Mount Massive, Rocky Mountains, Colorado

The poor telephoto. So often the it gets relegated to shooting the tough subjects like sports and action, or the really far away stuff. Maybe the occasional portrait. When it comes to landscapes, though, the big glass often gets left behind in favor of those nice compact wide angles. Why? Because wide angle lenses portray the grand scene with such magnificence; such… “wideness.” And besides, everyone knows that wide angles are the best lenses for shooting landscapes.

Whatever…

Telephoto lenses rock for shooting landscapes. They let you get right in there and pin the details with tack sharp focus. They let you accentuate specific subject elements and suggest the grand scene, and as you know, anytime you engage the viewer’s imagination through the power of suggestion, you go a long way towards making a compelling image.

Long lenses bring distant subjects up close and they compress perspective in such a way that accentuates depth and juxtaposition within the image. They clearly communicate to your viewer what YOU liked about the scene and they tell the story of your own vision. Plus, with their limited depth of field, telephoto lenses let you isolate your subject against soft backgrounds and do that whole bokeh thing.

So, next time you find yourself heading outside to shoot landscapes, grab the long lens and get yourself into a different creative space. Oh, and don’t forget your tripod.

Wonder Lake and the Alaska Range, Denali National Park

Pine trees in winter, Colorado

Alpenglow on the Chugach Mountains, Anchorage, Alaska

Morning view from Horsetooth Reservoir, Fort Collins, Colorado

Fireweed, Wrangel St. Elias National Park, Alaska

This week, Peachpit Press released The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby.

If you’re a veteran Kelby reader and Lightroom user, then you’re well aware of his teaching style: quick, efficient and to the point. His books are designed as a guide book that walk you through an entire digital workflow, all the way from import, to editing to output.

Kelby doesn’t explain every single aspect of the program, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you’re busy, you need to know how to get your photos in and out of the program quickly and how to make them look great. Period. You simply may not have time to explore every single facet of Lighroom, but you do need to know how to navigate the new features that have been included in version 4, such as the new processing engine and Development Module controls, which have been changed since v.3, the Blurb photo book menu, video editing, the new email export option and the updated Soft Proofing window.

At 504 pages, Kelby’s Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book is laid out as a real world reference manual that goes step-by-step through pro tested studio and location techniques. As the world’s foremost Photoshop and Lightroom instructor, he offers expert advice, killer tips and shows you the exact methods that will get your own workflow up and running.

I’m a big fan of Kelby’s books and made extensive use of his previous version when I finally made the jump to Lightroom a couple of years ago. His manuals are highly regarded and are often rated as the best books for learning the ins and outs of Lightroom. Whether you’re coming from an older version or are brand new to the program, I can’t stress how helpful it is to have a good book to help guide you through the new features and get you up to speed. If you want to dive right in and move quickly, then I’d highly recommend the Kelby Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book.

If, however, you do have the time and desire to study and learn every single thing about Lightroom, then you might want to consider the The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book, The Complete Guide for Photographers, by Martin Evening. Read my review of this book here.

At any rate, if you haven’t made the jump to Lightroom 4, you should definitely do so. It’s better, stronger, faster and half the price of Lightroom 3.

The other day I wrote a post called Photography solutions for going on the road with your iPad. I covered some adaptors and hard drive options that can turn you iPad into a viable alternative for travel and location photographers who want to go light and leave the laptop at home.

But what if you’re going on an extended trip and plan to live out of a tent or your car for a few days or weeks? Sure, you can always charge your camera batteries when you stop at restaurants and rest stops, but realistically, how many outlets can you take up between all of your photography and mobile devices? Also, it takes a lot longer to charge an iPad than a camera battery.

The easiest solution for vehicle travel is a car charger with a 30-pin iPad/iPhone connector. The other option, especially if you’ll be on an extended backpacking, climbing or bike trip is getting a solar charger that will power your iPhone, iPad, GPS, and other battery powered or USB devices. Based on durability, reliability, size and compact design, here are the best 3 solar USB charging systems that you might find useful on your next outdoor photography road trip.

