Reed Hoffmann’s Photography Blog
In Praise of Inexpensive, Fast Lenses
The Value of Play
Any kid will tell you that play is important. We’ve all heard, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” though we don’t always remember that. And it’s been proven that play is healthy. So we know that play is fun and can be good for us, but how do we “play” once […]
Photo Restoration
Copying my old family pictures reminded me of a photo restoration I did for a friend. They can be surprisingly easy to do with the right tools, and many old photos need this sort of help. Especially if you’d like to make a nice print from one. In this case it was a picture that […]
Shoe Boxes of History
As the photographer in the family, I’m expected to deal with all things involving pictures. Which had me going through thousands of old photos last week. We had to move my mother to a nursing home last year, and are now we’re getting ready to sell her house. During a visit last week, I got […]
Little Camera, Big Lens
One thing I love about digital photography is how our opportunities to be creative have grown. For instance, there’s a fairly new category of cameras now, called either CSC (compact system cameras) or ILC (interchangeable lens compacts). They have larger sensors than point-and-shoot cameras (meaning better image quality) and interchangeable lenses (meaning better optics). So […]
I’ve never been a Facebook user. My wife’s been on it for several years, and it’s been a great way for her to stay in touch with all of our friends. But I haven’t wanted the make the commitment. These days I’m singing a different tune, though, because I found a way to use Facebook […]
Nikon D800
I’ve had a D800 for about a month now, and I’ve got to say, I’m loving it. As a lifelong Nikon shooter, I expected the camera to be good. But I also figured that with such high resolution (36MP) it would be slow to shoot, not good at high ISOs, have to work on a […]
New Favorite Lens
I recently started using a different type of lens, which meant a number of good things for my photography. But first a little history… Since the early days of digital (late 90s for me), I’ve been a big fan of zoom lenses. My first SLR digital camera had only 1.3 megapixels. Capturing so little information, […]
Controlling Autofocus
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 […]
When Things Go Wrong
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. A few weeks ago I was doing a lighting demonstration on stage. […]