Emergency Camera Rain Gear

My friends at Think Tank Photo have released two new concepts in camera gear protection.  The Emergency Rain Covers, that come in two sizes, are small, lightweight, fast-deploying protective covers you can have on hand when weather conditions change swiftly and you need to protect your bodies and lenses.  The Lens Case Duos are protective lens sleeves that can be used both when transporting your lenses in transit and while shooting.  They are available in a range of sizes to fit most DSLR and Mirrorless lenses.  Don’t forget that when you use these special links below you will receive free gear and free shipping on all orders over $50. Just click on the image of the gear you want to purchase.

Great New Gear To Seriously Consider

For those seriously into photography, there are a couple of new lenses by Canon that are worth consideration.  The super popular Canon 70-200 series has updated their lineup with a version III.  These lens are extremely useful for not only portraits and weddings but also for wildlife and landscapes.  Yes, landscapes can be photographed using a telephoto lens by shooting several shots and stitching them together in Photoshop.  The compression effect of these type of lenses renders a great image that is totally different from using a wide-angle lens when it comes to landscapes.  These two versions of the 20-200 are the latest so expect updated  high-end optics along with Canon's sharpness.  Needless to say, I will be upgrading mine 20-200 to this version.  You can use the link below to pre-order your new lens from Adorama and obtain same-day shipping.  Of course, Adorama can supply you with all the photography equipment you may need or want. I love Adorama and can't wait to visit their New York City store in August.

I'm using my photographs to protect the environment

Last year at about this time, I was heading to Iceland to photograph what would be the most interesting, and impressive, place I've ever visited.  I found Iceland to be a land of unbelievable beauty.  While traveling the isolated roads, I explored and photographed the most impressive vistas that I have ever shot.  Every turn of the highway brought before me yet another breathless view. I was truly in awe. As I went around the island country in my two-week adventure, I realized that this rugged, yet fragile, environment was under attack by visitors just like me.  Though I was very careful not to harm or disrupt the ecosystem around me, most visitors simply saw it as a place to take a quick selfie and climbing over national parks barricades to do so was the norm. 

On the long plane ride back home, I realized that it was my job to not only bring the beauty of such places back in the form of pictures but to help spread the word and protect our environment even more.  I can only hope that my photography is an inspiration to others that our planet is fragile, and we must do everything within out power to defend and protect our natural environments.

Miami Beach Alive and Well

I was fortunate, and proud, to contribute a couple of my pictures to the lastest version of Visit Miami Beach 2018 magazine which was just released.  I grew up visting and partying on this great sub-tropical island and have seen its transformation throughout the years.  I never thought that I would go from a sunburned kid playing on the beaches of South Beach to photographing it fifty years later.   A huge thank you to my friend Vanessa Molina Santamaria from www.bitsandpiecesmedia.com for keeping me busy with their wonderful magazines.  

Click here to read the magazine. 

Is that picture photoshopped?

Most professional photographers today use digital cameras and eventually we are asked if our pictures are photoshopped.  The answer can be a bit confusing to those who are not pros or using photography software such as Photoshop or Lightroom.  Just to be clear, most photographer using professional equipment, shoot in RAW (a type of file encoding format).  This image (or file) is recorded onto a memory card in our cameras then the files on that card are transferred to our computers to complete the process.  Many of us use Lightroom (software) to import the images into our computer and then to further perform some sort of digital enhancement to the images.  

The level of "enhancement" performed on each image is, of course, dependent on the photographer's needs or style.  Photoshop can do this process as well but it can be used to perform even further manipulations to the images.  I rarely use Photoshop on my images as Lightroom provides me all the power I need to make most images ready for publication.  Because, I'm old school in the way I shoot, the images are exposed and composed correctly in camera and the only thing that needs to be done is basic enhancements such as contrast, color levels, straightning and such.  The way I see it, I don't want to spend hours trying to "fix" a poor image so i do my best to take a good image and make it better.  

So, do I "photoshop" my images?  Yes and No.  All my images are enhanced using software such as Lightroom (and sometimes Photoshop) but I don't do major manipulations to my images.  Below is an example of a RAW image straight from my camera followed by same image digitally enhanced. Hope this may answer your questions on how images are worked on and my personal digital style.

RAW - straight from the camera image

Digitally enhanced image by Noel de Christian