Reed Hoffmann’s Photography Blog
Night Photography Opportunity
Now’s a great time to go out and practice your night photography skills. The craziness of the holidays is winding down, but the light displays are still in full glory, and will be for the next several weeks. So let’s go over the basics of what it takes to make nice pictures after the sun’s […]
Spectacular Ski Event Photography
Seven years ago, thanks to a generous grant from Microsoft, I began a project to help Disabled Sports USA build a photo and video library from their events. DSUSA is an organization that helps disabled people become active in sports and is run by a great team of people. In time that grant ran out, but I continued working with […]
Photographer Gift Ideas
Once again it’s that time of year when we’re looking for special for gifts for friends and family. If you’re lucky, they’ve asked you for a list of things you’d like. Or maybe you’re just tired of buying for others and want to treat yourself to something special. Whatever the reason, here are some of […]
Fall FoliagePhotography
I love shooting pictures. I also travel a lot, and don’t love that. So whenever possible, I try to take advantage of that travel to squeeze in some shoot time. Last weekend I had a quick trip to Washington, DC to teach Nikon School, and because of a change of plans, had Friday afternoon free. […]
Smaller camera, anyone?
If it seems like photography’s always changing, you’re right. It’s been doing that from the beginning, over 150 years ago. I was reminded of this recently when reading a story about improvements in mirrorless cameras. While interesting, it’s not as big a deal as some people make it out to be. That’s because it’s not […]
Changing Photography Workflow
I’m in the midst of a major workflow change, and in a way I’m coming full circle. I began using Photoshop in the early 90s when we started scanning film to digitize it for the newspaper. Which was a godsend, because before that we had to print our color photos, which was time-consuming and prone […]
Best Filters for Photography
For over twenty years as a newspaper photographer, I never once used a graduated neutral density filter. Which was stupid. And I rarely used a polarizing filter, which was almost as bad. There were two reasons for this. First, in photojournalism there’s a high standard applied against manipulation of scenes and images. Unless shooting a […]
Photographing the Super Moon
In case you missed the hoopla, we were treated to a “Super Moon” on July 12. But never fear, you’re going to have another chance to see one, or better yet, shoot it on August 10. A Super Moon is when the moon is full at the same time it’s closest to the earth. It […]
Decorating with Photos
A few years ago a student asked me, “What do you do with all your pictures?” They went on to say they’d hung all they could, and given away many as presents. But then what? I explained that for me, the process of shooting pictures was its own reward. And while I enjoy having other people […]
9/11 Memorial NYC
I’m in New York City a couple of times a year. After the terrorist attacks in 2001 people would often ask if I ever visited Ground Zero. The answer was no. I didn’t want to. As a newspaper photographer, the assignments I dreaded most were those that involved personal tragedy. It was painful to see […]