Every so often I like to challenge my readers with a photo assignment; not a meaningless exercise  to fill blog space, but one based on a photographic experience that I recently had. That was the case with this next assignment. My hope is that you will find it as challenging as I did.
The back story is that I was in Iceland recently and found myself at the famous iceberg beach, an experience to which I had looked forward for years. Unfortunately, the photo gods had a good laugh that day …

Tomorrow Bob (my assistant) and I are off to NYC for PhotoPlus, a 2-day photography convention. The Jacob Javits Conference Center will feature camera and equipment exhibitors from around the world.

Our main purpose for going is to spend time interacting with the Hasselblad people, since I’m still on the learning curve with my new H4D-50 camera and lenses. I have so far found the technicians and the sales people to be incredibly helpful and highly knowledgeable. I’m looking forward to some workshops and discussions with staff and hope to learn …

It’s been a week since I’ve posted a blog, but what an event-filled week it’s been!  So, here’s my excuse. I spent part of the week in the hospital, admitted through the Emergency Room. I’ll explain, embarrassing though it may be.
Those of you who read my blog know that recently, in a moment of pure madness, I splurged on a new camera system, the incredible Hasselblad H4D-50 with a series of lenses. My clients are demanding larger and larger prints and at times my Nikon 12 mega-pixel D700 just doesn’t …

After a year of researching, testing, talking to colleagues and trying out various cameras, I finally made the plunge. Just last week I purchased a digital medium format system, after researching both the brand new Pentax 645D and the relatively new Hasselblad H4D system. The hammer came down on the Hasselblad (oh, God, please not literally!!).
If you’re a regular reader of my blog you know that I tried a large format (LF) system for nearly a year. I finally decided it was too cumbersome for my needs, of which mobility …

There are good days and there are bad days. And then there are days like today.
The day started out poorly, as inclement weather kept us grounded until just before lunch. The skies began to clear and we sailed north along the Dempster Highway, tracking reports of grizzly bear sightings near the border with North West Territory. Along the way we stopped for some landscape images right at the Arctic Circle (click on the images to enlarge).

Proceeding north from there, we didn’t have to wait long before we sighted a gorgeous …

I’m back in Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon Territory, recharging my batteries, cleaning my equipment, doing laundry and running assorted errands before leaving for the Dempster Highway again to photograph the Fall colors and Northern Lights (hopefully). I thought it would be good to review with you the past week’s photo shoot and some things I learned from the experience.
For those of you following my progress on my interactive SPOT geo-tracking page, it will be inactive for the next two days. On Tuesday, my fellow photographer, Richard Hartmier and I …

Yukon with friends. Can there be anything more satisfying? Well, maybe one thing; traveling in the Yukon with my wife a few years ago. Still, traveling the famed Dempster Highway with my guy friends runs a close second. We’re in the third (or is it the fourth?) day of our 11-day adventure together, the six of us celebrating 25 years of friendship with a slam-bang trip to the spectacular vistas made famous by Jack London (with credit to Sargent Preston, of course). Lots of laughing and teasing, reminisces, catching up …

In Search Of the perfect ISO for your photographic efforts? So many amateur photographers I meet are confused about what the ISO means and how to best tune it to their imaging needs. I thought I’d give a brief primer here on the topic.
Just What Is ISO?
ISO is equivalent to what we called ASA during film days. ISO is a measure of how sensitive a sensor is to light. The higher the ISO, the better its ability to record light, but the ‘grainier’ the image looks. There’s always a trade-off, …

I’m all wet. I admit it. Part of my job sometimes involves getting into water up to my waist to capture a scene. But when I notice that someone with a camera is watching me, I shudder with angst that by following my example s/he might get into trouble… which prompts this blog.
Summertime invites water images, but taking an image while standing in water is fraught with difficulty and danger. I never, ever take such shots casually. I take prudent precautions and preparations. I always weigh the risks carefully before …

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 …