If you are looking for bright, colorful subjects to photograph, head for the nearest festival. If you live in one of the nation’s big cities, there are probably several major festivals to choose from. If you don’t, do a little research. Google is your friend.
Category Archives: Lenses
Vegetarian Spider?
I found this common house spider in our kitchen sink, hanging on to this pea which was suspended from an overnight web. The spider wasn’t moving at all so I touched it gently with the tip of a pen to see if it was alive. It quickly ran up a strand of its web. I left it alone and it eventually came back to the object of it’s interest, the pea. It was time to take some pictures.
How to Shoot a Parade
If you are going to photograph a parade, sometimes the best point of view is from the middle of the street and close to the ground. It also helps if you spent several years doing photography for a newspaper. Equipment is important too.
How To Do A Business Headshot
A business headshot requires pretty even lighting.This portrait was created with three studio lights against a black backdrop, a main light, a fill light, and a hair light.
How To Photograph City Lights at Night From a Commercial Jet
There are serious challenges to photographing city lights at night from a commercial jet. Here are some suggestions that will help.
The Best of the Best: Photography Recommendations For The Best Photo Gear, Books, Software, and Online Photo Labs
This time each year I put together a collection of articles recommending the best photo gear, books, DVDs, software, calendars, online photo labs, and a whole lot more. The articles are revised every year, some of them extensively. Here’s the list of linked articles.
Digital Cameras and the “Field of View” Crop
What is a “field of view” crop on a digital camera? What difference does it make if your camera is full frame, or has a field of view crop? It makes a BIG difference, so I just updated my illustrated article on the digital field of view crop. It will help you understand how to work with your lenses and how to chose lenses that will work best with your camera (and a warning about lenses that won’t work with, or could even damage some cameras).
Two Sons and Two Spiders
I visited my two sons over Memorial Day weekend, and coincidentally, both of them have spiders living in their homes (with their blessings).
What to Do When A Lens Quits Working
It is an unhappy thing when a lens quits working normally, or stops altogether, complete with some kind of error message on the camera body. The good news is that you can usually bring your lens back to life and it only takes a few seconds to a few minutes to do. Details are here.
Choosing Photo Gear For Airline Travel
Traveling by plane severely limits the amount of camera equipment you can take with you. As lots of photographers will attest, take everything with you as carry-on gear, NOT in your checked luggage. The airlines will NOT reimburse you for lost or damaged photographic equipment (see my comments toward the end of this article). If your checked luggage goes astray, everything you need should be with you in your carry-on luggage. And you need a backup plan in case something quits working.
LENS REVIEW: Tokina AT-X PRO SD 12-24mm F4 IF Lens
For some time now, I’ve been recommending this lens to friends looking for a high quality, super wide-angle lens. It’s not quite as wide as the 10mm super wide-angle lenses, but it makes up for it in superior image quality. If I didn’t have a Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens for my digital camera with an APS-C sensor size, I would be using the Tokina 12-24mm lens.
DPReview recently posted an on online review of this lens. The result isn’t surprising:
“The 12-24mm returns extremely good results in our studio tests, with impressive image quality across the range. Perhaps as a result of its more modest wideangle ambitions, it comprehensively outperforms both the Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di-II and the Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC HSM. Indeed overall it’s arguably a better performer on APS-C than Olympus’s ZD 9-18mm F4-5.6 is on Four Thirds – no mean feat.” Source.
Not only is this a great lens, it is on sale this week at Adorama.
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Tokina 12mm – 24mm f/4 PRO DX Autofocus Zoom Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras.
Sale Price $399
$100 price drop
Free Shipping
http://www.adorama.com/TN1224EOS.html?emailprice=t&KBID=57428
CANON EF vs EF-S LENS CONFUSION
A recent discussion at a popular web site reveals the continuing confusion over the differences between Canon EF and EF-S lenses. Bad advice from camera stores does not help.
REVIEW: CANON EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM LENS
The new Canon EF 70-200 mm f/4L IS lens
The new Canon EF 70-200 mm f/4L IS USM lens is now available. This is a great lens!
2nd LOOK: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L lens
I wrote about this lens when it was announced last August. Enough reviews have been posted to give this lens a second look. The news is very good. Read more at my article here.
You can buy this lens in this section of my Amazon powered photography store.