1. Joos Orange Personal Solar Charger

The Joos Orange is rated as the most powerful and durable solar charger on the market. It will charge smartphones, iPads, Kindles, some digital cameras and just about any other USB device. It can even power the Sanyo Eneloop AA travel USB battery charger. Think speedlight batteries.

It’s also waterproof and durable enough to be left in the sand and dirt, left outside to keep charging in light rain, and stuffed into your pack. At 8.5″ x 5.7″, it’s a pretty compact unit.

Seems like if you’re looking for a well made outdoor proof charging system, the Joos Orange Personal Solar Charger looks like the best option. Nonetheless, if you’re not ready to be done reading, here are two more possibilities.

2. Goal Zero Guide 10 Adventure Kit

The Goal Zero Guide 10 Adventure Kit is a an ultra-lightweight pocket sized complete USB solar charging system. It includes a solar panel, a 12v USB port, 4 rechargeable AA batteries, battery charger pack with LED light and a 12v car charging adaptor.

The batter kit is nice, because you can use them to power your camera flashes. And, if four is not enough, you can buy add on kits of extra batteries.

The Goal Zero Guide 10 Adventure Kit is lighter, smaller and more powerful than the Brunton solar charger, which has been the standard option for a charger of this type. The whole kit folds up into a small flat bundle that you can easily throw into a pack, glovebox or even your camera bag and it seems like a great mobile charging option for outdoor and adventure photographers, and it’s a little more affordable than the Joos Orange.

2. Soladec Hybrd Solar Charger and Battery Pack

The Soladec Hybrid All-in-one Solar Charger and Battery Pack will charger just about any mobile and USB device. The lithium ion battery will hold a charge up to 2 years and it can be charged via sunlight, AC outlet or USB port.

The Soladec also features a LED lamp that is way brighter than most other devices of this type. It’s highly rated as a reliable, compact and durable unit for backpacking and backcountry travel charger that will withstand the rigors the outdoors.

Support this site: As always, buying gear through these links is like giving me a USB powered thumbs up for writing these tips and gear reviews. Thanks! -Dan

In just two years, the iPad has become an essential tool for many photographers, especially for those who want to go mobile and leave even the laptop at home.

Pro adventure photography duo Dan and Janine Pattitucci recently traveled to Peru for a few weeks with only their iPad, memory cards and a couple of portable hard drives in their Lowepro packs. Big trip and no “real” computer. That’s truly going light and fast.

The iPad is certainly the perfect solution for blogging from the road, sharing and emailing your work with friends or clients back home or uploading your new imagery social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and Google+ etc… However, as we all know, you can’t freely transfer photos back and forth between iOS devices and other hardware devices without first syncing to a computer.

Fortunately, there are a few hardware solutions that provide workable options, while still obeying Apple’s iOS design restrictions. These devices allow you to build an iPad photography workflow and make the iPad a truly usable tool for mobile photography.

1. Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit

The Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit is the necessary device for any iPad photography workflow. It’s the first thing you need, so if you don’t have one already, get it.

The Camera Connection Kit comes with two adaptors, one for USB/direct camera transfer, and one for SD cards. With this kit, you can transfer and/or backup photos to your iPad for sharing, uploading to social sites or editing in Photoshop for iPad or in the iPhoto app.

Or you can edit, keyword and tag your photos using the the Photosmith  app. Photosmith allows you to sync your metadata and images to Lightroom when you get home, or upload your photos to Dropbox right from the app.

The Camera Connection Kit even allows you to shoot tethered with your DSLR right to the iPad. Sort of. Your photos (even RAW) will be uploaded to your iPad as you shoot, but only as thumbnail previews. In order to edit or view them full size, you’ll need to manually select and import them to the iPad’s Photo Library.

2. Hyper Drive for iPad

The Sanho Hyper Drive for iPad is a USB iPad compatible hard drive. Whenever it’s connected, the iPad will recognize and display the Hyper Drive as an external volume.

You can then view and/or import photos and video files to your iPad photo library, just as if you were importing from the Camera Connection kit. You’ll need the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit to connect the Hyper Drive to the iPad.

