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How To Focus Closer With your Lenses

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Every lens has a minimum focusing distance: the closest point where the lens can get a sharp focus. Generally, the longer the focal length of the lens, the greater the minimum focusing distance.

Most of the time, this distance isn’t a problem because with longer lenses you’ll generally be photographing a distant subject.

But, those longer telephoto lenses are also great for close-up photography, because they help you isolate your subject against a specific part of the background. In these cases, this minimum focus distance often becomes a problem because many lenses won’t let you get close enough to fill the frame with a small subject (such as a wildflower or insect).

So, how do you make your lens focus closer? [Read more…] about How To Focus Closer With your Lenses

What To Do When You Can’t Bring a Tripod

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notripodYeah, yeah, I know–you should always use a tripod. But, unfortunately this isn’t always possible. Sometimes you need to travel light, and leave your tripod behind. Or, other times you may be going to a place where they don’t even allow tripods.

So, what do you do without a tripod? How can you possibly get sharp photos without one?

Well, one thing you can do is improvise with the objects around you. The tripod is meant to stabilize your camera and prevent it from shaking, so anything you can rest the camera on will also work (just not as well). Try looking for large rocks, or tree branches, or anything else you can rest your camera on while shooting the photo. [Read more…] about What To Do When You Can’t Bring a Tripod

Nature Photography In The Least Expected Places

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Photo by Vic Berardi
Photo by Vic Berardi
It’s the dead of winter, you live in an area that doesn’t have classic winter scenery, then you look outside and see that it’s cold and dreary. The last snowfall was at least a week ago, so taking photos with beautiful fresh snow in the background or foreground isn’t an option. So, you decide to stay home and wait for a better day…you shouldn’t. There are opportunities out there on any given day to take nature photos, if you just look hard enough.

A couple of weeks ago I ventured out on such a day and after becoming exhausted at trying to find something to photograph, I happened to drive over a small creek and stopped to look and see if any water was moving. There wasn’t but something else caught my eye: autumn leaves & ice! I pulled over to the side of the road, got out with my camera and tripod and slowly looked at all the small scenery along this very small and mostly frozen creek. What I saw was limitless in compositions and beauty! [Read more…] about Nature Photography In The Least Expected Places

6 Tips For Photographing Shorebirds

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Sanderling / Photo by Steve Berardi
Sanderling / Photo by Steve Berardi
We’ve talked a lot about photographing birds here on PN: how to photograph them in flight, how to photograph perched birds, and even a few tips for photographing hummingbirds. But, we haven’t talked a whole lot about shorebirds specifically, so I thought it’d be good to share a few tips for photographing these types of birds:

#1 – Get down low to the ground

The single most important thing to do when photographing shorebirds is to get down to their level. This usually means lying down on the ground, so it’s helpful to bring a towel or something to lie down on. Photographing the birds at their eye level does two things: it makes the image more intimate and it usually results in a better background (because from this low angle, the background will usually be farther away). [Read more…] about 6 Tips For Photographing Shorebirds

How To Make the Jump To Manual Mode

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At first, manual mode can seem a little intimidating. Finding the right exposure just doesn’t seem as simple as finding the right f-number, does it? That’s probably why most photographers start with Aperture Priority mode before jumping to full manual.

But, shooting in manual will put you in complete control of the image making process. And luckily, there’s an easy way to make the jump to manual mode, while still treating it somewhat like aperture priority mode. Here’s how: [Read more…] about How To Make the Jump To Manual Mode

Do You Have a Photography New Years Resolution?

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Joshua Tree / Photo by Steve Berardi
Joshua Tree / Photo by Steve Berardi
So, today is the first day of 2013. Happy New Year!! It’s a great day to reflect on the previous year, and to build hopes and dreams for this great new year we have ahead of us.

Setting goals is a great way to motivate yourself to learn something new, or reach a major milestone in your pursuit of a bigger goal. They don’t necessarily have to be anything super big, like quitting your day job and making a living as a professional photographer. They could be as simple as getting one of your photos published in a local newspaper. [Read more…] about Do You Have a Photography New Years Resolution?