You’ve heard me talk oh-so many times about that magic hour, the time just after sunrise and just before sunset when the light has that beautiful, magical quality that can transform a dull, flat scene into a stunning photograph. What you haven’t heard me talk so much about is twilight. Twilight could be called something [...]

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There are very few photographic subjects like lightning. Lightning is unpredictable, appears only for a split second and is best captured by pointing your camera at an empty piece of sky and hoping something happens. A good lightning image cannot fail to impress a viewer, though, who will probably think you got that image by [...]

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You’ve heard me talk a lot lately about inspiration, and about how to find great photos in boring places. Let’s say you’ve tried a bunch of those tips but would really like to break out of that whole reality box and try something completely different. Here’s an idea: get yourself a flashlight, a few glow-sticks [...]

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When you think about your favorite landscape photos, the images that come to mind are probably classic shots of forests, mountains and natural rock formations. And they are probably daytime images, too, with an occasional sunset and sunrise thrown in for good measure. We don’t really see a lot of landscape images shot at night, [...]

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This week I received a letter from a reader who asks a very poignant question. Olivia Polerowicz wants to know: “I was wondering how to take good pictures in not so interesting places. The thing is, I live in a not particularly interesting place and so my photos kinda show it. I have a problem [...]

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Funnel cakes, ferris wheels and fun houses – what could be better than a county fair? With all those sights and lights, carnival photos should almost take themselves. Except that they usually don’t. So why is it so easy to capture blurry, chaotic and generally uninteresting shots at a carnival, and so hard to bring [...]

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What do ghosts, goblins, and little princesses have in common? They come out after dark. You know, when it’s hard to get good pictures of them. Halloween presents a lot of problems for photographers, because by the time all the action starts to happen that magic hour we love so much has already come and [...]

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This year is looking to be a rather magnetically active year for this little planet. All kinds of solar storms are headed are way, but don’t you worry. They won’t do any damage to civilization or life as we know it. They will, however, make for some rather amazing photo ops. When a really big [...]

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Bright lights at night are breathtaking. They bring a certain magic to urban life that’s unlike anything else. The only issue with bright lights is that they’re a lot like the sun. They can bring unwanted contrast into a scene, often forcing you to rethink the way you expose the entire image. If you’ve ever [...]

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We spent the last portion of this series out in the country taking pictures under starlight. Now we’re going to head back into the city to figure out what the buzz really is all about. There’s no shortage of night time light and interesting figures in the city. From the neon to the bright and [...]

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If you’ve ever been out for a walk on a moonlit night, you know how powerful the light can be. Sometimes moonlight is so bright you can actually see far off into the distance. Believe it or not, it’s entirely possible to take a moonlit or starlit picture that appears as though it was taken [...]

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“How do I shoot a pic in a dark area with minimal light without using a flash/flashlight and without camera shake?” is one of my most commonly asked questions. In this article, I’ll show you a few ways you can do it.

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I know a lot of photographers who only really take pictures during the day. As someone who likes to have everything work right away without much extra effort, I can understand why. The night, after all, is kind of challenging to photograph. There’s a lot more setup time and a lot more room for error. [...]

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Flash is a very powerful tool in photography, but it only works as well as the person behind the camera. Great pictures are destroyed with flash as easily as they are created. Most of time, I advise you to avoid flash altogether. This time, I’m going to show you an alternative that might just allow [...]

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Your digital camera comes equipped with an arsenal of automatic and semi-automatic modes designed to make your life as a photographer easier. Aside from the fully automatic mode, aperture priority mode, and shutter priority mode, your camera gives you a variety of scene-specific modes. Each mode has a specific purpose. You can easily switch between [...]

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