Essentially, with the Hyper Drive, you can hit the road with just a drive and an iPad. It allows you to bring your image archive with you and remotely manage your photography empire as needed without needing a laptop. The limitation to the Hyper Drive is that it only works one way. You can get photos onto the iPad, but not off. That’s better than nothing, though.

3. Sanho Color Space for iPad

Sanho Color Space for iPad is a USB iPad compatible hard drive that offers plug and play capabilities, just like the Hyper Drive above. The main difference is that the Color Space lets you import and backup photos straight from memory cards right onto the drive. (This is the system that the Pattitucci couple uses.)

The Color Space for iPad is the device that allows true flexibility and lightweight mobility for photographers on the road. Your workflow goes like this: Shoot. Backup cards up to your Color Space. Connect to iPad using the Camera Connection Kit. View, import, process and share your photos and video right from the iPad.

Of course, once your images are on the iPad, you can blog, share, email, edit, tag, backup to Dropbox of send right to your clients. With this kind of operation, I see the Color Space for iPad as the most workable solution for travel and adventure photographers who want to go light and fast.

The Color Space comes in different drive sizes up to 750 GB, but for most people, the smallest model (250GB) is probably adequate. That’s enough space for over 16,000 15MB RAW files.

Even if you have a D800 and shoot full 36MP resolution, that’s still over 3,000 images, and besides, once they’re on the Color Space, you can always preview, rename and delete as needed.

And, since both of these devices act as standard USB hard drives, you can always use them to store and bring your entire music library on the road with you or use them as external drives with your “regular” computers.

Also, check out 3 Durable Solar USB Chargers for the iPad, which will enable you to take your iPad and other mobile devices on extended trips into the backcountry.

Mountain biking, Alaska Style. Shot with the Lensbaby Edge 80 Optic

Tilt shift photography for me is like candy. It tastes good, but way too much of it and you get a little sick to your stomach, which is why I just can’t seem to justify spending $1,700-ish on a real tilt shift lens. Since I’d rather put that kind of money towards a new mountain bike, which is something that I’ll use way more often, like many photographers, I use a Lensbaby whenevery I get the urge to tilt.

Lensbaby just released a brand new gizmo called the Edge 80 Optic. It’s an 80mm f/2.8 optic with a 12 bladed adjustable aperture that you can pop into any of the Lensbaby lenses. When aligned straight, the Edge 80 gives a flat field of focus, but when tilted, it creates a slice of sharp focus in a soft field of magical sugar filled blur.

Since I’ve already got a Lensbaby Composer Pro, and since I’m a big fan of the 80s, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the Edge 80 Optic. Nice Mr. UPS man dropped one off at my door the other day and so I slapped it on my D700 and took it on mountain biking yesterday afternoon to give it a review.

Bear with me. Being my first time using the Edge 80, I probably over-tilted a little bit, but hey, I might as well get it out of my system, right? Despite being limited to your own artistic whimsy, you can actually over tilt the Edge 80 with some subjects. Yes, you’ll get a nice wide blur, but you might lose needed subject matter that helps tell the story. That’s all I’ll say on the matter.

As for quality, I was impressed by the heft, weight and overall build quality of the Edge 80 Optic as soon as I pulled it out of the box. (Lensbaby does really nice packaging!) It’s built with 5 multi coated glass elements in 4 groups and it feels quite solid in your hands. It’s also solid enough to hold up to when you accidentally bang the front of the lens against your metal bike stem. Believe me. I hit it pretty hard while riding with the camera around my neck with no damage done.

Being 80mm, it falls right in that sweet spot of a great fast short telephoto lens, which makes it an extremely versatile tool for all types of photography, and gives your imagery a more professional look. I love my 85mm f/1.8 for portraits and as a lightweight outdoor lens, so the Lensbaby Edge 80 Optic was an easy visual transition for me. Even without tilting, it’s got a shallow depth of field and produces wonderful background blur.

In use, the glass is good. They’re sharp, especially when you stop them down. Outside, though I tend to shoot fairly wide open, mostly so that I can see better. Since the Lensbaby has a manual aperture control, the blades stay stopped down when you turn the dial. Add to the fact that they’re all manual focus and manual exposure, Lensbabies can be pretty challenging to use outside. If you like to make things a little harder, though, you can definitely get some cool results.

