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Top 10 PhotoNaturalist Posts of 2010

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With 2010 coming to a close in a few days, I thought it’d be good to check out the top posts of the year. So, here they are:

  1. How to Photograph Dragonflies (free ebook)
  2. 5 Reasons to Minimize Your Gear
  3. 5 Great Resources for Nature Photographers
  4. Why You Should Memorize the F-Number Series
  5. Quick Tip For Getting Sharper Wildlife Photos
  6. 9 Tips For Photographing Wildflowers With a Point and Shoot Camera
  7. How to Photograph Wildflowers With Flash
  8. The OTHER Reason to Use a Tripod
  9. How Do You Know When to Upgrade Your Equipment?
  10. What Went Wrong With This Sand Dune Photo?

I hope you had a great holiday season and a great year! And, cheers to a whole new year of capturing natural light 🙂 [Read more…] about Top 10 PhotoNaturalist Posts of 2010

7 Tips For Photographing Landscapes In Extreme Wind

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
I recently found myself on an extremely windy mountaintop trying to photograph a distant rock spire. The wind was blowing at 45 mph, with gusts over 60 mph!

I’m used to dealing with some light 15 mph winds when photographing wildflowers, but this 60 mph stuff was strong enough to start shaking my tripod. So, I had to think quickly about how to keep my camera still and come away with a sharp photo of the beautiful sunset that was approaching.

Here are a few things I came up with to ensure I got an acceptably sharp photo: [Read more…] about 7 Tips For Photographing Landscapes In Extreme Wind

11 Tips for Landscape Photography

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Mojave Desert at Sunset / Photo by Steve Berardi
Mojave Desert at Sunset / Photo by Steve Berardi
Once in awhile, I think it’s good to re-read and review stuff you’ve already read before. It’s a good way to refresh your memory and pick up things you might’ve missed the first time.

I’ve probably re-read Ansel Adams’ book The Camera at least five times, and I still learn something new each time.

So, I’ve decided to start putting together collections of previous posts that have a central theme. I know that some of you haven’t been reading PhotoNaturalist from the start, so maybe you’ve missed a few of these posts. I don’t know how often I’ll do this, but to start off, here are some of the most popular posts I’ve written on landscape photography: [Read more…] about 11 Tips for Landscape Photography

7 tips for photographing waterfalls

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waterfall
Photo by Steve Berardi
Hiking trails to waterfalls always seem to be the most popular trails. There’s a good reason for this: as humans, we’re naturally drawn to water. It’s one of our most basic survival instincts. Not only do we love the sight of water, but we love the sound of water falling against rocks, and we love the feeling of cold water on a hot day.

So, naturally, waterfalls are also a popular subject to photograph! Here are a few tips for capturing them: [Read more…] about 7 tips for photographing waterfalls

9 tips for photographing wildflowers with a point and shoot camera

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Photo by Steve Berardi (shot with a Canon G10 point and shoot camera)
Although wildflowers are best photographed with an SLR camera, it’s still possible to take some pretty good shots with a plain old point and shoot camera. And, sometimes this may be the only camera you have with you at the time, either because you’re backpacking far into the wilderness and want to travel light, or maybe you haven’t made the jump to an SLR just yet.

The biggest problem you’ll run into with the point and shoot camera is the large depth of field you get from the super small sensor. This limits some of your options, but there’s a few ways to get around it, and as always, light also plays a huge role in the success of a photo.

So, here are a few tips for photographing wildflowers when you’re limited to a point and shoot camera: [Read more…] about 9 tips for photographing wildflowers with a point and shoot camera

New eBook, Digital Wildflower Photography, is now available!

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Digital Wildflower Photography (cover)Today I’m happy to announce that my new eBook, Digital Wildflower Photography, is now available.

The first thing you’re probably wondering is how it’s different from the free eBook I released last spring. Well, this new one is over twice as long at 55 pages, and has a ton of new content.

While the free eBook was really just a collection of a few tips for getting better wildflower photos, this new ebook is more of a complete guide that will teach you how to take stunning wildflower photos and how to post-process them in Adobe Photoshop (CS and Elements 8). [Read more…] about New eBook, Digital Wildflower Photography, is now available!