Getting Intimate – With a Calla Lily!

Springtime in Big Sur coincides with the annual return of calla lilies (some locals call them weeds) but for us photographers, they are a sensuous treat! At my recent Big Sur Spring workshop, I pointed out a grove of calla lilies to my participants at Garrapata Beach. This grove used to be a well-kept secret, but thanks to the internet, it is now on…

Shooting Water? Don’t Be Afraid To Get A Little Wet!

Interacting with nature is a great way to bring your viewer right into the action – in a sense, you become part of the action. On the final location shoot of my recently completed Spring Big Sur Workshop, I had some of my group join me in such an exercise at Point Lobos State Reserve’s Sea Lion Cove. Earlier in the day we had…

Creating a Dreamlike Look to Your Landscape Images

Neutral Density filters have been around for a long time. Essentially, all a neutral density filter does is hold back light reaching either film or a digital sensor. It’s designed to be neutral in color so it does not alter chroma, only luminance. Singh-Ray makes various ND filters. My current favorite is their Vari-ND-Duo that allows you to subtract 2 2/3 – 8 stops…

Turning Literal Images Into Artistic Images – Let Motion Work For You

How many times have we all arrived at an interesting location and immediately set the tripod up to our eye, compose the first scene that looks enticing, and fire away? Click, click, click. I think I nailed it – right? Well perhaps. If your intentions were to make a literal image of a scene, chances are good that you did just that. But if…

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade – When Expected Light Doesn’t Arrive

  When life throws you a lemon, make lemonade! We have all heard that term since we were kids – right? But I can tell you as a professional photographer, lemons come my way more times than not. The key is what I do with these lemons. Throwing up my hands and walking away is not an option; instead, I have to immediately switch…

Photographing the Icons – Finding Your Own Unique Point of View – or Not!

You may be wondering why you have been redirected to this new WordPress site? Well, this is something that I have had on the drawing board for some time. I will still be posting on Aminus3, but adding WordPress to the mix will allow me to be more versatile in the future. Some new features coming later this year will be the introduction to…