Outdoor Photography How To

While most of us are dedicated to capturing fleeting moments by slicing seconds into ever smaller fractions, Michael S. Miller has a different tale to tell. In a project he calls Long Light, he takes the time to let the moments simply accrue.

Long Light began with Michael’s viewing of historic view camera images. One in particular—a Mississippi riverboat, blurred by the camera’s slow shutter speed—caught his attention. “The water had this mystical kind of feeling to it because of the long exposure,” Michael says, “and I thought, all right, let’s see what happens if I do some long exposures of rivers.”

Since the development of photography in the early 1800s, there has always been a strong tradition of photographers using their work to promote conservation and social justice issues. One need only to look at the development of the National Park System in the United States to see the impact early photographers had on conservation. William Henry Jackson, with his 1871 Yellowstone photographs, helped push through legislation that established Yellowstone as the world’s first National Park. Another well-known example of a conservationist photographer was Ansel Adams, whose tireless efforts both as a photographer and as a 37-year member of the Sierra Club’s Board of Directors led to the establishment of Kings Canyon National Park in 1940.

Lynne Eodice is an accomplished writer/photographer and a regular contributor to Photographic magazine.

The word photography literally means "painting with light." Thus, twilight is one of the best times to take pictures, as the light at that time is magical. You can capture colorful clouds at sunset time, silhouetted objects against a colorful sky, or the...

Photography is all about light. But wherever there's light, there are shadows lurking nearby. And therein lie some great photo ops.

Exposing Shadows
Contrasty shadow scenes can fool reflected light meters, such as those built into cameras. A spot meter enables you to meter the most important highlight area, and determine an exposure that will give...

The world looks different from the air, and aerial photography thus offers some unique photo opportunities.

If you're not a pilot, probably the best way to get aerial photos through a flight school at your local general-aviation airport. Training planes can fly fairly slowly, and the instructors will be familiar with the area's airspace, and experienced at...

You should always shoot with your eyes wide open (at least, the one looking through the viewfinder). But often it pays to shoot with your lens wide open, too.

Wide apertures let in more light, so you can use a faster shutter speed in any given light level. This is handy for anything from low-light photography to action shooting.

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When you focus your camera's lens on a subject, the point focused upon is sharp. Objects in the scene closer or farther than that point appear progressively less sharp as their distance from the focused point increases.

Depth of field refers to the area in front of and beyond the point focused upon in which things appear acceptably sharp in a photograph. Depth of...