Column

Beware Of The Sun?

Q I recently “went digital” with a Nikon D90. While exploring the user’s manual, I was surprised to read a warning to keep the sun well out of the frame when shooting backlit subjects. It stated on page XIV in the “For Your...

New Perspective On Iconic Subjects

Travel photographers working in tourist destinations face a dilemma: the iconic view, skyline or structure of a place often is so well known and photographed that it’s almost impossible to come up with anything new.

The Photo In Front Of You

Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park is one of my favorite places on the planet. Years ago, I camped there for an entire summer. It was there, surrounded by granite domes and spires, that I first read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Social Networking For Photographers

Outdoor Photographer has one. My little sister has one. Now I have one.

Shooting Under Paradise

During a recent foray to Hawai’i to give seminars and workshops for the Canon Explorers of Light, I knew I’d be doing some snorkeling. (Hey! Somebody has to do this job!) I’ve previously used PowerShot compact digital cameras with underwater housings....

Respectful Distance

When I first traveled to the Falkland Islands in the mid-1980s, I encountered very few other visitors. I was able to roam alone and marvel at the islands’ abundant wildlife. When I returned a few years ago, great changes had taken place.

Hiking With All My Toys

If it’s summer, you’ll find Ol’ Basic in the high country of the Sierra Nevada. I’m camped at 10,000 feet, surrounded by peaks and meadows, granite and wildflowers.

Antarctica

I recently attended a fund-raising event held by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust. It’s working, among other things, to preserve Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition base, which is suffering from recent climate change.

Do I Need Permission?

In the August 2009 issue of Outdoor Photographer, you discussed the difference between commercial and editorial uses of images and the need for releases. Please expand on the definition of editorial uses. Would I need a signed permission from the...

Monarchs In Motion

In the mountains of central Mexico, monarch butterflies gather each winter in one of the most dazzling displays of mass movement in the animal world. Many millions of them migrate there from across North America to escape the cold before traveling...

Create Artistic Blurs In-Camera

Impressionistic photography has caught on. The process of blurring photographs with a camera is everywhere.

It’s The Fling Itself

In the past I wrote about “not being the best in the world, but being the best for the world.” I love little sayings like this. ...

The Perfect Solar Storm

I saw your photograph of the looping aurora borealis as one of the wallpapers within Microsoft Vista OS. Where did you take that photograph, and what’s the best time of year to try to capture the aurora?

Capturing Wildlife With An Infrared Trigger

In the neotropics, nocturnal bats fill many of the niches occupied by birds by day. But where birds use their superb sense of sight, bats exploit their specialized sense of hearing to find prey. They produce high-frequency clicking sounds and listen...

Try A Photo Bike-Tour

This issue’s column continues my discussion about adventure photography in New Zealand. My latest adventure Down Under was a bike trip across the South Island from the east coast to the town of Te Anau, gateway to Fiordland National Park on the west...

Primal Perception

The way we see color today is shaped by events from 35 million years ago, when some nocturnal primates shifted to a diurnal lifestyle, and began to seek out leaves and fruits by day instead of insects and other prey by night.

Local Knowledge

I’ve said it before, and I’m here to say it again. Get to know a landscape! Get to know your landscape, a favorite location where you can return often in all kinds of light and weather and season. Hopefully, this will be a place nearby where, by loo...

The Lowdown On Zooms

My son has a digital point-and-shoot camera with an 18x zoom, but when you zoom to the extreme end, the viewfinder displays a message that it’s a digital zoom, and the resulting quality isn’t very good. Is it also true that zoom lenses on D-SLRs don’t...

Adventure, Kiwi Style

As I write this, I’ve relocated and have been living for less than a week in my new home base on the South Island of New Zealand. The coastal town of Dunedin will be base camp for the next six months. From my experience, New Zealand could very well be...

Lights, Locomotive, Action!

One of my favorite things to do in between trips is to find photographic projects that are close to home. If I don’t have to lug my stuff through airports, on and off airplanes and in and out of taxis, I have that much more energy to make pictures. ...

Just A Little Background Information

I want to take wildflower images with the background thrown completely out of focus. The problem is that my telephoto lens (75-300mm) is an ƒ/5.6 lens, and I fear that it won’t do an acceptable job of making the background nothing more than color. Do I...

Don’t Take My Kodachrome Away

Q I’m using a Nikon Coolscan V to digitize some of my film images into versions I can display or market online. I choose good, technically correct slides to convert. Typically, E-6 images (Velvia, Ektachrome VS, Ektachrome G...

Once Is Not Enough

The pitfalls of modern mass tourism are nothing new. Way back in the ’60s, satirists were already beginning to decry the “been there, done that” mentality of the dedicated sightseer.

Making Better Nature Photos

Photographers are always interested in the latest gear, how a new lens might help, in taking workshops and reading magazines like Outdoor Photographer, all in the effort to become a better photographer.

HDR

Last fall, I visited nearby Yosemite Valley to deliver a print and posters to The Ansel Adams Gallery. While heading home, I stopped at the Gates of the Valley turnout just in time for some sunset photography.

Close And Personal

Is there a fundamental problem with using close-up filters on zoom lenses?

The Tools For Travel

It’s the time of year to leave some gentle hints for friends and family as to what toys a traveling photographer might want to receive during the holiday season.

Compendium 2008

One thing that I especially like about the photography business is that the majority of manufacturers care about us. Sure, they’d like us to spend money on their products, but they also like to make products that work.

Resources To Help You Take Better Photos

What I enjoy most about being a nature photographer is being in nature. Outside. Fresh air. Beautiful light. Peace and quiet. ...

Keeping Gear Safe

I live in southern Utah where there’s an extensive ATV trail system and the possibility for some unique photographs.