xkcd speaks to me this morning (click for original):
And this time, don’t think about pocketable, or not having to carry extra lenses, or that big LCD on the back.
I cover this with my students, first thing, so I might as well hit it here too: The first and foremost cause of bad photos, the thing that wrecks more of them than anything else, is motion blur – camera shake.
Moods and metaphors are present in a lot more images than many suspect, and in many cases they’re recognized only subconsciously. Being able to induce them in the viewer is one thing, but simply noticing when the opportunity presents itself to your camera is a directly related skill.
Sometimes it’s simple. When I say, “Dawn on the beach,” you automatically get a visual impression
Okay, I admit it: I have no idea what the hell “yore” is. But since it’s not the season for nature photography, I’m hearkening (yeah, ditto) back to a time when it was. That I’m intending to make this an occasional habit is indicated by the ‘part one’ in the title…
This past summer, a tree alongside the house played host to a fairly common sight, which
Just thought you should know that I’m offering two new seminars in March 2012, in partnership with North Carolina Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill, NC. Since I know you’ve been dying to meet me in person, this is the best opportunity to do so since my handlers will be absent…
The first is Saturday March 10, from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM, called Nature Photography: Within
Taken just minutes ago. Yes, there are actually flowers in the yard on January 7th, and right now it’s pretty damn nice out there. Granted, these are teeny tiny little things that you can barely see when standing upright, and probably a more cold-weather variety than daffodils (I think I’ve said before, I don’t know my plants worth crap,) but still, it’s nice to see something
Courtesy of NASA’s Astronomy Photo of the Day, I present one of the most interesting examples of unintuitive physics: the curvature of spacetime to produce a gravitational lens. The ring that you see here is not the shock wave from a supernova affecting the surrounding gases, as I first
Or, if you’re less hip, you might know this as black & white, or monochrome, or greyscale (grayscale, what-evah,) or einfarbig. There are a lot of ways to accomplish it, but the first thing to consider is what you’re after. In times past, all photography courses required not only shooting in B&W, but developing it as well. I won’t
As we approach an arbitrary dividing line that we call the end of the year, and I face the fact that I should have updated the calendar long ago, I offer a reminder to all of those reading who have digital images on their computer – and for that matter, even those that don’t: back up your system! Digital information is easy to damage, and every storage option available
The weather got nice today and I was doing some other photos outside, when the persistent buzzing finally got me to look up and see what was going on. It seems this European honeybee (Apis mellifera) thought our holiday lights looked rather appealing, and checked out numerous bulbs along the string before flying off.
Knowing that bees are often guided by how much ultraviolet is reflected by flowers,
A few months back, I shot this Tolkienesque scene on the side of the river nearby, actually on the same outing that I chased down this special assignment. To get this angle, I was flat on my belly on a rock at the edge of the river, with my legs extending behind me into the water, far enough that my shorts were getting wet. That’s the kind of extremes I go to in pursuit of my interests.
Okay,