One of my favorite things to do is to teach others about photography, and about how to make their own art a little easier, and even more fun. Art, and even more so photography, is an interactive process. Both from the end of the photographer and from the viewer. Not only are you as a photographer trying to convey a visual portrayal of a scene, but you are also passing on the emotion. I’ve always thought that there was this very interesting thing about photography, that your goal is not to show what something really is, but you should attempt to show what something feels like. At the end of the day, be it film or digital, all that we as photographers can do is show our own interpretation of what it is we see and feel. I was reading a book on Monet and he had quite a fun statement about his work.
Lots of people will protest that it’s quite unreal and that I’m out of my mind, but that’s just too bad – Claude Monet
Without taking up more of your time with my ramblings (there will be plenty of that throughout!), let’s get started!
General Tutorials
Workflow: A General Guide – From the memory card to a finished image, I share an overview for digital processing.
HDR Tutorials
If you are new to either HDR, or digital processing and development, this is a great place to start. I’ll break down the techniques required to quickly get started shooting for HDR, and the best practices for developing your work and creating beautiful art.
The Definitive Guide to HDR, Start to Finish – Start your journey here with a short intro to HDR, and continue thru all the stages of shooting to post processing.
HDR From a Single RAW – Bonus section! For those instances when multiple images are not possible, or you just only have 1 RAW file to work with.
The development techniques described above all have one thing in common. That is tonemapping. It’s the ‘essence’ of what most people think of HDR. BUT – and I do think this is a very large but – there is more to HDR than just tonemapping.
32 Bit HDR – A Whole New Way to HDR – 32 Bits? That’s a lot of bits!
Star Shooting
The Night Sky – Shooting Stars without Star Trails – A guide to getting started taking wonderful photographs of stars.
The Night Sky – Star Trails! – If you’ve ever wondered how people make those crazy star trail shots, here’s your answer.
Street Photography
Street Photography Basics – The World’s Population is Your Model! – If you’re getting in to street photography & street portraits, or just looking for some tips and tricks about what to think about, you’ll find it all in here.
Life
I don’t tell anyone how to live, but I have some opinions.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride! – Hunter S. Thompson