Short and Sweet

1. To freeze birds in flight so even the wing tips are sharp, use a shutter speed of 1/3200. With slower flying birds like eagles, herons, osprey, and egrets, you might be able to get away with 1/2500. Slower than this will most likely show a certain amount of blur. I photographed this bald eagle in middle Tennessee.

2.With virtually all landscape photographs, complete depth of field is essential. With long telephoto images, even f/32 may not give you as much depth of field as you need. Therefore, focus stacking is required. I took the image below with a 400mm focal length, and this is a 15 image focus stack.

3. Don’t hesitate to use wide angle lenses to ‘distort’ reality. Some of the most dramatic images are taken this way. There are photographers who think the word distortion is pejorative and that we should capture only what we see. If you limit yourself that way, you won’t be able to capture pictures like this one.

4. Most of the architectural interiors I photograph are done with available light. It’s the most beautiful way to photograph large interior spaces. The play of light is beautiful -- much more attractive than if I had used flash. Even multiple flash units set up by professional lighting people wouldn’t be as good as this. §