Cougar, Wildlife Prairie Park, December 9, 1995.
It was 30 years ago today and I was face to face with a cougar. The windchill was -40° Fahrenheit at Wildlife Prairie Park. It was bone chillingly cold, even with Sorel Pac boots, thermal underwear, layers of clothes, and a winter parka. I had to take a break every hour or two to warm up. But it was worth it.
Frost on Autumn Leaves, Columbus Ohio. December 9, 2016.
It was a frosty morning and our dog Sunny and I went out for a walk. It was my good fortune to find these colorful autumn leaves. Autumn was not done yet in Ohio.
Graceland Gadets. Dance Recital, Living Art Studios
Parents and other family members can order my event photos at my Zenfolio site (link below). Most digital cameras create “long aspect ratio” files which print out at 4×6 inches, 8×12 inches, 12×18 inches and larger. But for artistic reasons some images look best as “standard aspect ratio” prints: 4×5 inches, 8×10 inches, 11×14 inches, and larger. Prices are also determined by the aspect ratio. An 8×10 print is $5.99 and an 8×12 print is $6.99.
Tap 1 Class, “Like It’s Christmas”, Dance Recital, Living Art Studios
“Twas the Night Before Christmas” Dance Recital
As the parking lot filled up and people swarmed into the Shaw Center Auditorium, it was clear once again that this is one of the most popular events of the year. It was a visual and musical feast as 55 dancers from the classes at Living Art Studios, along with the Graceland Gadets, provided 16 dance numbers that told a story. Narrators between the dance numbers wove it all together by telling a fanciful story of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” right here in Lamoni. An incredible amount of work by the dancers and the dance instructors goes into this production, plus the people that work on the music, lighting, sound, costumes in a riot of Christmas colors, plus the crew helping out backstage. It is one of the best nights of the year!
Screen Capture of Adobe Bridge. Click the image to see a larger version.
As a photo editor said long ago, “Take lots of photos and send me the very best.”
The “Living Art Studios” dance recital was Saturday night. It is one of the biggest events of the year in our little town. Yesterday I sent a small selection of images from the recital to the local newspaper which is published weekly on Thursday. I usually send 6 to 10 images and they usually publish from 3 to 6 and on really slow news week they post even more. Today I am taking one last look at all the dance images for any additional favorites for this event. Here in this screen capture from Adobe Bridge are the first 20 shutter clicks (one RAW and one JPEG image for each click) with one of my cameras.
I purchased the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i so my camera and lenses can track the motion of the stars across the sky. I read several comparison articles before making my choice. I put it through its paces and decided to write a review with a basic introduction as to how to use it. Not only does it work, it works very well. This photo of the Andromeda Galaxy was taken on my first night out with clear skies.
For me, December is not only the month for Christmas Season photos and portraits, on reasonably pleasant December nights with no wind it is the time of year to photograph the night sky. Winter has better night sky “seeing” than the other three seasons. Cold air holds less moisture to there is more visual clarity of the night sky. Unfortunately, where many of us live winter is also very cold so I do most of my winter night sky photography in December since it is usually more tolerable.
Dance Recital, Living Art Studios
I was taking pictures this afternoon of the dress rehearsal for a dance recital this evening. This is one of my favorite images from the rehearsal. More photos at a later date.
Burning Bush, Ohio, December 3, 2017.
Eight years ago the burning bush in our front yard in Columbus Ohio was going all out to show off fall colors and keep Autumn around as long as possible.
The Olympus Tough (TG) Waterproof Camera System
Water, sand, and grit can wreak havoc with ordinary cameras, so unless you have a waterproof case for your camera (more about that later), your best bet is to get a rugged, waterproof camera for underwater and the beach. This is especially true if you are around salt water.
Canon Rebel T7 camera body and two lenses.
Yes, you can get a quality, name brand DSLR with two lenses for under $500 at Canon USA. I found this particular kit at the Canon USA web site. They are refurbished items directly from Canon USA and they come with a one year warranty, the same as you get when buying a new Canon camera or lens.
Canon EOS R5
The holiday season is here and I am getting the usual questions about which digital cameras I recommend. In every price range there are some cameras that are better designed than others. How do you find them? That is what this article is all about.
Flash adapter and umbrella for a shoe-mount electronic flash.
There are a lot of practical and inexpensive (more or less) gifts for photographers. Here is a nice list of items starting at $8. To make it easy to track them down, these items are individuality linked plus most of these items can be found in the Misc Goodies section of my photography store which has direct links to Amazon.com. Prices are current as of the date of this post, but prices and availability change often. These items are not listed in order of price.
