Wide angle lenses are a staple of landscape photography. The wide angle zoom seems to be the modern standard in everyone’s camera bag. Often, when a grand landscape presents itself, the wide zoom is the first and sometimes only lens that gets used. It seems that “go wide and include...
Continue reading“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”-Albert Einstein
...Continue readingI recently purchased a Wacom Bamboo pen tablet to use in retouching photographs and doing photo manipulation. The tablet would make these chores much faster and easier than using my laptop’s touchpad, which is what I’ve used for years. I had my chance to really test my new tool when...
Continue readingAsk a group of photographers what is the best camera for photographing the landscape and you will probably see a Canon vs. Nikon debate erupt. If they agree on anything it is probably that you “must” have a full frame DSLR to be a landscape photographer, cropped sensor cameras and an...
Continue readingIn the second installment of this two part essay we are going to look at the gear you take with you in the field and at what you do once you are in the field. This second part is presented as a checklist so that you can print it to refer to it in the field if you want. I kept the text to a minim...
Continue readingHaving a successful photography shoot depends in large part on how well prepared you are. But what does it mean to “be prepared?” And what is involved when preparing for a photography shoot? In this essay I will do my best to explain how I prepare for a shoot. I will break this prepa...
Continue readingPick up most any coffee table book featuring landscape photography and you’ll likely be confronted with image after image of sweeping vistas and vast panoramas. Most of the images are probably photographed using a wide angle to moderate focal length lens. What you won’t see are a bun...
Continue readingBlurs have always been an intriguing part of photography. They can be technically challenging to create, and require practice, technique, and luck to do well. A variety of subjects are well suited to blur photography, including birds, flowers and even landscapes. Who has not tried to blur a bird...
Continue readingPhotographers from the novice to the professional can photograph in infrared. Infrared light surrounds you—you just can’t see it. However, when you use a special filter with your digital camera, it becomes capable of recording infrared light. You can learn to envision the behavior and ef...
Continue readingSo what exactly is “herp photography?” Aside from the subject matter—reptiles and amphibians—there is no single defining attribute. Because the increasingly popular discipline spans a wide range of techniques, gear, and strategies, this article will serve as a primer and will sim...
Continue readingEditor’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...
Continue readingBird photography is my passion and has been for many years now. There is nothing I enjoy more than finding a bird and then capturing an image of it, the way I had dreamed. Creating beautiful bird pictures can be very rewarding and sometimes I want to push the envelope a bit and create something...
Continue readingI travel a lot and I need a safe and reliable way to manage my images while on the road. I have employed a very simple back-up system that has worked for me since I started shooting digital with the invention of the Canon EOS 1″D” series camera. In my view the best system is one that...
Continue readingThe much anticipated release of Photoshop CS5 is here! I have been using both the Mac and the Windows version for a couple of months now. It is a great update in several ways and falls short of expectations in others. While the features that have been updated or changed significantly are numerou...
Continue readingPhotographing nature and outdoor subjects from a boat gives a photographer a unique perspective and can allow a photographer to get original photographs of often photographed subjects or approach a subject that would otherwise be impossible to photograph. Any subject can be photographed from a b...
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