PhotoNaturalist - nature photography tips and tutorials

nature photography tips and tutorials

landscape

Knowing Your Subject #1

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Photo by Steve BerardiKnowing your subject is important in nature photography because it helps you anticipate the perfect moment for a photograph or identify potential opportunities for a photo. You don’t have to be an expert on everything you photograph, but it helps to know a little and to continue learning more.

I’ve written about this topic in previous articles, but it’s such an important topic that I want to start a series of articles that go through specific examples of knowing your subject. So, here’s the first example 🙂 [Read more…] about Knowing Your Subject #1

Photographing a Subject for Multiple Uses

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Bluebell wildflowers blooming in the spring
Spring Bluebells / Photo by Jim Braswell

When photographing a subject, do you picture in your mind just how that photo will be used? Do you ever consider multiple uses? I got caught in the trap of shooting for a single use, early in my photographic endeavors.

When putting together a series of images for a nature calendar, I found some older images that would have been wonderful to include in the calendar. But these images were all shot as verticals (or, “portraits”) and were not able to be cropped to a suitable horizontal format. In some cases, you may be able to re-crop a vertical into a horizontal, but sometimes the result is not what you are looking for. In this post, I’ll share a few things I learned along the way and how I try to shoot all my nature subjects today. [Read more…] about Photographing a Subject for Multiple Uses

Free eBook on Landscape Photography From Anne McKinnell!

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Landscape photography is one of the most difficult types of nature photography. Since there’s so much going on in a landscape image, it’s hard to always be aware of everything and this leads to a lot of common mistakes.

Well, we’re in luck, because Anne McKinnell released an excellent eBook this week: 22 Landscape Photography Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them). It’s an extremely straight-forward guide to improving your landscape photos. And, best of all, it’s completely free!

Get the eBook here!

The eBook covers a bunch of common mistakes, such as crooked horizons, cluttered backgrounds, lack of depth, blown out highlights, and much more.

If you’re not already familiar with Anne McKinnell, she’s a great photographer, and an excellent writer and teacher. She’s written multiple books on photography, all with a ton of great reviews on Amazon. She writes in a very friendly tone that makes it easy and fun to learn. She also has a wonderful blog, where she shares more great photography tips. [Read more…] about Free eBook on Landscape Photography From Anne McKinnell!

8 Tips For Photographing Sunsets

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Photo by Lindsey Graham
Photo by Lindsey Graham

Photographing the sunset is all about catching rich colors, interesting reflections, dazzling highlights, and dark silhouettes that emerge during this golden hour. As the day wanes, the color and light change minute by minute and elicit an enticing sense of addictive urgency.

The perfect shot is all about timing and the ever-changing combination of weather patterns, available light, and time of year ensure that every sunset is different. Be sure to stick around once the sun has vanished so you don’t miss a hue; but most importantly, take a minute to enjoy the show.

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How To Photograph The Aurora Borealis

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Wiseman, Alaska Nikon D800E /14-24 Nikkor f2.8 / 15 seconds/ ISO 3200 -- Photo by Jeff Stamer
Wiseman, Alaska Nikon D800E /14-24 Nikkor f2.8 / 15 seconds/ ISO 3200 — Photo by Jeff Stamer
Surreal, scintillating and sensuous, the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) have mesmerized humans since the dawn of time.

Unfortunately, they’re a sight few get to experience unless you happen to live in the far northern (or southern) parts of the globe. For the rest of us, seeing this awe-inspiring phenomena involves quite a bit of traveling and expense! If you are going to invest the time and treasure to cross this off of your bucket list, then let me help you take great Aurora photographs. [Read more…] about How To Photograph The Aurora Borealis

Tips For Shooting In Wet or Damp Conditions

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Photo by Jim Braswell
Photo by Jim Braswell
Photographing in wet or damp conditions is a mixed blessing. The opportunities are often enormous; in a constantly damp area, the flora can be beautiful. A good example is the Inside Passage of Alaska, where lush, old-growth forests are common. Or a photo journey to a place like Costa Rica (I’ve never been there, but it’s on my “bucket list”).

But, working in these conditions requires some additional care so that our photography equipment will not be affected by the constant moisture.

So what are we to do? [Read more…] about Tips For Shooting In Wet or Damp Conditions