How To

Shooting Macro? Try Flash!

Most nature photographers spend the majority of their time shooting the very large in the natural world—big mountains, big animals. We become obsessed with the grandeur of outdoor photography.

Old West Color

There’s an old cowboy adage that goes, “Talk less and say more,” and David Stoecklein does just that. Based out of Idaho, he has photographed amazingly iconic images of the American West for more than 20 years. Astoundingly, whether it’s of a modern...

Into The Caves Of Patagonia

A few days before, we had left our home in Colorado in the midst of a winter storm, our visions of sunshine, wildflowers and this lake calling us 7,000 miles south. Months previously, our friends, the landscape photographer Linde Waidhofer and her...

10 Tips For Top Sharpness

Nature photographers are always on the quest for sharp pictures. I know I am. I want to be sure that when something should be sharp in a photograph, it’s indeed sharp.

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.

Inside A High-End Workshop

I’m going to teach you how you can tell stories with pictures, and that’s quite different from taking pictures just by looking at the surface of things.”

Adding Sound

We’re heading to a multimedia age. As new HD video-capable D-SLRs come online with more and more frequency, nature photographers are increasingly able to add dimension to their photography by incorporating motion and still imagery into short...

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.

Online Learning Comes Of Age

The old-fashioned correspondence course has grown up, and in the digital age, it has become a viable and truly enjoyable way to learn how to take better pictures.

It's In The Details

As you get physically closer and closer to your subject, you’ll find increasingly interesting possibilities for your images. The world looks different up close. You may find that your original subject is no longer the most compelling thing in front of...

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...

Going On A Photo Road Trip

Getting off the beaten path can inspire your photography with new subjects, unexplored environments and pictorial challenges. ...

Up Close And Wide!

Apparently, a fisheye lens is how a fish actually sees the world from its bowl. ...

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...

Defringing

Few things are more frustrating to a photographer than edge fringes or halos that appear in Photoshop after a selected or extracted object has been placed onto a new background.

The Rembrandt Solution

Landscape photographers face a fundamental challenge: how to compress the broad range of light intensities typically found in the real world into the much narrower range of tones that can be reproduced in a print.

Get 4x5 Quality With A DSLR

For almost 20 years as a professional photographer, I’ve shot with large- and medium-format film cameras. Then, five years ago, I purchased my first digital camera, a Canon EOS-1Ds, and gave up film altogether.

The Zone System Revisited

Ansel Adams is credited with developing the Zone System in the 1940s. In the ensuing time, photography has undergone a series of monumental changes, but even today when digital dominates the photography landscape, the Zone System remains relevant,...

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. ...

HD D-SLRs For Nature Photographers

In fall 2008, Nikon announced the D90, the first D-SLR with HD video capability. A few weeks later, Canon announced the EOS 5D Mark II, the first “pro” D-SLR with video capability.

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?

Set Up Your Camera For Best Field Use

Have you set up your camera to make it work optimally for you? Have you changed the camera from its default settings? Most photographers make the RAW or JPEG (or both) choice, but since they’re used to film cameras, many don’t realize that there are...

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...