Many photographers say Light: Science and Magic is THE best book on photographic lighting – and I agree with them. If you intend to be seriously involved in photography, this book should be on your required reading list.
Some of the Best All Purpose Photography Books
Out of hundreds of books in my photography library, these are my favorite all purpose photography books. This is a list of the books that were the most helpful to me when I took a serious interest in photography, and I continue to refer to them. These books were written back when film was king, but that makes them all the more valuable to today’s digital photographers. Some digital photography books get so bogged down in digital technical information that the heart and soul of photography can get lost. The best film photography books are about the heart and soul of photography. They are light and shadow, subjects, form, texture, line and shape, and visual impact – all of which applies to digital photography.
Thanksgiving in Haxtun
When I was growing up, we spent many a Thanksgiving at grandpa’s house in Haxtun Colorado. Thanksgiving was a much anticipated and happy time. We would leave home on Wednesday afternoon after dad got home from work. It was a long 7 hour drive to Grandpa’s house in those pre-interstate highway days, so it would be really late by the time we arrived.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Best Panorama Gear: Living in Panorama Heaven
My Favorite Smart Phone Tripod Mounts
After seeing too many incidents when smart phones popped out of their tripod mounts and came crashing to the ground, I decided it was time to write this article.
Tripod Head Recommendations: Some of the Best of the Best
A good tripod head will save you lots of frustration. For still photography I recommend two types of tripod heads. If you do a little of everything you will want a quality ball head for the quick and easy aiming of the camera. If you only do landscape or architectural photography and you want precise separate controls in each axis of motion, you will want a 3-way head.
Tripod Recommendations: The Best of the Best
The Best Closeup Photography Equipment
There are several ways to do closeup photography. Closeup filters, extension tubes, and macro lenses are the most commonly used options. The best gear for you depends on your preferences, how you want to work, the subjects you are after, how much stuff you want to carry, and how much you want to spend. I cover your best options.
Get Sharper Images By Using The Best Lens Calibration Tools
A lot of photographers have discovered their almost sharp lens was actually a very sharp lens once they tweaked the micro-adjustment settings. You will get sharper images if you adjust the settings for your specific camera and lens combinations. You do this using the micro-adjustment settings in the camera menu along with a lens calibration tool which you can buy or make yourself.
How to Choose the Best iPhone Lenses
The Best Rugged Digital Cameras for Underwater and the Beach
Water, sand, and grit can wreak havoc with ordinary cameras, so unless you have a waterproof case for your camera (more about that later), your best bet is to get a rugged, waterproof camera for underwater and the beach. This is especially true if you are around salt water.
Choosing an Inexpensive Canon DSLR and Lenses for Video and Still Work
Do you want to buy a Canon DSLR and/or lenses on a budget? Is video quality important to you? This article is for you.
Inexpensive Gifts (Starting at $8) for Photographers
There are a lot of practical and inexpensive (more or less) gifts for photographers. Here is a nice list of items starting at $8. To make it easy to track them down, these items are individuality linked plus most of these items can be found in the Misc Goodies section of my photography store which has direct links to Amazon.com. Prices are current as of the date of this post, but prices do fluctuate. Some items can be temporarily unavailable. These items are not listed in order of price.
My Favorite Online Camera Stores
My favorite camera stores are B&H Photo, Adorama, KEH Camera, and Amazon. I will tell you why I like them, and why you should be wary of so many other online camera stores.
Camera Choices: Using Full Size Test Images from DPReview.com
I was comparing the Canon PowerShot SX280 HS with other cameras with similar features (shirt pocket size, 20x zoom range) like the Panasonic Lumix ZS30. There weren’t full reviews of either camera so I went back to reviews of the Canon SX260 HS and the Panasonic ZS20, assuming the current cameras would be somewhat better than the older models and that both would have the pedigree traits of their predecessors (which is often but not always the case for a camera’s family tree).
Should You Buy “Gray Market” Photo Equipment?
Buy What You Can Afford!
The first rule when choosing camera gear is to buy what you can afford. It is hard to enjoy taking pictures if you are worried about how to pay for the camera you are holding. So buy what you can afford now, and upgrade later. And the second rule? We will get to that later.
Great Deal? Don’t Get Burned!
Is it a great deal? Or is it a rip-off? You are searching online for a good price and you come across a terrific deal. Are you about to get burned? There are ways you can tell.
The Best Digital Cameras for 2023 (Including 2015 – 2022)
The holiday season is here and I am getting the usual questions about which digital cameras I recommend. In every price range there are some cameras that are better designed than others. How do you find them? That is what this article is all about.
How Long Will Your Photo Lab Prints Last Without Fading?
Would you rather have a high quality print that will last up to 50 years, or a print that will fade in 5 years? That’s not all. The print with a very short life expectancy might cost more than the better quality print. People buy short life span prints all the time. Why? Because they don’t have the right information, and they may have no idea that prints have such widely different life spans.
How to Get the Best Results from the Best Online Photo Labs
The lab you choose and the kind of file you send to your lab can make a huge difference in the quality of prints you get back. How do you pick a good online photo lab? How do you get the best results from your lab? What color space should you use for your digital files and how do you convert your files to the right color space? How big a print can you make from your digital files?
Buyer’s Guide: Recommendations For The Best Photography Equipment, Software, Books, Magazines, DVDs, Online Photo Labs, and More
Welcome to my online buying guide for photographers. With over 75 articles it is one of the most comprehensive photography buyer’s guides on the web.
I get lots of photo questions, especially at this time of year, and many of them begin with “What is the best . . . .” They usually come from photographers or someone who is shopping for a photographer. If you are shopping for yourself, or for a photographer in your life, this series is for you.
My “best of the best” series recommends the best photo gear, accessories, software, books, DVDs, online photo labs, and a whole lot more. Thanks to the information in these articles I get emails from photographers thanking me for saving them time, frustration, and a lot of money.
This article is published annually in November with regular updates. Re-posted November 20, 2023. Most recent update: December 8, 2023.
Get a Quality DSLR and Two Lenses for Less Than $600
Yes, you can get a quality, name brand Canon DLSR with two lenses for under $600 at Canon USA. I found these particular specials this evening for a total of $570. If you buy both specials you get a camera and two lenses.
Adobe Bridge: Finding an Original Photo
It started with a text message from my brother John that included this sunset photo. He found it somewhere on one of my websites. He was asking technical questions about the original photo that I could not answer without finding the original photo and checking the size in MB and dimensions in pixels. I knew at first glance that this is a sunset photo of Lake Michigan that was taken at Thorne Swift Nature Preserve which is not far from Harbor Springs Michigan. I was leading a photo workshop field trip when I created this image. It was taken several years ago but I had no idea what year or the specific date. But that was simple to figure out. Using Adobe Bridge it would take only a few seconds.
Veterans Day
Graceland University Symphonic Band, November 3, 2023
Click the images to see larger versions.
Graceland University Jazz Ensemble, November 3, 2023
Click images to see a larger version.
Making Notes on a Volleyball Match
When I send photos to the local newspaper I like to make sure they are accurately captioned. By the time I download the photos after a volleyball match, with some rare exceptions, I can’t look at a photo and remember which actions resulted in a point and which didn’t. So I make notes on a 3×5 card. Right after I take a photo of an important moment in the match, I write down the photo number, what happened, and who did it. Take the above photo for example. You can see the ball crossing the net but you can’t tell from this still photo whether or not the other team returned the ball or not. That is where my notes come in.