Put crowds at photo sites to work with time-lapse video One of my frustrations as a photographer is coping with crowds when trying to get a photo. You want to get that great shot of a landmark, but there are just too many people in the way, and they're not going to go away anytime soon. I've…

Affinity now a free, powerful alternative to Adobe When Canva announced it was purchasing Affinity, it caused a ripple in the photographic community. A good part of the concern was that Affinity, which was seen as one of the best rivals to Adobe's shakedown subscription model for photo editing…

Getting a second chance at shooting Martin Luther King Jr. speech site About two years ago, I told you about my experience trying to get a photo of the spot where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream Speech." When I was at the Lincoln Memorial, I was relying on the kindness…

Viewing tube throws (good) shade on camera’s back screen One of the benefits of a digital camera is the screen on the back of the camera that lets you see the photo right after you shot it. It's a great way to ensure your composition, color balance and focus are sharp and, if you're displaying a…

If you can’t find a quiet place for voiceover, make it yourself I recently shot a video for my day job, a companion piece to a column I wrote about "Northern Exposure" shooting locations in Washington State. This video was going to require a voice-over as the different locations were highlighted,…

Early bird ends Sept. 15! Join SPJ at #MediaFest25, Oct. 15–18 (D.C.) for training, networking & inspiration. Register: mediafest25.com @spj-posts.bsky.social @collegemedia.bsky.social

Use physics, plastic bowl to pick up distant sounds in your video When you're shooting video, audio is critical. As I've pointed out before, people will tolerate if your color temperature is a couple hundred degrees off, your focus isn't exactly tack sharp or if you commit the cardinal sin of…

Small balls improve safety around umbrella reflectors, diffusers One of the first recommended light modifiers if you are buying your own is the umbrella. Some of you might remember them from school picture day, the umbrella with a light or flash pointed into it. The idea is that by bouncing off…

To all pros (and retirees) in the journalism, film, television, theater, entertainment and arts: Join the challenge to post a photo of yourself in your job. Just a picture or gallery, no description. The goal is to flood social media with our profession. Copy the text and post an image on your page.

Another use for gaffer’s tape: Tightening up lens hood’s grip on lens If you remember, I was having a problem with a lens hood falling off a while back. At the time, I used a lens cap keeper to hold on to the hood. It worked fine, but I noticed the lens hood was still coming off, and sometimes the…

Is it the fourth? #iykyk

AI Image editing safer than playing with fire It seems appropriate to be writing a post about the dangers of playing with fire in photography near the Fourth of July. There is a new trend in photography that involves using actual fire in photos. Most of these photos are of high-school and younger…

Using artificial intelligence to restore faces in old photos I've talked about Picsi.ai before, which makes swapping faces easy, either through a Discord server or its web interface. Its most common use is to swap one person's face for another. But how about swapping a person's face with their own…

Light painting makes night photography truly shine With weather warming up, it's a great time to go out and do some light painting. Light painting is when you selectively apply light to a subject during a long exposure to enhance the lighting on it. You can also use it to make light trails in a…

Digitize old slides with cellphone,PVC pipe One way to preserve old photos is to digitize them, which allows for better archiving and restoration. Making digital copies of old photos is fairly straightforward, either with a flatbed scanner or with a camera on some form of a copy stand. Slides are…

digiKam offers free alternative to Lightroom with a few extras If you're looking for an alternative to Adobe's shakedown subscription model for Lightroom Classic, there's another option worth considering. Like Darktable, digiKam is a free photo editor/digital asset manager in a format familiar to…

Google’s AI offers way to virtually learn lighting techniques If you are looking at learning how to light a scene, Google offers a way to do it without having to haul out any gear. Part of Google's Arts and Culture program, "Learning Light" gives you a chance to create lighting setups on a virtual…

DIY lens skirt keeps reflections out of pictures I've talked about the challenge of reflections in pictures before, and some of the ways to eliminate them. While perusing Fstoppers, I found a suggestion for a DIY version of the Lens Skirt, a black cloth that attaches to the glass you are trying to…

Omni-Bounce alternative latest addition to Photo Bowl collection A few months ago, I showed how you could use a set of dollar-store bowls to replicate a Gary Fong Photo Sphere. After reading David Hobby's Strobist blog, I decided it was time to add another modifier to what I have dubbed the Photo…

Is do-it-yourself photography still a thing? About 15 years ago, I stumbled upon a website that was all about do-it-yourself photography gear and techniques. There were articles about how to make a variety of studio gear from scratch, such as PVC pipes, kitchen bowls and cardboard boxes. One…

How to get extreme close-ups with the camera you have I've always said that photography can show you things that you can't see, as well as record the things that you can see. One of those ways is macrophotography, where you can go in for extreme close-ups of various objects. This allows you see…

This is Winston Churchill visiting the White House during World War II. Funny how he isn’t wearing a suit either. Almost like he was a wartime leader defending his country from being slaughtered and wiped out by an authoritarian aggressor.

