Three years ago, near the start of the pandemic, my photography ground to a halt. There’s still a gap in my Lightroom catalog where May and June 2020 should be. I’m glad that my break was temporary, but it crystalized to me that there’s more to being a good photographer than just pressing the shutter button at the right time.
Composition and Art Category Archive
Bad Weather Makes Good Photos!
Last week, there was rain in the desert. I was so surprised to visit some of the driest places in America – Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Canyonlands, and more – and see them under storms and fog rather than the blue sky. It’s not “good weather” by most definitions, but it was perfect for landscape photography.
The Laughing Kookaburra: Decisive Moments in Wildlife Photography
The term "decisive moments" is usually associated with the famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. His domain was photographing the everyday life of the French streets with his Leica and 50mm lens. An all-manual film camera is not exactly suited to action photography. To capture the decisive moment required anticipation, practice, and a...
From Idea to Print: The Darkroom Process
Last week, I talked about the process of visualizing and composing with large format film during my trip to Yosemite in the fall. I’ve been working in the darkroom to print those photos, and today I finally have some results to publish and discuss!
From Idea to Print: 12×20 Film in the Field
It’s a snowy day here in Colorado, which puts a damper on my plans to visit our studio and test more lenses in the lab. (I do, however, have the Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 and both teleconverters in hand for testing once the roads clear.) Instead, I’ve spent the day developing film.
Behind the Photo: The Rapids of the Yellowstone River
A couple of months ago, I took an abstract/intimate landscape photo that I was happy with, and some people have asked me how it was made. It’s a somewhat tricky image to parse, so today I thought I could go behind the scenes and show how I took it.
Working with the Landscape in Front of You
I just returned from a long trip to Yosemite, partly to test some lenses for upcoming reviews, and partly to unwind. Although I had a great time out there, the conditions for “classic” landscape photography left something to be desired: very few clouds or fall colors anywhere.
An Interesting Rolling Shutter Effect: The Magic of the Unwanted
Maybe it's happened to you, too - and not necessarily in photography. Perhaps you accidentally put an ingredient in your soup, or meant to pass the ball but kicked it toward the net instead. And the result? You scored. It's known as a happy accident; I call it the "magic...
The Two People in Every Photo, According to Ansel Adams
One of my favorite photography quotes is Ansel Adams’s observation, “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” I find that very poignant. Here’s the longer quote to show a bit of context:
Understanding Chiaroscuro in Photography
I think that photographers can learn a lot from classic works of art – not only by early photographers, but also from painters, sculptors, and other artists who lived before photography was even a twinkle in Nicéphore Niépce’s eye. One technique that is especially applicable to photography is called chiaroscuro.