Lunar Eclipse, Super Blood Moon, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Sunday evening, September 27, I was leading a photography workshop in Rocky Mountain National Park. We were in pursuit (along with half the rest of the world) of the eclipse of the “Super Blood Moon”.
The Maroon Bells and Maroon Lake by Moonlight with the Milky Way. Colorado. Click to see a larger version.
The Maroon Bells deserve their reputation as one of the best photo locations in the state of Colorado, especially in the fall. They look just as spectacular by moonlight. It is an added bonus if you get a hint of the Milky Way in the frame (left side of the image). It won’t be as sharp and defined as on a dark night without the moon, but it will be there.
Aspen and Evergreens, Marshall Pass, Colorado. September 25, 1990
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.
Welcome to my first Colorado fall color travel guide with 100 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 two days to two weeks exploring the beautiful Colorado Rockies at a gorgeous time of year.
Autumn, Tahquamenon Falls, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
The update of this article is here.
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.
Dawn at Sprague Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park
The exposure compensation scale on your camera is one of the keys to mastering exposures, getting better images, and ending up with professional quality colors. This means taking your camera off of full auto mode and taking control of your own exposures.
Northern Lights over Lake Michigan. Click to see a larger image.
It was an amazing night for Northern Lights in Northern Michigan, and I was leading a photography workshop. What a treat for all the photographers! I specifically picked this location on Lake Michigan so we would have the lake, some trees for framing the image and a good view in the expected direction of the Northern Lights.
Forget-Me-Nots, Thorne-Swift Nature Preserve, Michigan
Today’s question came by email. I am posting the question and my answer below. The person asking the question uses Canon gear but the information below also applies to Nikon and other brands.
Question From “D”: I have been looking at a 58mm closeup lens for my Canon camera. I am also looking at closeup filters for my 28-55mm or 55-250mm Canon lenses. What do you recommend I get?
Proud Rooster, String of Pearls, Emira Michigan
On the way home from my photography workshop in Northern Michigan, my eyes were drawn to all kinds of vivid colors as I drove through the village of Elmira. I made a mental note to stop and take pictures the next time I was up that way. (If you have been in one of my recent workshops – I was going to put a reminder in “Field Notes” the next time I stopped for a break.)
If you walk out the back door of your favorite restaurant, you never know who you might find in the back alley parking lot.
Light Path of the International Space Station. August 1, 2015. 10:05 – 10:09 pm EDT. Click to see a larger version.
The International Space Station (ISS) passes over Columbus Ohio. It isn’t that hard to find and it is relatively easy to photograph. In this photo the light path curves below the center of the frame from lower left to upper right (click to see a larger image). There are also airplane lights in the lower right corner of the frame. The stars are slightly streaked due to the motion of the earth during the long photograph.
Great Egret. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Fremont, California. June 8, 2015.
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.
Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. September 29, 2014.
I am SO looking forward to my annual fall color trip to Colorado. I will be doing a three day photography workshop* at Rocky Mountain National Park (September 25-27) as well as doing one-on-one sessions with individual photographers who want to up their game in the shortest possible time (September 28-29). Plus I will be doing some wandering on my own. It is hard to beat Colorado in the fall.
Aspen and Evergreens, Marshall Pass, Colorado. September 25, 1990
UPDATE: The most recent and updated version of this article is here.
Welcome to my first Colorado fall color travel guide with 99 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 two days to two weeks exploring the beautiful Colorado Rockies at a gorgeous time of year.
The Strip, Las Vegas with Fireworks
You can point your camera at the sky in auto exposure and autofocus modes and fire away whenever you see a burst of fireworks, but for the best quality photos, it helps to know a few tricks of the trade. It’s easy when you know what to do.
Jupiter and Venus over Big Red lighthouse and Holland State Park, Michigan. May 16, 2015.
Tonight is the night for the “Star of Bethlehem” conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. They will come within 1/3 of a degree of each other in the western sky.
Black-crowned Night Heron. DSLR vs iPhone.
