I want to make a shout out to local pro photographer Carlos Austin who turned me on to another amazing sensation in photography — High Dynamic Range imagery.
The concept is pretty easy. Often when we take a picture, we sacrifice something. To get faces to be well exposed, the sky is blown out white. Or [...]

Before April is out, pick up a copy of Austin Family Magazine. Inside is an article I wrote about teaching your children to take nature photos.
You can read it online in their PDF version through the end of April. My piece is on page 22 of the online version.
Here are some highlights from the article:
Familiarize yourself [...]

Often students in my classes will bring in images that are blurry or pixelated and ask, “What happened?” Sometimes the answer is easy, other times the photo takes some study to understand why the camera failed to produce a crisp image.
Here are the most common reasons for blurry pictures and how to prevent them:
Too Low Light
If your camera [...]

One of the things digital camera owners hate the most is shutter lag–that delay between the time you press the button to take a picture and when the camera actually fires the shot.
Shutter lag is unique to digital technology for several reasons. One, these are not simple cameras the way film point and shoot models were. Even [...]

So, how many of you have taken a picture that was completely blown out by a flash? Everyone looked white and ghostly, pretty much wrecking the photo.
Here is what happened: You focused on the middle of the image in your LCD screen, probably the center person or object. This told your camera: focus that far away and put [...]

Boy, do I get lots of requests for recommendations for everything from cameras to printers to Photoshop books to labs. I created a category on this blog for this so you can easily come back and reference the equipment and sites I find the most safe and useful.
Before I get carried away, I’ll cut to [...]