Category: Picture
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Winter Traction Devices for Winter Photography or Don’t Fall on the Ice!
I’ve been teaching winter photography workshops since 2006 and I’ve seen it all. I’ve watched as people lost footing and fell. I’ve seen broken tripods, cameras and lenses. I’ve seen filters break — including my loaners — and I’ve broken my own filters and shutter releases from falling. I’ve watched as people slid towards Lake…
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January Newsletter: Travel Does the Photographer Good
As I write this, it’s -20 out and the wind is blowing close to 30 knots. It’s cold. What a change from December when the temps got into the 50s and 60s. And that was a change from November when the temps got down below zero. This up and down weather pattern is just a…
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Fall Color in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park 2014
I’m starting to look backwards at 2014 in preparation for my annual best of eBook. As I did, I realized that I never shared the images that I made in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park last fall. I teach a Great Smoky Mountains Photography Workshop each fall, and during it we explore a good portion…
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Improve Your Photography By Finding What You Think is Cool
One question that I get on my workshops is: how do you know what to photograph? I’ve thought about this recently, because I’ve gotten the question more this year than in past years, and I’ve been able to simplify it down to one concept: Seriously, it’s that simple. When I head out to photograph,…
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How I Changed My Life By Not Changing My Life and How Photography Helped
Recently, I read about how a photographer changed his life. Basically, he sold off all his stuff, paid off his debts, lost weight, found a god, bought a van and decided to live out of it and camp and travel and photograph. Good for him. The photographer started teaching photo workshops, and in a follow…
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Photography as Poetry
One of the big myths believed in photography is that every good photo must tell a story. I simply disagree. While a good photo may tell a story, not all good photos need to tell a story. I think this myth probably evolved from the journalistic side of photography. In journalism, you want to tell a…
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Desensitized Color Syndrome in Landscape Photography
Before you start reading this essay, understand that all artists have unique approaches to how they tackle their artwork. In digital photography, I’m going to guess that 99%+ of professional landscape artists use some sort of digital processing for their images. If you count the fact that cameras also process information coming off the sensor…
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Quick Review of the Eyelead Sensor Cleaning Kit — Sensor Gel Stick
I hate sensor cleaning. The typical way that I do it, is to first blow the dust off the sensor while hanging the camera upside down with a Giotto Rocket-Air rubber blower. In theory, the blower gets off the big loose dust, which should make it easier to get the remaining dust. After that, I…
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The Full Moon Shot behind the Grand Marais Lighthouse is in Jeopardy
In August, the full moon rises directly behind the Grand Marais lighthouse if you stand near the boat ramp in the campground and recreation park. It’s a popular shot to get and photographers come to Grand Marais specifically to get this shot. I’ve been in the location shooting the moon rising with up to 40+ other…