Shooting Tips

I just got done calculating my road miles for 2018, and once again it was over 20,000.  The majority of these miles are not daily photo shoots but instead long photography road trips. If I can drive to a destination, and have the time, I always will drive, even if it is a day or Read More

There are very few national parks that have the extreme verticality that Yosemite has.  You can walk to the base of El Cap and have over 3000 feet of smooth granite towering over your head.  For the photographer this creates a challenge.  Trying to create compositions with El Cap and foreground requires some extreme perspectives. Read More

I just returned from teaching a workshop in Sedona, one of my favorite desert locations, and we had a fantastic time.  Red clouds at sunrise and sunset, vintage cars and colorful portraits in Jerome, and lots of reflection opportunities with the recent rain.  One plant the entire group enjoying photographing was the agave.  This plant Read More

I just returned from a fantastic trip to the Eastern Sierras.  It is hard to beat just roaming around with your camera in hand, no schedules, just exploring and looking for images.  Watching the sunrise slowly scroll down Mt Whitney and jagged Sierras is sublime. With such spectacular scenery, diverse locations and fall color, Cree Read More

One concept I like to talk about on workshops is visualizing a scene graphically, not literally.  Claude Monet summed it up in one quote: “In order to see we must forget the name of everything.  By labeling, we recognize everything, but no longer see anything.” Here is an example.  A few days ago I was Read More

I just returned from a workshop in Portugal, and we did a lot of street shooting in Porto and Lisbon.  We had a lot of fun trying to find the perfect spot for a early morning trolley shot in Lisbon.  Yellow trolleys are iconic to Lisbon, so we really wanted to photograph them during our Read More

A little while ago Digital Photo asked me to do a story on flash, and one topic that comes up all the time is manual versus TTL flash.  There are two schools of thought, and very passionate opinions on which is best.  Honestly, I’m less worried about what is best versus what works.  If you Read More

Expanding on my last post, I’ve had some folks point out that not many photographers are using super telephotos with Memory Recall buttons.  Point taken.  Their question is how to speed up focus with just a normal lens.  Perfect, here is a list!  Focus limit switch. Many lenses have a focus limit switch.  This switch Read More

Any technology that increases focus speed is a good thing for photographers.  Whether you are photographing a street performer in Florence, or a bird returning to its nest, if you don’t get sharp focus, your image gets deleted.  One function that many telephoto lenses have is Memory recall.  If you are wondering why you pay Read More

Photographers like tack sharp images, so we do everything we can to stabilize our cameras.  Tripods do the trick…except when you don’t have one.  I photograph a lot of travel, and most times I am roaming the streets shooting hand held.  Being spontaneous is important with street photography.  I can increase my ISO and open Read More