MEDITATING MONKS AT PONGOUR FALLS

Photograph by DANG NGO

HANGING OUT ON THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE, 1914

Photograph by Eugene de Salignac/Courtesy NYC Municipal Archives

MOUNT RAINIER CASTING A SHADOW ON CLOUDS

Photograph by Nick Lippert (via Komo News)

7 HOURS IN ONE IMAGE

Photograph by Isil Karanfil (isilkrnfl on deviantART)

ONE BOAT AND 145 WATER-SKIERS

Photograph by MARK SEATON PHOTOGRAPHY

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Tallest mountain "Mount Everest" #Nepal

Tallest mountain "Mount Everest"
Mount Everest is one of the tallest mountains in the world. It is part of the Himalayan Mountains. They were formed in the last few million years. After the supercontinent of Laurasia broke up millions of years ago, India moved slowly north towards Asia and then crashed into it. The seabed between the two plates (the earth's crust is divided into large areas of land called plates) was crumbled and pushed up on the northern rim of India to form mountains. These two plates of the earth's crust are still moving, so the Himalayas are being pushed up higher.
The highest mountain on the planet, Mount Everest is growing two inches taller each year. Satellite technology says the mountain is currently 29,107 feet tall. First recognized as the highest peek in 1852, it got its western name ten years later in 1862. Mount Everest was named for Sir George Everest (1790-1866), a British surveyor. Surveyors don't agree on the height of Mount Everest. The British government in the 1800's thought the height was 29,002 feet. In 1954 the Indian government said it's 29,028 feet, but a widely used unofficial figure says it is 29,141 feet! 
Mount Everest lies on Nepal  
People from the western hemisphere weren't allowed to climb Mount Everest until the early 1920's. The first known climb that made it to the top was made by a New Zealander named Edmund Hillary and a Nepalese named Tenzing Norgay. They climbed the mountain in 1953. Since then Everest has been climbed by 400 people. Access is restricted by the Nepalese to prevent too much damage to the environment.
Mount Everest is 97 degrees below freezing, talk about cold!
IT LIES IN NEPAL


Friday, January 11, 2013

Quit Dissing My Megapixels--I love all 36 million of them!

Quit Dissing My Megapixels--I love all 36 million of them!

First of all, I must say that I have resisted the urge to write this post for over a year because I know I am going to get dozens of comments saying nothing more than “Megapixels are unnecessary–I want ISO.”  I often think that photographers simply repeat what they have heard other pro photographers teach online, and stick to it instead of investigating things on their own.
Before I get nerdy on you, allow me to provide some background if you’re newer to this debate.  On a camera sensor, there are millions of light receptors (called photosites) that collect information about how much light is present, color, and other information.  It used to be, in the early days of digital photography, that camera manufacturers could only fit 2 or 3 million pixels on these sensors.  Now, a sensor of the same size can contain 30 or more megapixels.  The problem with the proliferation of mexapixels on a sensor is that it reduces the space available for each photosite.  The smaller the photosites are, the more difficult it is for camera manufacturers to create cameras that can take pictures with high ISO levels and still maintain a low amount of digital noise.  So many photographers argue that they don’t want camera manufacturers to keep adding more megapixels on a sensor, and would prefer that the manufacturers instead focus on low light performance.

I COMPLETELY understand this sentiment.  I have missed many pictures in low light environments because my camera simply couldn’t take a clean picture without adding more light to the scene with a flash.  I understand that if all else is equal, the camera with fewer megapixels will produce images with less noise because each photosite has a larger area of light to gather from.  I get it.  Really–I do.  This mirrors a conversation I had with Scott Bourne a few weeks ago at the Google+ Photographer’s Conference, where he argued that the new Nikon D800 (which has 36.3 megapixels) should not be used by portrait photographers because it has too many megapixels.  I very respect Scott, but we disagree on this point.

Future-Proof Your Images with Higher Megapixel Cameras

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

How to Photograph the Milky Way

How to Photograph the Milky Way
Last week, I took a photo of the Milky Way above an old schoolhouse building in Idaho. I posted the photo on our Facebook page, and it received 1,548 likes, 177 comments, and was shared 84 times. I was pretty happy (okay, fine… I was ecstatic) that so many of you said such nice things about my picture.
MANY of you asked how the photo was taken, and wanted a tutorial on photographing the Milky Way.  Your wish is my command.
Milky Way in Idaho
Camera Settings for Night Photography of the Milky Way

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

50 essential photography tips

50 essential photography tips
Whether photography is a hobby or a profession, you'll get a whole lot more out of it if you understand how it works. With a firm grasp of aperture, shutter speed, sensitivity and focal length, the ratio of truly great to merely mediocre shots you download at the end of an expedition is all but guaranteed to climb.
Here we present CNET UK's 50 essential shooters' tips. Don't uncap your lens without them.
Aperture
1. Understand aperture
The most fundamental element any photographer should understand is aperture. The aperture is the physical opening within your lens that allows light through to the sensor (or film in an older camera). The wider the aperture opening, the more light can pass through, and vice versa.