My favorite camera stores are B&H Photo, Adorama, KEH Camera, and Amazon. I will tell you why I like them, and why you should be wary of so many other online camera stores.
I was comparing the Canon PowerShot SX280 HS with other cameras with similar features (shirt pocket size, 20x zoom range) like the Panasonic Lumix ZS30. There weren’t full reviews of either camera so I went back to reviews of the Canon SX260 HS and the Panasonic ZS20, assuming the current cameras would be somewhat better than the older models and that both would have the pedigree traits of their predecessors (which is often but not always the case for a camera’s family tree).
What is “gray market” photo equipment and how does it differ from “U.S. Warranty” equipment? Gray market equipment (also called “parallel import”) is imported into the U.S. but bypasses the official U.S. distributor. Gray market equipment costs less, sometimes a lot less.
Is it a great deal? Or is it a rip-off? You are searching online for a good price and you come across a terrific deal. Are you about to get burned? There are ways you can tell.
The first rule when choosing camera gear is to buy what you can afford. It is hard to enjoy taking pictures if you are worried about how to pay for the camera you are holding. So buy what you can afford now, and upgrade later. And the second rule? We will get to that later.
Estimated Print Life from Wilhelm Imaging Research
Would you rather have a high quality print that will last up to 50 years, or a print that will fade in 5 years? That’s not all. The print with a very short life expectancy might cost more than the better quality print. People buy short life span prints all the time. Why? Because they don’t have the right information, and they may have no idea that prints have such widely different life spans.
The lab you choose and the kind of file you send to your lab can make a huge difference in the quality of prints you get back. How do you pick a good online photo lab? How do you get the best results from your lab? What color space should you use for your digital files and how do you convert your files to the right color space? How big a print can you make from your digital files?
Welcome to my online buying guide for photographers. With over 80 articles it is one of the most comprehensive photography buyer’s guides on the web.
I get lots of photo questions, especially at this time of year, and many of them begin with “What is the best . . . .” They usually come from photographers or someone who is shopping for a photographer. If you are shopping for yourself, or for a photographer in your life, this series is for you.
My “best of the best” series recommends the best photo gear, accessories, software, books, DVDs, online photo labs, and a whole lot more. Thanks to the information in these articles I get emails from photographers thanking me for saving them time, frustration, and a lot of money.
This article is updated annually in November, with some updates in between. Most recent update: November 29, 2025.
Norman Rockwell’s classic painting “Freedom from Want” was created in 1943 and was part of his Four Freedoms series. It was inspired by FDR’s annual address to Congress, January 6, 1941. That address became known as the Four Freedom’s Speech.
When I was growing up, we spent many a Thanksgiving at grandpa’s house in Haxtun Colorado. Thanksgiving was a much anticipated and happy time. We would leave home on Wednesday afternoon after dad got home from work. It was a long 7 hour drive to Grandpa’s house in those pre-interstate highway days, so it would be really late by the time we arrived.
Fall colors on the Lamoni Trail, November, 25, 2016.
We were walking the Lamoni Trail and spotted these colorful leaves and berries.
Max, Before and After ACR.
In this tutorial I will show you how to change the color balance of a RAW or JPEG file, and how to remember those changes to make the same exact changes to other files shot in the same lighting conditions.
Graceland University: Ag FFA and Business Simulation
In a prior article I shared 11 photos from a project for Graceland University. I was in the process of choosing selects. Years ago a photo editor said, “Take lots of photos and send me the very best.” Most editors don’t want to go through all of your images. It is the photographers job to go through the photos from an event and choose the best images for the editor. They are called “selects”. The editor goes through the selection and makes the final choices as to which image or images will be published.
Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) over Home Lake, Lamoni Iowa. October 10, 2025.
Comet Lemmon was not particularly bright compared to other recent comets that caught the attention of the public. Here are two views of the same image. The first image above shows you the whole frame. The comet is below and to the right of the two bright, side-by-side stars that are near the center of the frame. The tail of the comet is hard to see. This image was taken with a 50mm lens on a tripod mounted Canon 5D MArk III digital camera. The ISO was cranked up to 10,000. The exposure was a 15 seconds at f5/6. Even at that the comet is not very bright. This comet was better suited to long exposure telescope images that track the comet across the sky. Click the images to see larger versions.
High school teams work on their designs.
It was a fascinating day. Hundreds of high school students from across Iowa gathered for a fun day of activities and competition. The students were divided into teams and each team was guided by a Graceland student or professor from the business and agriculture departments.
Kaylyn
Kaylyn is a regional director for Growing Hope Globally (see the third link below) and I was taking pictures of her addressing a local church group.