People from across the globe come to explore Japan’s cherished history as well as its renowned modern cities. Earlier this spring I had the opportunity to visit Japan for one week with a group of friends. I knew that I would have the chance to create many unique images during my trip, and I tried to plan accordingly. Past experience taught me to travel light, so I brought just two lenses: Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G. Additionally, I…
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Innocence and Emotion: Portrait Photography of Children and Elderly People
Through the years, I have seen hundreds of thousands of moments pass in front of my camera lens. Happy ones, sad ones, gloomy ones, serene ones. Some full of life, as well as others – with nostalgia. Which of those moments have I captured in my images, though? Within this essay, I would like to pay attention to something which has always fascinated me and has made me press the shutter button: taking portraits of small children and elderly people.
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The Practicalities of Not Becoming a Pro Photographer
There is so much antagonism in photography: light versus darkness, DSLR versus mirrorless, geek versus artist, Nikon versus Canon. And yes, soon after getting involved in it, one will inevitably face the ultimate dilemma: professional versus amateur. I got my first DSLR, a Nikon 3100, a good few years ago as a birthday present from my wife. At some point during the process of reading an astronomical number of articles, blogs and reviews, shooting thousands of pictures, buying (and then…
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The Importance of Visual Storytelling in Photography
Everybody loves a well-told story because stories are the best way to evoke emotions. They can make us excited, laugh, cry or feel empathy for someone else. But perhaps the best thing about stories is relatively simple: stories about other people help us to better understand ourselves. And this is the reason why visual storytelling has such an important role in photography. Below are the three tips to add a sense of story to your photography.
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Canon 80D Review
This is an in-depth review of the Canon 80D, a midrange DSLR released in 2016 and intended for photographers who want a more advanced camera than an entry-level Canon Rebel. We have been testing the Canon 80D extensively over the past couple months, and the takeaway is clear: It is a very solid camera, even in 2018. On top of that, the 80D also represents a good value on today’s market at $1000 new, which is less than other cameras…
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Meandering the North Eastern US
Last summer, a family visit to the East Coast (from SoCal) gave me the opportunity to try out my newly acquired Nikkor 24-120mm f/4G VR lens. My family is spread across four different states and four different geographies so this was good way to assess the versatility of the lens in different situations. I’m going to share some of the results here, as I chronicle my journey (note that some of the images were taken with other lenses in my…
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What to Photograph in the Canary Islands
In this series of articles, I would like to give a few concrete tips on when, where and how to photograph in the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands belong to Spain and hence to Europe, geographically however this archipelago is adjacent to Africa (west of Morocco). It offers a great diversity of different types of landscapes. You can find all sorts of beaches, volcanoes, sand dunes, interesting cities and villages, deep valleys, rugged coast line and much more. Within one…
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SmugMug Acquires Flickr in Unexpected Move
Two giants in the world of photography – SmugMug and Flickr – have become one. In a surprise move announced Friday, SmugMug has bought Flickr from Yahoo (owned by Verizon) for an undisclosed amount. The two platforms do have obvious similarities, with both built around uploading and hosting your photos online. However, SmugMug is intended more for creating a personal photography website, while Flickr adds a strong element of social media and community to the mix. So, what does this…
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The Ultimate PC Build for Photography Needs
Thanks to the super high-resolution sensors we see today in digital cameras, a fast computer is absolutely essential for an efficient post-processing workflow when working with RAW images. If a few years back a standard PC or a mid-range laptop were good enough for post-processing images, 30+ MP RAW files can put a huge burden on processing power and make a high-end machine seem obsolete. In addition, most commercial software targeted at professionals has also gotten pretty heavy, requiring more…
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Essential Tips for Photographing Theater Performances
Theater photography involves providing images that are concise and maintain the integrity of the light and the vision of the director. Over the last several years, I’ve worked with local theater groups in our area to provide promotional images and headshots, as well as archive images of their productions. Archive images are used by the actors, set designers/builders and costume designers to represent their work. I have learned during these last few years to apply time saving-techniques such as the…
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How to Take Family Portraits on a Budget
I want to share with you some useful tips for taking family portrait photos on a budget, including how I got into the satisfying world of portraiture after years of taking random (and disappointing) snapshots. Hopefully, this post will interest family photographers who want less expensive equipment, and any beginners to photography who simply want to capture nice photographs of people. Many amateurs cannot spend lots of money on quite expensive photography gear and do not have time to travel…
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DJI Mavic Air Review
This is a detailed review of the DJI Mavic Air drone used for aerial photography and videography. As I was deciding on what gear to bring for a trip to New Zealand earlier this year, my biggest dilemma was whether to take a drone with me or not. The thing is, while I love the idea of being able to take images and videos from unique vantage points, my biggest struggle with drones so far have been their large sizes…
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What Is the Limiting Factor in Your Photography?