“Will camera phones replace DSLRs?” I get asked that a lot lately. Camera phones have already replaced point and shoot cameras for a lot of snap-shooters. But for photographers that need the serious benefits and advantages of a DSLR, that isn’t going to happen now or any time in the near future.
(Click on any of the images in this article to see a larger version.)
Male Northern Cardinal Bringing Food to the Nest
It took about 3 1/2 weeks and a lot of patience to get this photo. I was ready from day one but the breeding pair weren’t.
Female Northern Cardinal with food for her nestlings.
A mated pair of Northern Cardinals raised their spring brood in our yard. This female with food in her mouth landed in a nearby tree before flying into a bush to feed her nestlings.
Wood Poppy (Celandine Poppy), West Lake Nature Preserve.
On my way home from my photography workshop in Grand Rapids/Holland, another photographer and I stopped at West Lake Nature Preserve in Portage, Michigan. It is one of my favorite nature photography locations in southwest Michigan. Something is happening there most any time of year.
Panorama of the Stivers Photo Auction. Click to see a much larger version.
You can create panoramic images with ACR 9.0 and this article tells you how.
The really great news is you can now open RAW camera files, stitch them together with ACR 9.0 (Adobe Camera Raw version 9) and output the panorama as a RAW file in the Adobe DNG format. Why is this such a big deal? This means you can go back any time, re-open the RAW file and tweak it again with all the advantages of RAW image processing. It is also a huge time saver from when we had to process each individual RAW file, output it as a PSD or TIF file, and then stitch them all together. I will walk you through the process of creating a RAW pano with ACR.
Vermilion Lakes Sunset, new (top) and old (bottom) ACR “process versions”. Click on the photo to see a larger image.
Adobe’s newest “process version” for Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) provides better image processing for your RAW camera files. Photos you have processed with an older process version can look even better with the new version. For your images to look their very best you need to have the latest process version.
Each year in the spring, Stivers School for the Arts in Dayton Ohio has an annual fund raising auction to support the photography department. Students at the school exhibit their work at the auction, plus a group of professional fine art photographers from around the world are invited to donate work for the auction. That is how I came to be involved. This was my first year.
This gallery contains 32 photos.
Last Light on El Capitan, Yosemite National Park
In addition to all of the usual photographic challenges, winter provides some extra complications, especially in terms of metering. So I began my series of articles on winter photography. This year I revised three prior articles and added six new ones. They will help you meet the unique challenges of winter photography. So read the articles, get out there, have fun, and create some stunning images!
Denali Sunrise from Reflection Pond
The Sunny f16 rule is really useful on bright sunny days in the spring, summer, and fall, but you can’t rely on it in winter. It will often lead you astray. There are much more accurate ways to meter in the winter.
Storm Clouds Rolling In. (Click to see a larger version.)
Storm clouds rolling in over Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Photo Data: Canon 7D. Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 120 mm. 1/200 sec, f/11, ISO 100.
Cascade, Barry, and Coxe Glaciers, Prince William Sound, Alaska
Exposure compensation is one of the most important keys to good exposures, great images, and the best colors your digital camera is capable of producing. Knowing your camera’s snow exposure latitude is one of the keys to using exposure compensation in a winter scene. It is different for every camera model. You won’t find it in your camera’s manual but it is easy to determine with a simple test.
Horses at sunset, western Michigan
I spent a day in western Michigan scouting field trip locations for a photography workshop. With the day almost over, I was driving south on M-40 near Allegan when the clouds began to part and some beautiful light began to develop to the west.
Bryce Canyon After An Overnight Snowstorm
Cold and snow can cause a lot of damage to your camera gear. A few simple steps could save you hundreds of dollars in repair bills.
Twilight, Rocky Mountain National Park. Sirius, Canis Major, Orion, Taurus, the Hyades star cluster, and the Pleiades star cluster are all visible in the fading light. Click for a larger version.
You can photograph the night sky year around, but winter brings an added bonus: SNOW! Instead of the black, silhouetted skyline you get most of the year, in winter you have the possibility of including the highly reflective snow. That is why for many photographers winter is their favorite time of year to photograph the night sky.