Outdoor Photo Gear » tips

Save Your Bacon, Use A Checklist

Theodore Stark — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:38:24 +0000

It’s early in the morning--too early in fact. Last night you were out making photographs of a friend’s band, and the concert went later than expected. Now you're in a car at 3:30 a.m. heading to a location to photograph the sunrise over a quiet lake. You’re tired, groggy, and you didn’t even get to eat breakfast. Not even bacon…

As you get closer and closer to the lake, your excitement and your anticipation grow. You arrive at the lake and find the scene you want to photograph. You find some nice foreground object to further enhance your shot and the sun begins to do its magic. The sunrise is spectacular! You shoot in landscape. You shoot in portrait. Heck, you even do some HDR. This truly has been a fantastic sunrise. Even better, you were there to capture it with your camera.

You are rather pumped as you head home. You're excited to see what these look like on your computer! Once at home, you slip your CF card into the card reader and begin the download process. You let the card reader do its thing as you go to get a cup of coffee. On your return, you are beyond horrified.

Dewy Morning Dragonfly Tip

Mike Moats — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:13:25 +0000

Well we had another cool morning, no wind, and everything covered in dew. I’ve mentioned this before, but if you get out on these cool dewy mornings the dragonflies will hold their position allowing you to set up your tripod, move in as close as you like, and take your time shooting. The cool body [...]

Got A Cluttered Background? Insert Your Own

Mike Moats — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:40:54 +0000

Every macro photographer will run into a great looking flower with character, but the angle you want to shoot at has a horrible clutter background and you can’t do anything about it. All is not lost, you can insert your own background. Photograph and print your own backgrounds and just place them behind the flower. Now some may say that’s cheating, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Here is how you do it. For a green background find a grassy field or even the grass in your backyard. This is how the subject looked on my first background shot.

Now just turn the focus on your lens till it becomes out of focus and a solid color like this. Now I have a nice solid green background.