Blue Hour Timing matters. This is especially true when it comes to photography. I was astounded this week during three photo sessions how much difference a few minutes can make. The blue hour is one of my favorite times to take photos. While on a trip to Cascais, Portugal, I set out to photograph the… Read More
Category Shooting techniques
Starry nights over Anterselva
Starry nights A few months ago, I started experimenting with photographing the night sky. I had done a few ill-fated attempts at capturing star trails in the past. Inspired by the David Kingham’s eBook Nightscape, I managed to get some nice results while vacationing on Malta this past summer. Unfortunately, there are not that many opportunities… Read More
One easy way to improve your vacation photos
Vacation Photos Vacations are always an exciting time for photographers: lot’s of new and exciting stuff to explore and most importantly time to pursue your passion. However, many people return with disappointing results. I have certainly had my fair share of this. While there might be a bunch of pleasing compositions in the final album,… Read More
Fun with speedlights
Speedlights What to do on a cold, stormy and rainy early summer evening? Play with your photo equipment! Earlier today I read an interest blog post by Joe McNally. It is called ‘More Flash Play’ and Joe explains how to simulate the light from a computer screen. All you have to do is tape a… Read More
Wedding Photography – Part 2
Wedding Photography – Part 2 Two weeks ago, I blogged about the fun wedding of my friends Hanna and Stefan. This is the second part of the post and it focuses on the official stuff of the wedding: church and formal portraits. As in the prior post, I will share a few ideas and lessons… Read More
My favorite technique for creating great portraits
Great portraits Great portraits don’t need a complex studio setup or a lot of high-tech equipment. A few months ago, I learned an amazing technique from Roberto Valenzuela’s book Picture Perfect Practice: A Self-Training Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Taking World-Class Photographs (I wrote a short review in a prior blog post). It is a… Read More
Create your own background
Distracting background Selecting a good background is extremely important in photography. Nothing is worse than a great subject (let’s say your partner or kids) in front of a really busy scene. It’s like trying to listen to a beautiful song when there is a ton of annoying background noise (cars, jackhammers, sirens). Luckily, as photographers,… Read More
Painting with light
Flash Today was an ideal day to take out the flash. Fog combined with freezing temperatures had turned the area around Munich into an amazing winter wonderland. Trees were covered in a white layer of thick frost. Once the sun had set, I picked up my equipment and headed to a spot I had scouted… Read More
Light matters!
Photography is all about light. As a matter of fact, some people say that photography is like painting with light. I was reminded of that the other day when I was out and about in Dubai photographing the city. Around 4:30pm I arrived at the scene and took the following photo: Most photographers that had… Read More