Everyone has a limiting factor. Everyone has some reason why they aren’t taking exactly the photos they want, 100% of the time. The best photographers in history didn’t capture a perfect result (or even something good) each time they clicked the shutter, and neither will you. But your ordinary or bad work is perhaps the biggest gold mine of information you have at your disposal, and it would be absurd to overlook it if you’re trying to improve your work…
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TerraMaster D2-310 Hard Drive Enclosure Review
Depending upon the number of images or videos you have, you might need to rely upon external hard drives for much of your daily photography work. The biggest issue, though, is that this can result in a significant slowdown compared to editing photos via an internal drive, especially SSD or flash storage. What are your options? One possibility is to use an external hard drive enclosure capable of RAID configurations, letting you speed up your storage or mirror the information…
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M.2 NVMe Drive Overheating and Failure Issues
Without a doubt, the release of ultra-fast M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD drives has played a huge role in not only the IT world as a whole, but also in the photography community, where more and more photographers are choosing to build their own machines in order to speed up their photography workflow. Using M.2 NVMe drives for storing Lightroom catalogs, RAW files and cached data can speed up performance considerably, which is why many photographers, including myself, have been choosing…
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Low Light Photography Tips
Low light photography is not necessarily just night photography, as many people assume. There could be different amounts of light coming from various sources and whatever is less than daytime light outside, I consider low-light. Indoors photography without much ambient light (as in many of our homes) as well as the light that is barely visible to our eyes at night, is also considered to be low-light. In this article, I will provide tips on how to take pictures in…
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Behind-The-Camera Shy: Tips for the Timid Photographer
If you’re at all like me, circumspect and bashful, then taking candid portraits of strangers can be intimidating, if not something you avoid altogether. Candids of everyday people are what drew me to photography in the first place, so to get over my reticence I came up with the following strategies.
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Using Manual Focus Lenses on Nikon DSLR Cameras
One of the greatest features of single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras is the interchangeability of their lenses. From super-wide fisheye to ultra-telephoto, interchangeable lenses have given SLR cameras the versatility to tackle almost any photographic challenge, and enabled 35mm film SLRs to dominate the market for “serious” photography for decades, until the advent of digital SLRs (DSLRs) beginning around the year 2000.
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What is the Sunny 16 Rule in Photography?
One of the more common exposure tips in photography is called the sunny 16 rule. Although it dates back to the early days of photography, and some would argue that it is obsolete at this point, most photographers still hear about this rule while learning about exposure. So, what is the sunny 16 rule, and does it still matter for taking pictures today?
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Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E VR AF-P Review
In this in-depth review of the Nikon AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR lens, we will take a close look at what this full-frame lens has to offer when used on modern Nikon DSLR cameras, go over its features and compare it to its predecessor. The Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E VR AF-P was announced in July of 2017 as a major update to the existing 70-300mm lens design, optimized for high-resolution camera bodies, and armed with the latest optical technologies. Sporting…
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