Since my earliest years as a photographer, I have been using accessories to trip the camera’s shutter without causing sharpness-robbing vibrations. In the film era, it was a threaded cable release, and in the digital camera age it has been a variety of electronic shutter releases that were compatible with...
Peak Design Capture Clip V3 Review
Every once in a great while, a company ‘invents the wheel’ with a product. What do I mean by that? I mean that the invented product is so functionally appropriate that it becomes a new standard. The Peak Design Capture Clip V3 is just like a wheel. It’s an uncomplicated,...
Behind the Composition: Amongst the Dead
It was May of 2018 when my girlfriend, Melanie, and I made the decision to use my family's cabin in northern Pennsylvania as a basecamp and travel to various state parks in New York for a week. This was the second year of what has since become our yearly vacations...
What Camera Lens Should I Buy? A Beginner’s Guide
Even if cell phone cameras keep improving and reach unimaginable levels of image quality, I'll always carry around a larger, heavier, and more complex camera. Why is that? One word: lenses! An interchangeable lens camera opens up a vast world of photographic visions through a huge variety of optics. Choosing...
Night Photography Tutorial: A Beginner’s Guide
Night photography, particularly as a beginner, can present both the opportunity to create compelling images, as well as some of the most difficult technical challenges you might face. Fortunately, these challenges are all learning opportunities to better your skills behind the camera. In this night photography tutorial, we'll look at...
Best Camera Settings for Bird Photography
Imagine that you're on a beautiful beach and you see an unusual bird fly towards you. The sun is low in the sky and golden light washes over delicately patterned wings. You raise your camera, unsure of what settings to use. When you get back home, you realize the shots...
Nikon Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S Announcement
Today Nikon officially unveiled its first super telephoto prime for the Z mount system, the Nikon Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S. Although we've known about this lens through a development announcement back in October of 2021, there was no detailed information provided, including its specifications and price. Now that...
10 Tips for Taking Beautiful Photos in the Rain
“Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.” This line from an old nursery rhyme has popped into my head many times over the years growing up in the soggy Pacific Northwest. It came to mind again when I arrived at North Carolina's Blue Ridge Parkway to photograph autumn and...
Think Tank Digital Holster 150 Bag Review
Long lens users arguably have an easier time selecting camera bags, simply because there are fewer bags that will fit a long lens in the first place. Today, I will review one such bag, the Think Tank Digital Holster 150. This $110 shoulder bag is capable of holding a camera...
On Expectations
“If I did what has already been done, I would be a plagiarist and would consider myself unworthy; so I do something different and people call me a scoundrel. I’d rather be a scoundrel than a plagiarist!” – Paul Gauguin