Photography
New Favorite Lens
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 by Reed Hoffmann
I recently started using a different type of lens, which meant a number of good things for my photography. But first a little history…
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Controlling Autofocus
Monday, April 30th, 2012 by Reed Hoffmann
Recently I went to one of my nephew’s track meets to shoot some photos of him competing in pole vault. Not only did that give me a chance to get some nice photos of Jeffrey, but it let me work on some good/bad examples of different photo techniques. And that, of course, led me to write this blog post.
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When Things Go Wrong
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 by Reed Hoffmann
Most of what I do these days is teach photography. Which means I often find myself in front of a bunch of people, doing a demo where I hope everything goes right. Occasionally, though, things go wrong, and that’s when life gets interesting.
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Senior Portrait
Friday, March 30th, 2012 by Reed Hoffmann
Last week I shot senior portraits for a friend’s daughter. As always, the three words “Subject, Light, Background” ruled what I did during the shoot. I already had my subject, so I needed to find good backgrounds and think about how I would use the light.
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The Year of the Ultraportable
Monday, February 27th, 2012 by Reed Hoffmann
There’s a lot of talk about 2012 being the year of the ultraportable computer, and that’s good news for traveling photographers.
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Subject, Light, Background
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 by Reed Hoffmann
Every workshop I teach, I preach “Subject, Light, Background.” Remembering those three simple words – thinking about them – will almost always improve your pictures. And they often help each other, so working on one can usually improve the others. Recently I was teaching a class in Philadelphia and had a chance to do a quick demonstration of that.
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Take Time to Organize
Saturday, January 28th, 2012 by Reed Hoffmann
I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, but there’s one thing I do every year at this time. So if someone asks what my resolution is, I always say, "I'm going to get organized." For me that means every January I go through my images from the past year and pick out my favorites.
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Off-Camera Flash
Sunday, January 15th, 2012 by Reed Hoffmann
I was on the road teaching a workshop last week, and part of it involved giving a little how-to on the basics of off-camera flash. The group was amazed at how easy it is. That’s true now, but it wasn’t always that way.
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Long Exposures at Night
Friday, December 30th, 2011 by Reed Hoffmann
I received an email from a friend who's headed to Iceland and hoping to photograph the northern lights (aka the aurora borealis). He was looking for tips on how to be successful, and after responding to him, I thought this might make for a nice blog post. Whether you're shooting northern lights, a starry sky or New Year's eve fireworks, the basics are the same.
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Size Matters
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 by Reed Hoffmann
As photographers we know the importance of light, composition, background, exposure, and moment. But sometimes what you really need for a unique photo is a lot of lens, and that can help you make a photo no one else is able to.
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