Two things are special to me about wandering the night with my digital camera. The first is the way I experience night. The second is the way a digital sensor can reveal colors and shapes in spite of apparent darkness. As a wanderer in the darkness, I enjoy more freedom of the hills than those who must rush back to...

I'll be giving two workshops in 2008 under the auspices of the Point Reyes National Seashore Association. Please consider joining me on Saturday, June 14 for a one day intensive seminar in digital landscape photography (on-line course registration). The weekend of September 12-14 will see us rocking to the music of the stars in a great location for night photography...

In Greek mythology, Calypso was a water nymph. In ancient Greek, calypso (Καλυψώ) was a form of the verb "to conceal" (or "to hide") meaning "I will conceal." Calypso kept Odysseus imprisoned for seven years on an ocean island; it's easy to read Homer to take this as a kind of sexual slavery, and according to some accounts (e.g., Hesiod)...

And now for something completely different: A special journey to the bottom of the world! f you go, here are some important tips: - ask your Dr. about seasickness pills; you will be traveling through some of the roughest waters in the world. once you get there, seas will be relatively calm. - snack on ginger and Skittles during your journey; helps to settle your tummy. - get the best gloves money can buy for shooting in the cold. try on a few different pairs. i use Windstoppers. - pack a polarizing filter to reduce glare on the spectacular blue ice.

The camera looks both ways, in picturing the subject, we are also picturing a part of ourselves. Keep this expression in mind when photographing people, and you'll see that the mood, energy, emotion, etc., that you project will be reflected in your subject's face. So, you'll get a higher percentage of "keepers" from a photo session. Another important thing to remember is that it's often important (or essential) to control the light when photographing people.

Ever use a ringlight? I personally feel as though it's the only way to go for serious macro shooters. Advantages: great depth of field (because you can shoot even at f/22) and usually no need to use a tripod. Plus... super sharp photos - because you can use an ISO setting of 100.

The photo below is a dream-like image of what it may feel like after the wedding is over and bride and groom face reality a/k/a the descending spiral of an endless stair. Of course, there's a ton of photography of weddings, brides, and grooms. But wedding photography is seldom as apparently unintentional as this photo. Even "candid" wedding portraiture is...

Derrick's new book is still full of friendly, useful, and fun photography information, and it still comes in a portable package.

I am sure some of you use this technique in Photoshop for fixing the keystone (falling over backward) effect you get when photographing a tall building with a wide-angle lens from close up: Select All > Edit > Transform > Perspective - and then pull out from either of the top anchor points. It's a cool technique, and I use it when I want the building to look as though an earthquake had not struck the site.

A series of mini-tutorials on advanced camera techniques is running on The Digital Story. I've listed (with links) the first batch here. More to follow on a regular basis. These are fun!