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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

How GPS Can Help Your Photography

March 26, 2012 by Steve Berardi 7 Comments

GPS DeviceI just recently started hiking with a handheld GPS device to log my hikes and so I could have elevation data wherever I go. But, I’ve also started using it as a tool for photography. Here are a few ways it’s helped me:

#1 – Keep track of good spots for landscape images

This probably happens to you a lot: you’ll be hiking on a trail and come to this amazing vista or perfect rock formation and you realize it would make a great landscape image if the weather or lighting conditions were just a tad bit different. Maybe you just want some of that nice sunset light shining on a mountain peak, or maybe you want a nice puffy cloud to hover over a particular rock.

Well, a GPS device can help you keep track of these spots, simply by adding waypoints. Then, once you get home later, you can write some notes about that particular spot (e.g. “come back in April when there’s more flowers in bloom” or “come back at sunset in winter, when the sun will be at the right angle to shine on this mountain peak”). [Read more…] about How GPS Can Help Your Photography

Filed Under: Landscapes, Tips, Wildlife Tagged With: blind, burrow, camera, clock, device, elevation, geo-tag, geographical, geography, geotag, geotagging, gps, landscape, nature, photography, topographical, Wildlife

How to Win the Battle of Close-up Photography

March 7, 2012 by Steve Berardi 9 Comments

Pitcher Sage / Photo by Steve Berardi
Pitcher Sage / Photo by Steve Berardi
In close-up nature photography, there’s a constant battle of trying to find that perfect balance between a sharp subject and an out-of-focus background.

An out-of-focus background is essential to a good close-up photo, because it helps draw attention to your main subject.

But, it’s not always easy to get that nice background. Sometimes the background is just too close, or your subject has a lot of depth (forcing you to try a smaller aperture, which then puts more of the background in focus).

So, how do you deal with this constant battle? Well, here are a few ways: [Read more…] about How to Win the Battle of Close-up Photography

Filed Under: Macro, Tips, Wildflowers Tagged With: aperture, background, close, close up, closeup, depth of field, f number, flower, focus, insect, Macro, nature, out of focu, photography, sharpness, subject, telephoto, up, wildflower

Free eBook on Wildflower Photography

February 27, 2012 by Steve Berardi 28 Comments

With spring beginning here in the southwestern United States, I thought it was time to update our free ebook on wildflower photography. The original version was released about three years ago, so it was due for an update.

Most of the content is the same, but I’ve learned a lot in the last three years, so I’ve updated just about every page in the book, and replaced a few tips with newer articles.

Anyway, here’s a sneak peak of what you’ll learn in this ebook: [Read more…] about Free eBook on Wildflower Photography

Filed Under: Tips, Wildflowers Tagged With: bloom, close up, ebook, flower, focus, free, light, Macro, nature, overcast, photo, photographer, photography, photonaturalist, sharp, spring, telephoto, wild, wildflower, wildflowers

How To Organize Your Photo Ideas

February 20, 2012 by Steve Berardi 3 Comments

Last week, I talked about the different phases of developing creativity. I mentioned that in the final phase, you start visualizing images that are not a part of your collection yet.

But, once you start getting all these great ideas for images, how do you keep track of them all? Well, here are a few things that have worked for me: [Read more…] about How To Organize Your Photo Ideas

Filed Under: Landscapes, Tips Tagged With: evernote, examples, google, ideas, inspiration, maps, notebook, notes, organize, photo, pre-visualization, sketch, visualization

3 Ways To Prevent Posterization

January 31, 2012 by Steve Berardi 18 Comments

Creosote (Larrea Tridentata) / Photo by Steve Berardi
Creosote (Larrea Tridentata) / Photo by Steve Berardi
One of the most annoying problems in digital photography is posterization (as seen in the photo above). It can turn your beautiful sunset photos into a jagged mess. But, luckily there are a few ways to prevent this ugly problem: [Read more…] about 3 Ways To Prevent Posterization

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: 16-bit, 8-bit, adobe, degradation, distortion, exposure, gradient, histogram, methods, photoshop, pixelation, post processing, posterization, prevent, processing, rgb, smooth, ways

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