What has a flexible rubberized tube, like a short version of the hose you find on a vacuum cleaner, and a piece of optical glass at the end? Why, my Lensbaby, of course: a specialized interchangeable lens that fits Nikons, Canons, and other dSLRs. The point of this somewhat bizarre but dearly beloved piece of photo gear? To allow a...

The folks over at Gizmodo love our Missing Manual series founder, but think the Pogue-man needs a dash of cool. For that, they're asking readers to wield some Photoshop magic. Says Adam Frucci: Your challenge is this: make David Pogue as cool as humanly possible. Put him on a Harley with a stogie sticking out of his mouth. Surround him...

Sorry I couldn't stop by last week, but I was busy fearlessly leading my crackerjack team in the final throes of getting the latest edition of my book, Adobe Photoshop CS3 One-on-One, off to the printer. (An excuse or a shameless plug, you decide. Either way, good news!) This week, I reward your patience by giving you a quick look...

When I came back to photography in early 2005, I confronted a world gone digital and virtual. On the whole, I thought this was a good thing, and I was pretty clear that digital photographs are different from film photographs. One thing I didn't get yet: that physical prints had a place in this new virtual world. View this image...

My five-year-old son Nicky likes to ask me, "When is a door not a door?" Before I can answer, he tells me, "When it's a jar," and cackles wildly. In the same general spirit, I'd like to ask, when is a photograph not a photograph? My answer, and imagine me cackling wildly, is that a photograph is not just a...

Why should you take a photography workshop? One answer is that you'll learn something specific. For example, if you take my workshop Digital Workflow: From the Field to Flickr (I'll be giving it next at the Santa Fe Workshops from July 7-14) you'll learn a great deal about shooting digital under field conditions, and come away from my workshop with...

Just wanted y'all to know: In addition to this here HTML version of dekeBytes, there's a new video version of dekeBytes as well. One's up now, and another goes up tomorrow. The movies are short, between 3 and 5 minutes, so the learning-to-time ratio is up there in the stratosphere. And my pals at lynda.com have added zooms, which let...

Why am I so interested in photographing water drops? What are the special challenges and techniques associated with photographing water drops? Do different water drops have different characteristics (in other words, is there a taxonomy of water drops from a photographer's perspective)? Orchid Water Drop, photo by Harold Davis. View this photograph larger. Read more about this image. Leaving the...

Want to set up a small photo studio in the garage or spare room, but don't want to spend thousands of dollars on lighting equipment? A trip to the hardware store can provide you with most of the items you need to set up a studio for portraits and inanimate objects. Basic tungsten shop lights with reflectors and clamps can...

I've been away from the blog for a while due to many different factors in my life ... but I'm back now and I bring you a great deal on namebrand compact flash. J&R Photo World is offering the Sandisk 16GB Extreme III Compact Flash card for $289.99 with a $130.00 Sandisk rebate making it only $159.99 Offer expires May...