I find the key to using a Lensbaby on fast breaking scenes like sports and adventure, where you’ve got constantly changing subject distances, is to put the camera on high speed continuous mode and just go crazy with the shutter. Shoot tons of frames. Shoot more than you normally would in the hopes that as you keep focusing on your moving subject, you’ll nail at least one sharp image. So far, this technique has worked for me.

Also, with such a variable amount of shifting, you can tilt your way into a corner with a very narrow slice of focus. Depending on your subject matter, your slice might be overly visible, or else you can have such a tiny delineation between what’s sharp and what’s blurred on your subject. Again, that’s where shooting lots of frames helps.

Overall, the Lensbaby Edge 80 Optic is a cool lens. I might even prefer this over the Sweet 35 Optic, but only because, as I said, I love the short telephoto look. It also might be sharper at the edges, simply because it has more narrow field of view, however, I’ll have to test further to confirm this. One nice difference is that even if you tilt the Edge 80 all the way, you don’t get vignetting like you do on the wider angle Sweet 35 Optic.

It’s a versatile lens for a wide variety of outdoor photography subjects, and if you already have one of the Lensbaby bodies, such as the Composer Pro, the $299 price tag is pretty easy to handle for a well made piece of gear that will give you tons of creative options. This is especially true when you consider that by using it flat field, you effectively get a nice sharp and fast 80mm f/2.8 lens thrown into the deal. Check out this video tutorial for a full explanation of the Edge 80 capabilities.

I’ll post more Edge 80 Optic shots as I take them, and I promise, I won’t tilt quite so much next time.

A few months ago, Photowhoa.com bundled all three of my eBooks together and offered the entire collection for only $17. That’s 48% off of the regular price.

I’d like to thank those readers who took advantage of that awesome deal and picked up the bundle.

For those who didn’t, you have another chance to grab all three of my photography eBooks for a very special price. For a limited time, Photowhoa is running this deal again.

And even if you did pickup this bundle, make sure you bookmark Photowhoa for other great deals. This week they’re offering all 40 of the Craft and Vision titles for almost 50% off, and they usually have some free offers going as well.

How to Become a Pro Photographer

You want to take the next step from amateur to pro, but you have no idea how you can start earning a living from photography. This e-book answers many of your questions about the industry and the business-side of photography.

With this e-book, you will learn the ins and outs of the photography business. This book isn’t about how to take better photos, it’s about taking your hobby into a full-time career. This is the book to read if you need to know about the business and logistics side of a photography career.

Making the Image

Making the Image is a conceptual guide to have you thinking outside of the box so you can start creating beautiful images. With this guide, you’ll be able to learn how you can take beautiful photos in order to create true emotional impact with your audience.

Bailey utilizes beautiful imagery from his own portfolio so you can easily grasp the concepts that he’s teaching. For your convenience, the book is horizontally formatted, making it easily readable on computers and iPads.

Going Fast with Light

Going Fast with Light teaches you the nitty-gritty technical details so you can properly use your tools to take better photos. Specifically, you’ll learn about using off-camera flash in outdoor settings, where even the best photographers have trouble against the elements of nature.

With the techniques used by Dan Bailey, you’ll be able to efficiently take control of lighting situations even when you face great challenges such as the sun, and you’ll be able to do it without having to lug cumbersome, heavy lighting equipment.

Click Here to Get All 3 of These eBooks for Just $17

Adventure and outdoor photographers take note, there’s a new pack on the block: the Lowepro Flipside Sport AW. Built especially for highly active shooters, this streamlined and technical daypack lets you hit the trail running with your gear. Literally.

Designed with a breathable, fully adjustable suspension system and front panel flap access, the Flipside Sport AW holds your gear securely on your back while you’re on the go, and gives you quick access when you’re ready to shoot. To get your camera, you simply undo your shoulders straps, swing the pack around to the front and unzip the panel. There’s your gear. All of it. Right there, easy to see, just like the view in that picture above. No taking the pack off, no digging around. Fast and simple.

Done shooting? Ready to go? Zip it closed, swing it back around and stick your arms through the shoulder straps again. A few seconds later, you’re off and running.

