You turn on your camera expecting to see an aperture such as f/2.8, f/4, or f/8, but the display suddenly reads F00, F0, F–, or something similarly strange. It immediately looks like an error code. In many cases, however, the…
How to Photograph Sunflowers at the Golden Hour
Sunflowers seem made for golden hour. Their yellow petals catch warm light beautifully, their large flower heads create dramatic shapes, and an entire field can change appearance every few minutes as the sun moves toward the horizon. Yet simply arriving…
How to Photograph Sunflowers in Harsh Sunlight
Sunflowers seem made for sunshine. Their brilliant yellow petals, textured centers, tall stems, and dramatic fields can look spectacular under a blue summer sky. Yet the same bright light that makes a sunflower field glow can create one of the…
How to Photograph Insects With a Macro Lens
Photographing an insect with a macro lens can reveal extraordinary detail. Compound eyes become intricate patterns, tiny hairs catch the light, wings reveal delicate veins, and ordinary garden visitors suddenly look like creatures from another world. Getting that close, however,…
How to Photograph Bees on Flowers
Bees can turn an ordinary flower photograph into a tiny wildlife story. One moment, a bee is hovering above a bloom. Seconds later, it disappears deep between the petals, emerges dusted with pollen, moves to another flower, and flies completely…
Best Camera Settings for Dragonfly Photography
Dragonflies can look wonderfully cooperative when they are resting on a reed, flower stem, or garden stake. Then, without warning, they launch into the air, change direction almost instantly, hover for a fraction of a second, and land somewhere completely…
How to Photograph Dragonflies
Dragonflies can be surprisingly difficult to photograph. One moment, one is resting perfectly on a reed. Seconds later, it launches into the air, changes direction almost instantly, circles the water, and disappears before your autofocus has decided what to follow….
How to Photograph Butterflies Without Scaring Them Away
Butterfly photography can become frustrating surprisingly quickly. You spot a beautiful butterfly resting on a flower, carefully lift your camera, take two steps closer, and suddenly it disappears. Then you follow it. It lands again. You approach again. Off it…
How to Photograph Butterflies in Flight
Butterflies floating through a summer garden can look graceful and effortless. Photographing them in flight feels very different. One butterfly may suddenly leave a flower, another may cross behind it, while several more move between blooms at completely different distances…
How to Photograph Butterflies
Butterflies seem like perfect photography subjects until you try to photograph one. For a moment, a butterfly rests beautifully on a flower with its wings completely open. By the time you raise the camera and focus, it has moved to…
How to Photograph a Carnival With an iPhone
A carnival can feel almost overwhelming through an iPhone camera. Ferris wheels tower overhead, rides spin in every direction, bright signs compete for attention, people constantly enter the frame, food stands glow beneath colorful lights, and everything seems to happen…
Creative Carnival Photography Ideas
Carnivals are almost designed for photographers. Brightly painted rides spin against the sky. Games are covered in oversized prizes. Food stands glow beneath colorful signs. Children race from one attraction to another, while Ferris wheels rise above the midway and…
