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nature photography tips and tutorials

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How to Switch Lenses on Your Camera

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Photo by Andrew Magill (used under the CC-Attr license)
In a previous post, I talked about the importance of being careful when switching your camera lenses, in order to avoid dust from gathering on your camera’s sensor. But I didn’t elaborate much on how to switch your lenses, so here’s my method for switching camera lenses:

  1. Put your camera on a flat surface, so that the lens is pointing straight up
  2. Unlock the lens on your camera body, and turn the lens just a little bit so you can let go of the lens and it remains unlocked (but it’s still resting on the camera body)
  3. Remove the cap on the bottom of the new lens you want on your camera
  4. Hold the new lens in your right hand, and twist off the lens on your camera with your left hand
  5. Quickly mount the new lens with your right hand and lock it onto the camera
  6. Put the cap on the bottom of the old lens

[Read more…] about How to Switch Lenses on Your Camera

Why You Should Keep All Your Photos

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Providence Mountains
Photo by Steve Berardi
When you get back home with your camera after a long day outside, do you rush to your computer and inspect your photos immediately?

I think that’s a healthy obsession, because it simply means you’re passionate about your results and dying to find out if you captured that sight just the way you saw it with your own eyes.

However, this rush to review your photos will often cause you to overlook some of your greatest shots. That’s why it’s important to keep all your photos and look at them again–a few weeks, or even months after you first took them. [Read more…] about Why You Should Keep All Your Photos

How to Make Your Camera Shoot Faster

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Shooting photos quickly is one of the keys to success for some types of nature photography, like photographing birds in flight, or any kind of wildlife photography.

As my dad illustrated in one of his articles, shooting just a few more frames per second can really make a difference in your success rate.

If you’re not maximizing the burst rate of your camera when you’re photographing a high-speed action, then you risk missing the shot where your subject is in the perfect pose.

So, here are a few ways to ensure your camera is shooting photos as quickly as possible: [Read more…] about How to Make Your Camera Shoot Faster

Why You Should Read Your Camera’s Manual

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Canon 7D (instruction manual)The instruction manual is probably the most boring thing you get with a new camera.

It’s funny: you spend a few hundred (or thousand) dollars on a nice camera so you can take brilliantly colorful photos, and all it comes with is a tiny, poorly printed and poorly written instruction manual full of black and white photos!

Your first instinct might be to just ignore that manual, or even throw it away before even peeking inside.

But, buried inside that thing might be some cool features of your new camera that you’re totally unaware of. [Read more…] about Why You Should Read Your Camera’s Manual