lens a lot of landscape photographers want to buy is a wide-angle. Intuitively, it makes some sense that the most useful lens at an amazing scene is the one that captures as much of the scene as possible. But that mindset only works so well in practice. So,...
Hyperfocal Distance Explained
Hyperfocal distance can be a confusing topic, both for beginning and expert photographers. However, if you want to take the sharpest possible images, particularly landscape photographs, it is simply invaluable. In this article, I will explain hyperfocal distance and give several methods to get the sharpest possible photographs with maximum...
Hard or Soft Graduated ND Filters? It Depends on Your Lens
One common question I see from photographers about lens filters is whether to get a hard or soft graduated neutral density filter. Which one is better? You’ve probably seen a lot of photographers recommend soft GNDs (if you can only choose one), since they’re more versatile when photographing uneven horizons....
9 Rapid-Fire Landscape Photography Tips
There are so many little tips and tricks I like to use in landscape photography to make my life easier, and I've included nine of the most important in the article and video below. I'm focusing especially on composition, but there are some post-processing and camera-related tips as well. My...
Manual Focus or Autofocus for Landscape Photography?
Landscape photography is often slower paced than other genres, allowing for a more methodical approach to composition and camera settings. That includes focusing; manual focus is more popular for landscapes than most other genres. Indeed, there's a whole market of third-party manual focus lenses geared almost exclusively to landscape photographers....
How I Took This Sand Dunes Photo
In this week’s video, I’m going to show the story behind a photo I took a few days ago in Great Sand Dunes National Park. Because it's our first case study video at Photography Life, I wanted to shoot an image that I already had in mind - hopefully lowering...