Two weekends ago I was teaching a workshop in Boston, at Babson College. We were staying on campus at their Executive Conference Center, whose restaurant looked out over some small ponds at the edge of a woods. It was such a pretty spot that during breakfast we decided to come back there that evening after the school and shoot some pictures.

Continue reading "Sketching" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 03:53 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

When I worked for newspapers I spent most of my days out on the street. In good weather that was great, and in bad not so great. But the best part of it was staying away from a desk. Now I spend most of my time at a computer, so any chance to get out and shoot pictures is a good one.

Continue reading "Fun on the Farm" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 06:01 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Whenever I'm out teaching a class, or just on vacation with my kids, I always have them jump. Just like the old Toyota commercials (Its the "Oh what a feeling" tagline Toyota used for years in their commercials).

Continue reading "When in doubt, JUMP!" »

Posted by Kevin T. Gilbert at 08:44 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I find that the hardest thing for most people to photograph is people. And that's a shame, because it's a great way to make some nice photos and you usually end up with a good story as well.

Continue reading "Meeting People" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 10:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This past weekend I taught a workshop in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and thought I'd have some free time to go out and shoot. With that in mind, I brought my infrared camera along to play.

Continue reading "IR in FL" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 09:54 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Over the last few months I've gotten numerous phone calls and emails from friends asking if they should upgrade from their Nikon D200 to the new D300. Just got two more, which made me think it would be a good blog entry.

Continue reading "Decisions, Decisions..." »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 09:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Back in the old days (you know, when we were all shooting film) there was a time when I started doing fashion shoots for the newspaper I worked at. We were too cheap to hire models, so it always came down to the writer finding a friend to "model" for us. I remember how hard it was to get good photos..

Continue reading "In Praise of Models" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 08:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I learned years ago that when the photo gods smile on you, you should thank them. And the proper way to do that is to drop to your knees, raise your hands over your head and bow down several times while saying, "Thank you photo gods, thank you photo gods."

Continue reading "Thank You, Photo Gods" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 08:40 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By now everyone's heard about Nikon's two new cameras, the D3 and D300. And you've probably heard they handle high-ISO noise better than in the past. That's an understatement.

Continue reading "A Whole New Wonderful World" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 10:57 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

For any photographer who loves to travel, going on an African photo safari must be near the top of their wish list. I've been lucky enough to do that twice now, leading trips to Tanzania in 2006 and the other one a few weeks ago. Each was great in its own way.

Continue reading "African Photo Safari" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 10:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Sometimes an assignment is like a puzzle where you know what the final outcome looks like but you have to find the pieces that put it all together. Blue Pixel had an assignment like that recently.

Continue reading "Grammy Puzzle" »

Posted by Alex Stevens at 09:49 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

If you're itching for something interesting to photograph, you might try looking around your home.

Continue reading "Home Treasures" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 12:59 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

When I started traveling regularly a few years ago, I did what all smart business travelers do - I asked for aisle seating. What a mistake that was!

Continue reading "I'll Take the Window Seat, Thank You" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 04:37 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I spend a lot of time talking and teaching about digital workflow. And when I'm out shooting, I try to live what I teach. If you follow my blog entries, you'll know that this is the time of year I do one of my larger jobs, and workflow is the key to it.

Continue reading "It's all about the Workflow" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 11:44 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It's been a busy week. The day before Thanksgiving I left home on a whirlwind trip, and over the next six days visited China, Africa, Mexico and the mountains of India, with brief visits to France, England and Canada along the way.

Continue reading "World Traveler" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 12:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

My niece is a beatiful young woman, and people often ask her if she does modeling. After several years of hearing that, she decided to give it a try. First thing she needed was some shots for the application, so she called me.

Continue reading "Model Shoot" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 10:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

There are a few simple tricks that can help make group photos more interesting. Dropping my daughter off for Halloween with friends recently, I had a chance to put some of those to work.

