Have you ever noticed how important food is for travelers when they are talking about upcoming trips? Spring rolls in Thailand, pasta in Sicily, mole in Mexico…doesn’t your mouth just start watering? Yet when photographers come home from their trip they have great landscapes, wildlife, portraits, cityscapes…and no food images. Now I hear some folks Read More
Shooting Tips
Z8; Increase focus point size.
One other firmware update for the Z8 which many of you may like…you can increase the size of the red square focus point. How many times have you turned on your camera and not seen the red focus square? This happens a lot to me…I normally just hit the center ‘OK’ button of the thumb Read More
Z8: New Cycle AF-area mode better than F1/F2 custom autofocus modes?
The new Z8 firmware version 2 has a few other updates (other than bird tracking) that are really useful. One of my favorites is the Cycles AF-area mode. This is a custom mode that can be applied to any button on the camera. Here is how it works. First, go into your controls (f) in Read More
ICM-Intentional Camera Movement techniques
Photographers love acronyms…ACR, DNG, RAW, NEF, IBIS,VR…and ICM. I sometimes find myself teaching a class on workshops speaking in code! What will be the new acronym for 2024? ICM, or intentional camera movement, is a fun, creative camera technique. Moving the camera during exposure transforms the image from everyday to unique. Recently I’ve heard from Read More
Manual Mode versus Auto ISO Manual Mode
We were recently in Haines, Alaska photographing bald eagles on the Chilkat Bald Eagle Reserve. As expected it was a magical experience, with lots of birds and varied weather. Sun, snow, rain, fog…we saw it all this year. A major question for our workshop groups was what mode to use when shooting eagles. For all Read More
Variable/Flexible ISO
I recently spent two weeks in Haines, Alaska teaching eagle photography workshops. This is my favorite place to photograph eagles, 3000 birds along the Chilkat River feeding on a late season salmon run. And the backdrop snowy peaks are stunning, I honestly could just shoot landscapes along the Haines river with or without eagles, beautiful Read More
Photographing eagles at Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve
Almost thirty years ago a friend and I decided to roadtrip to Haines, Alaska. I was living in Alaska at the time, living the dream of being in the high north photographing Denali climbers, northern lights and incredible wildlife. We loaded up my beat up old Toyota truck, drove through the Yukon at -20F being Read More
Improve Creativity; Shooting in BW
I just returned from eight marvelous days photographing in France teaching a photo workshop for Strabo Tours. Cree lived in France and speaks fluent French, so this trip was very special for her. For me it was visiting a city and region rich with art and photography history. Who doesn’t want to roam the streets Read More
Take better photos, optimize the light.
Just in from ten days in Alaska working on an assignment and just enjoying being up north. You never know what kind of weather you are going to get there, some summers are sunny all the time, and other summers it just rains and rains. During our trip we got rain, so much so that Read More
Active D Lighting does affect exposure
As photographers have been setting up their Nikon Z8 and Z9s some questions have come up about a few specific settings. One of those is Active D lighting, found in the shooting menu. The big distinction with in-camera settings is those that affect RAW files and those that only affect JPEGS. We always encourage photographers Read More