In 1999 I made my first visit to the Santa Cruz Kayak Surf Festival, held annually at the world-renowned point break Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, CA. It’s a lovely venue, and perfect for spectators who get a close-up view from the cliff that abuts the action. I shot film with a tripod-mounted telephoto that […]
Photo Tip: A Matter of Numbers ___ 02/2009
If you work at composition—and what photographer doesn’t—you’re probably aware that number is a compositional element, and a powerful one. Consider that composition is a way of organizing a photograph. The best compositions paring down, simplifying, gett to the essence. It puts a stamp on who you are as a photographer.Number is one of many […]
Digital Thinking: A Vertical from a Horizontal __ 01/2009
For many of us, shooting verticals takes a conscious effort. The comfortable grip of most cameras—especially most dSLR’s—induces “landscape” shots. Only high-end dSLR’s have a built-in vertical grip that helps make “portrait” shooting routine. Still, rotating the camera 90° involves either a thought like “I should get this in a vertical for its cover potential”; […]
Photo Tip: Vision in Photography? __ 12/2008
I received some nice complements for my “American Dipper with salmon egg” photo, taken on a recent Seattle Mountaineers outing—complements like “great shot”, “outstanding!” and “great vision”. I’m flattered by the “vision” thing, though I’m not sure what that means. Vision implies seeing the future, in a non-obvious way, like getting a patent. I do […]
Tutorial: Adobe Elements 6 Panoramas ___ 08/2008
Edited 3/15/2013. Prior to Elements 6, on the rare occasion that I made panoramas, I stitched images manually. A big problem was that automated stitch programs produced banding in the sky, often accompanied by bizarrely-merged foregrounds. But when I saw a Mark Galer example (Adobe Photoshop Elements 6: Unleashing the hidden performance of Elements) demonstrating […]
Photo Tip: Take Your Eye Off the Viewfinder __ 07/2006
Serious film photographers wouldn’t think of it, but point-and-shoot digital shooters routinely snap photos with camera at arms length. Not just holding the digicams straight out in front of them, but overhead, down low or off to the side. Some point-and-shoot LCD’s even cleverly fold out and twist to aid in composing, though this isn’t […]