The view across the wildlife refuge looking west at the Dumbarton Bridge.
Located on the east side of San Francisco Bay near Fremont, California, the Don Edwards San Fransisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge is one of my favorite places to go when I am in the Bay Area.
Images from Denali, Arches, Bryce Canyon, and Rocky Mountain National Parks.
The National Park Service turns 100 this year. Go out and celebrate by going to one of our national parks. Take your camera and create images at some of the most spectacular locations in North America.
Protestor and Police in Baton Rouge. Photo by Jonathan Bachman. Click for a larger version.
Every once in a while a photographer is in the right place at the right time with the instincts and skills to pull off a great image. This photograph could become a classic. Photo editor’s are already calling Jonathan Bachman’s image “iconic”. It is a powerful image.
Come spend a fun and exciting weekend on Gibraltar Island learning how to take your nature photography to the next level. August 19-21, 2016. Intensive exploration sessions are combined with “use your camera” photo exercises and “go out and do it” field trips to give you the ideal photographic experience.
Either this guy is one of the the busiest and most talented men on the planet or something is very suspicious. I found 17 different identities for this guy that are fit to share in this article (and some that aren’t).
Posted July 10, 2016. Links section updated January 24, 2018.
The Adobe software pinned to my start menu.
I have several version of Adobe software on my computer and some of them are pinned to my start window. Why? I am glad you asked.
Come spend a fun and exciting weekend learning how to take your nature photography to the next level. It is September 23-25 in beautiful Rocky Mountain National Park. There are only a few openings left. Now is the time to sign up.
Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1800
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.â€
From the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4, 1776. Written by Thomas Jefferson (1762-1826). 3rd US President (1801-09).
More images (including Thomas Jefferson’s original draft and George Washington’s personal copy) and the complete text follows the break.
There are only a couple of openings left. Come spend a fun and exciting weekend learning how to take your nature photography to the next level. The weekend is August 12-14 on beautiful Lake Charlevoix in northern Michigan. Now is the time to sign up.
It is happening with increasing frequency and It has happened to a half dozen of my friends in just the last few weeks. The Facebook profile of a real person is faked and personal information is stolen from their friends. It works like this.
Bill Cunningham on the streets of NYC. Click for a larger version.
Bill Cunningham is one of my photographic heroes so it was a sad moment when I learned of his passing. My wife and I were driving across the U.S. early this week when she found an article on her iPhone that Bill Cunningham had died. I made a mental note to write a tribute to Bill when we got back home.
After reading a glowing review you order a set of smart phone lenses and you are billed over $100. You get socked with an additional $85 shipping charge (the ad said shipping was free). Then you find out you could have bought the same lenses for less than $10. To add insult to injury you discover the great review was from a fake review site and the quality of the lenses is disappointing. You’ve been ripped off.
Screen captures from three different ads.
Same photo, three different names, and three different ads for three different products. Does this make you suspicious?
Update: September 12, 2017. I heard from the REAL Simon Greig. Details below.
Photoshop HSB Color Wheel with Hues in 30 Degree Increments.
Mastering color is important to mastering Photoshop, and the HSB color wheel will help. This tutorial will show you how to create your own. The HSB color system is explained in this article which you should read first if you aren’t already familiar with the HSB system..
The Vietnam Women’s Memorial, Washington D.C.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Washington D.C. Click for a larger version.
Richard Duane Klug (the name just above the rose) was born January 26, 1946. He died in Darlac Province, Vietnam, November 14, 1967 at the age of 21. He is one of over 58,000 American soldiers that died in Vietnam, and one of over 1.1 million American soldiers that have died in all American wars (almost half of them in the Civil War). It is with a profound sense of gratitude that I reflect on the lives of those who “gave the last full measure of devotion” on behalf of their country.
My concept was to photograph a young woman in a stream with reflections of her and the trees in the ripples of the water. I had just the right stream in mind and at this time of year there was just enough water. This isn’t the pose I originally had in mind. More about that later.
Photoshop Screen Capture with Color Picker. Click to see a larger version.
To work with colors in Photoshop it is helpful to understand how Photoshop deals with colors and the relationship between the RGB, HSB, and other color systems. This series is a basic introduction to Photoshop and color.
This tutorial will guide you through the basic color selection tools in Photoshop. Other kinds of image editing software will have a different layout, but similar tools. Before you go through this tutorial, read Learning Photoshop Colors – A Color Picker Tutorial. It covers some Photoshop color information that is basic to understanding this tutorial.
Screen Capture: Color Picker at ColorPicker.com
Using a color picker is a quick and simple way to learn how software (like Photoshop and Photoshop Elements) identifies digital colors with numerical systems. You can follow along in this tutorial. To make this tutorial quick and simple, we will use an online color picker.
There is a convenient online color picker at ColorPicker.com. It is quick and easy to use when you are online and don’t want to take the time to fire up your favorite image editing software.
With excellent reviews, the Nik Collection of seven software plugins is highly desired. Discriminating photographers have been buying individual plugins or paying $499 for the whole set. Google bought the Nik Collection and dropped the price for the full collection to $150. Now you can download the whole collection for free. This is great news for everyone who has been wanting this powerful set of software editing tools but has been putting it off due to the price.
Some of my favorite nature photography books.
Want to be a better nature photographer? Read anything by John Shaw, Galen Rowell, Art Wolfe, Freeman Patterson, Tim Fitzharris, George Lepp, Larry West, Arthur Morris, Allen Rokach, John Netherton, Leonard Lee Rue III, Brenda Tharp, Tony Sweet, and the Stackpole (publisher) nature series.
Now for some specific suggestions as to the “best of the best” books to look for. These are my favorites out of hundreds of photography books in my library. Continue reading
Nature Photography Books
A good photography book can put you well ahead of the game, and three essential nature photography books (plus maybe a few others) can save you years of time learning things the hard way.
The best of the best cameras, accessories, photo books and more.
UPDATE: The most recent update and re-posting of this article is here.
I get lots of photo questions and many of them begin with “What is the best . . . .” They usually come from photographers or someone shopping for a photographer.
Here is my list of “best of the best” of articles recommending the best photo gear, software, books, DVDs, calendars, online photo labs, and a whole lot more.
Last posted Dec. 21, 2015. Updated May 12, 2016
Screen capture from John Paul Caponigro’s web site.
Get it free while you can! John Paul Caponigro is one of the best of the best. This is your chance to learn from the master. Caponigro de-mystifies the challenges of getting beautiful, high quality prints that match the colors you see on your monitor.
Vermilion Lakes Sunset, new and old 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.
Do you have movie film that you don’t know how to care for, protect, and preserve? The Film Preservation Guide is for you. It is a free PDF download. You can thank the National Film Preservation Foundation. As an added bonus, they show old historic films on their web site.
This article has been updated here.
Earlier this week I read about a professional photographer who lost a bunch of photos because they were all on just one external hard drive with no backups. The cost of recovering the photos, if they can be recovered at all, will run between $500 and $5000 depending on the number of photos and the complications involved in the recovery process.