Gear Talk

I’ve been in the mountains recently photographing elk, especially in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Fall color has been really nice, and the temps have been mild…until a couple of days ago.  Our first blizzard of the season came through, temps dropped to the teens, and snow starting falling.  Any radical change in the weather often Read More

Okay, I’ll admit I am fixated on bokeh.  Bokeh (however you like to pronounce it), refers to the quality of out of focus elements in your image.  Why is this such a big deal?  Because bokeh establishes mood and separation in an image.  A background with beautiful bokeh almost looks like a painting.  And place Read More

Nikon recently delivered the newest lens in the mirrorless S lineup, the 85mm F1.8.  This is a portrait photographer’s meat and potato lens; I have used my 85mm F1.4 for years around the globe with amazing results.  But with new technology and the closer mounting distance of the S lenses, could this new lens replace Read More

I just returned from photographing along Route 66, first some assignments and then followed by a fantastic Route 66 workshop.  As you might expect, there are a lot of old cars along Route 66. We often photographed during twilight and used speed lights and larger Elinchrom ELB 500 strobes to illuminate the scene.  But a Read More

Photo backpacks are like tripods.  It just seems like you need more than one, or maybe many, to have the right one for the specific photo shoot.  I have used numerous photo backpacks through the years, and still am finding new ones that fit a specific need. But recently I was photographing grizzly bears in Read More

I’m continuing to clarify information on mirrorless cameras and lenses based on reader questions.  There is a lot of new technology involved with mirrorless, and some new terms getting tossed around in daily conversations that may be confusing.  One aspect of the new Nikon S lenses for the Z camera system is focus by wire. Read More

If you are a Nikon shooter, you probably have been watching the Z camera launch with interest.  Maybe you have even decided to go out and buy a Z6 or Z7.  Along with these cameras came the release of the ‘S’ lens series, lenses designed to be used with the Nikon Z cameras.  We bought Read More

If you have been using a Z camera and photographing RAW (NEF) files, you might notice something a little different when you open the files in LR or PS.  The profiles are already embedded into the files.  This means the profile will automatically fix vignetting, distortion and chromatic aberration with this particular lens.  Rather than Read More

I have been talking with a lot of folks about buying Nikon lenses on workshops, and for those shopping, now might be the time.  Nikon currently had a number of lenses on sale.  Check out your local store or wherever you shop to see what is available.  One that caught my eye was the 70-200mm Read More

We just returned from a big shoot in Alaska, and we needed to bring a lot of gear with us.  I normally use the Airport Advantage, my favorite roller for most of my trips.  But when I need to take big glass and lots of gear, I turn to the ThinkTank Airport Security 3.0. Everything Read More