Don’t say I didn’t warn you!  If you’re shooting landscapes, one of the most effective means of adding interest and impact is to include a foreground element. I know we hear this a lot nowadays, but what I find is that this is usually mentioned as a given, an aside, without providing enough detail for the photographer looking to improve his or her skills. I’m hoping to add flesh to the bones here, so please bear with me.
I believe it was George Lepp who said that there is no such …

How would you like to increase the dramatic impact of your photography by an order of magnitude? I’m not exactly sure what that last phrase means, but it sounds impressive. This is what I do mean, though. If there is one photographic technique that can put your images on steroids, it’s shooting tight.

By shooting tight, I’m referring to zooming in on the subject so that you remove distracting elements and instead highlight its most salient feature(s). Take the photo below as an example. I shot it on one of my …

I don’t mean to be sarcastic… no, I take that back. I do mean to be sarcastic. Here goes. There is no rule that says you must hold your camera at eye level, in a standing position, with the camera in landscape orientation every time. There, I said it!
As a professional photographer and former editor, I figure that about 98% of all photos taken by amateurs are in landscape orientation. That, in itself, would not be so bad. But when you couple that with the dreaded eye-level perspective, the results …

If there is one question that amateurs most often ask about my images, it’s: “How do you get those clouds to pop out so much?” The alternative question is how I get the blue skies to render so… well, blue.
Use a Polarizing Filter
The short answer is that I use a polarizing filter probably 80% of the time when I’m shooting outdoors during the daytime. It’s the not-so-secret ingredient that pros use all the time because our editors, and people who buy our images for their home or office, want to …