Improve Photography

On my mega-long road trip last week, I stopped to do photography in the beautiful city of Nauvoo, Illinois.  The city is full of rich history which is related to my religion, so it was an especially important shoot to me. I planned to wake up at 5AM to get out and shoot the sunrise, [...]

I know what you’re thinking, and I think you’re wrong.  That may be a confrontational way to start this post, but this Nikon vs. Canon DSLR debate is fueled by such passion in 2012 that I have to explain what we’re discussing here. Both Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras provide fantastic image quality and similar [...]

Aaron Mizzi recently sent in a question asking how long the shutter on his DSLR will last before it bites the dust. It’s actually a very good question and the answer will also teach you an easy way to find out how many total times you’ve pressed the shutter button on your DSLR, which is [...]

As soon as a new photographer gets her hands on a Canon 580EXII or a Nikon SB-700, they inevitably want to use it ALL THE TIME… including when shooting on the beach in the middle of the day.  Most photographers get frustrated when using fill-flash for the first time, but you really only need to [...]

One member of our community, Sean Allen, sent in a question to me through our Facebook Fan Page, asking the difference between full frame and crop sensor DSLR cameras.   Some of you may already know the answer to this question.  If you do, please share your knowledge in a comment below. Welcome to the [...]

There are now several companies dedicated to renting lenses and other photography gear to photographers.  Borrowlenses.com, LensProToGo.com, Lensrentals.com, etc.  These companies charge you a fee for you to rent a lens for a few days or weeks and ship the lens right to your door.  When you’re done with the lens, you ship it back [...]

I recently read a blog post from a pretty competent photographer who said that there is no reason to use spot metering.  Spot metering is where the camera determines a proper exposure not on the average brightness levels of the whole frame, but just of one specific spot.  This photographer, like me, is principally a [...]

DSLR cameras are remarkable tools and have improved at an astounding rate in the last few years.  Still, there are a few easy-to-implement features that I have never seen a DSLR include and it drives me nuts!  Read through my whine list and then include your own whines below.  Maybe, if we whine loud enough, [...]

Periodically, perhaps twice a year, I have to clean the sensor on my DSLR.  It’s always a bit scary because I don’t want to scratch the sensor.  For this reason, many people wimp out and just send the camera to Canon or Nikon to be professionally cleaned.  If you are made of money and you [...]

Get out your wallet.  Trust me on this one… you need this little thing.  Your camera costs hundreds or thousands of dollars and you often go out shooting where you’re away from shelter.  One little rain storm could be the end of your DSLR or lenses.  We all put buying a DSLR rain sleeve off [...]