Reed Hoffmann’s Photography Blog
Family Vacation Photo Tips
If you’re into photography, then you know how hard it can be to try to do any serious photography when on a family vacation. When I was full-time newspaper photographer, I’d take a little point-and-shoot on family vacations. Trying to make good pictures was my job, and if I had a “real” camera on vacation, […]
First Critique Video Posted!
Good news – I’ve just finished the first critique I promised of submitted photos. You can view it by clicking “Read more,” then the screen after that. If you’d like to submit photos for a future video critique, simply follow the directions in this post. And of course, you can make the video play full […]
Utah National Parks Workshop
Five national parks in five days. That sounds pretty ambitious if you’re just trying to check them off a list, but what if you’re trying to make pictures? Is that even possible? That was our challenge on a recent workshop I helped teach for Mentor Series. As usual, the answer revolved around careful planning (and […]
Nebraska Birding Photography Adventure
I’ll admit it – I’m a fair-weather birder. They’re usually just too darn small and far away to make good pictures. But get me close to some action, and I sing a different tune. A few years ago an old friend here in Kansas City asked if I was interested in going to see Sandhill […]
Best Photos from 2016
Every year around this time I post a few of my favorite photos from the previous year. And that’s something I strongly believe every photographer needs to do. Go through your photos from the previous year, select the best 10-15, and do something special with them. I’m still a big fan of making prints, as having that physical […]
Sleeklens Landscape Software Review
I’ve spent a lot of time teaching software, which means I’m always looking for anything new that might be better or easier. Sometimes that means software packages, like Mylio. Other times it’s plugins, like Nik (now owned by Google), which attempt to simplify the process of working on images. A few weeks ago I had […]
Desert Light Painting
I’m teaching a workshop for Best Buy this week in Tucson, and wanted to take advantage of being in the desert. So last night I took a stroll out among the cactus to do some light painting. Here are the steps I go through when doing that: 1 – First, I found a scene I liked (in the daytime, […]
Submit Photos for Critique
One thing I hear regularly from students is how much they learn from critiques of their photos. So I’ve decided to start doing that as a regular feature on this blog. Every week or two I’ll choose up to five photos that people submit and create a video where I discuss what worked and didn’t, plus demonstrate how […]
Antarctic Memories
In the summer of 2015 I was the photographer on a ship in the Arctic, and the staff there kept telling me if I liked the Arctic, I’d love the Antarctic. They were right. This January I led a photography workshop to the Antarctic Peninsula on a One Ocean Expeditions ship (the Vavilov) for Pack […]
Assignment: NCAA Basketball Game
I’ve always enjoyed photographing sports. Each one requires knowledge to anticipate where the key action, or moments, might happen. Some, like golf, are physically demanding (no golf carts for photographers!), Baseball is all about fast reaction and timing. And a big part of football photography, especially with the NFL, is not getting blocked by the […]