Photography equipment, gear and technical aspects
I took the above aerial photo a few years ago, but I’ve never explored the area on the ground. But that will change soon as I’m about to head out on a solo trip in the Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska’s Arctic. I’ll be photographing and exploring the amazing sights near the headwaters…
Last weekend I made a schedule shift due to poor weather in another part of Alaska, and decided to remain in Interior Alaska and enjoy the forecasted sunny skies–which have been lacking this year due to record rainfall in June and July. I went with a friend to Denali National Park to hike up the…
I’m fond of Osprey backpacks, and even more after I called regarding a little wear and tear on my Atmos 50 pack and they reminded me of a full warranty repair service. It is off getting fixed or replaced for free. In the meanwhile, I picked up an Osprey Atmos 65, which has the same…
Traveling light has been a proclivity of mine for years. But reaching that “light” point is not an easy task. As the maxim goes “it takes longer to write a shorter letter”. Unfortunately, camera gear is not light in any measure, although it is lighter than it used to be, and new lenses and cameras…
With the temperatures warming in Alaska, and the landscape turning green, I’ve been trying to get in shape for a bunch of trips planned this summer. Many of them will be on foot, so being in good enough shape to carry a bunch of camping gear, along with photo gear is critical. In accord with…
I’ve been looking at this lens on my desk for a couple years now. I’ve long wondered what the mechanics inside looked like and how they operated. Curiosity got the best of me so I grabbed a little screwdriver kit and started dismantling the lens. I don’t really have engineer inclinations, just curiosity, especially since this…
I’ve been doing a lot of database work over the past few weeks, executing a huge review and clean up of the 100,000 files in my Lightroom Database. This has included doing a spell check on all metadata, properly tagging images, doing a complete cloud-based backup of my RAW files, and overall file organization. It…
11 seconds of aurora action On Wednesday night (2/19/2014) the northern lights were pouring over the night skies in Fairbanks, Alaska. I was not as active as they were, at least not in a serious photographic sense. I had sleep on my mind as following day schedule had its demands. And that is what I…
With the release of the Canon 200-400mm f/4L IS with a built in 1.4x there was a lot of enthusiasm in the photography community. But with a retail price of $12K, it really forces some serious evaluation before making a purchase. I felt that I would need the lens in my hand for a period…
I receive many questions on How to Photograph the Northern Lights–which is why I wrote an eBook on the topic. While I don’t have the time to answer all of the questions, I decided to post my response to a few questions here for the broader community. Exposure Q: For proper exposure of the aurora should…