Outdoor Photography How To

Guess what? Even professional shooters screw up on occasion; so don’t feel too bad about making mistakes. The trick is to not make the same error twice, and one way to avoid that is to learn from the foibles of experienced pros.

In 2004 I was out late one night for a walk on the beach, as I often did to de-stress from a long day at work. This night was particularly beautiful, with a full moon shining overhead, so I decided to bring my camera and tripod along to take some oceanscapes. I found the perfect location, set up my gear, and opened the shutter of my camera for a long exposure. While the exposure was running I accidentally bumped my camera. When I checked the image and saw that the light from the moon had left a streak going across the sky I had an epiphany. My mind raced at the possibilities of using my camera and the moonlight to draw images in the sky, and from that moment on I was a light painter.

Whether the view before you is an expansive vista, a majestic mountain scene, or a stunning seascape, there’s a good chance you’ll reach in your bag, pull out a wide-angle lens, and mount it on your camera. But that doesn’t guarantee a great image unless you avoid a few common errors.

In may be a new year, but it's still "Tutorial Tuesday" at Park Cameras—a leading retailer in the UK that posts weekly photography lessons for their customers and the rest of us who want to improve our skills. Today's episode is all about employing exposure bracketing in the conventional way, as well as for other tasks you may not have used it for in the past.

If you’ve never used a hand-held light meter, the difference between incident and reflected exposure readings may be unfamiliar. It’s a very important distinction that helps explain why many photographers invest in a hand-held meter, despite the sophisticated exposure capabilities of today’s advanced digital cameras.

One was the first man to walk on the moon; the other arguably the greatest athlete of all time. I’ve photographed both Neil Armstrong and Muhammad Ali, among hundreds of other celebrities over the years.

Whether you’re shooting at a local nature reserve, on safari in Africa, or photographing birds in your backyard, there are several things you can do to dramatically improve your results.