Pro Techniques

In the early 1980s, when he was just starting out as a commercial and advertising photographer, Rob Atkins took a few trips to the Southwest. "I went to photograph the great natural wonders," Rob says, "like the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley." But as he traveled to those and other destinations, something else caught his eye. "So often, out in the...

Now that digital is no longer new, a few rules of the road have been established that most folks would agree yield better quality results. Of course, you might find that bending the rules might be fun, and that there's still lots to learn. But these...

OWC has expanded their end-to-end ecosystem of professional storage solutions by adding three new items of vital interest to content creators, moviemakers and photographers in general. Their latest innovation is their Atlas USB4 CFexpress Type B 4.0 Memory Card Reader. Here's the total rundown. If you want to speed up your workflow and improve data safekeeping, you need to read this.

Travel and photography are two intertwined subjects for me. Ever since I first had the freedom to travel, at age 18, I have been exploring the world, absorbing and photographing the unique cultures I encounter. I have developed a love for environmental portraits. In this style of photography I can capture not only the character of a person, but also the world in which they live.

The original reason for tripods was very simple. Exposures were so long that there was no alternative: no one could hold a camera still for many minutes at a time. The same remained true even when exposures dropped to a few minutes, and then to a few seconds. To this day, therefore, most people think of long exposures as the only reason for using a tripod. But there is a lot more to it than this.

It’s been said that no matter how long the lens is, it’s never enough. While budget, carrying convenience, and how often you might use a long lens will determine your choices, once out in the field you’ll quickly see that they’re hard to beat for wildlife, birds, special effects, and landscape work. In this article I’ll cover some things to consider when thinking about which long lens is best for you, show some examples of both fixed and variable focal length lenses, and also share some of the work I’ve done with these impressive optical tools. When I say long I mean long, and here I’ll limit my discussion to lenses that can reach out to 200mm, and beyond, focal length.

The Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Southwest Florida has been left virtually untouched by man, except for the construction of one of the world’s most beautiful boardwalks that wanders through the heart of this ancient bald cypress swamp. In July 2007, the discovery of a ghost orchid at Corkscrew was very big news. Ghost orchids are rare; it’s estimated there are only 1000...