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8 Tips For Photographing Silhouettes

September 3, 2012 by Steve Berardi 16 Comments

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

Filed Under: Landscapes, Tips Tagged With: civil twilight, landscape, low light, nature, outline, photography, photos, plants, silhouette, sun, sunrise, sunset, trees, twilight

Three Reasons to Photograph Wildlife at Eye Level

August 21, 2012 by Steve Berardi 21 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi
Snowy Plover / Photo by Steve Berardi
When you encounter wildlife, it’s pretty easy to get excited, isn’t it? It doesn’t happen often, so when you’re lucky enough, the first thing you’re probably thinking is, “wow, I do not want to scare this thing away!” (well, unless it’s a bear or mountain lion, heh).

In that moment of excitement, it’s easy to forget about camera techniques and just start snapping photos from where you’re standing. But, if you want an intimate, sharp, and isolated portrait of any wildlife subject, you’re gonna have to get down to their eye level to snap the photo, and here are some reasons why: [Read more…] about Three Reasons to Photograph Wildlife at Eye Level

Filed Under: Wildlife Tagged With: background, bird, birds, bokeh, focus, nature, photography, photos, plane of focus, sharp, sharp focus, technique, Wildlife

Join Our New Weekly Newsletter For More Great Photography Tips!

April 4, 2012 by Steve Berardi 1 Comment

Email NewsletterToday I’m excited to announce the new PhotoNaturalist Weekly Newsletter. This is a free email newsletter that will contain a list of great photography tips, sent out every Thursday night.

Every week, I read a ton of photography blogs, and come across many great tips and tutorials that I share on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so I think this email newsletter will be a great way to send out a summary of the links I share each week. [Read more…] about Join Our New Weekly Newsletter For More Great Photography Tips!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: email, nature, newsletter, photo, photography, photonaturalist, Tips, tutorials, weekly

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

A Fun Way To Improve Your Wildflower Photography

March 13, 2012 by Vic Berardi 19 Comments

Photo by Vic Berardi
Photo by Vic Berardi
As spring approaches and the dreary overcast days of winter are still upon us, we anxiously await going out in the field for some wildflower photography. But, while you’re waiting for those flowers to pop up, you can still do something to help you prepare for those wildflower photos.

Over the winter, I picked up several excellent flower photography books and a few showed some techniques for indoor photography. So, I thought, why not give this a try and see if I can apply what I learned to outdoor wildflower photography. I didn’t have any studio lighting, so I decided to experiment with what I already had. [Read more…] about A Fun Way To Improve Your Wildflower Photography

Filed Under: Macro, Wildflowers Tagged With: aperture, background, close, close up, color, cut, flower, Macro, natural light, nature, photography, potted, spring, up, wildflower, winter

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

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