After months of behind-the-scenes development work, I’m proud to announce the launch of my first photography eBook.
In The Photographer’s Eye: Landscapes 1, I’ll take you behind the scenes where I showcase some of my techniques and the thinking that goes into professional compositions. You will gain insights into the photographic process as I explain how each of ten, specially chosen stunning images was made, what I had to overcome to get the shot and how I tackled familiar and unique lighting challenges to bring home these highly praised photos.

Chock full of …

I have to run this one by you all. I recently tried to make reservations at a pricey B&B in Brookline, Massachusetts. It seems like a very nice, comfortable B&B, judging by their website. I’ll be visiting my stepson, daughter-in-law and newest grandson and the B&B looked pretty convenient. After giving the very pleasant woman my credit card info, I was ready to hang up, when she asked if I knew their cancellation policy. Well, no, I guess I didn’t.
“We have a 14-day cancellation policy, for any reason,” she tells …

As the summer travel season heats up, there has recently been a lot of discussion on safety issues when traveling abroad. Some commentary focuses on personal (bodily) safety and other on property safety. I recently pointed my readers to an article (http://www.consumertraveler.com/columns/traveling-to-europe-this-summer-keep-your-camera-equipment-and-valuables-safe/) by one of my colleagues at Nikonians.org concerning keeping your equipment safe while traveling.

As it turns out, I was asked to do a companion piece on equipment travel safety from my own personal experiences as a travel photojournalist for the blog site of Darwin Wiggett. For those of you …

I frequently get questions from readers concerning the safety of their photo equipment when they travel. This is no small concern. As cameras have shrunk and price tags have swollen, so has the tendency of light fingers to pick your pockets, so to speak, increased. Not a pretty picture.
So I was pleased to come across an article written by a photographer colleague, Ned Levi, who is one of the expert commentators and forum supervisors at the Nikonians website (www.nikonians.org). Ned is one of those incredibly knowledgeable resources who tirelessly imparts …

Just got back from a wonderful fiction writer’s conference in San Diego (more on that in a later blog). Getting there and back necessitated 4 flights segments, so I had to listen to the “fasten your seatbelt” instruction 4 times.

The thought occurs to me: Is there a moron anywhere in the world who doesn’t know how to buckle a seatbelt?? Do we really still need flight attendants worldwide instructing us on how to fasten a seat belt? Does anyone have any idea of how much time is wasted every day …

Pssst! Here’s one of the best-kept secrets in America. It’s called the America the Beautiful – National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands – Senior Pass.

The Senior Pass is available to any citizen (or permanent resident) over age 62 and can only be obtained in person at any National Park, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service and many Department of Agriculture offices. I got mine while in New Mexico photographing at a BLM site. If you are a senior photographer, this has got to be the best deal …

You all probably know by now that I shoot travel, landscapes and wildlife nearly exclusively. I rarely shoot sports or ultra-fast action shots, like car races. But even wildlife shooters have a need for stopping fast action once in a while. Of course, if you are a bird photographer (God bless you all), you always need to stop action.
But now that I’m a “senior” photographer, my ability to hand-hold and control my camera at 1/30 or even 1/60 of a second has been severely compromised. Yet, I still want to …

This is a strange tale, but one worth telling. I was in New Mexico, speaking one day with a Native American about the protocol for visiting sites considered spiritual. What many tribes did was to leave an offering, perhaps a sprinkling of tobacco or a keepsake, as a gift to Mother Earth for allowing the visitor to take away some of the spiritual essence of the special place.
A few days later I just happened to be photographing on a trail and considered climbing to a higher spot for what I …

A hearty congratulations to Barry and Gill in England, one of two winners of my free photo giveaway last month. Here are two photos that Barry took of the framed image, hanging in their lounge.

Gill gave us a heads-up on the process:

“I was given the task of choosing one of your prints, which I have to say was very hard, far too much choice. I managed to break it down to a seascape, the Hawaii sunset took it. It makes a change from looking out of our window at the …

Tomorrow I’m heading out for New Mexico for a week, four days of which I plan to spend trying out my well worn, but new to me 4×5 view camera. Never having used a view camera before, I’ve been practicing for the past few weeks. I’m pleased with my progress, even though it is slower than I would like, what with having to send every batch of film to the lab, wait for it to return, compare them to my notes and try again.
My main challenge has been nailing the …