• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

PhotoNaturalist - nature photography tips and tutorials

nature photography tips and tutorials

  • Home
  • Articles
  • eBooks
  • About
  • Contact

Articles by Steve Berardi

Biggest Full Moon of the Year Occurs This Saturday

May 1, 2012 by Steve Berardi 6 Comments

Photo by Gregory H. Revera (used under the CC-Attr-SA license)
Photo by Gregory H. Revera (used under the CC-Attr-SA license)
The biggest full moon of the year will occur this Saturday, May 5th at 11:35 PM EDT. The moon will appear extra large on Saturday, because that’s when it makes its closest approach to Earth (also known as perigee).

With a larger moon in the sky, it’ll be a great opportunity to get some good photographs. The moon will also be about 16% brighter than normal, so you’ll be able to use faster shutter speeds which will help make the photo sharper.

Here are some great articles from around the web to help prepare you for photographing the “super moon” this weekend: [Read more…] about Biggest Full Moon of the Year Occurs This Saturday

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: big, landscape, large, moon, moonrise, moonscape, moonset, perigee, super, supermoon

Something That Should Be In Every Camera Bag

April 24, 2012 by Steve Berardi 21 Comments

In previous posts, I’ve talked about helpful accessories for your camera and tripod. But, I always seem to forget one item that almost always gets mentioned in the comments:

A garbage bag.

How could a garbage bag possibly help you with photography? Well, primarily the garbage bag is good for protecting your gear in case it starts raining.

Your camera bag may claim to be “waterproof” (note that water “proof” is different from water “resistant”), or maybe it has a built-in rain cover. But, those rain covers aren’t always big enough to cover your tripod too, so the garbage bag comes in handy when you’re carrying a tripod. [Read more…] about Something That Should Be In Every Camera Bag

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: accessory, bag, camera, diffuser, garbage bag, light, protection, rain, subject, tripod, waterproof

Three Reasons to Avoid Relying on the Crop Tool

April 16, 2012 by Steve Berardi 15 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
In this age of digital photo editing, it’s tempting to get lazy when you’re taking a photo out in the field and just say to yourself, “well, if I don’t like how I framed this, I could always crop it later.” But, there are a few disadvantages to relying on that crop tool too much: [Read more…] about Three Reasons to Avoid Relying on the Crop Tool

Filed Under: Macro, Tips Tagged With: composition, crop, cropping, depth of field, editing, photos, post processing, print, sharp, sharpness, size

Get Ready For the Upcoming Annular Eclipse on May 20th

April 10, 2012 by Steve Berardi 2 Comments

Annular Eclipse / Photo by Abel Lopez (used under the CC-Attr 2.0 license)
Annular Eclipse / Photo by Abel Lopez (used under the CC-Attr 2.0 license)
Next month, on May 20th, there will be an annular solar eclipse, visible from parts of Asia, and the western United States.

An annular solar eclipse is not a “total” eclipse, so the moon will not completely block the Sun. Instead, the Sun will look like a very bright ring (also known as an “annulus”), like in the photo on the right (which was taken during the annular solar eclipse of October 3rd, 2005). [Read more…] about Get Ready For the Upcoming Annular Eclipse on May 20th

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 20, annular, annulus, astronomical, astronomy, china, eclipse, japan, may, moon, newsletter, ring, solar, sun, total, united states, weekly, west

Join Our New Weekly Newsletter For More Great Photography Tips!

April 4, 2012 by Steve Berardi 1 Comment

Email NewsletterToday I’m excited to announce the new PhotoNaturalist Weekly Newsletter. This is a free email newsletter that will contain a list of great photography tips, sent out every Thursday night.

Every week, I read a ton of photography blogs, and come across many great tips and tutorials that I share on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so I think this email newsletter will be a great way to send out a summary of the links I share each week. [Read more…] about Join Our New Weekly Newsletter For More Great Photography Tips!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: email, nature, newsletter, photo, photography, photonaturalist, Tips, tutorials, weekly

Why You Shouldn’t Carry Too Much Gear

April 3, 2012 by Steve Berardi 16 Comments

Photo by Martin Taylor
Photo by Martin Taylor
A few weeks ago I had a horrible accident: I cracked the LCD screen cover on the back of my Canon 5D Mk II.

I was carrying two cameras at the time, and wanted to change lenses on my other camera, so I put the 5D on my tripod, and began switching lenses on my other camera. Then, about ten seconds later, my tripod fell backwards (with the 5D still on it), and there just happened to be a big rock where the 5D landed 😉

I sat there staring at my 5D on the ground for about five minutes, terrified of the damage I’d see when I picked up the camera. [Read more…] about Why You Shouldn’t Carry Too Much Gear

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: 5d, accident, camera, carry, cover, creativity, equipment, force, gear, hiking, lcd, limit, Macro, repair, screen, tripod

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Before Footer

Topics

aperture bird photography birds camera close close up clouds composition depth of field ebook exposure flower focus gear histogram image landscape lens lenses light Macro moon nature nature photography photo photograph photography photonaturalist photos photoshop sharp sharpness subject sun sunrise sunset telephoto Tips tripod vision weather wild wildflower wildflowers Wildlife

Footer

Popular Articles

  • 7 tips for getting sharper photographs
  • How to use the histogram for a good exposure
  • How to resize your photos (the “sharp” way)
  • 13 tips for better wildflower photography
  • How to photograph dragonflies (free eBook!)
  • RAW vs JPEG: Who wins?
  • How to get sharp photos of birds in flight
  • What to photograph on an overcast day
  • What is a natural photograph?
  • Three elements of a great landscape
  • 11 tips for avoiding memory card problems
  • Tips for photographing shorebirds
  • What mode should you shoot in?

Categories

  • Book Reviews
  • Close-Up
  • Gear Reviews
  • Landscapes
  • Macro
  • Philosophy
  • Photoshop Tutorials
  • Tips
  • Uncategorized
  • Wildflowers
  • Wildlife

Copyright © 2025 · Wellness Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in