Tech Tips

One question I hear a lot on workshops is when and why use graduated ND filters in the field.  Can’t you do the same thing in the computer?  The answer is yes and no.  If you have a scene with a bright top part and lower dark area, then you could expose for the highlights Read More

  Just back from weeks on the road, have some great new topics to blog on in the next few weeks!  Just heard from Nikon today that they posted my perspective piece on Learn and Explore.  If you are not familiar with this site, or think it doesn’t matter since you shoot a different camera, Read More

I recently gave a presentation at Shoot The West, a great photo conference held each year in Winnemucca, NV.  The title of my talk was ‘beyond the snapshot’, or in other words, some techniques and guidelines to create better images.  Some photographers in the audience asked me to summarize  these points, so I thought I Read More

I’m headed into Yellowstone NP for a week, and yet again I find myself wondering what lenses to bring.  I know this trip is packed with wildlife, so the easiest decision is to bring my 200-400mm with 1.4x.  Next up I will need a middle telephoto, so that will be my 70-200mm F4 (amazing lens! Read More

Winter has settled in around Colorado, and on my recent trip to shoot in the mountains the temps were around -20.  Next week I’m off to Yellowstone where it can easily hit -30.  But winter is one of my favorite times to shoot.  The pristine winter landscape beckons for exploration, and photographing skiers in a Read More

I was recently asked at an event what really is the difference between full frame and a smaller 1.5x crop camera.  This person knew the sensor was smaller, but was more curious why people were getting more telephoto power from the smaller sensor.  Is it really true a 1.5x sensor makes your lens a longer Read More

Speedlights are a critical part of my lighting tools.  They are lightweight, take AA batteries, and can be controlled right at my camera using my SU800 optical transmitter.  But sometimes I need more distance than I can get using my SU800, or I am shooting without line of sight to my flashes.  For these situations Read More

I was roaming around the Tuscan hills recently, lining up popular trees and distant hills for the right composition.  One day I had gray flat skies, not ideal for many subjects I wanted to photograph.  I hear this a lot…”Oh boy, skies are overcast, going to be a bad day  for photography”.  True, there are Read More

Photoshop got a facelift recently, and I get asked at workshops if the upgrade is worth it.  Simply put, yes!  I think this is one of the best upgrades ever.  Huge changes were made, new tools were added, and I find myself using Photoshop more that ever with its new capacities.  Here are my five Read More

I have to admit one thing I was very excited to try with the Nikon D800 was using my Elinchrom Quadras and Pocket Wizard’s Hypersync.  Why? Because with my D300s I can sync to 1/2000 using my Quadra with mininal clipping.  Generally Hypersync works better with small sensor cameras like the D300s.  Guess what…the 36MP full Read More