Continue reading "Group Shots" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 10:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

As you've probably noticed, I've been doing a lot of traveling the last six weeks. After three weeks in Europe and Asia, I flew home, only to go to Tokyo the following week. That's given me plenty of opportunity to practice dealing with jet lag. Returning from Japan, I used a fish market to help fight the time change.

Continue reading "Fish and Jet Lag" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 02:23 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I've been in Tokyo this week to lead some training for the Associated Press, and arrived a day early to make sure I got here in time. I also wanted to have some time to adjust to the jet lag (14-hrs worth!), and was hoping to see some of Tokyo and shoot photos. Unfortunately, the day was overcast and dreary.

Continue reading "When the Light's Boring..." »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 07:08 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Having returned recently from a photo trip to Greece, I've been getting all of my images sorted and archived. At one point I decided to total the amount of hard drive space those photos were taking up, and it was something of a shock. Seven days of shooting resulted in 30 Gigabytes of images!

Continue reading "Size Matters" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 09:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Recently I was in Bangkok to do some teaching, and had an afternoon free. Wanting to see more of the city, I signed up for a river and canal tour. Thailand has lots of water, and Bangkok is laced with canals. It was a good tour and I made some nice photos. But one photo I really liked when I shot it doesn't work, because I forgot to think about what I was doing.

Continue reading "Missing the Big Picture" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 01:41 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm on the road still, having gone to India from Greece. Flew into Delhi early (very, very early) Wednesday morning, where I'm here to lead two days of digital workflow training for some members of the Associated Press photo staff in Asia. The rest of Wednesday was a free day, though, so I wanted to get out for some fresh air and see some of Delhi.

Continue reading "Getting Lucky" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 08:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Sometimes you get amazingly lucky, and then sometimes you don't. Kevin Gilbert and I just finished leading a photo trek of Greece for American Photo. We had a lot of fun with a great group of people, and everyone headed home with some new photos and new ideas for their photography. We started the trip in Athens, with an afternoon tour of the town and the Acropolis, who's most famous feature is the Parthenon, visible from much of Athens.

Continue reading "Parthenon at Night" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 09:08 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm in Greece leading a photo trek for American Photo. We've had a great time so far, starting in Athens and then going on to the island of Mykonos. After three days here, today we take the ferry to Santorini. We've made a lot of good photos, but perhaps as important, we've had fun and time to relax as well.

Continue reading "Hard(ly) at Work" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 03:40 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A big part of what I do these days is teach digital photography, and lately I've been getting ready to start my sixth year teaching the Nikon School of Photography classes. So each of the past six summers much of my time's been devoted to creating two new, all-day programs for the schools. And each summer I'm struck by how much our profession continues to be changed by digital.

Continue reading "The more things change..." »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 11:08 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In high school I was lucky enough to find a local photographer willing to take me on as an assistant. I always tell people that he paid me for ruining his film and paper. Thanks, Kent. Through those years, almost every Saturday I was at a wedding, loading Hasselblad film backs, carrying gear and holding lights. After that, I swore I'd never shoot a wedding again.

Continue reading "Are you a wedding photographer?" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 09:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I spend a lot of time teaching workshops, and that lets me see how people handle all the new digital photography tools and technology. This past weekend I helped a few friends with a couple days of shooting and editing, and was reminded again how far we've come in this business.

Continue reading "Up to Speed FAST" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 10:02 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Last week I was teaching a workshop in Colorado Springs, Colorado. One morning a few of us went to Garden of the Gods, a spectacular place to shoot photos. While walking around the rock formations, a woman came up and asked for some help. I thought her question would make a great blog entry.

Continue reading "Is your Viewfinder in Focus?" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 09:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Last week Nick Didlick and I were teaching a workshop in southern California. We took the group out for a couple of shoots, going to San Juan Capistrano (the famous old Mission) and Huntington Beach. At the first location the focus was on architecture and plants, at the beach it was people. And once again I marveled at how easy it is to use reflectors to light people.

