About the Author

E.J. was born in 1960 in Augsburg, Germany and moved to Ohio in 1969. He attended Purdue University and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering and completed graduate studies in Microelectronics and Semiconductor Physics. After working for the Intel Corporation for 27 years, he is now retired from the electronics industry and is a professional freelance photographer. E.J. and has formally studied photography at the University of New Mexico and completed courses from The Rocky Mountain School of Photography. E.J. has two sons, and has lived in Chandler, Arizona since 1994. A photographic specialty is artistic images of ducks and E.J. has published the book Ducks of North America - The Photographer's Guide. E.J. is also prolific in landscape photography, his first photographic love. E.J.'s photographs have been published worldwide in books, advertising, magazines, billboards, murals and more. Some of his publishers and clients include The National Geographic Society, World Wildlife Fund, The United States National Parks Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States Navy, State Parks Arizona, Barrons, and Dorling Kindersley. New Zealand Post honored E.J. by making one of his penguin images the primary image for their 2014 Commemorative Antarctica Ross Dependency Stamp set. He has also been named one of the top 100 Wildlife Photographers in the world by Eastern Europe's Digital Photographer Magazine. Visit his website at: www.ejphoto.com.

Photographing the Islands of Hawaii
by E.J. Peiker | June 19, 2018

Photgraphing Hawaii by E.J. PeikerThe Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight primary islands and many atolls that extend for 1600 miles in the central Pacific Ocean. The larger and inhabited islands are what we commonly refer to as Hawaii, the 50th State of the United States of America. The main islands, from east to west,...

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Sigma 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM Sport Lens Review
by E.J. Peiker | April 11, 2017

Sigma 500mmThe Japanese lens manufacturer Sigma has been around since 1961 and for much of its history it has been known as a company that makes budget lenses for Nikon and Canon cameras (and others at times). In late 2012, Sigma went public with a desire to no longer be seen only as a budget third party l...

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The Fish-eye Lens In Landscape Photography
by E.J. Peiker | October 22, 2014

© E.J. PeikerThe novelty fish-eye lens has long allowed photographers to explore a unique look and perspective in their picture-taking endeavors. Invented more than 100 years ago, the ultra-wide angle lens has a 180-degree angle of view and produces a hemispherical rather than the linear view that normal rec...

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My Changing Shooting Style
by E.J. Peiker | April 2, 2014

© E.J. PeikerI have been a photographer for most of my life and throughout my 46 years or so of photography, my style has changed many times. When I first got heavily into bird photography about 14 years ago, the trend in North America was towards shooting birds as big as possible in the frame and I followed...

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The Case For and Against Medium Format
by E.J. Peiker | January 23, 2014

© E.J. PeikerMuch has been written in the last 18 months stating that new high resolution cameras like the Nikon D800 and D800E equal medium format image quality. In September I had the opportunity to photograph with what is widely seen as the highest quality digital photography format available to photograp...

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Photoshop CS6 Arrives
by E.J. Peiker | May 31, 2012

Photoshop CS6 reviewTwo years after Adobe gave us Photoshop CS5, Photoshop CS6 was released. It continues its run as the choice for fine-tuning photographs by professionals and serious hobbyists. In the past two years, Adobe’s other photography oriented product, Lightroom, has taken some market share from Pho...

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D800, D800E – A New Generation Of Tools
by E.J. Peiker | May 10, 2012

© E.J. PeikerIt has been four years since my switch back to Nikon after 8 years with Canon. In mid-2008 I acquired a D300 and D700 to fulfill my DX (1.5x crop) and FX (full frame) shooting needs. In November of that year I added the Nikon D3x for my serious landscape photography. After acquiring the D3x, the...

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Trip Report: Midway Atoll
by E.J. Peiker | May 1, 2012

© E.J. PeikerEver since attending a one-day seminar by Barbara and John Gerlach in 1999, I have wanted to go to Midway Atoll in the subtropical region of the central North Pacific Ocean. During their program they showed pictures of what were then called Fairy Terns and Laysan Albatross. The Fairy Tern’s cu...

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E.J. Peiker’s New Zealand Diary
by E.J. Peiker | December 1, 2011

© E.J. PeikerFrom the Editor: In October 2012, professional photographer and NatureScapes.net co-founder E.J. Peiker will lead a twelve day NSN Certified workshop to New Zealand. In this article, E.J. shares with us his diary of his first trip to these beautiful South Pacific islands and relates his experie...

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Helicopter Photography Primer
by E.J. Peiker | August 31, 2010

E.J. Peiker and helicopterEditor’s note: This article has been updated and republished from a 2004 archive. All text and images copyright E.J. Peiker, all rights reserved.

Many of the more beautiful and dramatic areas in the world offer helicopter tours to get a birds-eye view of the spectacular landscape. Heli...

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