Browsing all posts in Photography.

Product Review – Think Tank Airport Security V2

By Steve Russell On June 21, 2010, Tiffany posted an excellent article entitled Travelling With Your Camera Gear. Because of my circumstances at the time, the subject matter prompted me to post a comment to an article on Beyond Megapixels for the first time. “…I have a week-long photography trip to northern New Mexico planned [...]

The Beauty of Soft Focus

We talk a lot about how to achieve tack-sharp, perfectly focused photographs. We extol on the virtues of the Unsharp Mask in Photoshop, and enumerate the countless ways to steady our cameras in order to achieve perfectly crisp images. There is great beauty to behold, though, in a softly focused photograph – keeping in mind [...]

Back to Basics: ISO Explained

The term “ISO”, when used in photography, refers to the speed rating of film. “ISO” stands for “International Organization for Standardization”, and this organization is responsible for defining standards for many, many industries and disciplines. With respect to photography, the film speed ISO rating system was created to standardize the quality of film throughout the [...]

Trying Something New

By Steve Russell As I have mentioned before, my first and true love in photography is nature photography.  Being outdoors and off the beaten path has provided many hours of enjoyment in the past and will continue to do so in the future.  However, I decided this year that I wanted to try my hand [...]

Introduce Your Kids to Photography

When I was very little – around six or seven years old (and yes, that is me in the photo above, but I was about three then) – we had a friend of the family who was a professional photographer. He had a very complete darkroom in his home, owned every piece of photographic gear [...]

Sometimes It’s Just About Having Fun

By Steve Russell We each use our photography equipment in our own way.  We have different cameras, different lenses and different flash equipment.  More importantly are the different ways in which we approach the same or similar subject.  A few minutes browsing a site like Flickr.com can really bring that home.  Wouldn’t photography be boring if [...]

Around the Internet

I’ve amassed quiet a list of finds from around the internet that I’ve been meaning to share with you all. There’s no time like the present! First is the incredible shot of the Popocatepetl volcano in San Andrés Cholula, Mexico, that you see above. I came across it on Flickr not too long ago, and [...]

Key Learnings from a Client Shoot

A couple of weeks ago I was hired to visit the home of a client and take photos of her teenage daughter and her daughter’s friends. Doing a photo shoot at a private home is significantly different than a shoot in a studio, so I thought I would share a few key learnings from my [...]

The Rules of Photography – Follow Them or Break Them

By Steve Russell Wait! Before you hit the back button, I’m not going to list all of the rules of photography – just a few of them. Many of the rules, especially those regarding composition have been around longer than photography. For example, the rule of thirds appears as early as 1797 as a rule [...]

Ode to My Canon Digital Rebel XTi

Regular readers will recall my recent entry about unboxing my new Canon 7D, and how very excited I was to finally obtain this camera body that I’ve been coveting for so long. Since that article, I have been happily snapping away, familiarizing myself with the new camera’s functions and learning about all of its quirks [...]