Reed Hoffmann’s Photography Blog
Time for New Computers
As digital photographers, computers are an important part of our lives. That means keeping track of software and system updates as well as hardware compatibility. And, at some point, replacing the computer itself. That’s one of the things I’ve been working on the last few weeks, and just finished. My first computer was a Mac […]
Advantages of High Resolution
In 1996 I started shooting digital for my newspaper with the latest, greatest digital camera, a Kodak (Nikon) NC2000e. It cost $15,000 and gave me 1.3 megapixel images. The quality wasn’t very good, but it was state of the art at the time. A couple of years later I was shooting a 2.7 megapixel camera […]
Viva Las Vegas
I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Las Vegas for some time now. As a photographer, I love the strip at night – it’s well lit with great locations to shoot from and subjects to take pictures of, from the Eiffel Tower to the elevated crosswalks to the fountains at the Bellagio. But the excess also […]
Making Lemonade
Managing Large (and lots of!) Files
I received an email recently from a friend who went to China with me in May. He was shooting with the new Nikon D800, and had a question: “How do you cope with the mass storage requirements of the D800? With the volume of photography you’ve done lately I have to believe you have a […]
Teaching Photography
Most of my work these days involves teaching. And I’ve learned that no matter how much I think I know about photography, there’s always more to learn. You see, I spent 25 years taking pictures before I really understood what was behind much of that photography. And that’s changed both how I shoot pictures, as […]
Learning DSLR Video
Last weekend I was in Lake Tahoe to teach another Popular Photography Mentor Series workshop. This one had a bit of a twist to it – we were going to teach video too. The Nikon D90 was the first DSLR to offer video, and now it’s a given that any new DSLR will have that […]
For Photographers, Weird is Good
Recently I was wondering why photographers are drawn to broken-down stuff. Abandoned houses, peeling paint, rusted cars, dead trees. Is there something wrong with us? I don’t think so. At least not most of us. I think the real reason is the same rationale that drives how newspapers decide what’s news. It’s the unexpected, the […]
Look Behind You
One of the best tips I ever got when getting started in photography was, “always look behind you.” And it wasn’t for safety. As we walk around looking for photos, we’re always scanning ahead and around us for that nice shot. But understanding the importance of light, we also have to realize that seeing something […]
Nikon D3200
Nikon made a big splash a while back with the announcement of a new entry-level DSLR, the D3200. The biggest news about it was that they were packing 24 million pixels (24MP) onto a DX sized-sensor. And, at $699, it would be the highest resolution camera in their current line-up, behind the D800 (which costs […]