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Free eBook on Wildflower Photography

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With spring beginning here in the southwestern United States, I thought it was time to update our free ebook on wildflower photography. The original version was released about three years ago, so it was due for an update.

Most of the content is the same, but I’ve learned a lot in the last three years, so I’ve updated just about every page in the book, and replaced a few tips with newer articles.

Anyway, here’s a sneak peak of what you’ll learn in this ebook: [Read more…] about Free eBook on Wildflower Photography

How Perspective Affects Your Photos

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Ansel Adams once said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” But, before you know where to stand, it’s important to understand a few concepts about perspective.

I’ve written about perspective here on PhotoNaturalist a few times, but I’ve also written a couple posts about it over at the Digital Photography School (a great blog that covers all types of photography). And, one of those posts was just published today, so I thought it’d be good to put a list together of all the posts I’ve written about perspective: [Read more…] about How Perspective Affects Your Photos

9 Tips For Photographing Perched Birds

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Black-throated Sparrow / Photo by Steve Berardi
Black-throated Sparrow / Photo by Steve Berardi
We’ve talked about bird photography fairly often here on PhotoNaturalist, including posts on how to photograph birds in flight and how to photograph hummingbirds in the wild. Well, today’s topic is photographing perched birds, like in the photo above of a black-throated sparrow.

Bird photography can be frustrating at times, and it may seem like you always need a longer lens, but with a little patience and a few little tricks, you’ll be coming home with good bird photos in no time. So, here are a few tips to get you started: [Read more…] about 9 Tips For Photographing Perched Birds

Where to Keep Your Telephoto Lens

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The last time I went hiking on one of my favorite trails here in Southern California, I missed out on a really good photo opportunity. As I was driving out of the national forest at the end of the day, I spotted a Red-Tailed hawk perched in a nearby tree. The tree must’ve been just 30 feet or so away from my car.

So, I pulled over, and realized I had a problem: my camera and telephoto lens was in the trunk. That meant I’d have to get out of my car, open the trunk, get the camera, and finally try to fire off a few shots. Doing all that without scaring the hawk away would’ve been a miracle. I tried anyway, and sure enough, as soon as I got out of the car, the hawk took off. Oh well.

Although the hawks here in California usually don’t mind if I just roll down the window and fire off a few shots, they DO mind if I actually get out of the vehicle.

Looking back at that situation, I realize there’s a couple things I could’ve done. [Read more…] about Where to Keep Your Telephoto Lens

How Do You Know When to Upgrade Your Equipment?

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For the past several years my main bird photography equipment has been one of Canon’s xxD bodies (30D, 40D, 50D and the recent 7D) along with either the Canon 400mm f/5.6L or the Canon 300mm f/4L IS. Sometimes I’ve also used these lenses with the Canon 1.4x Extender.

Both of these lenses offer superb image quality with impeccable sharpness. But, there have been times over the last few years when I missed out on photo opportunities because neither one of these lenses would perform adequately.

What kind of conditions am I talking about? When there’s poor lighting and little time to get the shot. The photo below is a good example. It’s a shot of an adult Red-shouldered Hawk that was taken very late in the afternoon. The sky was heavily overcast, causing some dim lighting conditions. [Read more…] about How Do You Know When to Upgrade Your Equipment?

How to Focus Closer When Using Teleconverters

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In a previous post, I explained how you can use an extension tube to focus closer with your lens. Using one of these hollow tubes can help you fill the frame when doing close-up photography of things like flowers or butterflies.

Well, when you’re also using a teleconverter on your lens, it’s important to attach the extension tube in between the teleconverter and the lens (so, the teleconverter should be closest to the camera body). This is a little trick that I just learned from an article by Arthur Morris in the latest issue of Nature Photographer Magazine.

I was interested to find out just how much the order matters, so I did a few tests with my Canon 300mm f/4L (a lens that I love to use for close-up photos) and a 25mm extension tube. Here’s a table that summarizes my results: [Read more…] about How to Focus Closer When Using Teleconverters