Telephoto Lenses for Landscapes

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve watched photographers walk up to a grand scene and without even thinking, grab a wide-angle lens and shoot. Just because the scene in front of you is expansive does not mean a wide angle is automatically the best choice. Telephoto zoom lenses are perfect for optical extractions. Simply using a telephoto lens to isolate interesting compositions within the grand landscape. Many times the graphic lines within the overall scene are [...]

Using Teleconverters With Confidence

This fantastic moment was photographed as Burchell’s Zebras shared a drink in the Mara River.  The Masai Mara is world famous for incredible wildlife: often only a few feet from our vehicle.  In this case, we could not position our photo vehicle closer to the zebras. The solution: attach a 2x teleconverter between the camera body and 500mm lens for an effective focal length of 1000mm, thus ensuring a frame filling composition.  In this case, I closed the lens [...]

Milky Way and Bristlecone Pine

This star filled night sky was captured during my workshop in the ancient Bristlecone forest located at about 11,000 feet in the eastern Sierra range, above Bishop, CA.  I used one of my 24-105 zoom lens, but honestly, it’s not the perfect tool for this application.  The image was captured at F4 at 24mm focal length.  For night skies this lens is a bit slow, an F2.8 lens would have cut my exposure time in half.  Shortening the [...]

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