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nature photography tips and tutorials

Tips

Quick Tip For Spotting Wildlife

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
One of the most difficult parts of wildlife photography is spotting your subject. Most wild animals tend to stay away from us humans, so it often requires a lot of patience to actually encounter them.

Well, a few weeks ago I took a survival training course and learned something that might increase your chances of spotting some wildlife:

Many animals are highly active immediately before and after a storm.

Or, more specifically: animals become more active whenever there’s a sudden change in barometric pressure.

So, if you go out hiking right before (or after) a big storm, you’re much more likely to see wildlife. Many animals are moving around at this time so they can find better shelter for the coming storm. Somehow, they can sense that a storm is coming. [Read more…] about Quick Tip For Spotting Wildlife

8 Tips For Photographing Silhouettes

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
One of the simplest ways to capture the dramatic colors of a sunrise or sunset is to photograph a silhouette.

Although they’re simple looking images, here are a few tips for photographing them:

#1 – Use a telephoto lens

With silhouettes, you’ll usually want an out of focus background to help draw attention to your silhouetted subject. A telephoto lens will help you here by reducing depth of field. They’re not always required though (the image above was taken with a 50mm lens). [Read more…] about 8 Tips For Photographing Silhouettes

Two Reasons For Using a Lens Hood

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Photo by lmnop88a (used under the CC-Attr-2.0 license)
Photo by lmnop88a (used under the CC-Attr-2.0 license)
The lens hood is an often overlooked accessory. I see a lot of people walking around without one. Or sometimes they have one on their lens, but they’re not using it: it’s put on backwards (the storage position).

So, to help remedy this problem and motivate you to always use a lens hood (if you’re not already!), here are two great things they can do for you: [Read more…] about Two Reasons For Using a Lens Hood

How To Make Your Subject Stand Out

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Photography is all about making your subject stand out. You want the viewer to easily recognize your subject, and appreciate its beauty. There are lots of ways to draw attention to your subject, but here are a few of my favorites:

Contrast

Desert Sunflower / Photo by Steve Berardi
Desert Sunflower / Photo by Steve Berardi

One of the simplest ways to make your subject stand out is to photograph it in front of a contrasting background. Ideally, you want the colors to be complementary, but any kind of contrast will usually work. For example, in the photo on the right, I really wanted that yellow Desert Sunflower to stand out, so I photographed it in front of some purple flowers (Desert Sand Verbena). [Read more…] about How To Make Your Subject Stand Out

How To Recover Photos From a Corrupt Memory Card

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Compact Flash Memory CardAlthough there are ways to reduce the risk of memory card problems, you can never escape them completely.

Sooner or later, you’re going to come home from a wonderful day in the wilderness with a memory card loaded with great photos, but when you try to download those shots to your computer, your memory card will fail for whatever reason.

Well, when your memory card decides to stop cooperating with you, here are a few things you can try to save your photos: [Read more…] about How To Recover Photos From a Corrupt Memory Card

What To Photograph On An Overcast Day

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Photo by Steven Burke (used under the CC-Attr-NC-ND license)
Photo by Steven Burke (used under the CC-Attr-NC-ND license)
In Southern California, we have this thing called “June Gloom” where pretty much every day in the month of June is overcast or cloudy. Some people call it our punishment for having bright sunny days for the rest of the year.

But, I look forward to the overcast skies because although they produce some gloomy feelings, they also create some very unique lighting conditions that bring out some of the best colors found in nature. [Read more…] about What To Photograph On An Overcast Day