One of my non-photographer friends once asked me why my lenses were covered in camo. “Surely it’s a waste of time and looks silly!” he said. Looks silly? Well ok, depending on the situation, he may have had a point. But waste of time, absolutely not! LensCoat lens covers are no...
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Each week the moderators and staff of NatureScapes.net select one photo that particularly stands out in each of the image critique galleries. This photo becomes that gallery’s Image of the Week, and at year end one image is selected from these to be the gallery’s Image of the Year...
Continue readingNature photography has taught me to measure a day by heartbeats instead of a clock. No second hand will tell me when and what I have seen. I can glance at water rushing down a stream, feel the wind rustling through trees, hear the roaring of thousands of honking geese flying overhead, or watch t...
Continue readingA judge has ordered in the Lenz v. Universal Music case that copyright owners must consider whether an unauthorized use of a copyrighted work qualifies as fair use before sending a “DMCA takedown notice.” A takedown notice is used by copyright owners to ask Internet Service Provide...
Continue readingIn the heart of New Mexico lies White Sands National Monument, a 275 square mile field of gypsum dunes that sets a nearly perfect stage for those interested in creating minimalistic yet otherworldly landscape imagery. The serenity of this setting stands in contrast to its immediate surroundings,...
Continue readingWhether you’re a medium/large format photographer, a big lens shooter using lenses like a 600mm f4, 800 f5.6, or Sigma 300-800 zoom, or just after a solid base for landscapes and macro, one thing is certain – you need very sturdy support. Enter Gitzo’s mighty GT5541LS.
Continue readingNikon’s 14-24mm f/2.8 lens is highly regarded as an excellent wide-angle lens. Many articles and lens tests claim that this lens performs as well as or better then just about all other lenses in this focal range, including primes. A few of these articles are noted at the end of this docume...
Continue readingWhen I opened up my Fall 2009 issue of Nature’s Best Photography magazine featuring the Windland Smith Rice International Award winners, I was delighted to see that a few NatureScapes members and friends had been honored. I was particularly excited to see the spread on pages 94 and 95 that...
Continue readingBack in the film era, when film was the only medium to capture photos and digital was still mostly avoided for various reasons, life was, relatively speaking, easier. Many hobbyists and amateur photographers were conservative about the amount of film exposed. Good slide films were expensive and...
Continue readingPatagonia is located in the southern Andes mountain range along the border of Argentina and Chile. The area was made famous in the 1930s and 1950s by pioneering climbers like Jacques Poincenot, Lionel Terray, Cesare Maestri, and Toni Egger, who came to test themselves on the regions’ grani...
Continue readingTrademarks (or servicemarks) allow people to identify the source of goods or services, not the products or services themselves. When people see your trademark, they will know where the product came from or who is providing the service. Trademarks can be names, symbols, packaging, the shape of a...
Continue readingSince starting photography in fall 2004, the months of May through to August have always been my most productive. There are plenty of nature subjects to choose from: birds, amphibians, flowers, insects, landscapes, and more. On weekends, I’d often head out before dawn to a marsh near my ho...
Continue readingTerragen Classic is a free stand-alone scenery generator for non-commercial use. Terragen creates photorealist images up to 1000 pixels wide, based on your inputs for terrain, clouds, water and atmosphere. You can choose whether to make earth bound images, or if you like, create a view from Mars...
Continue readingAdding believable reflections to an image can be a challenge—the Flood plug-in from Flaming Pear software makes it easy. Because the number of choices in the control panel interface can seem overwhelming at first, I’ll try to make the selections a little less daunting, and give a few tip...
Continue readingThe image below was created using the filter “Liquify” from Photoshop. It is a versatile tool, and fairly simple to use.
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