OP – The Blog

This is the fifth in my series of ten photo tip videos, and like the last couple of tips, this one deals with composition, specifically how lens choice effects perspective and in turn how your viewer relates to a photo because of that perspective. I also discuss creating visual depth in a photo and how  

Two big problems I see when critiquing photos in my workshops are compositions full of distracting elements and/or a center of interest that lacks impact (if it’s there at all.) Taking the time to simplify a composition, while making choices that give your main subject dominance in the frame will solve both problems. Watch my  

Composition is a challenging concept to teach in photography. I believe everyone has an inherent way of looking at the world and translating that vision into art, and teaching my own vision doesn’t always translate. Still there are some basic technical aspects to visual design that can be learned, and I’m putting together a series  

Most of us who have been around digital cameras for a while have come to love the histogram, which is basically a bar graph that charts the tonality of a photo. At a rudimentary level, it makes it easy to keep from under- or over-exposing photos. From a more nuanced perspective, it is possible to  

I just posted the first photo tip video on my blog as part of my free on-line outdoor photography course. This week’s tip, Maximize the Light, encourages photographers to learn the nuance of using natural light in outdoor photos. It seems like a good place to start – photography means “drawing with light” after all.  

Keeping things simple is a mantra of many outdoor photographers. Simplicity in a photo focuses the viewer’s attention on what the photographer feels is important in a scene, with simple lines and shapes combined with good light usually resulting in a better photograph than one that tries to take in everything in front of the  

The internet abounds with blogs devoted to individual and group 52/365 projects, where photographers post a new image every day or week, with or without self-imposed parameters. I’ve resisted embarking on a similar project, mostly because I felt that imposing artificial “rules” on when or why to make photos would restrict my creativity or become  

I’ve been fortunate enough to be out shooting more often than not over the last few months. Most days after I wrap up shooting and get back in the car to drive back to wherever I’m sleeping that night, I find myself singing a little louder to the radio with a goofy grin on my  

Please forgive me for a little blatant self-promotion here, but I’m excited to announce the release of my new book, the AMC Guide to Outdoor Digital Photography. When I sat down to write this book over the winter, my goal was to keep it simple – I’m a firm believer in keeping the tech talk  

I’ll be leading a 5-day photo workshop on the Cape Cod National Seashore in September. It is a beautiful place for photography with miles and miles of undeveloped beaches, rolling dunes, pitch-pine forests, and picturesque harbors. During the workshop we’ll visit the dunes and beaches on the Atlantic side from Eastham up to Provincetown as