While these penguins were not decked out in holiday attire when I photographed them last December in Antarctica, I thought they deserved a little dressing up for this year's holiday season. These Chinstrap Penguins are comical and jaunty little things, and a joy to watch. They are helping me wish you a  VERY Happy Holiday! Whether you celebrate Christmas Hanukkah Kwanzaa Boxing Day or a day of your choosing I wish you a very happy, peaceful, joyous,  and uplifting holiday season. May we be grateful and rejoice in what we have -  whether it is family, friends,&nbs ..read more

  Finally we can begin to plan future travel! Let's head to Bosque del Apache, a magnificent bird paradise in New Mexico, next December. This will be the perfect time of year to photograph thousands of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes. This famous location is one my favorite places to photograph birds. You will learn no only classic bird photography, but also new, creative artistic approaches. You will create images that are compelling and out of the ordinary. You will also learn many Lightroom techniques that will dramatically improve the look of your images. Each day we will photograph ..read more

  It spite of the very tough year we have all been enduring, it is helpful to stop and consider all the things we have to be thankful for. It will vary widely from person to person, but regardless of any hardships or illnesses that you and your family have faced, there are still some good things to be grateful for. For many of us, we will not be celebrating in person with family and friends this year. But we can still share the meaning and emotion of the day with them via Zoom or Skype or FaceTime calls. Even though life is not normal right now, we can still make the day the best it can ..read more

  I hope you are enjoying a taste of autumn. Autumn in Alaska is my favorite time to be there. The tundra bursts with color, the wildlife is in full mating attire, and you can see and feel Mother Nature at its finest. This male caribou was beautifully positioned in colorful tundra with a distant mountainside as a backdrop. He was content to pose for awhile, and our shutters were doing a rapid-fire dance. Some wildlife photography tips: - try to show all four legs if possible - make sure there is good sharpness in the eye(s) - with dark fur, it helps to set your camera on +1 Exposure Com ..read more

  This bald eagle in Alaska was doing a full speed nose dive to grab a fish. Eagles are amazing to watch. They have intense focus on their target, are incredible flyers and hunters, and have the gift of speed. They can turn on a dime and grab a fish that you do not even see.   Photographing them is exhilarating and exhausting because the action is non-stop and constantly changing.  This was a misty day onboard our boat, and the mist added an almost painterly quality to the background. The eagle looks almost pasted on against this classic Alaska background, but this is exactly ..read more

  The lowly dandelion. The scourge of manicured lawns, BUT a great photo subject. Its small elements combine to create a beautiful tapestry of texture and softness. Shooting straight down provides a symmetrical circular composition that, when you really study it, can deeply engage the eye. This black-and-white conversion was done in Lightroom. Stripping away the color in the image enhances the soft starbursts radiating from the center outward. And it allows the textures to be more enjoyable. Note in the TECH SPECS below that this was shot with a very long lens. It is a technique that I ..read more

  Once again, Alaska is under attack. This time it is the incredibly important Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska. It is the world's largest intact temperate rainforest, known as America's Amazon. Effective this week, the Federal government will be lifting decades old protections and will allow logging companies to build roads and cut and remove ancient growth timber, some as old as 1,000 years.   This vitally important area covers 9.3 million acres of forest, and is home to bear, eagle, and salmon. This huge and ecologically vital area is said to absorb at least 8% of all ..read more

  The annual international competition of the Professional Photographers of America is going on this week. And I just received the exciting news that two of my images have been selected to be part of the exhibition. It is always a high honor to be selected. Even though I have been competing in various competitions for several decades, I never know which images will do well. When entering any competition, you always have to swallow hard and hope for the best. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't.  The egret image on the left was titled "Peek-a-Boo" and was taken at the Al ..read more

  I was asked by Gary Farber of Hunt's Photo and Video to test a new, long-awaited close-up filter.  And it is a winner!  If you love macro but do not have a macro lens, OR even if you do have a macro lens but want to get in even closer to your subjects, this sweet filter is just the thing. And the price is right! The official name of this filter is the Promaster 5D Achromatic Close-Up Lens, and it comes in a variety of sizes to attach to most lenses. Long ago and far away, there were a couple of superb close-up filters made by Canon and Nikon. It was a simple matter of j ..read more

  Autumn is arriving in most parts of the country. Hard to believe it is October already, and in spite of these surreal and troubling times, the time has passed quickly for me. While it will be a while longer before our lives return to something resembling "normal," we are muddling through reasonably well. I am certainly looking forward to a better 2021! Photographing moving water is one of my favorite things, and the streams in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are among my favorites. While they are not the dramatic waterfalls of Yosemite or Yellowstone, they are lovely, and for ..read more