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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!

How To Use A Photographic Blind

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Shooting from a photographic blind can be very useful, particularly when photographing wary animals. Although I do not routinely use a blind, there are situations where I do. Such as when shooting birds at a feeding station, or at a watering hole.

On one occasion, I was photographing songbirds at a watering hole in the south Rio Grande River Valley of Texas, when this Greater Roadrunner showed up:

Greater Roadrunner
Greater Roadrunner with Grasshopper / Photo by Jim Braswell
[Read more…] about How To Use A Photographic Blind

New eBook – 53 Tips For Nature Photography

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53 Tips For Nature PhotographyIn the last six years, we’ve published over 240 posts here on PhotoNaturalist. With each new post, it gets harder to dig through the older posts and find the ones you might be interested in. It’s one of the most common comments I get from new readers.

So, I thought now was a good time to create a “best of PhotoNaturalist” eBook that contains all of our most popular posts (but only including posts written by me, because I do not have permission to resell other writers’ posts).

The eBook is 108 pages, and has 53 of my top posts. I determined the “top posts” by looking at traffic, and how much each post was shared on social media. I also tried to include a nice balance of subjects, so I separated the posts into four sections: general, landscape, wildlife, and close-up. [Read more…] about New eBook – 53 Tips For Nature Photography

The Most Useful Filters for Nature Photography

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When photographing nature, there are many times when a photographic filter on the end of the lens can help improve the image, or give the image a different effect. Such is the case when I captured Maroon Creek (Colorado) with a Neutral Density filter:

Maroon Creek landscape, Colorado
Maroon Creek / Photo by Jim Braswell

Kind of like “creativity in a can.” What filters are most useful for shooting nature? [Read more…] about The Most Useful Filters for Nature Photography

5 Tips For Aerial Photography

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Photo by Jeff Stamer / Kauai's Kahili Falls
Photo by Jeff Stamer / Kauai’s Kahili Falls
Many of us were first attracted to photography because it allowed us to see the world anew. Your camera challenges you not only to explore new places but also see familiar ones differently. One of the most dramatic ways to do this is with aerial photography.

Have you ever taken two shots a few yards apart and been amazed at how different they looked? That slight difference in perspective is multiplied exponentially in aerial photography. [Read more…] about 5 Tips For Aerial Photography

Introduction to Insect Macro Photography (Part III) – Composition and Focusing

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Photo by Huub de Waard / Male marmalade hover fly: Magnification 5, f/14, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec
Photo by Huub de Waard / Male marmalade hover fly: Magnification 5, f/14, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec
This is the final part (III) of a guest post by Huub de Waard, an exceptional photographer who specializes in close-up shots of insects. After reading his post, be sure to check out more of his awesome photos at his website. And, if you’re also interested in writing a guest post here on PhotoNaturalist, please contact me, thanks! –Steve

Composition is more difficult for microphotography than for other types of nature photography.

Your subject might be an insect or a spider sitting on a difficult-to-reach place. Add the fact that you need to approach very carefully to not disturb your subject and you have a bit of a tricky situation. There are no golden rules to help you solve this one. Play around with composition until you get something that works.

In microphotography, you want to simplify your image as much as you possibly can. Fill up as much of your frame as possible with the subject. Have your focus as sharp as possible and don’t be afraid to experiment with different angles to find the one with the most aesthetic appeal. Photos at high magnification have a corresponding shallow depth of field, so precise control over the location of focus is critical. This requires not only artistic decisions about what part of the subject should be tack sharp, but also technical decisions about how to make the most of this sharpness. [Read more…] about Introduction to Insect Macro Photography (Part III) – Composition and Focusing