Author Archives: Jim

Buyer’s Guide: Recommendations For The Best Photography Equipment, Software, Books, Magazines, DVDs, Online Photo Labs, and More

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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.

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Thanksgiving in Haxtun

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Grandpa, Grandma, and their six children.
Grandpa, Grandma, and their six children.

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.

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How to Photograph an Event and Choose Your “Selects”

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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.

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Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) vs Comet NEOWISE

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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.

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Iowa, November 17

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Autumn leaves, Lake LaShane. November 17, 2025.

Here in southern Iowa most of the deciduous trees have lost their leaves, and the leaves in the trees at Lake LaShane that were pretty and colorful just two days ago are turning brown. The fall color season is pretty much over. It was great while it lasted. In my head I can hear the Mamas and the Papas singing “All The Leaves Are Brown. . .”

Photographing the Sun, the Moon, and 8 Planets in Less than 24 Hours

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Mercury and Venus northeast of Lamoni at 6:01 am. November 16, 2020

Exposure Data: Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 50mm lens. f/4, 2.5 seconds, ISO 800. 

For quite some time I have wanted to photograph 8 planets in less than one 24 hour day, along with the sun and moon. It is not always possible due to one or more of the planets being lost in the glow of the daytime sun. Cloudy weather can get in the way too. Five years ago today, November 16, 2020, was the day. I finally had my chance and I accomplished my goal in 12 hours and 27 minutes.

I began with Venus and Mercury early in the morning. Click any of these images to see larger versions.

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Tutorial: How to Use the “Slow Shutter” iPhone app at Night

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My favorite iPhone photo apps, including the Slow Shutter app.

It started when a friend asked me how to use a long shutter speed on her iPhone. It was at night not long after the recent Northern Lights excitement all across the U.S.  I told her to get the Slow Shutter app.  This article is a brief tutorial to get you started using the app at night.

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Iowa, November 12

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Autumn Leaves, Lake LaShane. November 12, 2025.

A lot has changed over the last two days. The fall colors are fading in southern Iowa. The prettiest trees are starting to lose their color. A lot of trees are bare and trees with leaves are turning brown. I am still finding patches of color and a few trees that are hanging in there with some nice color. Like yesterday, two of those trees were at Lake LaShane.

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Northern Lights

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Northern Lights, Home Lake. November 11, 2025.

The Northern Lights over southern Iowa were the brightest I have ever seen.  A long row of cars showed up at the lake as people came to watch.  The lights filled so much of the sky that I used a 15mm lens that has a 180 degree diagonal angle of view to take most of it in.

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Cropping Options

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Trunk or Treat, Graceland Enactus program. October 31, 2025.

I recently sent a bunch of Trunk or Treat photos to the local newspaper. I generally shoot pretty close to how I want my final image to look, and then do a bit of cropping before I send the final version of each photo to the newspaper. Most photos benefit from a bit of cropping.

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