Recently, I have been asked by different individuals what camera I would recommend buying to either get started in photography or as an upgrade from their smartphones. I thought I would consolidate my thoughts here for future reference when this question is posed again. Unlike most of my posts, this one is designed to be readable by someone with little to no photography background. I also included a lot of links to explain common “jargon.”
Read MoreFor many photographers, gear is personal and hard to part with. However, selling off gear that’s collecting dust can be a great way to clear up space or buy other products that might get more use. In addition, I like the idea that my old gear is useful or valuable to someone else; some of the products I’ve sold have gone to young kids or budding photographers. You can sell your bodies and lenses to photo stores like BH Photo. However, you typically trade convenience for lower prices. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, selling on eBay is likely the way to go.
Read MoreMy Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 seems prone to collecting grit underneath the manual focus ring. I’ve ignored this problem for years by never using manual focus. However, I recently discovered that the problem could be fixed simply by vacuuming the lens.
Read MoreTokyo is big, bright, and bustling. These features make it a great choice for night photography. The hardest part may be choosing what to photograph. I picked two subjects: Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge.
Read MoreIn the current (2019) version of Lightroom Classic, you cannot sync a smart collection with Lightroom Mobile. This is unfortunate because I use many smart collections to organize my photographs. In this post, I present a workaround to help overcome this issue.
Read MoreMagic Island is a small peninsula in Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii. I recently spent a few hours exploring this location. Although I was primarily there to capture the Waikiki beachfront at dusk, I was surprised by the variety of other shots that this location offered.
Read MoreEvery year Albuquerque hosts it’s iconic International Balloon Fiesta. The event draws hundreds of balloons and hundreds of thousands of spectators. It is advertised as the most photographed event in the world. This article focuses on my advice for photographing the event and coming away with unique and memorable images that stand out from the millions of other captured moments.
Read MoreFour years ago I was a junior engineering student. It was a Thursday and there were no classes the next day due to a holiday. I had been wanting to try out some kind of high-speed flash photography for awhile so I decided to take advantage of the day off. My concept was to capture the splash of fruit falling into a wine glass. The challenging part is firing the flash at the perfect moment. I wasn't interested in a trial-and-error approach. I wanted to build a device that would automatically fire the flash at just the right time, every time.
Read MoreStretched canvas is a great medium for photographs. I tend to shoot and prefer tightly composed images. When I first started printing stretched canvas, I found this style problematic for ordering wraparound pieces. In order to have enough canvas to wrap around the frame it is necessary to effectively "crop" the image seen on the front. I found this very undesirable.
In this post, I show how you can overcome this limitation by simply mirroring the edges of the image. Although you can do this in any image-editing program, I created and provide a Photoshop action that will do this automatically for any image.
Read MoreLong Beach is a beautiful city known for its massive port and as the permanent home of the storied British cruise liner the RMS Queen Mary. I spent 3 nights here trying to capture this city during blue hour.
Read MoreAntelope Canyon is an incredibly popular destination for photographers, artists, and tourists. People come from all around the world to see this slot canyon. From above, the canyon appears to be nothing more than a crack in the ground. But go inside and you will find spectacular and otherworldly beauty.
Read MoreWahweap Overlook offers excellent panoramic views in every direction, allowing photographers to capture multiple unique vistas from a single location. However, the most exciting perspectives are certainly to the east where Lake Powell and Glen Canyon stretch endlessly to the horizon. I arrived two hours before sunset to try and capture some of the grandeur.
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