It’s obvious that Lowepro is really taking note of the thing that we adventure and mountain photographers want most in a pack, which is quick access and the ability to move quickly through varying terrain without the thing bouncing all around on our backs. If you’ve ever run with your camera gear, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. Whether you’re photographing sports like running, skiing or mountain biking, chasing kayakers down the river or simply hurrying up the trail to catch last light, you want a pack that will hold your gear securely and that lets you get in and out with little hassle.

The Flipside Sport AW is designed to do both, and although I haven’t gotten my hands on this pack yet, from what I’ve seen, it appears to do both really well. when I do, I’ll of course, write up a full review.

The pack comes in two sizes, the Flipside Sport 15L and the Flipside Sport 10L. The pack shown above is the 15L model and you can see how much gear it holds. That’s in addition to the hydration ready pocket and whatever other small amount of clothing and personal gear that stash in there. The advantage of the 15L size is that it will hold a pro sized DSLR with attached battery grip, which is something that the Photo Sport 200 won’t do.

Lowepro Flipside Sport 10L AW

The Flipside Sport 10L version is a little smaller, although it will still fit a DSLR body with attached lens (up to 70-200mm f/2.8), a couple of extra lenses or flashes, personal gear and hydration bladder.

Both versions also have a unique tripod stash pocket on the side of the pack and a removable camera compartment, which allows you to use the Flipside Sport AW as a regular daypack when you’re done shooting.

Check out the video below of the Flipside Sport AW in action with pro photographer Trevor Clark. Pretty much tells the whole story.

Think this pack is for you? As a professional Lowepro user, I’m able to offer my readers special discounts on Lowepro gear. Click here to order either the Flipside Sport 15L AW or the Flipside Sport 10L AW pack and use code LP20 in your shopping cart to get 20% off.

Digital Photography School has just released a brand new eBook called Natural Light: Mastering a Photographer’s most powerful tool, by pro travel photographer Mitchell Kanashkevich.

This one looks promising for a couple of reasons. First of all, Mitchell is a top notch photographer. (He’s the author of the Rabari eBook that I reviewed here a few months ago), and I think that he shoots very compelling work.

More importantly, we often hear that photography is all about the light, but we don’t always learn how to effectively use it in our photography.

In this 96-page eBook, Mitchell details not just how to use magic hour light- (that’s the easy one), he explains how to understand and use all different types of light in order to communicate and evoke the mood and emotion that you’re trying to bring forth in your imagery.

Photographers often get told to put their cameras away at midday, but the truth is that if you’re only shooting pictures at sunrise and sunset, you’re missing an entire day’s worth of great photo opportunities. Some subject matter can actually benefit from different types of light, whether it’s harsh, cool, soft, diffused or foggy. Understanding and gaining mastery of how to use these different types of light will indeed make you a better photographer.

In Natural Light, Mitchell covers the role and power of light in photography, how to deal with the technical aspects of shooting in different types of light, how to use quality, direction, diffusion, and reflection to your advantage when composing subject matter and how to control the light without having to resort to using lots gear.

That’s the kicker. Without extra gear. The light is already there, and it doesn’t necessarily take lots of flashes and modifiers to create compelling imagery if you know what you’re doing, it just takes understanding and practice. Natural light is simple. It’s unencumbering. It’s free. It’s real. Natural light is how we cut our teeth as photographers and it’s what we always come back to when we want to slip through the world with only our cameras, our eyes and our minds.

Equipment is cool, but being a master of light is even cooler.

Check out Mitchell’s book, Natural Light: Mastering a Photographer’s most powerful tool. Right now, it’s 25% off.

Get All 40 Craft and Vision eBooks for 40% Off.

I’m a huge fan of the Craft and Vision eBooks. David duChemin and his crew have done an amazing job putting together a library of informative and inspiring titles that provide a world of technical instruction and creative insight.

Written by a collection of leading pros, each title covers a specific area of photography, such as unlocking and expanding creativity, technical lighting, understanding light, discovering and fine tuning your personal vision, processing & printing fine art and more.

