When it comes to long lenses and related gear, a new age has dawned. Wildlife, sports, and even landscape photographers can now enjoy the convenience of stabilized lenses to shoot handheld with longer lenses at slower shutter speeds. The result is sharper images overall, especially in low-light situations. Another advantage is that you can easily add extension tubes...
For those times when you want to isolate an object with a pleasing non-competing background, here is a system that will give you lots of options. It worked especially well when a client asked me to photograph individual pieces of jewelry to illustrate...
For Jess Findlay, outdoor photography was a natural. Growing up in British Columbia (BC), Canada, surrounded by lush landscapes, enthralling wilderness, and birds of every feather, nature called to him every time he stepped outside, spurred on by family activities that included hiking, mountain biking, and birdwatching. As a young child, he would buy disposable cameras for family outings, and that only whet his appetite for the photographic arts. Before he knew it, he was thoroughly immersed. Nature and photography were on converging paths, meeting at a crossroads that would mark his future forever.
It sometimes seems that there are two kinds of photographers: those who bang their cameras and lenses around mercilessly, and those who baby them. The former see themselves as rough, tough, and macho; the latter are perpetually worried about the slightest risk of damage to their precious cameras.
Neither attitude makes a lot of sense. Yes, you need to be unlucky to damage a...
Digital technology has revolutionized photography. So much has changed. The terminology is different, the ability to make our images perfect after the fact is a new concept, and the instant gratification of seeing our photos in a microsecond allows us to correct our mistakes on the fly. At the same time, the digital world is fraught with challenges, and photographers have never had to deal with...
I love shooting outdoor portraits! As a matter of fact, it has become my "signature style." During my busy season, I may take over 400 outdoor exposures in a single day, so I'd better be able to do it well and do it fast. An element of my style is that I don't use flash. Many photographers do, and...
Joyce Tenneson's photographs are thought-provoking and deeply moving. Her portraits provide insight into the soul and spirit of her subjects. Perhaps this is why Tenneson has enjoyed such a long and successful career.
"I started photographing in my 20s--I feel I have lived at least four lifetimes! My work has evolved as I have, and looking back on it...
Belinda Burton is a portrait photographer who's fanatical about photography and expresses a "…passion to empower all women, no matter what age, size, race and occupation, that they are worthy of admiration." We had a chance to connect with her and share her story with Shutterbug readers.
Joe McNally is an expert at lighting big jobs with small flashes. Besides being a successful commercial photographer, he also spends a great deal of time teaching. His new book, The Hot Shoe Diaries, is a virtual how-to for setting up complex lighting using Nikon SB flashes.
Normally, when we do interviews like this, we also discuss in detail how some of the photographer’s...
I have always been fascinated by a photographer’s ability to turn a common subject into a work of art. Being a photographer means seeing the artistic potential in the elements that surround us on a daily basis. I travel all over the world seeking out amazing things to shoot, but I also find them at home—in the kitchen, in my backyard or even in my office. It’s always an exciting discovery to work with a subject to which I never gave a second thought, and then one day it turns into something that is visually arresting.
You’d wash your car inside and out before you tried to sell it, right? At the least you’d vacuum the dog hair from the back seat. Why do so many people offer downright dirty cameras and lenses for sale at online auction websites? While you cannot (and should not) remove signs of wear, you can easily make used gear clean and presentable.
Jack Holowitz is the male half of the incredibly talented team of Jack and Nancy Holowitz from Springfield, Massachusetts. Nancy is known for her sensitive portraiture, and Jack has gained a great reputation for his eye-popping black and white work that includes nudes and...
Proximity was a factor: corporate and advertising photographer Robert Rathe lives about 10 miles from the long-closed Lorton Correctional Complex in Fairfax County, Virginia. So was a fascination with the concept of what constitutes a prison—physical structure or state of mind? And so was the attraction of documenting and preserving a bit of local history.
"If you define your creativity by what the market wants, you're dead before you start."
When James Balog traveled to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, in January, he knew there was little chance of his photographs being picked up by newspapers or magazines. The tsunami, which struck the region on December 26, had been well covered by the media. But as a photographer...