Continue reading "The Joy of Reflectors" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 11:56 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A few years ago I spent some time in Singapore teaching digital photography to a group of newspaper photographers. On my final night there, they took me out to a dinner of "spare parts." Trust me, you don't want to know what it was. If you've been doing photography for very long, you've probably collected various spare parts over the years, and sometime they come in handy for building new tools.

Continue reading "Spare Parts" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I spend a lot of time these days teaching photography. And at almost every workshop I teach, at least one person comes up to me and asks, "How can I turn photography into a career?" I always give them some suggestions, but I also ask them to think long and hard about whether they truly want to do that. They may find that photography's more rewarding as a hobby.

Continue reading "Photography for Fun" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 09:46 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I recently received an email with some quesitons concerning autofocus. I thought the question and answer might make a good blog entry.

Continue reading "Autofocus Options" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 01:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the challenges of being in the business of answering questions is staying out front with technology. We jokingly refer to it as living on "the bleeding edge." Because of that, I started using the beta releases of Microsoft Vista last fall, and last week decided it was time to install the final version.

Continue reading "Vista Success" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every now and then I try out a new gizmo that so surprises or impresses me that I've just GOT to write about it. This time it's the Nikon TC-20 E II teleconverter, which I'd played with a few years ago and promptly forgot about..

Continue reading "New Toy -Teleconverter" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 03:01 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Ever since I first read about infrared photography, many decades ago in high school, I've been intrigued by the idea. The images produced by it are otherworldly and I wanted to try my hand at it. Unfortunately, my attempts back then always ended in failure, not in small part due to the difficulty of using and processing infrared film. Thankfully, times have changed, and digital's taken film out of the equation.

Continue reading "Digital Infrared" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 06:40 PM | Permalink

Recently I received an email from someone who was part of a workshop I taught, and thought it might make a good blog entry: "I attended your two workshops in Berkeley last week, and didn't get a chance to ask my specific question. I'm leaving for an Antarctic peninsula cruise this coming week, and any suggestions for specific settings (e.g. White Balance) to try under those unusual lighting conditions?"

Continue reading "Arctic Suggestions" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After traveling to 53 countries as a professional photographer, I decided to really live like the everyday traveler and head off on a trip to Morocco with just a Nikon D40, an 18-200 mm lens, and a 2 gig Lexar SD card..

Continue reading "Traveling Light" »

Posted by Kevin T. Gilbert at 06:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last weekend I went to Berkeley to teach a two-day photo class. I was working with Nick Didlick, a good friend and excellent photographer from Vancouver, Canada, and we both flew in two days early to meet some friends and drive to Yosemite National Park. I've been lucky enough to visit Yosemite several times over the last few years, so I decided to take a different approach to photographing it this time.

Continue reading "A Closer View" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 08:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was working in my studio last week (translation - the basement) photographing some products I was going to use in a presentation. Two keys to any good photo are light and background. I often use a black backdrop as it highlights the product. And I learned long ago that with lighting, KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) was a good rule for me to follow. Good light doesn't necessarily mean lots of lights. This time, though, I needed just a bit more.

Continue reading "Reflectors" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm just back from leading a photo trek to Maui for American Photo (www.mentorseries.com). I do about four trips a year like this, and we had just over thirty people joining us. The second day we spent driving and shooting along the road to Hana, and after dinner that night most of us headed to the beach for a little light painting.

Continue reading "Light Painting" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last year while shooting winter photos in Yosemite National Park, Nick Didlick (a friend and Blue Pixel Associate) came up with a unique (and low-cost) way of shooting time exposures. I was reminded of that recently when I needed to do the same thing, and didn't have a cable release.

Continue reading "Pebble Release" »

Posted by Reed Hoffmann at 08:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When it comes to photography, people always want to talk cameras and lenses. Yes, they're important (and I like to talk about them too), but one tool that doesn't get enough chat time is tripods.