A softbox that is truly a box I've written about DIY softboxes before, but I think I found an even better design. While looking around on PetaPixel, I found an article by Illya Ovchar about how to make a softbox out of two cardboard boxes. Unlike the softbox I made with pieces cut from mailing…

"While it’s still fresh in our minds, let’s remember how democracy — with its checks and balances, and its commitment to justice, equality and humanitarianism — used to work. Go ahead and write it down for your grandkids." Commentary from @jumpoffjoecreek.bsky.social at the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Too good not to share. gulfof.mapquest.com?name=The+Ass...

Dr. Frankenstein doesn't get to complain about how his monster's terrorizing villagers.

Secure gear, rig flashes with bungee balls While reading David Hobby's excellent Strobist website, I came across a way to secure a speedlight in place if you don't have a stand or a clamp. Hobby, who got this idea from a colleague at The Baltimore Sun when he was a photojournalist, recommends…

"They made sure that all of us felt included," said Eric Lee. "We learned about who we were. ... We learned things about ourselves that weren't taught in the public schools at that time." Story by Tammy Ayer of the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Proposed NIH funding cuts leave WA research institutions fearing "fiscal chaos." Coverage from @hannahfurfaro.bsky.social and @etakahama.bsky.social of The Seattle Times.

Society of Professional Journalists, other free-speech activists ask U.S. Attorney in D.C. to uphold First Amendment in investigations related to Musk's government efficiency department. freedom.press/issues/group...

Gloves can reduce wind noise in videos About a year ago, I got a wireless lavalier mic setup for my cameras as part of my efforts to up my video game. I've been pleased with the results so far; it's a two-mic system that has a range of about 60 feet from transmitters built into the mic. The…

Cellphone photo can help geotag pictures This is not a terribly interesting photo. It's pretty much a throwaway. Except, it helped bolster the metadata of other photos I shot that day. I've noticed lately that my GPS tracker hasn't been working quite as well in some of my regular locations (the…

Yakima County Coroner Jim Curtice is being charged with spiking his own drink powder with fentanyl and lying about how did it. Coverage from @donaldwmeyers.bsky.social at the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Darktable 5.0 contains new features, interface improvements It's hard to say if it was a coincidence or shrewd timing, but Darktable released its new version right after Adobe announced increases in its shakedown subscription prices. I've written about Darktable before as a free alternative to…

This is an outrage. coloradomedia.substack.com/p/colorado-r...

Why do cellphone companies insist on putting bloatware on our phones that we can't delete and clogs the phone's memory and internal storage. #AiringOfGrievances #festivusfortherestofus

Pisci.AI now available as web browser app Earlier this year, I told you about Picsi.AI's face-swapping service that lets you put yours or someone else's face on another person seamlessly. That required setting up a Discord Server, but Picsi.AI has now made it even easier. The company released…

Need to RTFM? There’s an app for that For a lot of people, the manual that comes with your camera or other equipment might be something you read once — if at all —and put it away. But with today's cameras being essentially computers with a lens, it doesn't hurt to keep the manual handy, especially…

Getting 360-degree panoramas with your cellphone with help from Google We've all seen those photos on Google Earth and Street View that show a 360-degree panorama of a subject. It gives you a chance to see an area as if you were actually there. When my wife and I were house-hunting after I had…

Hack lets you use photo editor to get full-resolution AI colorized photos In an earlier post, I talked about Vertexshare's Picture Colorizer, which does a reasonably good job of turning black-and-white photos into color pictures. But the site has some limitation, in that you can only submit a…

Voice recorder can double as microphone for streamcasting You want to do web streaming or videoconferencing, and you're tired of sounding like you're at the bottom of a deep well. The microphone on your webcam or built into your computer doesn't exactly give you the best sound quality. But you…