Reed Hoffmann’s Photography Blog
New Life for Old Film
I used film for 25 years before converting to digital in the late 90s. Which means more than half of my life in photography is on film. Now I’m bringing new life back to those old images, I’m digitizing old photos. I’ve always been a proponent of using digital cameras to digitize old prints. It’s […]
Anatomy of a Model Shoot
When I started in photography, “lighting” meant putting a flash on the camera and turning it on. If I were going to be creative, I’d bounce it off a ceiling or wall. In time, I discovered that learning how to use flash off-camera let me make pictures that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Now I look for […]
Amazon Adventure
This spring, due to some unusual scheduling, I led my fifth and six trips to Peru. The first, in March, included my second visit to the Peruvian Amazon. It’s a unique ecosystem, teeming with life, which would seem to make it a great place for photographers. However, it’s also a rainforest. And that brings challenges […]
Night Traffic and Skyline Shoot
I’ve got a list of photos I’m always looking to make. Among those is a better long exposure night photo of traffic, with a great skyline in the background. I recently had another opportunity to try that, with a local who knew where to go. It was a good spot. I shouldn’t have been surprised, […]
The Joy of the Unexpected
One of my favorite words is “serendipity” – finding something you weren’t expecting. For me, serendipity is one of the great joys of photography. I go out expecting to photograph one thing, but instead find something different. And if I’m lucky, those surprises turn out to be better than what I’d hoped for. Last week […]
Autofocus Fine Tune – Do You Need It?
Moab Photography Workshop
One of the great things about living in such a large country as ours is the wide variety of environments. And that’s a huge advantage if you’re a photographer. From seashores to mountains, deserts to rainforests, you can find almost any ecosystem in the U.S. Of all the beautiful places I’ve been lucky enough to […]
Big Event Photography
If you volunteer your time to do photography for local charities, then your workflow – how you manage your time and photography – will determine how easy or difficult that is, and to some extent how good a job you do. In December I shot about 10,000 stills and three hours of video during a […]
Shooting the Super Blue Blood Moon, or not
So there I am, cold and tired and up way too early, watching clouds obscure yet another eclipse. “Why”, I ask myself, “why?” Last summer I chased the total solar eclipse, managing to find a relatively clear area about 15-minutes before the sun went into totality. I figured this one had to be better, right? […]
Yellowstone in Winter
Yellowstone is not only our country’s first national park, it’s also one of my favorites. Wildlife, waterfalls, geysers, hot springs and endless landscapes, the variety makes it a photographer’s playground. And winter makes most of that even more beautiful. I’ve just returned from leading my second Yellowstone in Winter photography workshop there, so let me […]