Histograms! Sounds like a medical procedure or, worse yet, mathematics.
Well, if you’re a photographer, histograms are your friends. Don’t be intimidated by them. Learn how to use a histogram and your images will dramatically improve.
What Is a Histogram?
In digital photography a histogram is an electronic display of all the pixels, light-to-dark, recorded on the sensor when you press the shutter release. It appears as a graph on the rear LCD screen in DSLR cameras and even on many point-and-shoots, such as the Canon G12.
There is really no such thing as …

A few months ago, I was asked to be the exclusive artist for a wonderful new upscale restaurant opening in the county in which I live. I was honored to have been asked and after I agreed to do it the reality of the situation hit me. Here it was, literally weeks from opening, and I had to design the installation, choose the images, get them printed and install them before the grand opening, and that was on top of my other assignments. Stress city, here I come!
Now we’re just …

Once photographers find out that I travel to the Yukon and Arctic Circle, I’m invariably asked about photographing the Northern Lights, technically known as the Aurora borealis.
There are tons of articles and technical publications related to photographing these miraculous lights that magically appear in the far north at certain times of the year. They are caused by solar winds brushing by the earth’s magnetosphere. The most common color for the lights is green, but under certain conditions the lights can be orange, teal, purple or a combination of these.
Rather than …

After more than 30 years in photography, I’ve come to understand that our art consists of two major distinctions. The first is creative vision, the second is technological. I’ll be writing a lot about the creative aspects of photography – the right mental attitude, the vision, the motivations- but in this blog I’ll discuss one technological issue that seems to plague amateur photographers. That is the decision to shoot in aperture priority, shutter priority or fully automatic.
I’ll be the first to admit that today’s DSLRs do a pretty fine job …

…backing up is a good idea even if you are a newbie photographer. You certainly don’t want to risk losing your images from your 3-week European family vacation.