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“Cheap” Aerial Photography with the DJI Phantom

Tomorrow, Improve Photography is going to take delivery of a DJI Phantom.  It’s a $700 remote controlled helicopter that is capable of lifting a small camera in the air to take aerial photos and video.  Needless to say, I’m not going to be sleeping much tonight, knowing that a new gadget is in a box [...]

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Photography tips for shooting the milky way and night photography.

How to Photograph the Milky Way

Last week, I took a photo of the Milky Way above an old schoolhouse building in Idaho. I posted the photo on our Facebook page, and it received 1,548 likes, 177 comments, and was shared 84 times. I was pretty happy (okay, fine… I was ecstatic) that so many of you said such nice things [...]

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How the Contest-Winning Fireworks Photo Was Taken

I ran an informal contest last week on our Facebook fan page where we invited all of the members of the community to upload their best fireworks photos.  We received over 200 entries in the contest, but the winner of a $50 Amazon gift card was Adam Agushi, who is a regular in our community. [...]

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Circular Polarizing Filter

There are three essential kinds of filters we recommend for landscape photographers: the Graduated Neutral Density Filter, the Neutral Density Filter, and the Circular Polarizing Filter. Some really useful things to note about a Circular Polarizing Filter: In most cases, you can’t replicate what this filter does in Photoshop If you are shooting water and there is a glare [...]

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Boise Foothills at Table Rock

The Grad ND Battle: Physical vs. Digital Filters

Recently, I wrote an article on outdoor landscape photography in the mountains.  In that article, I mentioned that I brought a graduated neutral density filter for the shoot and used it heavily.  It was mentioned in the comments of that post that a grad ND is useless because the same effect can now be accomplished [...]

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A Complete Guide to Time Lapse Photography

Time lapse photography is when a photographer takes several hundred pictures while locked down on a tripod over the course of about half an hour.  Then, the pictures are replayed in fast forward so time is compressed.  You have undoubtedly seen time lapse videos before, but you may not be sure how to do it. [...]

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Sunrise at Goat Lake in the Sawtooth Wilderness of Idaho

7 Tips for Landscape Photography in the Mountains

As many of you know, I moved from Florida (a coastal state that is as flat as a pancake) to Idaho (an intermountain state that is full of beautiful mountains) a few months ago.  Since then, I have faced immense photographic challenges that I had not anticipated.  I thought I’d write up a little tutorial [...]

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Photo of a spring thunder storm moving across a farm.

Storm Photography Tips & Tricks (Guest post)

Diana Milevska sent in this awesome guest post explaining how photographers can learn to photograph storms, lightning, and other natural features that are likely to cause instant death. Diana is a storm chaser, photographer, and designer. For more on Diana K. Milevska, check her out at BowEchoMedia.com.  The nice thing about being a storm chaser is that the [...]

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A waterfall in Idaho

No Guts, No Glory in Landscape Photography

Several years ago, I was driving down an old dusty road in rural Idaho when I happened to glance out my rear-view mirror and saw a little waterfall.  I parked the car and hiked over to where I had seen the little stream.  All of the sudden, the trail lead to the top of the [...]

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A beautiful female photographer holds a tripod and a DSLR while hiking and camping.

10 Tips for Camping with Your Photography Gear

It is summer time in the Northern Hemisphere, and for many of us, that means enjoying photography while camping, hiking, or just being in the great outdoors.  Along with being outdoors with your camera and lenses come several problems: heat, dust, weight, etc.  Since I moved to Idaho, I have been spending a lot of time [...]

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