Happy April Fool’s Day! Each year, we try to write an article or two to remind people about the lighter side of photography. Last year, when we said that our entire team was switching over to Canon and refusing to review any other equipment, a solid number of people believed us. Great! Now that it’s 2017, we’re upping the ante by writing four top tips to improve your photography this April, including suggestions that will remain relevant even if Artificial Intelligence…
Read This Article
Why the Technical Stuff Matters
Along with normal how-to articles and essays, I’ve always liked reading and writing very technical, nitty-gritty articles about photography — sometimes, articles on topics that rarely come up while actually taking pictures. In fact, I usually don’t even use my own sharpest aperture charts in the field, as useful as they are, since I don’t like carrying around charts. So, then, does all that technical stuff matter? Is it even worth talking about in the first place? These questions are very important to ask, since most people don’t want waste their…
Read This Article
Read This Article
When People Downsize Their Camera Gear
This short article summarizes some of the feedback that I have received from seniors who have downsized their gear, or are thinking about doing so. The desire to downsize camera gear is not restricted to seniors! Some of the actions that seniors are taking may make sense for other photographers as well. It has been quite surprising to witness the number of comments and contacts that have occurred since my senior-related article, Senior Perspectives on Photography. I’d like to thank…
Read This Article
Read This Article
My Complicated Relationship with Seascapes
I have a confession: I have a love/hate relationship with seascapes. Sometimes I feel like they are easy, monotonous and a little bit of a sham — an easy way to impress others without having to put in the requisite amount of work. On such days I vow never to shoot a seascape again. And then there are moments when I cannot resist the pull of the ocean. When the sky looks like it will go up in flames at sunset casting…
Read This Article
Read This Article
Vietnam – Two Lenses on Traditional Culture
Although having one of the fastest growing economies in the world over the last decade, with significant advancements in modernization and higher living standards, Vietnam is still home to many traditional cultures living in several regions of the country. These include the northern and central mountain areas, the Cham region on the south eastern coast, and the Khmer precincts of the Mekong Delta. Because of severely diminishing numbers, many of these cultures are considered “vanishing”.
Read This Article
Read This Article
Fun with a Fisheye
Wait…wait…nope, it’s gone. I really can’t remember what spurred me to purchase a fisheye lens of all things. Alpha Whiskey’s the last person on Earth to suffer GAS (or even gas) and I spend not a single, solitary second of my day salivating over gear. Heck, my camera is 5 year-old technology, positively prehistoric to the insecure masses scrambling over each other to reach the latest product rumour. (Run faster!)
Read This Article
Read This Article
Discovering the Houston Skyline
A year and a half ago my family moved from the suburbs of Washington D.C. to Houston, TX. The move came at a good time for me because I was about to enter my final year of college, and I was not spending much time at home. Moving can be stressful, but I quickly learned that Houston is a vibrant city with plenty of photographic opportunities. During the summer of 2016 I posted my first guest article about cityscape and…
Read This Article
Read This Article
Three Challenges We Share
There’s an old saying that “time flies when you’re having fun”. That must be true since the past three years for me here at Photography Life have gone by at supersonic speeds.
Read This Article
Read This Article
Senior Perspectives on Photography
It has been a few years now that I’ve qualified for a senior’s discount at various retailers. Of course the rules for such discounts do vary by store. Some start offering them at 55. Others at 60. And, at many they don’t kick in until that magic age of 65.
Read This Article
Read This Article
Fire and Brimstone
A little less then a year ago I posted an article at PL detailing the itinerary of a day in Yellowstone National Park. Since that article I had the pleasure of revisiting the park during my yearly foray to the land of “fire and brimstone.” The reason I visit the first National Park of the United States history every year is for a project I have undertaken to document the change of seasons that occurs there every autumn. Yellowstone National…
Read This Article
Read This Article
Photographing Water Birds in Winter
I recently made a couple of changes to my photography gear which resulted in me adding a Nikon 1 V3 to my kit and selling my J4 with WP-N3 waterproof housing. I wanted to put my new acquisition to the test and decided to photograph some water birds. So, I headed off to La Salle Park in Burlington Ontario as I had heard that there was over a thousand birds at that location. While the winter is often drab and dull,…
Read This Article
Read This Article
The Healing Power of Photography
One of the things I find fascinating about photography is that it can be approached from a million directions and can mean a million different things to different people. I enjoy talking to other photographers a lot – I find it very interesting to learn what they personally see in this art and what they shoot for (pun intended) with their images. I have a friend who takes photos of kids and families; she has perfected her portrait techniques over…
Read This Article
Read This Article
Best of 2016 – Part Two
In Part 1 of Best of 2016, I showed images from my trips to Death Valley NP, Joshua Tree NP and Saguaro NP, then finished up the post with two of my favorite images from Istanbul, Turkey. In this second part, we will be touring through the Rocky Mountain region of the USA, then explore some of the images from my recent trip to New Zealand. As before, I will be spending a considerable amount of time talking about each…
Read This Article
Read This Article
What a 365 Challenge Taught Me as a Novice
I am a novice photographer. I obtained my first DSLR, the Nikon D3200 in May of 2015. I decided to take at least one picture every day of 2016. Obviously, getting out and practicing every day is bound to make a fledgling amateur improve, but I was surprised at the specific principles I learned along the way, and thought I’d pass them on to any fellow novices thinking about a photo challenge of their own.
Read This Article
Read This Article
Why Take Landscape Photos?
People take landscape photos for a variety of reasons. At a personal level, I know that my motivation is constantly changing. Today, landscape photography is a great way to be outdoors. Tomorrow, I’ll spend a rainy day editing the photos I just captured. Digging deeper, though, there are more fundamental reasons to take landscape photos, and they all have to do with your outlook on the world.
Read This Article
Read This Article
Best of 2016 – Part One
Another year is over and it is that time of the new year when many of us go back and assess our personal successes and failures of the past year. While 2016 was surely an eventful year, we should be grateful to be alive and well, as many were not as fortunate. We have seen a number of both positive and negative changes that affected the world we live in today and how we will be living it in the…
Read This Article
Read This Article
Every Road Tells a Story
If you’re like me the ending of one year and the beginning of another is a special time of transition. We have the opportunity to leave the past behind and move forward in new directions to discover what the future holds for us. Every life – like every road – tells a story.
Read This Article
Read This Article
TIME – 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time
Recently, I had the pleasure of studying TIME Magazine’s Special Edition, “100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time”, from which I came away captivated by this stunning collection of images of some of the most profound and influential events in human history.
Read This Article
Read This Article
Replacing GAS with SAS
Three anniversaries of ‘firsts’ have been in a state of convergence for me this fall. Number one is my daughter’s first wedding anniversary. The next is the fourth anniversary of my first visit to Utah. And, the last one is the third anniversary of my first article being published here at Photography Life. Each of them in their own way has caused me to think about why many of us replace our camera gear on a frequent basis…and quite likely do so needlessly.
Read This Article
Read This Article
Searching for Unique Photographs
Millions — perhaps billions — of people take pictures every day. Famous places and people have been photographed more times than anyone can count. All of this leads to the deluge of images that we are seeing online and in social media. Every time that a photographer visits a beautiful location for the first time, thousands of people already photographed it under the best possible conditions (and the worst conditions, and everywhere in between). Recently, I have heard more than…
Read This Article
Read This Article