Dawn, scenic overlook. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Exposure for the sky.
In a single exposure your camera can’t capture everything your eyes see in high contrast situations with a wide range of tonalities. HDR photography gives you more options.
Update, November 18, 2017: An updated version of this article is posted here.
The clouds were rolling in and the sun dropped behind the mountains when my photography workshop stopped in a parking lot just above “Fern Curve” in Rocky Mountain National Park. Mother nature didn’t provide a sunset so we were on Plan B and then Plan C. It was starting to get dark when we began taking photos. As it gets darker there are some interesting color shifts I wanted the workshop participants to see and photograph.
Bull elk, Rocky Mountain National Park.
Autumn, Tahquamenon Falls, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Fall color is sweeping the country. To make the most of it, you want to be at the right place at the right time. With some help from the internet, I will help you find the best fall color locations at the peak of the season.
Mt. Sneffels and the Sneffels Range from County Road 7 (East Dallas Creek), Colorado. October 3, 2014.
Welcome to my Colorado fall color travel guide with 104 photos and 17 maps. I cover some of the best known fall color locations in Colorado, and one real gem of a road that is mostly unknown to photographers and leaf peepers. Spend anywhere from a weekend to three weeks exploring the beautiful Colorado Rockies at a gorgeous time of year.
This article is updated and re-posted every year. To find the most recent version, go to the Favorites/Most Popular page and look for the name of this article.
Come spend a fun and exciting weekend learning how to take your nature photography to the next level. It is September 23-25 in beautiful Rocky Mountain National Park. There are only a few openings left. Now is the time to sign up.
Tiana Hunter
If you are out hiking and a beautiful woman asks you to take her picture, you should probably says yes!
I walked out the door after church Sunday and was greeted by perfect portrait light thanks to a big cloud over the sun. I love spontaneous shoots and I have been shooting this young woman since she was three years old (along with the rest of her family).
Today is National Lighthouse Day. In this photo the planets Venus and Jupiter are in the sky over the lighthouse “Big Red†and the Holland breakwater light, Holland State Park, Michigan.
Kristina
I spent a happy day yesterday working with Kristina, an actress/model from L.A. It was very much a last minute thing for both of us. We have been working together since 2012 when she was in college.
Snowy Egret Feeding
Some days are “so so”, some days are average, and some days are amazing. This is not the best time of year to photograph birds at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, but July 14 was amazing. This photo of a feeding Snowy Egret was just one of many fine images from the morning. He stabbed at his prey and it came out of the water but not in his beak.
The view across the wildlife refuge looking west at the Dumbarton Bridge.
Located on the east side of San Francisco Bay near Fremont, California, the Don Edwards San Fransisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge is one of my favorite places to go when I am in the Bay Area.
Images from Denali, Arches, Bryce Canyon, and Rocky Mountain National Parks.
The National Park Service turns 100 this year. Go out and celebrate by going to one of our national parks. Take your camera and create images at some of the most spectacular locations in North America.
Come spend a fun and exciting weekend on Gibraltar Island learning how to take your nature photography to the next level. August 19-21, 2016. Intensive exploration sessions are combined with “use your camera” photo exercises and “go out and do it” field trips to give you the ideal photographic experience.
The Vietnam Women’s Memorial, Washington D.C.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Washington D.C. Click for a larger version.
Richard Duane Klug (the name just above the rose) was born January 26, 1946. He died in Darlac Province, Vietnam, November 14, 1967 at the age of 21. He is one of over 58,000 American soldiers that died in Vietnam, and one of over 1.1 million American soldiers that have died in all American wars (almost half of them in the Civil War). It is with a profound sense of gratitude that I reflect on the lives of those who “gave the last full measure of devotion” on behalf of their country.
My concept was to photograph a young woman in a stream with reflections of her and the trees in the ripples of the water. I had just the right stream in mind and at this time of year there was just enough water. This isn’t the pose I originally had in mind. More about that later.
This tutorial will guide you through the basic color selection tools in Photoshop. Other kinds of image editing software will have a different layout, but similar tools. Before you go through this tutorial, read Learning Photoshop Colors – A Color Picker Tutorial. It covers some Photoshop color information that is basic to understanding this tutorial.
Vermilion Lakes Sunset, new and old ACR “process versions”. Click on the photo to see a larger image.
Adobe has a new “process version” for Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). This means better image processing for your RAW camera files.
Great Egret. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Fremont, California.
When I posted this photo on one of my Facebook pages, a friend posted this comment:
“I LOVE this egret photo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at the right wing trailing in the water. How DO you capture these?!”
That is an excellent question.
One Day in Utah.
When I left home headed for Northern California I had no intentions of being in Southern Utah. By the time I reached Denver, snow in the forecast for N. Utah, Nevada, and the mountain passes in N. California made a detour much more appealing than fighting snow on I-80, especially since I have never been to the spectacular parks and monuments in Southern Utah.
California Poppies. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge
After a week of clouds and rain, our last morning in Fremont California was the only morning that started out bright and sunny. I needed to pack for our flight home but I made one last quick trip to the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. It is one of my favorite places to go early in the morning when we are visiting family in the Bay Area.
California Ground Squirrel. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge
To most wildlife, humans on foot look like predators. Cars do not. Staying in your car and driving through a photo rich environment is the start of great plan, but there are some other things you need to do for this plan to work.
CAPTURING NATURE’S WONDERS – Photograph Workshops
Grand Rapids Michigan – May 14, 2016
Lake Charlevoix Michigan – August 19-21, 2016
I am excited about my nature photography workshops in Michigan this year. My one day workshop near Grand Rapids will be May 14 and I will be doing a weekend workshop in Northern Michigan on Lake Charlevoix August 19-21.
Come spend a fun, exciting, action-packed day or weekend learning how to take your photography to the next level. In the intensive classroom explorations you will learn the steps that make the difference between ordinary snapshots and extraordinary images. Minutes later you will be practicing those steps with your own camera. Learn the secrets of the pros and how to apply their tips and techniques to create your own eye-popping images.
Photograph by Jim Doty Photography
Kristina Jimenez is a model/actress working in L.A. She has a new web site and my photo is featured on her home page (screen capture above).
California Poppies (Eschscholzia californica), the California State flower.
It is poppy season in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Shorebirds in flight. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
Weather can have a lot to do with finding wildlife. After several days of rain and very few shorebirds to be seen, the rain stopped, the weather began to clear and the San Francisco Bay exploded with shorebirds.
Power towers and power lines.
Power towers and power lines at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. iPhone photo processed in the phone with the Snapseed and PS Express apps.
Power Tower in the Rain. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
My mission was to photograph wild birds at the wildlife refuge in Fremont California. That was not going to happen. I had rain. So I made the most of it shooting a power tower through the rain drops on the windshield. I chose to focus on the rain drops rather than the tower. iPhone photo.