PhotoNaturalist

Never Give Up On a Sunset

September 26, 2011 By Steve Berardi 10 Comments

After watching and photographing a lot of sunsets, it’s tempting to start thinking that you can look at the sky and predict how good a sunset will be a few hours before it happens.

You might see a bunch of thick and dark gray clouds up there, and think, “well, the sunset is gonna suck tonight, so I might as well just go home early.”

Or, you might even be in the middle of photographing a sunset and you think the colors just peaked, so you start packing up your stuff and walk towards your car or campsite.

But, then out of nowhere, the sky decides to explode with color again. Of course, you’re half way back to your car by now, so you quickly setup your camera, but before you can press the shutter button, the colors fade away again. And, this time they’re gone for good.

Sound familiar? [Read more...]

Do You Refactor Your Photographs?

September 13, 2011 By Steve Berardi 17 Comments

cholla cactus As a software developer, one of the things I do every day is refactor code. I’ll write some code to solve a problem, test it out to make sure it works, and then I’ll take another look at the code and see if there’s a way to make it more clear or more efficient. Then, of course, I’ll test it again

Writers do this too. First, they’ll write a basic draft of their story to cover the main ideas, and then they’ll read it over and over again to make the words flow better and to make their message stand out more.

But, what about photographers? Do you ever take a look at one of your photos and say something like, “wow, I really like this photo of mine, but I wish one thing was different”? It doesn’t have to be something big, it could even be something as simple as moving your camera one step to the left so a tree stands out more from the background. [Read more...]

How Perspective Affects Your Photos

August 23, 2011 By Steve Berardi 3 Comments

Ansel Adams once said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” But, before you know where to stand, it’s important to understand a few concepts about perspective.

I’ve written about perspective here on PhotoNaturalist a few times, but I’ve also written a couple posts about it over at the Digital Photography School (a great blog that covers all types of photography). And, one of those posts was just published today, so I thought it’d be good to put a list together of all the posts I’ve written about perspective: [Read more...]

How to Photograph Landscapes With the Moon

July 11, 2011 By Steve Berardi 7 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi

Including the moon in a landscape can sometimes add a nice sense of balance or contrast to an image, like in the photo above (taken in the Colorado Desert of California).

But, photographing a landscape with the moon is a little tricky and requires some patience.

One of the problems is that the moon won’t always be where you want it to be. And, since the moon is so far away, sometimes it’s hard to get both your foreground AND the moon in sharp focus.

So, here are a few tips for dealing with these problems: [Read more...]

3 Great Tripod Accessories

June 22, 2011 By Steve Berardi 3 Comments

Sometimes it can be really annoying to get your tripod in the EXACT position you need it. Just when you think you’ve got it set, you lock in the ballhead, and realize your camera just moved down half an inch, which totally ruins your composition.