Category: Photo Tips
Photo Tip the Viewers Perspective
When I look at this image I remember the day it was made. I remember where I was, who I was with, even what lens I used. I remember how it was one of those magic mornings when everything was still and quiet and perfect. It was the kind of morning where you could stand…
Photo of the Week: Dawn Dancer
One of my favorite “rites of spring” to photograph is sharp-tailed grouse dancing on their lek. For a couple weeks, every morning in early April the males gather before dawn on their dancing grounds. Each male stakes out about one square yard as their own personal stage on which to dance. They defend every inch…
Freezing the Wings in Flight Photography
One of the questions about flight photography I get asked more often than any other is how fast does my shutter speed need to be to freeze the wings of a flying bird. The answer is it depends. But as a general rule the larger the bird the slower the wings beat and the slower…
Photo of the Week Waxwings
This image has a special place in my heart. I had just spent two weeks shooting alone in Yellowstone. I was driving out of the park on my way to the airport on the last morning. I was feeling a little melancholy. It had been a great two weeks, and I was sad that it…
Photo Tip: Motion Blurs
One of the things I like to play with especially when the light is not all that great is creating motion blurs. I do this by intentionally dragging the shutter (shooting at a slow shutter speed) when shooting a moving subject. What this does is allows any subject movement to register as a blur in…
Photo of the Week: Barn Swallows
This shot was taken in the ceiling of a picnic pavilion near my home. I had found this colony of nesting Barn Swallows the year before and made a note to come back and photograph them during nesting season the following year. This shot was created using high-speed flash to freeze the wings of the…
Photo Tip Back Off - 1
I for one am guilty of always trying to get that nice full frame portrait image. You know the one with a nice blown out background and the subject filling the frame in perfect light. Those are great shots and I love the challenge of trying to create them. But I think an image like…
Photo of the Week: Collared Trogan
This image of a Collared Trogan was made in the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru. I was very excited when I saw this situation. The graphic nature of the image is created by the strong diagonal lines of the vegetation. By lining up a shaded area of the jungle behind the shot, I was able…
The Grass is Always Greener?
No doubt about it most outdoor photographers love to travel to new and exciting locations to capture the subjects we love. But truth of the matter is that most of us can’t be jetting all over the globe whenever we want. Most outdoor photographers I know are able to take one two or maybe three…
Photo of the Week: Pot of Gold
I think this may be the luckiest photograph I have ever made. It was created on a chilly, rainy, September morning at Baxter State Park in central Maine. This moose was feeding in a pond alongside the main road. Being near the road there were a few photographers that had stopped to spend the morning…