Outdoor/Travel

This may surprise you, but I prefer to travel with single focal length lenses rather than zooms.

I have several reasons. First, my primes are usually one to two stops faster than zooms, which is important not so much because I shoot with my lenses wide-open but rather because the extra one or two stops of speed makes the image brighter in the viewfinder—which means...

One of the things I always try to do when I’m planning a trip is check out the events calendars of the cities and towns I’ll be visiting to see what sort of festivals might be taking place. Sometimes I’ll even rearrange my schedule to make sure I hit those places at the right time; that’s how important it is for me to take advantage of these photo opportunities. Images of...

The Carrizo Plain National Monument, located in California’s Central Valley (a four-hour drive north of Los Angeles), is known as California’s “Serengeti” because of its plethora of wildlife diversity thriving in the last of California’s historic grasslands. This 50-mile stretch of sweeping grasslands lies between the Caliente and Temblor Mountain Ranges, one of my...

“For uncounted centuries the highest mountains in the world have hidden a tiny jewel, the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan.”

For uncounted centuries the highest mountains in the world have hidden a tiny jewel, the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan. In 1999 my wife and I were watching a 60 Minutes episode when Morley Safer came on and said, “While most governments are concerned with...

It was late afternoon on my last day in Big Bend National Park. I faced east where the Chisos Mountains rose up in steep cliffs from the desert. A few days after the New Year, there was a slight chill in the air but I was not thinking about the temperature. Rather, I was concentrating on the rapidly shifting light as the sun sank and clouds moved back and forth. With my camera mounted on a...

Straddling the border between Argentina and Brazil, the Iguazú Falls are one of the world's most dramatic waterfalls. Comprised of 250 separate cascades, the falls tumble about 200 ft from the Upper to the Lower Iguazú River below. The combination of massive waterfalls, lush subtropical vegetation, and varied local fauna makes this UNESCO World Natural Heritage...

Being a photography instructor is very rewarding and has proved to be an inspiration to me. Teaching Digital Photography at UCLA Extension in Los Angeles, I have found the interaction with students benefited me at least as much as them. But what if someone wants to take your class and is halfway around the world? That is where online teaching comes in and I am lucky enough to have...