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Travel Photography

Traveling with a New Mirrorless Camera: Fuji X100S

Dec 17th, 2013
by Phil Steele.
34 comments
Fujifilm X100S

My FujiFilm X100S with optional lens hood and lens filter. And yes, I taped a piece of 1/8 CTO gel over the flash to warm it.

As I vacationed with my family in Hawaii last week, I was testing a new, compact mirrorless camera as an alternative to carrying a heavy DSLR.

If you’re anything like me, lugging around a big camera, plus lenses, on a pleasure trip has become so burdensome that I often end up just leaving it at home and doing without a camera entirely. Which, for a photographer, is a tragic sign that something needs to change. (more…)

Using Lightroom on Two Computers

Jun 28th, 2013
by Phil Steele.
8 comments

Shop for Lightroom 5 on Amazon.com

Lightroom 5 Full Version

Ligtroom 5 Upgrade from Earlier Version

You can also watch this on YouTube: Using Lightroom on Two Computers

Landscapes and Lightroom

Nov 10th, 2012
by Phil Steele.
16 comments
lightroom landscape 1

Lots of Clarity in Lightroom makes the details pop. Graduated filter recovers washed out areas. Click for Before-After comparison.

First off, an admission: I’ve never been much of a landscape photographer.

It’s never very been high on my photography interest list, because I’m drawn more to people and action—two things that are generally absent from landscapes.

Nevertheless, when I find myself in beautiful surroundings—like the jaw-dropping red-rock country of Sedona, Arizona—I naturally want to pull out the camera and bring home some knock-out photos. (more…)

Product Review: Gorillapod Takes Manhattan

Jan 21st, 2011
by Phil Steele.
7 comments
My Gorillapod with SLIK Tripod Head

Gorillapod with SLIK Tripod Head

As an early Christmas present for myself last year, I bought a Gorillapod Flexible Tripod before traveling to Manhattan.  I knew I didn’t want to carry a full-size tripod on the crowded subway, where I might accidentally probe someone and get into trouble.  The Gorillapod, which fits in my camera bag (or even a big coat pocket if I don’t mind it hanging out a bit like a high-tech squid) seemed like a great, portable solution.

To mount my Canon 40D on it with some flexibility, I bought a SLIK SBH-120 Tripod Head, a basic but solidly-constructed ball head model. (more…)

Sunset Magazine Comes Calling

Oct 1st, 2010
by Phil Steele.
5 comments

Sunset, the big travel magazine devoted to the American Southwest, contacted me today asking to buy this photo from the Burning Man festival. It will run in an article called “Amazing West” in their November issue. And they offered me the biggest fee I’ve ever received for a single image. Now that’s a nice way to start the day.
Burning Man Festival photo

Gearing up for Burning Man

Aug 24th, 2010
by Phil Steele.
9 comments

Just some of the gear I'm packing

Preparing for Burning Man is only slightly less daunting than packing for a polar expedition — or perhaps a mission to Mars is a better analogy.

Each year my packing list grows longer and more complex (it now spans 8 pages of closely-spaced typing), and each year I nevertheless forget several important items and end up cursing myself out there in the Nevada desert when I discover that I forgot to bring, say, the superglue that I need to re-attach the sole of my shoe so that I don’t have to walk 3 miles back to camp barefoot on the blistering, 120-degree surface of the alkaline lakebed.  Or the charger for my camera battery. Or my can opener. Or, even worse, the beer. Or any one of the hundreds of other things that make life bearable in the extreme environment of Burning Man. (more…)

How to Sell Photos to a Book Publisher

Apr 3rd, 2010
by Phil Steele.
64 comments

Burning Man PhotoSince I so often kick myself for doing things wrong, today I’m going to celebrate doing it right.

Today I turned a publisher’s request for a single photo—with no offer of payment—into a 5-photo sale for hundreds of dollars.  It’s a lesson for me, and maybe for you, in what to do right.

I was contacted by a Japanese travel book publisher, who wanted to use the image at left from my Burning Man Festival photos (caution, some nudity) in their “Dream Trips” guidebook, which will include a chapter on Burning Man as a tourist destination.  (Of course, the notion of busloads of Japanese tourists arriving at Burning Man is pretty damn funny. If you’re not familiar with Burning Man, it’s the annual festival of “radical self-expression” held in the Nevada desert — a photographer’s dreamland of fantastic characters, art, and spectacle — but definitely not for the faint of heart.)

Anyway, this publisher offered no payment, only credit. (more…)

Free Hawaii Wallpapers

Dec 23rd, 2009
by Phil Steele.
No comments yet

Hawaii WallpapersWhy not kick off the new blog with something free for the readers?  I just returnd from Oahu, where the winter storms created epic surf (really, that’s the word the local newspaper used—epic) and some great photo opportunities.

So I created a few scenic shots at various wallpaper sizes for you to use on your desktop or screensaver.  Check ’em out here:

Free Hawaii Wallpapers

Aloha

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