Pro Techniques

Although some outdoor photographers prefer to shoot everything by available light, electronic flash can be surprisingly useful. In the past, it was difficult to produce a natural looking effect with flash in outdoor photography without a bit of expertise. All too often the results appeared to be artificial, with a harsh effect caused by flash becoming the primary light source.

Leaves haven’t started falling on Daisy Hill, but soon will be, and just as quickly the number of leaves needing to be raked reminds me of the thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of websites I’ve looked at and written about for Web Profiles over the years. The best are presented here but there are almost as many—maybe more—near misses that fail to make the grade because they lack focus. Not the pictures, mind you, but the purpose of having a site in the first place. While it may seem obvious to you it may not be to the person who lands on your homepage. Fall is a good time to reappraise and perhaps redesign your site for the New Year, giving it not just a new look but also a new purpose. Set a goal for your site and make sure that everything from the colors used to the words and images that appear go toward achieving that goal.

I’m sure that everyone who has ever owned a camera has taken pictures of flowers. It’s impossible not to. Flowers are too beautiful to resist, and there are so many species and varieties that you could devote your entire life to shooting nothing but flowers and hardly scratch the surface.

My life in photography changed one fall morning at the Frederick County Fair. A numbness on my right side indicated that I was joining the more than 600,000 people nationwide who suffer from strokes each year.

Thankfully, others around me recognized the first signs of my stroke and rushed me to a nearby hospital. During my 25-day hospital stay, I had ample time to...

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Do you own the copyright to your photos? By chance, did the contract you signed have a "work made for hire" clause? Do you get your legal advice from anonymous strangers online? The award-winning law firm DeWitt LLP offers an essential copyright guide that shows photographers how to lock down their ownership rights and legally fight theft. The downloadable PDF is free of cost or obligation. Read more to access the download link.