Nature Photography How To

In real-world shoots, both camera and subject are often moving. Six generations of photographers have fought this problem in their quest for images as sharp as a zoot suit. And nowhere is this fact of photographic life more obvious than when you’re trying to freeze the movement of wildlife. Whether you’re bagging African megafauna or trying to capture backyard beetles, stopping the motion is part of the assignment. So how do you do it?

Have you ever made that bucket list trip to follow in the footsteps of the great masters of landscape photography by visiting places like Yosemite or Yellowstone but wished you came home with photos that didn’t look like those taken by everyone else?

British nature photographer Thomas Heaton is a master of telling stories with his images, and in the video below he reveals some great tips and tricks for making spectacular photos of the Northern Lights.

The frost is on the pumpkin, folks, and that means it’s time to get ready for fall. Here are five things to have in mind as we slip from Daylight Saving Time into the long nights and short days of winter.

At my workshops and lectures I am often asked by photographers how I am able to get sharp images at slow shutter speeds out of the affordable 70-300mm zoom I use for backpacking while they are unable to get sharp images with their 70-200 f/2.8 pro lenses. It is true that when it comes to lenses, the price tag does match the quality in terms of durability and sharpness at wide apertures. But by the time my carry-along backpacking lens is stopped down to f/8, it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between photos taken with it and images taken with the most expensive pro lenses. Honestly, the lack of sharpness in photos has less to do with the tele lens you are using than it might seem and more to do with long lens technique.

Everyone seems to have their own approach to editing images in Photoshop, and some are more complex than others. But if you’re looking for a simple technique that will make a big difference in your results, this tutorial is for you.

If there’s a more challenging photographic discipline than wildlife photography, I don’t know what it is. It requires heavy and expensive long focal length lenses, a sturdy tripod, and the physical prowess to schlep all this gear through physically demanding environments. If you’re thinking “that’s not you, Joe,” you are correctamundo so I asked a few friends for advice on telephoto lenses and this is what they told me.