In the early 1980s, when he was just starting out as a commercial and advertising photographer, Rob Atkins took a few trips to the Southwest. "I went to photograph the great natural wonders," Rob says, "like the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley." But as he traveled to those and other destinations, something else caught his eye. "So often, out in the...

You know those bookstores where you walk in and right near the entrance there's a cafe with seating for maybe 40 people, and there's a menu that offers dozens of selections, many of which you can't pronounce, and there's a rack of...

Depending on which metaphor you like best, it's either the 800-pound gorilla in the pixel palace or the fly in the digital ointment. It's also, according to professional photographer Mark Gamba, "the thing no one is talking about."

So let's talk about it.

It's the protection and storage issue.

Now...

Less is more. But too much less is boring. What you're looking for, Rod Planck says, is the kind of balance you find when you "work both sides of the creative fence."

Rod is not only an outstanding nature and outdoor...