When doing travel photography in a particular location, I find it intriguing to document the lives of all of its inhabitants, not just people. As in the case of a number of countries (particularly in the Middle East), Morocco has a rather large population of stray cats and dogs that...
Essays and Inspiration Category Archive - Page 2
Nikon 50mm f/1.2 Ai-S as a Walk-Around Lens
This past week Nikon announced two new full-frame mirrorless cameras, the Z6 and Z7, as well as the development of a new flagship lens, the NIKKOR Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct. The press release carried much fanfare about the future of Nikon photography and nostalgia regarding the famous Noct-NIKKOR 58mm...
A Professional’s Retrospective: Exploring The Fine Art of Nature
I was talking to someone recently who asked me what kind of photographs I make. I paused for a moment to ponder this basic but critical question, then answered that I specialize in photographing the details of nature. Although I revel in capturing the majestic grand scene when the elements...
How Photography Inspired Me to Love Science and Preserve the Planet
Science has a way of making heads turn away. The more complex it gets, the more abstract it becomes. And if you’re not constantly putting effort into working out the fine intricacies of it all, you might just get too overwhelmed to commit any interest to it. Science communication has...
Commuting with a Camera
I suspect that a lot of landscape and cityscape photographers, like myself, are not always able to devote the time necessary to wait for atmospheric conditions and astral bodies to be in that “ideal” position for the image you have in mind. Some of the early landscape masters were known...
My Hard-Won Photography Lessons
The old axiom that we should learn from our mistakes is sound, although sometimes those lessons can be a bit on the painful side. As a 15-year-old, freshman high school student in 1960 I was excited to work as a photographer on the school yearbook. Assigned the task of developing...
The Importance of Creativity in Photography
In my previous article for Photography Life, I wrote an article about stage photography, where I discussed some of the modus operandi I use to take professional stage photographs. That article was a lot more straightforward, technical, and objective than the one below. That’s because I’m hoping to explore the...
Photography as Part of the “Second Act” of Our Lives
I have been interested in photography since I was a teenager. However, as so often happens to all of us, life gets in the way of our interests and passions sometimes. Jobs, mortgages, kids, and family responsibilities become our priority in what I have come to call the “First Act”...
Lessons from My First Bird Photography Workshop
Although I bought my first DSLR in 2012, I only started dabbling in nature photography in 2015. After a few frustrating efforts trying to capture birds with the 55-200mm lens, I decided to take the plunge and buy my first serious lens - the Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6, at the end...
Photographing Snow in Paris
Last winter, the weather was really special in Paris. Snow surprised residents on two occasions. It had not snowed so intensely for more than five years. So, it is easy to imagine the excitement with which the city received this event. Hundreds of photographers went out into the streets to capture...