I just returned from shooting in the rainforests and jungles of Costa Rica (we’re posting our Costa Rica workshop soon!), and I shot a lot of images at ISOs of 1600 and even 3200. If you see a bird in the understory, the light is often low. But honestly this isn’t too much of a Read More
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Do you need a property release?
Another situation similar to model releases are property releases. And many of the same rules apply. Take a look at this image of a float plane in front of Denali. It is a classic Alaska scene, and has a lot of publishing potential for many clients. Beautiful day, iconic mountain and lots of negative space Read More
Do you need a model release?
Recently a workshop participant contacted me about model releases. She had a taken a fantastic portrait in Romania, and wanted to submit the image to a contest. But the rules of the contest stated that you needed a model release for any portraits submitted to the contest. My friend had a lot of questions…why do Read More
The perfect shutter speed for moving water
I recently returned from a trip to Australia, and we had some terrific landscape photography on the beach. I’ve never seen such interesting rocks, lichen and huge sea cliffs all packed into one trip. I really wanted to capture the dramatic, moody scenes along the beach. Anytime you are photographing the beach and ocean, the Read More
Recent covers…
I normally write this blog aimed at sharing technique and industry news. But on workshops I get asked where my work gets published, and what assignments I shoot. Each month I shoot assignments, write articles and shoot stock (yes, we still license stock images). I love to write technique and destination articles for photography magazines, Read More
Photograph at civil twilight
If you have ever photographed at sunset or sunrise with a bunch of photographers, chances are you have heard someone talk about civil twilight. Civil twilight is defined as that period when the sun has set, but there is still enough light to see terrestrial objects. In other words, about 30 minutes before sunrise, and Read More
Center frame subjects
Photography has many axioms that we are taught to follow. These ‘rules’ have been established over time, some dating back hundreds of years…who hasn’t used the rule of thirds in a photograph? These guidelines help photographers compose their photograph, and serve as a starting point to explore compositions that break the rules. I always tell Read More
Tripod boom arm technique
I’ve been out of the office the last few weeks in Australia and Tasmania on a workshop. We had an incredible time, you can see our trip report right here. We photographed many wonderful landscapes and wildlife, and I finally got a chance to photograph the Twelve Apostles, something I’ve wanted to do for 30 Read More
Creativity, cliche and the snapshot.
One thing that I frequently discuss on workshops is developing creativity. While some photographers may feel like they have a good understanding of their camera functions, creativity is more elusive and harder to quantify. And when we travel to national parks or international destinations, there are those famous overlooks (you know the one, with the Read More
Alien Skin Exposure X4
I just returned from Fairbanks Alaska photographing the northern lights, dog mushing, ice sculptures and interesting Alaskan people. One afternoon we set up a portrait shoot (at ten below zero) to photograph one of the staff at our lodge. Paul was classic Alaskan…bearded, fur lined coat and rugged. For the shot we used an Elinchrom Read More
Lightroom Range Mask
With all the updates with LR, it is easy to overlook some of the helpful new features. I regularly use the graduated filter tool in Lightroom to darken my skies if I didn’t use a graduated ND filter in the field. But rarely is the transition from sky to ground an even one, especially if Read More
What is coma?
I’m headed to Fairbanks in a couple of days to photograph the northern lights. Now if the weather will cooperate, like it did last year, we should have some fantastic photography. Photographing the night sky involves capturing stars in your image, and that brings up the question of coma. Coma is an aberration of the Read More