Short and Sweet

1. When I shoot into the sun, I often use an element in the picture to block or partially block the sun. This diminishes the intensity of the bright light so the sun doesn’t eclipse the subject. This is a leg rower fisherman on Inle Lake in Burma taken with a 14mm wide angle lens. 2. When photographing festivals, try using Program mode. In this mode, the camera chooses the shutter speed and the lens aperture. This leaves you time to concentrate on focus and composition. Program mode is biased to providing a faster shutter speed because it assumes you are handholding the camera.

3. A wide angle lens can be used for portraiture in several different ways. In this case, I moved in very close to a Samburu tribal woman in Kenya. Her beads were amazing, so I made them the point of the picture rather than her face by cropping it this way. Note the complete depth of field from the f/16 lens aperture. 4. Black Plexiglas is great to use for subtle reflections. Here I placed a Mexican red knee tarantula on a small piece of Plexiglas and photographed it with flash. The black background complemented the black reflective surface, and that directed all of the attention where it belongs -- on the subject. §