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How to Photograph Landscapes With the Moon

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
Including the moon in a landscape can sometimes add a nice sense of balance or contrast to an image, like in the photo above (taken in the Colorado Desert of California).

But, photographing a landscape with the moon is a little tricky and requires some patience.

One of the problems is that the moon won’t always be where you want it to be. And, since the moon is so far away, sometimes it’s hard to get both your foreground AND the moon in sharp focus.

So, here are a few tips for dealing with these problems: [Read more…] about How to Photograph Landscapes With the Moon

Are You In An Artistic Slump or Just Learning?

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Photo by Martin Taylor (used under the CC-Attr license)
When you first got your camera, I’ll bet you took a photo of just about everything. I know I did. When I got my first SLR, I could barely walk ten feet on a trail without stopping to photograph something. I probably photographed every flower or insect I saw.

But, then that pace starts to slow down after you have your camera for awhile. In the beginning, maybe you’d come home with over 400 photos on your memory card, but then after a few months it turned into 200, and after a year it might even get as low as 50 per day.

What happened? At first you might think you’re losing interest in photography, or maybe you’re in some kind of artistic slump (just like baseball players who sometimes go 40 at-bats without a basehit). [Read more…] about Are You In An Artistic Slump or Just Learning?

How to Give Your Photography a Turbo Boost

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Lake Tahoe
Photo by Steve Berardi
You know those turbo boosts that you get in car racing video games? You’ll be driving along, struggling to get out of 9th place, but then you use a few turbos and BOOM––all of a sudden you’re cruising in 1st place! Woohoo!

Do you ever wish you could use those turbos in real life too?

Well, in photography, you can! Sort of.

The secret is to dedicate at least one full week to nothing but photographing nature. It’s kind of like a mini photography boot camp.

Take a week off work, and go on a long road trip, visiting places you’ve never been before, but have always wanted to check out. It’s important for these places to be “fresh” to you, because it’ll excite you to visit someplace new and that usually translates to a stronger urge to create a photograph. [Read more…] about How to Give Your Photography a Turbo Boost

What a TV Show Can Teach You About Photography

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TV
Photo by Michael Pereckas / Used under the CC-Attr license
A few months ago, I was lucky enough to have one of my favorite TV shows (Dexter) filmed right outside my apartment building. They filmed a scene in the alley of my building, and I was able to watch the whole thing from my porch! If you’re a fan of the show, pay close attention to that scene in the alley of Episode 4 in Season 5–that’s my alley!

Anyway, I watched them film the scene for a few hours and actually learned a couple of things about photography: [Read more…] about What a TV Show Can Teach You About Photography

Take a Second Look at Your Subject

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Photos by Vic Berardi
Photos by Vic Berardi
Ever wonder why some photographers see things that you donʼt? True, there is some degree of “right brain” thinking going on with the more experienced photographer, but I think thereʼs more to it than just that.

Whatʼs most important is perseverance and taking a second look at your subject. [Read more…] about Take a Second Look at Your Subject

Why the Sharpest Photo Isn’t Always the Best Photo

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Desert Sunflower photo
Desert Sunflower @ f5.6 / Photo by Steve Berardi
As nature photographers, we tend to have an obsession with tack sharp photos and will do almost anything to increase the sharpness just a tiny bit. After all, looking up close at a sharp photo of a dragonfly is one of the greatest rewards of photographing the natural world 🙂

But, sometimes it’s necessary to sacrifice a little sharpness for a better composition.

As an example, consider the photo above of a Desert Sunflower in front of a patch of Desert Sand Verbena (see original size photo too). There are three reasons why the sunflower isn’t as sharp as it could have been:

  1. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and constantly swaying the flower

  2. The camera’s sensor was not parallel to the most important plane of the flower

  3. A pretty large aperture was used (f/5.6), which limited depth of field

Of course, the wind was out of my control, so all I could do for that was wait for the calmest moment possible. But, the other two were in my control. Why didn’t I address these problems? [Read more…] about Why the Sharpest Photo Isn’t Always the Best Photo