Don Dixon (www.dixonfilm.com) has always impressed me as the consummate professional. A contributor to two of my books, Studio Lighting Solutions and Location Lighting Solutions (Amphoto), he continues to produce a body of work that stands head and shoulders above many when it comes to originality. His digital composites never cease to amaze...
Over the years, digiframes as a display medium have mushroomed, and in the process gained some very entertaining and useful capabilities. And prices have come down enough to ensure they will be around for a long time. They are no longer a fad, something indicated by the proliferation of products that came out this year.
The latest digiframes bring a host of novel features to the...
I love getting intimately close to my subjects with my digital SLRs, especially nature, and to achieve this goal I’ll use the best tools at my disposal. Understanding that a macro zoom may not bring me as close as I’d like, I’ll turn to a macro lens. But even this lens may not be practical or readily available in all situations. Sometimes we’d simply like to extend the...
There’s an old saying that putting a new lens on your camera is like putting on a fresh pair of eyes. The latest lenses increasingly offer the ability to shoot in lower light without having to raise the ISO beyond quality limits, thanks to wider maximum apertures; shoot wider angles of view with APS-Csensor-size cameras; and allow for perspective control right in the camera.
Working at Spiratone, Nick Koudis (www.koudis.com) began his photographic career designing many of those wonderful gizmos made popular by my mentor, the world-renowned Norman Rothschild. Koudis brought his knack for developing clever and ingenious gadgets with him when he opened his first studio in New York City over 25 years ago. Back then we...
Perhaps the most exciting news in tripods is the first four-legged support. Yes, you read that correctly. In theory, it’s a more stable approach—just think of the pyramids. Aside from this innovation, there is a growing trend toward lighter-weight metals in tripods big and small—and that is certainly welcome. While carbon fiber, as a lightweight material, still has the advantage...
How many times have you traveled somewhere and taken a beautiful picture without quite knowing where you were at that instant later? That’s where “geotagging” (or “geocoding”) enters the picture.