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 to camp out for days waiting for all the variables to line up just so. The realities of needing to make a living and driving to and from work five…
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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 a tank of 4×5 inch negatives, I wanted to make sure I got it right – so I set up individual beakers of developer, stop bath, and fixer, pre-measured, to…
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Learning to Self-Critique Your Images
I’d like you to join me on a journey of learning to see and take better pictures. That is, learning to view our images critically before any one else sees them. Early in my journey, I was intrigued by a signature from a photography forum: “Please harshly critique my photos! Doing so helps me become better at this photography thing.” Since then, I have uncovered many hurdles to me taking great images.
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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 philosophical, cultural, and spiritual aspects of the creative process. It is less about the technical, and more about the inner journey of photography as an art form.
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Reverse Lens Technique for Macro Photography
There aren’t a lot of things which will still work when used the wrong way ‘round. Airplanes, cutlery, and shoes, for example, all have a preferred direction of use; turning them around, and using them in reverse seldom turns out well. Photographic lenses, or at least some of them, are an exception to this rule. For macro photography, turning some lenses around will actually improve their performance. This can have important consequences for your photos, and your wallet.
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When Exotic Nature Photography Isn’t An Option
Viewing incredible images of wildlife captured in exotic locations can be an engrossing experience for many of us. Imagining oneself being able to travel to some of these far-off destinations and taking part in a wildlife photo safari is the dream of many photographers. For many folks exotic nature photography isn’t an option, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy nature in our local areas. This short article shares a selection of images captured during the past week or…
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Essential Wedding Photography Tips for Beginners
Photographing weddings is a hard task, and you only get one chance at it, so there is no room for mistakes. This is a special day for the couple, and your photos will be stored as memories for generations. So, more than perhaps any other genre of photography, it is crucial to prepare and practice ahead of time – the last thing you want to do is mess it up. Especially if you are just beginning to shoot weddings, it…
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What to Photograph in South Australia
I read many articles from all around the world sharing beautiful photography locations. However, there seems to be a lack of content about Australia. Having lived here for over five years now, I want to share with you some of the best landscape and wildlife photography locations that I have visited. In this article I am going to focus on South Australia, but I hope to keep building on it and adding new locations when I have the time.
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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” of our lives. Having successfully raised two children into adulthood and recently retired from our jobs, my wife and I have now entered what I refer to as the “Second…
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How to Accentuate Light in Photoshop
I like to photograph nature, particularly landscapes. One of the factors that drew me into it is the challenge of capturing the beauty of mother nature. As landscape photographers, we often have to embrace the weather and work with it rather than around it, which means you may need to accentuate the light in post-processing software like Photoshop. That is what I will cover in this article.
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The Art of Photographing Flowers
My favorite offshoot of landscape photography is flower photography. It is a bit easier to pursue than landscape, since you needn’t travel very far to get unique and beautiful images. All you have to do is step into your own garden or visit a public garden to find a world of beautiful flowers to photograph. But it takes skill – plus a little something extra – to be able to make really beautiful flower portraits. In this essay, I’d like…
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Using Wide Angle Lenses for Street Photography
Street photography can be one of the most accessible genres of photography – after all, you can pretty much do it anywhere, anytime. And the essence of photojournalism/street photography is the summation of emotions, reality, and a story in a single image. You can take good street photos with any lens, but personally I am a big fan of wide angles.
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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 of 2015.
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Concert Photography with a 35mm Lens
From street to landscape, from portrait to travel – the 35mm is an all-around lens, and it can be used for shooting basically anything. But what about concert photography, where a zoom lens is the norm? Is it any good there as well? This article covers some practical suggestions for photographing concerts with a 35mm lens, along with broader concert photography tips in general.
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How to Calibrate iMac and iMac Pro Displays
As photographers, it is important for us to establish a consistent and accurate editing environment, which means that ideally, we should be looking at an accurate representation of colors in photographs in order to properly post-process them. Because of this, our output devices such as monitors and printers should always be properly calibrated to reproduce accurate colors consistently. With Apple being a key player in the photography industry with its iMac, MacBook and Mac Pro hardware, specifically tailoring products for…
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3 Top Travel Photography Tips: Telling Visual Stories
In an era when everyone has a sophisticated camera on their mobile phone, and we all share our travel experiences on social media, it is easy to start thinking, everything was photographed already, and I have nothing to contribute. The challenge for travel photographers today is to succeed in creating new and refreshing representations of our world. Is it possible? Probably so, but you will need to put in some effort. This article covers a few of the most important…
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Canon T7i / 800D Review
This is an in-depth review of the Canon Rebel T7i (also known as the EOS 800D and the Kiss X9i), the newest in Canon’s long line of Rebel DSLRs. These cameras have been a staple of Canon’s system for years, starting with the original “EOS Digital Rebel” in 2003. The newest T7i improves upon its many predecessors by adding a faster frame rate, better autofocus, and Canon’s newest generation aps-c sensor. It retails for $750 body only and $800 with…
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Wildlife Photography on a Budget
You don’t always need the latest and the greatest photography equipment to take great wildlife pictures. In the digital photography world, dominated by quick-changing technology these days, most photographers feel the urge to keep on updating their equipment because otherwise they won’t be able to make good pictures anymore. Especially in wildlife photography, most amateurs feel they need to migrate to full-frame cameras and buy the best super telephoto lenses to get the desired results. This means that you are…
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How to Photograph Hot Air Balloons
Some of the most rewarding and relatively easy subjects to photograph are the growing number of hot air balloons floating in the skies. If you have the willingness to wake up early, you can have good luck photographing a very colorful and slow-moving subject to display for your friends and family.
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18 Surf Photography Tips
In 2017, I received an invitation to photograph on the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia. My cousin, who is a surfer and makes this trip practically every year, asked me to join them in their next trip. For those who do not know, Indonesia is a surfer’s paradise, with surfers from all over the world visiting this remarkable destination. It has been a while since I photographed surfing professionally, so without much hesitation, I accepted the invitation. In this article, I…
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