PhotoNaturalist

9 tips for photographing wildflowers with a point and shoot camera

April 5, 2010 By Steve Berardi 5 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi (shot with a Canon G10 point and shoot camera)

Although wildflowers are best photographed with an SLR camera, it’s still possible to take some pretty good shots with a plain old point and shoot camera. And, sometimes this may be the only camera you have with you at the time, either because you’re backpacking far into the wilderness and want to travel light, or maybe you haven’t made the jump to an SLR just yet.

The biggest problem you’ll run into with the point and shoot camera is the large depth of field you get from the super small sensor. This limits some of your options, but there’s a few ways to get around it, and as always, light also plays a huge role in the success of a photo.

So, here are a few tips for photographing wildflowers when you’re limited to a point and shoot camera: [Read more...]

How to create intimate portraits of nature

March 15, 2010 By Steve Berardi 10 Comments

Bigelow's Monkeyflower / Photos by Steve Berardi

Which of the two photos above do you like better?

They were both taken of the same flower, with the same camera settings. The only difference between the two shots is the position of the camera.

I’ll take a wild guess that you like the first one more. And, I think this photo is better because it has more of an intimate and friendly feeling to it. [Read more...]

3 things that affect depth of field

March 10, 2010 By Steve Berardi 2 Comments

Diagram by Jared C. Benedict (used under the CC-Attr-SA license)

I was planning to write about the three things that affect depth of field this week, but by pure coincidence (seriously!), I discovered this great blog post that Brian Auer wrote a few days ago:

Three Ways to Control Depth of Field

I’d highly recommend checking it out. Brian did a nice job of explaining the three things that affect depth of field (aperture, camera to subject distance, and focal length), including some sample images too.

There’s a few things I’d like to add though: [Read more...]

How to find subjects for your macro shots

August 12, 2009 By Steve Berardi 4 Comments

One of the things that makes macro photography so interesting is its ability to show us the world as we normally don’t see it: up close and personal.

For this very reason, sometimes it’s hard to find good subjects for macro shots. We just don’t normally look at things up close, and even when we do, it’s hard to see detail with the naked eye.

Sure, you could just pop on your macro lens and look everywhere, but it’s hard to see things through that tiny viewfinder. [Read more...]

Announcing our first podcast episode!

May 31, 2009 By Steve Berardi Leave a Comment

podcast3 A few weeks ago, we asked you for nature photography questions, and today we’re happy to announce the release of our first podcast (hosted by Matthew Fletcher), where we answer some of these questions.

Thanks to all those who sent in questions, and although we don’t answer them all in this first episode, we may get a chance to answer them in a future episode (or write an article about it). So, stay tuned!

In our first episode we talk about the top 3 things to know before a trip to Yellowstone along with the top 3 things to bring, tips for getting sharper macro photos, and a critique of the photo below of a male Frigate Bird taken by Janet Atkinson. We also summarize a few news stories. [Read more...]

FREE eBook: 13 tips for better wildflower photography

March 22, 2009 By Steve Berardi 34 Comments

free_ebookcover In anticipation of a great spring wildflower season, we decided to put together a FREE 20-page eBook, 13 tips for better wildflower photography. It contains some of our existing articles, but also includes SIX brand new articles!