Blog

With today’s high resolution cameras, cropping has become the norm for many photographers.  You start with a 45MP file, crop down to about 20MP for a tight head shot on wildlife, and you still have a large file ready to print or send off to publication.  I just had a 4 x 6 foot metal Read More

One of my favorite creative quotes is by Claude Monet.  He basically said ‘In order to see we must forget the name of things.  By labeling, we recognize everything, but no longer see anything.’  I think of this concept this way.  Instead of labeling all those subjects in your image, imagine them as graphic elements…shapes, Read More

Recently I was in Monument Valley teaching a photo workshop.  Monument Valley is in the heart of the Navajo Nation, and a very special place.  We focused on landscapes, portraits and night shots.  Great group, lots of fun, and incredible photography.  We did a special trip up to Hunts Mesa for the big overview image. Read More

It’s that time of the year.  Many states and communities are having their annual fairs as we move into autumn.  I love fairs, I can already smell the funnel cake.  Fairs are a great venue for a day of photography as well.  Everybody is having a good time, and the mood is festive.  Last weekend Read More

Have you ever heard the saying in photography…’bad weather is good weather?’.  Storms bring interesting clouds, dramatic shafts of sun, rainbows and lightning.  All these things are great subject matter for photography.  Bring on the storms. But it is a little different when we talk about lighting.  You arrive at your destination ready to go, Read More

Today’s cameras can be customized like never before. On workshops I help participants with the same body, and yet each camera has buttons performing different functions.  The good news is photographers get better performance specific to their needs assigning various functions to different buttons.  But beyond the camera many lenses also have assignable buttons on Read More

There has been some questions recently on our workshops about the best way to focus.  Specifically, with all the amazing tracking and autofocus patterns why not just set your shutter button to focus and take the picture.  Less is more…or is it?  Before modern mirrorless cameras came out there was an obvious advantage to using Read More

I just returned from a fantastic trip photographing bears at Lake Clark NP. In addition to bears we photographed puffins one day, and had lots of opportunities to photograph birds in flight.  Which brought up the frequent question of what autofocus mode and techniques to get a sharp bird in flight. Here is the quick Read More

After two months of getting settled in Alaska, we are finally up and running again.  Expect to see regular posts as before!  I just returned from leading a group in the Pantanal region of Brazil.  Our main focus was jaguars, but this area is rich in wildlife of all sorts.  I researched and talked with Read More

Spring storms have arrived this season, with many parts of the country getting thunderstorms.  And with that comes storm and lightning photography.  Most years we head to Badlands NP in late May for our photo workshop, and often we get strong thunderstorms moving across the eroded landscape. In years past we have used lightning triggers. Read More