The Falkland Islands, located in the South Atlantic off the coast of South America, are world-renowned for their exceptional wildlife photography opportunities. Large, easily accessible colonies contain tens of thousands of some of the world’s most incredible birds, including five species of penguin, imperial cormorants, and black-browed albatross. Elephant seals, sea lions, and orcas are
There are few sights in nature that are as awe-inspiring as being high up a mountain, looking down upon a sea of clouds. Getting above the clouds doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it presents many unique photographic opportunities. I drove high up an alpine road to make this photo at sunrise, when golden
Whenever I’m teaching someone in a photography workshop or in a classroom setting, I always try to get them into a comfortable workflow they can follow for every photograph they edit. However, every photograph is different which forces the photographer to make decisions on some extra edits they should make. A workflow is important because
Early blooming flowers provide plenty of opportunities to take great pictures in spring. The variety of colors and species available make for endless creative possibilities. We are also more sensitive to colors after a less saturated winter. Of course, there is always an impulse to imitate pictures we have seen and liked, pictures that inspired
If you’ve been an outdoor photographer for very long you might have noticed by now that you spend a lot of time near the water. There’s no doubt that water features add a lot to any landscape nature scene. Ponds are a tremendous feature to shoot with mountains, waterfalls are always a beautiful cascading subject,
I’m not a big fan of the so-called “Rule of Odds,” which claims that photographic compositions are more visually appealing when there is an odd number of subjects. Of course, depending on your subject matter and overall composition, sometimes an even number of subjects doesn’t work—but then again, sometimes an odd number doesn’t work, either.
As a professional photographer, I’ve had the joy of having a career that allows me to travel to some amazing locations. I’ve seen some of the most famous places during my travels, but just like a lot of people I still have a long list of places to see (and it seems to be getting
I believe that the three biggest concepts in photography are gear, composition, and post-processing. The smallest of those three is gear, the second smallest is post-processing, and the one that is most essential is composition. If I had to attach percentages to them, it would go like this: Gear: 10% Composition: 65% Post Processing: 25%
Whenever you include the sky in your photos, chances are your compositions will look better if there are clouds—the right kind of clouds, that is. Photographing clouds is really important for landscape photography in particular, but I find the presence of clouds to be useful with other types of outdoor photography as well. Look for
When I first took up landscape photography, I carried around a big, bulky pouch of filters that were constantly getting scratched, being dropped, or accidentally getting left behind. As digital technology and file quality has improved, the need for most of those filters faded away. Using a polarizer helped reduce the glare on the wet
