New Beginnings

Cloning Tool with Photoshop Elements

I have really enjoyed learning how to use the cloning tool in Photoshop Elements.
Upper Photo - Before Image as it was photographed.
Lower Photo - Using Photoshop Elements Cloning Tool, I have removed the black post in lower left, removed orange traffic cone in background of lower left, removed garbage can from lower center and added grass and removed the light post in lower center. Using the surrounding areas you can clone your photo to look as though those items were never there.

Canyon Silouette

Composition Study

Photography: Getting Your Feet Wet

Lost A Nikon Gun Fight With My Wife

Beautiful Photography Award #12

This month's winner of the NikonSniper "Beautiful Photography Award" is a newcomer to photography. I really want to encourage young photographers and it is for that reason I want to high-light Curtis for his new "Curtis Photography" blog. Take a moment to look at his photos and think back to when you first started in photography. Perhaps, you would you take a moment to encourage him?

I asked Curtis what it was that got him interested in photography and this was his response to several of my questions.

I have always been interested in photography. I love looking at people’s photography blogs, books, and magazines, admiring their work. I first started photography about 3 years ago. Since then my passion for photography has grown each time I use a camera. ;) I love editing my pictures that I shoot; trying different colors, composition, exposures, etc.
I first started photography with a Canon point and shoot camera. Since then, I was able to learn all about a camera’s controls and how to use them. I also checked out many books from the library all about photography, learning what aperture, shutter speed, and ISO is. I was able to put into practice all that I learned so that I was able to use my Dad’s Nikon D60. As of today, I use my brother’s Nikon D7000 and my Dad’s Nikon D60. I almost learn something new every time I use a camera.
I love photography just because each time I see people’s pictures, it reminds me that there is beauty in this world, and that beauty comes from God. God is my rock and my salvation, and I want to honor and glorify him with my photography skills.
I love shooting portraits and taking pictures of God’s beautiful creation/nature. Why? I love capturing the moment and emotion when I take portraits. When I take pictures of nature I hope it reminds people of a little glimpse of God’s glory as it reminds me when I see other people’s pictures.

Thanks Curtis! Keep shooting. Keep looking for ways to improve your pictures. Keep looking for new ideas and explore that world more and more! You are going to see cameras that I can't even dream of at this point of my life. Make sure you visit Curtis Photography!

nikonsniper steve

Buying Sunglasses For Your Camera

Have you ever though about treating your camera lens to a pair of sunglasses? Probably not! But I just thought I would share this little secret with you if you can buy a polarizing filter. I went out this afternoon to take these test photos on a new polarizer I purchased.

I wanted to place these photos right next to each other so you had a reel feel for the results. Not all polarizers give the same results. I would suggest you do a little research before you purchase but they do add a ton of possibilities to your photography.

The polarizing filter used for this test is a HOYA HMC, Multicoated CIR-Polarizing 77mm Filter. Lens is a Nikon 17-55mm, f2.8. Camera is a Nikon D90. Photos shot is Shutter Priority with a 17mm focal length. Time gap between the two photo is 5 secs. Photo A - f13 @ 1/200 sec, iso 500. Skylight Filter only. Photo B - f10 @ 1/200 sec, iso 500. HOYA HMC, Multicolored CIR-Polarizing Filter.

photo A skylight filter

photo B with polarizing filter

Now if you wish to see the real results. Copy a big size version on to your desk top and toggle between the two photos. The sky and cloud details that are viewable in the polarized version are incredible. The price for this filter ranges from $80 - $120. They aren't cheap but I do enjoy the added color benefit. I have enjoyed having these filters in almost every situation but especially in deserts and high sun situations.

Hope that helps.
Nikonsniper Steve

Beautiful Photography Award #11

This month's winner of the NikonSniper "Beautiful Photography Award" is a very talented and veteren photographer, Scott Law for his Just Used Pixels blog.

Scott's love for photography has stood the test of time and I recently spoke to him about that. Here you have it in his own words from a recent email.

