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The OTHER Reason To Use a Tripod

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tripod_equipment3You hear it all the time: if you want sharp photos, you gotta use a tripod whenever possible.

Well, if that isn’t reason enough for you, here’s another benefit of using a tripod: it forces you to think more carefully about your composition.

When you handhold your camera, there’s a tendency to snap away photos as soon as you spot your subject. Then, after you got a few shots, you’ll just move on.

But, add a tripod to the equation, and all of a sudden you’ll be carefully adjusting those knobs until the camera is exactly where you want it. Sometimes this will take a considerable amount of time, but during this extra time there’s a good chance you’ll notice something new about your subject that will take your composition into a whole new direction. [Read more…] about The OTHER Reason To Use a Tripod

Three elements of a great landscape

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi

Landscapes are one of the most difficult subjects in nature photography. It’s always hard deciding what to include and what to leave out. And, it’s not easy translating a vast three dimensional space into a two dimensional photo.

Well, the next time you’re having trouble composing a landscape photograph, consider these three elements: [Read more…] about Three elements of a great landscape

Free eBook From Craft & Vision

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Last week, Craft & Vision (founded by David duChemin) released a free eBook with nine excellent articles on how you can improve your photography.

The articles are written by a variety of professional photographers and cover a wide range of topics. And although some of the articles may not specifically apply to nature photography, I’ve always felt you can learn a lot by exploring other types of photography.

Here’s a list of what you’ll learn in this free ebook:

  • Benefits of shooting in manual mode
  • How to recognize good light
  • How to isolate your subject
  • How to balance your flash with ambient light
  • Tips for working with black and white images
  • How to make sharper images
  • Tips for dealing with “bad light”
  • Tips for streamlining your post-processing

All of the articles are written by some really inspirational photographers, so I think you’ll learn a lot from every page of the ebook. One of my favorite things about the book is that at the end of every article there are links to more ebooks that explore that topic in more depth. [Read more…] about Free eBook From Craft & Vision

Three Quick Tips For Close-Ups

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California Wild Rose / Photo by Steve Berardi
California Wild Rose / Photo by Steve Berardi
Now that spring has arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s time to start thinking about photographing all those wonderful wildflowers and insects. It’s the perfect season for close-up photography.

So, here are three quick tips to get you started:

#1 – Get down to your subject’s level

Many of the plants and insects that come out in the spring live very low to the ground, so your first reaction may be to photograph them from where you first spot them (standing up and looking down at them). But, many times it’s better to get down to your subject’s level and photograph them from there because it captures a more friendly point of view (almost as if you’re seeing eye-to-eye with your subject). [Read more…] about Three Quick Tips For Close-Ups

Why You Should Calibrate Your Monitor

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Have you ever tried ordering prints of your digital photos, but were disappointed by the results? Maybe the prints were darker or lighter than they looked on your monitor, or maybe they had a weird tint that seemed to just come out of nowhere.

Well, those problems most likely occurred because your monitor isn’t calibrated properly. The purpose of calibrating your monitor is to get it to display color as accurately as possible (so when you get your prints back from the photo lab, they look exactly like they did on your monitor). [Read more…] about Why You Should Calibrate Your Monitor

11 Tips For Avoiding Memory Card Problems

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SanDisk Memory Card

Once you snap some photos, the memory card becomes the most important part of your camera, because it’s responsible for transferring your photos safely back to your computer.

Just like any kind of technology, a lot can go wrong with memory cards. And the last thing you want to happen is to lose all your photos after capturing some spectacular shots, right?

So, here are 11 tips that will help prevent you from running into a memory card disaster: [Read more…] about 11 Tips For Avoiding Memory Card Problems