Flower Modified with Painteresque
I was walking our dog yesterday and spotted the first flowers to pop up in our neighborhood. It is starting to look like spring! This is an iPhone photo modified by Painteresque, one of my favorite iPhone apps.
California Poppies. Fremont, California.
There are a lot of places to photograph flowers in April, but one of the two best destinations for nature photographers is California for the poppies. (The other destination is the Texas Hill Country.)Â April is prime time although you can find poppies as early as late March in some areas. As an added bonus, there are a host of wildflowers blooming all across the Southwest from California to Texas.
Wyoming Ground Squirrel. Moraine Park, Rocky Mountain National Park.
The calendar says today is the first day of spring, but is it really? Depends on where you live. It still looks like a lot like winter in far northern climes and up at high elevations. No matter where you are, Happy First Day of Spring!
FB Post
This totally unexpected comment showed up on my Facebook photography timeline this evening. Kristina is an agency represented professional model/actor and we have worked together on several photo shoots, the most recent being Christmas Eve. So this comment totally made my day. In fact it made my week!
Mount Rundle, Two Jack Lake
Today I was asked by a client where I was when I took some photos in Banff National Park. I was able to provide him with the exact locations, complete with marked satellite images. It is a good idea to known where you were when you created your most important images, and the more specific the information the better. It is good info to have for your own use and sometimes it can make the difference between whether or not one of your images is published.
Framed prints in a car.
I took down my photography exhibit at “Changes” so the back seat, “passenger seat”, and trunk of my car are filled with prints. It’s a good time to talk about how to move and store framed prints.
20×30 Inch Cougar Print
One of my 20×30 inch prints before it was matted and framed for my current photo exhibit.
Jim Doty, Entrance to Photo Exhibit at Changes
This is your last chance to see my photo exhibit at Changes Salon & Spa in Columbus. There are three days left. Details follow.
From the L.A. Times
Do you want to decide on the web sites you visit on the internet, or do you want someone else to control your choices? “Net neutrality” is more at risk now than ever before. Powerful economic interests want to limit what you see on the internet and your freedom of internet choices will be restricted. Read the “Net Neutrality is Dead” article linked below.
Sarah – Window Blind Shadows Portrait
There are a lot of creative options when creating portraits using sunlight streaming through window blinds.
Kristina – Window Blind Shadows Portrait
One of the things I like about winter is the sunlight streaming through my studio windows at a low enough angle to create portraits using window blind shadows. In the summer the sun is too high for me to do this and get the angles I want.
Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams was born February 20, 2002. He is “the” icon of American landscape photography. Trained as a concert pianist, his love of photography and time spent in Yosemite National Park led him to a career change.
Vermilion Lakes Sunset, new (top) and old (bottom) 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.
Snow Hummocks, Merced River
Just like metering daytime winter scenes, the key to metering evening winter scenes is knowing what to meter and deciding how much exposure compensation to use.
Elk in the Snow, Horseshoe Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Metering dark toned wildlife in the snow is a major exposure challenge. It is usually best to avoid large “burned out” areas (washed out, featureless white) in a nature or landscape photograph, but with properly exposed snow, the wildlife can be so dark as to lose all texture. On other hand, metering for the wildlife can burn out the snow.
Kristina in the Snow
The snow in a winter scene will often fool a camera meter into underexposing a photo, so here are the steps to take to get the right exposure. I throw in a few portrait suggestions too.
Mount Hunter from a Bush Plane. Denali National Park. Alaska.
UPDATE: A revised and expanded version of this article can be found here.
Metering for scenes with a lot of snow can be tricky since the snow fools the camera meter. I see a lot of winter photos online with gray, underexposed snow, which means the camera meter did what it was designed to do and the camera owner didn’t know how to use exposure compensation. The solution is quite simple provided you know what to do.
Moraine Park in Late Evening Light. Click the image to see a larger version.
Rocky Mountain National Park can be beautiful any time of year, including late February when I created this image. It’s not too late to catch the splendor of a RMNP winter, and February is a good month to go.
Cougar
With the wind chill in the minus 30s lately, I asked myself, “Who would be crazy enough to be outside in this weather?” Then I remembered taking this photo.
Kristina
It isn’t just the photo shoot that matters. Some of my favorite images happen before the shoot.
Kristina at Christmas
On Christmas eve I found myself doing Christmas portraits for a friend’s portfolio (she is an agency represented model). There isn’t a lot of space in our living room when the Christmas tree is up so I had to improvise a bit with the lighting and I needed to get the right mix of flash and ambient light for the look I wanted.
Snowy Owl Sightings, January 2014
This is your year to photograph Snowy Owls since this is one of the best years ever for Snowy Owl sightings in the U.S., especially in the Northeast (map above). Snowy Owls are ranging much farther south than usual this winter.
Expectations
To my eyes there are very few things on the planet that are as beautiful as a mother looking forward to the birth of her child. I love beautiful “baby bump” photography.
In the January 2014 issue of Pixology magazine, Tim Grey recommends Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies. Tim is a highly respected and sought after digital photography expert and workshop presenter. The composite image above is part of the cover page and part of the page with book recommendations (page 82). Click on the image to see a larger version.
Great gift for the photographer in your life. Order today (Saturday) at Amazon and ask for two day delivery. This is one of the highest rated photography books at Amazon.com. It covers the “basics” like other “Dummies” books but it covers intermediate and advanced photography skills too. You are getting a beginners book and an advanced book all for the price of one book. Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies is highly recommended by beginners and professionals alike and it has received top reviews from photography magazines. Lean more here and order it at Amazon.com.
Gifts for Photographers
Looking for the best photo gifts for a photographer? You’ve come to the right place. I have dozens of gift recommendations with prices starting around $7.
(Originally posted Nov. 13, 2013. Updated Dec. 20, 2013.)
Copyright Certificate of Registration
Question: So….You have to get a copyright on each photo, not a group of them, right? Is it a hassle? I’ve thought of doing it from time to time.
Originally posted Dec. 19, 2013, Updated Dec. 13, 2016.
The best of the best cameras, accessories, photo books and more.
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 throughout the holiday season, some of them extensively. The list of linked articles follows.
(Originally posted Nov. 13, 2013. Updated Dec. 18, 2013)
Kirk Enterprises BH-3 Ball Head with Arca-Swiss style quick release
The short list.
3-Way Tripod heads:
Manfrotto 056 3D Junior Head (replaces 3025)
Manfrotto 3025
Manfrotto 115 3D Super Junior Head (replaces 3028)
Manfrotto 410 Junior Geared Head
Ball Heads:
Slik Pro Ballhead 800
Kirk Enterprises BH-3
Kirk Enterprises BH-1
Really Right Stuff BH-40
Really Right Stuff BH-55
Looking for a tripod? Choose wisely. Other than a camera and a good lens, nothing can make a bigger difference in your photography than a good tripod. This is the place to find information, recommended models, and links to more information.