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Need Help Identifying a Bird In Your Photo? Check out this website!

June 10, 2015 by Steve Berardi 3 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
Have you ever photographed a bird and had no idea what kind it was? Sometimes it’s easy to identify it later by looking through a bird book, and sometimes not so much. And, even when you do identify it, it’s nice to get some confirmation from other people.

Well, we’re in luck, because a team of ornithologists and computer scientists at Cornell have developed a web app called Merlin that helps you identify the bird in your photo. And, it works surprisingly well! [Read more…] about Need Help Identifying a Bird In Your Photo? Check out this website!

Filed Under: Tips, Wildlife Tagged With: bird, birding, cornell, id, identify, merlin, photo, Wildlife

Using Your Smartphone As a Post-Processing Playground

June 3, 2015 by Steve Berardi Leave a Comment

Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
Post-processing is one of the most important steps of creating a powerful image (as my dad wrote about in a previous post). Ansel Adams once said, “The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.” In modern day digital photography, post-processing leads to the “performance” part that Adams refers to. A RAW file from your camera can go in so many different directions.

In the past year or so, I’ve been really trying to improve my post-processing skills (especially with landscape images), and I discovered that one of the best ways to practice is using your smartphone.

The great thing about the smartphone is that it’s a camera and a little computer built into one small device that’s always with you. There’s tons of excellent photo editing apps that have professional editing abilities—my personal favorite is Snapseed (available for iPhone and Android), but I’ll get more into specific apps in a future post. [Read more…] about Using Your Smartphone As a Post-Processing Playground

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: android, editing, images, iphone, nature, photo, photography, post processing, smartphone, snapseed

Benefits of Using a Flash Extender

May 19, 2015 by Robert Visconti 7 Comments

Flash ExtenderNote from the editor (Steve): This is a post by our newest writer: Robert Visconti. He primarily photographs wildlife (especially birds), and he’s got some really cool ideas for DIY projects and optimizing your camera gear. In this post, he talks about using flash extenders and how to make one work better.

A flash extender is just that: it extends the flash’s output to a much greater distance by using a Fresnel lens. A flash without the extender literally “floods” the entire subject area with light. The extender takes this conical shape of light and concentrates it into a beam, hence its name. [Read more…] about Benefits of Using a Flash Extender

Filed Under: Tips, Wildlife Tagged With: artificial, beamer, extender, flash, light, natural, nature, photo, photography

8 Tips For Photographing Sunsets

March 4, 2015 by Lindsey Graham 3 Comments

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.

[Read more…] about 8 Tips For Photographing Sunsets

Filed Under: Landscapes, Tips Tagged With: clouds, exposure, landscape, photo, set, silhouette, sun, sunset

How To Research a New Photo Location

September 9, 2014 by Jim Braswell 2 Comments

Bighorn Sheep / Photo by Jim Braswell
Bighorn Sheep / Photo by Jim Braswell
Traveling to photograph at a new location is always a fun experience for me. I love reading, or hearing about a place that I “just have to photograph.” But, to get the most out of the experience, be prepared by thoroughly researching the location before packing and heading out.

Why Should I Spend Time Researching?

Well, there are several reasons to do your research. The main reason is that travel is expensive, and conducting upfront research can save you time and money. Besides transportation, you’ll have lodging expenses, food costs, and you may have to use vacation days to get away from the day job (if you are still bound by that thing!). So, doing your research will help you to minimize any “surprises,” as well as help you stay within an affordable budget. [Read more…] about How To Research a New Photo Location

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: forecast, location, photo, research, scout, travel, weather

Use PhotoPills To Plan Your Next Milky Way Shot

July 24, 2014 by Steve Berardi Leave a Comment

PhotoPills
PhotoPills
One of the great things about being a photographer in this day and age is that we have a ton of awesome tools available for planning our landscape shots. I’ve talked about many of them already, including The Photographer’s Ephemeris, PhotoPills, Google Earth, and Stellarium. Together, these four tools can help you answer just about any question you have about a potential landscape shot.

Well, one of these tools (PhotoPills) just added an awesome new feature to their app: a 2D Milky Way Planner. And, the creators just published an excellent tutorial on their website on how to use this new feature.

So, if you’re interested in photographing the Milky Way in one of your nighttime landscape images, be sure to check this out! [Read more…] about Use PhotoPills To Plan Your Next Milky Way Shot

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: dark, galaxy, landscape, milky, night, photo, photopills, plan, sky, stars, tutorial, way

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