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We Now Have 5,000 Readers!

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Today, I’m happy to announce that we’ve just passed 5,000 subscribed readers to PhotoNaturalist!

One of our largest sources of traffic has been through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. So, I want to send out a sincere thank you to those of you who have shared PhotoNaturalist with your friends. You’ve been a big help in getting this site to grow.

As always, if there’s something you’d like to read about on PhotoNaturalist, or just have any kind of comment, suggestion, or question, please feel free to e-mail me at editor@photonaturalist.net or use our contact form. I do read every single e-mail I get from that contact form, but unfortunately I don’t always get time to respond to them all.

Thanks again,

Steve
[Read more…] about We Now Have 5,000 Readers!

Be Careful Where You Buy Your Camera Gear

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Photo by Martin Taylor
Photo by Martin Taylor
Photography is an expensive hobby. So, it’s always tempting to look for the lowest price on some new gear you need.

But, unfortunately, there’s a lot of counterfeit gear out there and many retailers mislabel items on their website. So, it’s important to use a little caution when shopping for new gear.

For example, a few months ago, photographer Lee Morris (from the great blog, F-Stoppers) purchased a Nikon MB-D11 battery grip on Amazon for $216. It turned out to be a fake (even though “Nikon” was written all over it), that normally sells for about $40.

There’s also a lot of unauthorized retailers out there that usually have attractively low prices, but many of them will end up shipping you fake stuff (if they even ship you anything at all).

So, who can you trust? [Read more…] about Be Careful Where You Buy Your Camera Gear

How to Find Good Locations For Fall Color

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Photo by Dick Rochester / Used under the CC-Attr license
Photo by Dick Rochester / Used under the CC-Attr license
Now that we’re almost in the middle of October, many of the trees in the US are bursting with color as their leaves fall off for the winter. Unfortunately, those colors don’t last long and sometimes they’re better in one area than they are in another, so it’s important to choose your locations carefully.

Luckily, there’s a great tool that can help you track seasonal changes like fall color: Flickr. Although it’s known for being a great website for sharing your photos, it can also be a great scouting tool. Here’s how: [Read more…] about How to Find Good Locations For Fall Color

Thank You, Steve Jobs, For All The Life and Inspiration You’ve Given Us

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I was planning to write a post tonight about how to find good locations for photographing fall color, but after hearing that Steve Jobs passed away earlier today, I just can’t think about photography right now.

Steve Jobs has brought so much life and passion into this world, that it’s really hard to imagine what it will be like without him.

No one has ever put more energy into creating products that people care about.

Thank you, Steve Jobs, for all that you’ve done. Not just for creating all those products that we love, but also for sharing your infinite passion with us.

“And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” –Steve Jobs

Never Give Up On a Sunset

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After watching and photographing a lot of sunsets, it’s tempting to start thinking that you can look at the sky and predict how good a sunset will be a few hours before it happens.

You might see a bunch of thick and dark gray clouds up there, and think, “well, the sunset is gonna suck tonight, so I might as well just go home early.”

Or, you might even be in the middle of photographing a sunset and you think the colors just peaked, so you start packing up your stuff and walk towards your car or campsite.

But, then out of nowhere, the sky decides to explode with color again. Of course, you’re half way back to your car by now, so you quickly setup your camera, but before you can press the shutter button, the colors fade away again. And, this time they’re gone for good.

Sound familiar? [Read more…] about Never Give Up On a Sunset

Do You Refactor Your Photographs?

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cholla cactusAs a software developer, one of the things I do every day is refactor code. I’ll write some code to solve a problem, test it out to make sure it works, and then I’ll take another look at the code and see if there’s a way to make it more clear or more efficient. Then, of course, I’ll test it again 😉

Writers do this too. First, they’ll write a basic draft of their story to cover the main ideas, and then they’ll read it over and over again to make the words flow better and to make their message stand out more.

But, what about photographers? Do you ever take a look at one of your photos and say something like, “wow, I really like this photo of mine, but I wish one thing was different”? It doesn’t have to be something big, it could even be something as simple as moving your camera one step to the left so a tree stands out more from the background. [Read more…] about Do You Refactor Your Photographs?