iPhone photography has become a huge thing. According to Flickr, their millions of users take more pictures with an iPhone (47%) than any other camera. A lot of iPhone photographers are looking for add on lenses for their phone, and that may include you. So which lenses are the best?
Posted Sep, 19, 2017. Revised and expanded Dec. 2, 2017.
The ads for these smart phone telephoto lenses keep popping up on Facebook and elsewhere online. How much do they really cost and why do the prices vary so much?
Posted Sep. 18, 2017. Expanded Dec. 2, 2017.
12X telephoto camera phone lens vs DSLR and zoom lens. Click for a larger version.
I see the ads for smart phone lenses on Facebook almost every day. You click on the link and you read an article that says their telephoto smart phone lens has “been tested, and found to equal or exceed the photos produced by such top makers as Zeiss, Leica, Nikon, Canon and Sony.” It is all utter nonsense of course, meant to fool clueless people into spending $56 or more on a poor quality lens that they could buy for as little as $4.00. So I decided to buy one of these lenses on the cheap and do my own comparison test.
Posted Sep. 18, 2017. Revised and expanded Dec. 12, 2017.
The short answer? Yes, it sucks. Long answer? Watch the video.
Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
What are the best national parks to photograph in the fall? Here are my choices, grouped by state and province from west to east. This list includes the favorites I have been to, plus the ones I most want to see based on the recommendations of the photographers I trust, like Tim Fitzharris and QT Luong. More about them later.
Long’s Peak and Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park
Fall is a fabulous time of year to visit the national parks. Crowds are usually smaller than in the summer, temperatures are cooler, and some of our national parks have glorious fall colors. With so many to choose from, where should you go? Which national parks will provide the best photographic opportunities in the fall?
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.
Maroon Bells and Maroon Lake. Mid-morning. September 24, 2015.
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 Colorado fall color travel guide with over 100 pages of information (if you print it all out), 114 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 few days to three weeks exploring the beautiful Colorado Rockies at a gorgeous time of year.
The ads show up on FaceBook all the time. They talk about wonderful lenses that will turn your smart phone into a camera that is better than a DSLR costing thousands of dollars. They brag about German engineering, a NASA optical formula, or the testing that proves their lenses are better than expensive lenses from Nikon, Zeiss, Leica, or Canon. The names of the companies change on a regular basis, but the scam is the same. Sad to say, a lot of people actually fall for this nonsense.
Posted Sep. 12, 2017. Updated Feb. 12, 2018.
Wholesale Chinese camera phone lenses from GlobalSources.com.
How do $2 – $3 Chinese camera phone lenses get sold as marvels of German engineering for $50 or more? It is all very simple.
Posted Sep, 12, 2017. Expanded Dec. 2, 2017.
This compilation of news reports captures the essence of that morning better than almost any other video on YouTube.
Photographer Chip East was staring intensely at his laptop screen.
It was two weeks after two jetliners had plowed into the towers of the World Trade Center. His good friend, photojournalist Bill Biggart’s body had been recovered from the rubble. His personal effects, including his cameras had been released by authorities to his widow, Wendy.
Bill Biggart’s final photograph. He was killed when the second World Trade Center tower collapsed on top of him. He was 53 years old.
Photo by James Nachtwey for TIME magazine.
I will never forget staring at the screen. I was stunned. It was just a few moments after I got the phone call to turn on the TV. Then the second plane hit.
On this date, sixteen years ago, we experienced a great national tragedy in the United States. Not only in the lives that were lost in the terrorist attacks, the families torn asunder, and the emergency responders who suffered and continue to suffer terrible health problems as a result of working at the scene – but also in the way we view ourselves and our world. Over the last 12 months since 9/11/2016, 33 more first responders died of health issues related to 9/11.
In remembrance of that day, and to honor the lives that were lost, I am posting some tributes.
Sunspots at the end of the solar eclipse. Click for a larger version.
One of the treats of the Great American Eclipse was the abundance of sunspots. They slowly disappeared as the moon moved in front of the sun, and reappeared as the moon continued on its journey.
Solar flares on the sun’s western and southwestern limb. Click for a larger version.
It was my goal to capture the sun’s corona during totality of the solar eclipse, but I was not expecting solar flares. That was a happy accident because there just happened to be giant solar eruptions on the sun’s western limb during the eclipse. Continue reading
The Sun’s Corona during a total eclipse. The star Regulus is to the left. Click for a larger version.
Totality of an eclipse is an extraordinary and never to be forgotten experience. It is one of nature’s grandest spectacles. The eclipse glasses come off and people are rapt in wonder. Where I was, everyone and everything went silent. When totality ended as the sun emerged a cheer went up and there was spontaneous applause. It is no small wonder people get eclipse fever and are already planning for the next eclipse in 2024.
In this photo taken just a few minutes before totality you can see a sunspot between the edge of the sun and the approaching edge of the moon. This is one of my favorite pre-totality images.
Timed sequence, the Great American Eclipse, August 21, 2017. Click the image for a larger version.
This image tracks the progress of the sun across the sky as it is progressively covered and uncovered by the moon. Here’s how this image was created.
Solar flares at the beginning of totality. Click for a larger version.
The Great American Eclipse will cross the United States August 21, 2017. This is the best total solar eclipse in the U.S. in 38 years. This series of articles is your guide to the best information about the eclipse.
Originally posted June 26, 2017. Updated periodically and re-posted July 25 and August 20. Most recent update: September 5, 2017. There are now 42 articles in this series. The most important articles are indicated below.
If you want to do time lapse photography of the eclipse with a stationary lens, you need to know the changing elevation of the sun and how far it will travel across the sky. And then you need to know which lens will have a wide enough and high enough angle of view to take it all in.
If you are changing eclipse locations at the last minute (or just getting started) and looking for cities along the totality path, here is a fast way to find them and check out eclipse details.
Most landscape and nature photographers shoot early and late in the day, and move around a lot, so shooting the eclipse will be a new and different thing. Here are some basic things you should do to protect yourself and your camera. Plus I have an important reminder for your car. Continue reading
It is looking iffy in the hinterland right now, but don’t give up all hope just yet. The Washington Post says their overall forecast confidence is “medium” two days ahead of the big event. The confidence level will go up as we get closer to the eclipse. They are posting a new prediction every day. If you have a flexible schedule you can still change your eclipse travel plans to head to a less cloudy place. That is my plan. This will be my last update of the Washington Post eclipse forecast.
You can do HDR (high dynamic range) photography during the totality phase of the eclipse and combine the images later using software like Photoshop or Photomatix.
The August 21 forecast for four prime eclipse cities as of 2 pm August 16, 2017.
If you have the flexibility to travel to any of several prime eclipse locations it is getting harder and harder to keep track of the eclipse weather and make a final location decision. The forecast is changing daily for several locations. My process for making a final location decision might be helpful to you as you make your final eclipse plans.
Image circle with full frame and cropped sensor marks.
The sensors in many digital SLRs (DSLRs) are smaller than a full frame digital sensor which is about the size of 35mm film (24x36mm). When a lens that was originally designed for a full frame digital sensor is put on a cropped sensor camera body, the field of view is different. The image created looks like the focal length of the lens has been magnified so this is sometimes called the “magnification factor”. A 100mm lens on a digital camera with a 1.6x magnification factor produces an image that looks like a 160mm lens on a “full frame” DSLR or 35mm film camera.
Lens focal length and relative size in the camera frame.
The longer the focal length of your lens, the bigger the sun will be in your frame. That is why I recommend 70-300mm, 100-400mm, 150-600mm, and similar zoom lenses when photographing the sun.