Photography as a craft has always been married to technology. For photographers who wanted to practice that craft as an art form it has presented many challenges throughout its history. I believe no other art form has been transformed as…
Walk With Me
What makes some photos more visually appealing than others? As landscape photographers we are blessed – and sometimes overwhelmed – with a variety of compositional tools, many borrowed from painters. The rule of thirds, power shapes, the psychology of colors,…
Revisiting Old Photos
In my Lightroom catalog I have a collection called Masterfiles. In it are photos I consider my best, highest quality images for use in stock or fine art. The photos are arranged from newest to oldest. Occasionally I will scroll…
Long Exposure Math Simplified
Long exposure photography involves shutter speeds anywhere from one second to minutes or even hours. These long shutter speeds record the passage of time on a still medium. With moving objects a sense of motion is conveyed. What makes this…
Negative Clarity
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines clarity as “the quality or state of being clear.” Conventional teaching on post-processing with Lightroom says the clarity slider is primarily used to give an image more definition or “punch.” Moving the slider to the right…
Autofocus Micro-adjustment
Are you old enough to remember the days when the only way to focus a lens was manually (prior to the early 80s)? Can you imagine tracking a bird in flight with manual focus while simultaneously striving for a proper…
The Art of Line and Shadow in Nature
Line is the most basic of design elements in composition. You don’t need to study art to know about lines; presented with paper and crayon a toddler instinctively draws lines. In photography, light is essential to a good photograph, but…
Teachable Photos
Teachable moments are defined as unplanned opportunities that arise in teaching situations to facilitate learning for students. Whether it is a concept, an event, or insight, teachable moments serve to solidify the learning process in a memorable way that rote…
Back in the Saddle Again
This is my first new blog post in a long time. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to write. Rather, a few years ago I found that my WordPress blog was infiltrated with malware. One of those Payday Loan companies…