Outdoor Photography How To

My wide-angle lens was perfect when the late-evening shadows crept across the mountains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The sweeping landscape, wide open and treeless, was suited to the wide field of view. Until, that is, the weather turned, and with it, my perspective on that wild place. I woke one morning to rain pattering intermittently on the nylon of my tent. Between showers, I emerged to find the mountains obscured by scudding clouds.

I travel to take pictures, but sometimes I just happen to be in an interesting area, like last spring in Lexington, Kentucky. Let’s see: Lexington, horse country, the Keeneland racetrack nearby, and me never without my camera gear. Photography was bound to happen.

If you’re a regular visitor to this page you’ve no doubt invested in the best cameras and accessories you can afford. So how do you protect all this valuable gear from getting scratched, damaged, or broken? Read on.

Life would be so much easier if we had a single set of camera settings that worked for all types of nature photography. Unfortunately, that’s simply not possible because of ever-changing light, a wide variety of subject matter, and the need to compose various images differently.

One specification that's important to many photographers when shopping for a new camera is the number of focus points available. But do you really know how to choose the best focus point(s) at your disposal when shooting different types of images? If not, read on.

Choosing photography gear is one of the easiest and hardest things you'll do as a photographer. It's easy because picking a new camera or lens can be a fun and exciting (though often expensive) experience. But it's also hard because there are so many photo gear choices out there, all of which are likely put a big dent in your bank account.

Highlights and shadows can be the bane of landscape photographers who often confront scenes with a wide range of tones that exceed the density range of their camera. Today's quick tutorial from the folks at How to Use concentrates on the former, with a straightforward Lightroom method for eliminating blown-out areas within the frame.