Tom Bol

There has been some questions recently on our workshops about the best way to focus.  Specifically, with all the amazing tracking and autofocus patterns why not just set your shutter button to focus and take the picture.  Less is more…or is it?  Before modern mirrorless cameras came out there was an obvious advantage to using Read More

I just returned from a fantastic trip photographing bears at Lake Clark NP. In addition to bears we photographed puffins one day, and had lots of opportunities to photograph birds in flight.  Which brought up the frequent question of what autofocus mode and techniques to get a sharp bird in flight. Here is the quick Read More

After two months of getting settled in Alaska, we are finally up and running again.  Expect to see regular posts as before!  I just returned from leading a group in the Pantanal region of Brazil.  Our main focus was jaguars, but this area is rich in wildlife of all sorts.  I researched and talked with Read More

Spring storms have arrived this season, with many parts of the country getting thunderstorms.  And with that comes storm and lightning photography.  Most years we head to Badlands NP in late May for our photo workshop, and often we get strong thunderstorms moving across the eroded landscape. In years past we have used lightning triggers. Read More

Summer is just around the corner, and with that comes photography excursion on oceans, lakes and rivers.  I love taking boat excursions in Alaska to photograph wildlife and landscapes…a day photographing in Kenai Fjords National Park is hard to beat.  But things don’t always go as planned.  You are photographing from a moving platform, and Read More

I’m culling through thousands of images this morning after returning from a week of photographing birds in Texas.  Our Texas bird blind workshop once again produced incredible shooting opportunities.  I shot about 30,000 images this year, including many pre-release capture images, trying to capture some birds in flight.  For most of my wildlife photography I Read More

I just returned from two weeks in Costa Rica. We had incredible workshops, fantastic groups and amazing photography.  We photographed monkeys, sloths, anteaters, dolphins, and endless birds.  Photographing in the jungle has some challenges, the biggest of which wasn’t finding the subjects, it was photographing them on the right background.  Backgrounds make or break an Read More