Clamshell lighting is very popular for beauty lighting, and with good reason. Models appear luminescent and glowing, and shadows are minimal if visible at all. One way of producing clamshell lighting is using a large soft box above your model, and a reflector below your model to bounce the light back up. But not all Read More
Gear Talk
Elinchrom ELC 1000 and big air
I have continued to shoot with the new Elinchrom ELC 1000s, and I just can’t stop shooting these bad boys. Why? The need for speed, or in this case, firing off 500 watt pops at 8 frames a second. Recently I worked with an incredible rider (thanks Chance!) who caught enough air to make me Read More
Nikon Df
I started shooting Nikon 30 years ago using the FM in journalism school, so when I saw the retro Nikon Df come out, I was interested. There is just something familiar and comfortable about having some external dials on my camera. I have been shooting a DF now for about a month, and it just Read More
Elinchrom ELC Pro HD 1000 strobes.
Okay, I get excited about lighting, that is a given. But when I got a chance to use the new Elinchrom ELC Pro HD 1000, it was like Christmas had arrived. These lights are changing how I shoot! Here is the fantasy spec list: -20 flashes per second -able to shoot with full recycle between Read More
Goal Zero Power
I recently shot a story for Digital Photo magazine on portable power solutions for the photographer. How do you charge up that D4 battery when you are in woods? Hands down Goal Zero has been the answer for me. Goal Zero offers a large line of portable power packs and matching solar panels to power Read More
Packing Light
I’ve written posts before on packing light. I’m sure some of my obsession with packing light comes from years of carrying 80 pound packs on month long expeditions; if you don’t need it, don’t carry it. But better put for photographers is maybe ‘too much gear is a hindrance, not a help’. I am very Read More
The best telephoto lens?
I just returned from weeks on the road, first in Tampa filming a new training video for Kelby Training (more on that later), and most recently teaching a workshop with ANPW in Yellowstone. This was our 9th year there, a sell out trip almost every year, and with good reason. Yellowstone is just plain magical Read More
Vello extension tubes
Winter may seem like a funny time to shoot macro, after all, there are no insects or flowers to photograph. But I am headed to Kauai and Costa Rica (two spots left) in the next few months, and I wanted to update my macro options to capture those colorful dart frogs in the Costa Read More
Nikon AW1, geotagging and -10 degrees.
I have been getting asked recently about geotagging. Why do it, how to do it, where can I see the ‘map’? Since I have been shooting the Nikon AW1, I thought I might explain geotagging a little more. And talk more about performance of the AW1 in the cold…really cold. Geotagging is simply adding geographical Read More
Nikon 1 AW1
Okay, I’m a sucker for a camera built to take punishment. That was one reason I started shooting Nikon in journalism school 30 years ago. I was climbing and kayaking all over the globe, in the backcountry for months at a time guiding, shooting assignments and doing personal trips. If my camera broke day 5 Read More