Nikonians Articles

When I read the rules a certain line in the wording gave me pause for thought as did other wording about the specific category rules. It seems to me that people are still struggling with what digital photography is versus what film photography was. Read more...

I follow photography conversations on a couple of different web sites, as do many of us. I also take photography trips to various areas with tour guides, again, as many of us do. Recently I took a guided photography trip to Costa Rica. One of the things I like about taking these trips is meeting new people, mostly other photographers, and talking about our shared love of the craft. This trip I was reminded about the seemingly apparent divide over shooting JPEG format versus shooting RAW format. Read more...

The human eye interprets images in the following order: movement, colour, shape, content. If you wish to create images that sell products, change social behaviour, win election campaigns or merely persuade people to invest their evenings in watching a particular TV show, then you need to construct the image with these in mind. Read more...

I often hear Ansel Adams invoked during discussions on photography. Many times, it is apparent that the person invoking Adams knows little about him or his life, but read a few lines somewhere written by some obscure person who said whatever it was about Adams that they then repeated as true. Read more...

Sometimes I cannot get outside in a location that will allow me to take interesting photographs or the weather just won’t allow it. But, I still want to use my camera to take photographs so I’ll try setting up a still life of some sort. At one point, I read about light box photography and saw some beautiful flower images that a photographer, who teaches the technique, had taken. Read more...

My goal, with every photograph I take, is to make each image be the very best that it can be by my standards and by general artistic standards. Read more...

Learning to photograph animals in action takes effort, time and patience and, at some point, will result in successful action shots. Read more...

Most photographers are not natural planners. If you come from a landscape background, you expect to be inspired by what you find. Photojournalists look for the decisive moment. Press photographers were always told ‘f8 and be there’. But even the most spontaneous photographer needs at least the basic planning of having their equipment ready when the moment happens. Read more...

Photographing on the slopes. Of course we can records our walks, our resort, our after-ski parties and other festivities. You'll find more than enough hints about it in articles about nature, street or night photography. And to make writing and reading easy, I speak about skiers and skiing. Snowboarders are of course included in these terms. Read more...

Many people advocate that we “throw away the rules,” or use them “with a grain of salt.” But it is imperative to learn all of these compositional rules and to know them so well that they can be used without conscious thought. Then, and only then, can you forget about the rules and toss them to the wind. Read more...

The factor which can disrupt whole shoots or, equally, turn dross into gold, is what we call in the trade ‘the human factor’. Read more...

Nikonians co-founder J. Ramon Palacios (jrp) comes back to us with what he has learned about the third of the seven deadly sins in photography: Incorrect focus. Read more...