So you’re going to an event
You’re going to an event. One of those arena-based performances that cost too much, where they try to hawk trinkets and cotton candy at you during intermission. Where you have to pass through a ridiculous bag check at the door, where they tell you that “professional” photo gear isn’t allowed. Which to the people running [...]
Panorama
Each time I return to Gettysburg, I seem to find myself at Little Round Top, shooting from the top of the castle-like monument there. It offers a good view of Devil’s Den and the fields beyond, all the way to the PA Memorial and Pickett’s Charge to the north. So I know that I already [...]
Shooting in a Winter Wonderland
The afternoon sky is gray and there is a definite chill to the air. Winter is fast approaching in NEPA – and not just the sporadic snow showers we had a few weeks back, but full-on winter, with three inches of snow across the frozen ground. So with the season – and it’s [...]
Make any setting a portrait setting
Portraiture requires a number of specialized tools – and that number increases depending on who you ask, and how serious a portrait photog you are. At the most basic level, a lens well suited to portraiture work and some form of lighting are needed; at the other end of the spectrum are photos with [...]
AF Micro-adjustment
I suspect that many of you won’t be familiar with the term “AF micro-adjustment.” And there’s no reason you should be, unless you’ve used one of Canon’s top series cameras, like the EOS 5D. This is a feature that is just starting to trickle down into the mid-range EOS bodies – the 50D [...]
Lessons Learned from My Mentor
I learned photography from a wide range of sources, but none was more pivotal – more essential – to my development than my mentor, Jonathan Cohen. Jonathan is the university photographer at my alma mater; before that, he was a working photojournalist who has had work published in some major publications.
Jonathan had just taken [...]
Cheating on the Light
If you’ve learned anything about photography by now, it should be that there are plenty of rules – and plenty of times when breaking those rules is not only okay, but recommended. You should also know that it’s all about the light. And when the light isn’t doing quite what you want, modify [...]
Pre-gamein' it
What do these two photos have in common? (Hint: the fact that neither is very good isn’t the correct answer.) Hopefully you’re able to see the relationship; the photo on the left is a snapshot of a massage room at a medical school, while the photo on the right is a shot of my bathroom.
My [...]
Birding Photography Continued
Back in PA after a rainy trip to Vermont, and I’m once more out at Fords Pond just before sunset, working with the birds. This latest session was the best yet; for the first time, I was able to place myself between the light (sun) and the critters, meaning that they were fully lit from [...]
Objects in Motion
Nope, not Newton’s First Law. I’m talking about photographing objects in motion, specifically landscapes in motion.
Most of the time landscape photographers wait for calm days with little or no wind, then set up a tripod with their camera and wide-angle lens, stopped down to around f/16, lowest ISO, and whatever shutter speed is required. In [...]