Each title is filled with years of experience, stunning imagery and thorough writing that describes, educations, inspires in such as way that after reading one, you can’t wait to pick up your camera again and rush outside.

About half the books are written by modern visionary genius David duChemin. If you aren’t familiar with his work or his writing style, I put him in the same category of imagery and photographic mentorship as the late Galen Rowell. David is an incredibly talented and hard working humanitarian and travel photographer who writes with such passion for the creative craft of imagining, seeking out and producing compelling photographs that match your own excitement about the subject.

I’ve read almost all of the C&V titles and have reviewed a number of them here on my blog, and I think that every single one of them is well worth reading. For the awesome content and colossal amount of inspiration that each one contains, I honestly think that they’re worth more than only five bucks, but that’s not my call.

At that price, you simply can’t go wrong, except that this week only, you can get the entire Craft and Vision photography eBook collection for 40% off.

If you’re new to the C&V books, then this is a great introduction. I promise, you won’t be disappointed. And even if you’ve already picked up a few C&V titles, this limited time deal allows you pick up the rest of the collection and you’ll still save money.

This is a limited time deal, and it expires at the end of this week. You can check out all of the titles here.

Kayaking Tunnel Falls, Gore Canyon, Colorado River

You show up at the river in your twenty year old (Choose one: Toyota or Subaru) with a pack full of camera gear, a case of blank memory cards and enough energy and excitement to power a small city. Your adrenaline rises as you scramble down the rocky trail in your Tevas with the faded nylon straps, grasping at small bushes and branches as if they might help steady your footing as you skid over loose dirt and pebbles on your way down to the bank.

The roar of the class V rapid grows in your ears and blocks out nearly every other sound as you get closer. You can almost smell the frothy mountain water, the same water that you were skiing on sixty miles up canyon just a few weeks ago. Every couple of minutes, a few stray drops cut loose from the river and land on your bare arms that are ripped from carrying heavy camera gear and adventuring in the outdoors.

A hundred yards upstream, a group of kayakers are just putting in to run the rapid. You quickly drop your pack and pull out your camera, slap on your big lens and make a few test shots until you’re confident about your exposure, making sure that you’re shutter speed is high enough to freeze the action.

So how do you ensure that you get the shot? Better hurry with your analysis of the scene because here they come!! Don’t worry, I’ve done this before- I’ll give you some quick pointers. Here are three simple tips for photographing action. Yes, you can apply these techniques to other sports besides kayaking. Now good luck and have fun!

1. Get Closer

Don’t be afraid to zoom that big lens all the way in, that’s what they’re made for! Use it like you mean it. Bring that action right up close!! Let your viewers feel like they can almost smell and drink that water! Get them right into the middle of the whole mess and show them the tight details. Let them think that they’re about to trip over your subject! I guarantee, it will take their breath away.

2. Zoom Out

Ok, enough of the close stuff, now zoom out and give us the whole scene. Let us see your subject in context of their entire environment. Adventure sports are as much, if not more, about the adventure, than the sport itself, so let us get a feel for the dramatic expanse of the natural world where these people are enjoying their time in the outdoors. After all, you love it here just as much; show us what’s so great about this place or this activity.

Whitewater kayaking, Cache La Poudre River, near Fort Collins, Colorado

3. Keep Shooting

Feeling good? Think you’ve got some awesome shots so far? You’re doing great, but don’t stop yet, keep that motor drive working. Keep burning frames until either your subject is gone or the light is gone, or both. Chances are good that as good as the stuff you’ve already shot might be, there’s a totally killer image just waiting for you to grab, only you won’t know when it’s going to appear until it jumps right in front of your eyes.

It will probably take you buy surprise, so you’ll have to keep your eye trained on the subject and your finger at the ready, because it will only happen once. You won’t actually know when (or if) it will even happen until it’s staring you right in the face for a mere spit second. It’s that moment that separates the big boy and big girl photographers from the amateurs. You either get he shot or you don’t

Dave Zinn kayaking Poudre Falls, Cache la Poudre River, Colorado

Did you get it? Awesome!! Great job! Feels good doesn’t it? Now pack up, head on down the canyon and meet me at the (insert favorite watering hole.) The first pitcher is on me!