I started in photography as a teenager with film many years ago and bought my first 35mm SLR as an American serviceman in Vietnam it was a Petri FT. I later moved up to a Pentax 35mm. I actually took a photography correspondence course and several classes in college. Eventually I had a couple photo studios doing studio and environmental portraits, weddings and some commercial work mostly with 120 2 1/4 X 3 1/4 and 70 mm film and keeping an Olympus 35mm for fun & family work. I even did a lot of my own processing and printing in my own color darkroom. I then left photography to finish a military career and did mostly just family video work.

What has kept my interest in photography is when I returned to still photography when the quality of the digital cameras reached a level where I could actually enjoy it and since I loved working with computers, when I found Photoshop I was 100% hooked again. I could combine my two loves of photography and the computer being able to do what I used to do in the darkroom, only on my computer. The perfect world for me. Another thing that has kept my interest is my wife’s patient understanding of my passion and a very good friend who enjoys it as much as I do so we do a lot of shoots and traveling to beautiful places together.

Thanks Scott for your wonderful photo blog and for this insight into what has kept you in the game for so many years.

Make sure you visit Just Used Pixels!

nikonsniper steve

Beautiful Photography Award #10

This month's winner of the NikonSniper "Beautiful Photography Award" is a young and very talented photographer named Josh Merrill. Check out his galleries!

Make sure you see the gallery titled, "The Abandoned City - The City of Gary in Decay." Looking at these images made me want to jump in the car and into big old cities with similar situations available.
Thanks for opening my eyes to these ideas Josh. I am already jealous of your photography and your future appears very bright in photography. Thanks so much for sharing your talents with us.

nikonsniper steve

Photographer's Candy Store

Beautiful Photography Award #9

Well, folks .... here's a great photography information and "how to" website. You simply must have to take a look at these excelent photography education resources.

This month's winner of the NikonSniper "Beautiful Photography Award" is PhotographyBB Digital Magazine. Simply register yourself, then scroll down through the existing 53 downloadable PDF files with tons of information and ideas.

This is one of the very best resources available to advance your ability and become more creative. I hope you enjoy this as you become more familiar with its advantages. Thanks PhotographyBB!

nikonsniper steve

When Cameras Die

Have you ever watched your technology purchases start to slide in their response to your demands? Most of the time, we are delighted when the old TV, video camera or microwave is finally toast ... because we get excited that we will be "forced" to buy the latest technology. YES! Out with the old and in-zeees with the new. After two days of having the new ... we don't even remember that old piece of junk.

Economic times have changed that a bit for many in America. Many do not have available funds to replace those items without refinacing the dog food. We are hanging on to the old equipment longer. I spend a bit more time being thankful and praying for my cameras. Insane? Maybe a bit, but not these days.

Photography is really my escape. It's like therapy ... and when you start to experience glitches and endless resets that will allow operation to be restored only until you are ready to shoot the next critical situation ... you get a little worried.

I believe I am hard on cameras. I am not at all blaming the camera or the manufacturers because in most cases I get 3-4 times the warranty in captured photos. It may only take me 2-3 years to do that ... so the cameras are not old ... just worn out and complaining that I am not reasonable. They usually start thinking this while I am in the store considering their purchase and running through a few tests.

 You don't even want to know how fast I can blow through 10,000 photos. I have done that in less than 72 hours ... way less if you figure it out on the basis of daylight. However, I do shoot quite a bit after dark when I am traveling and am in cities with skylines etc.

So, I am experiencing glitches more often these days. It's like watching your therapy slot with a faithful doctor get filled with extra free time between visits. I am hanging on these days to push the shutter envelope with these D90's.

nikonsniper steve

Beautiful Photography Award #8

Well, folks .... here's another first for NikonSniper!

This month's winner of the NikonSniper "Beautiful Photography Award" is a Facebook account ... held by Jerry DeBoer of Racine County, Wisconsin. Scroll through these photos for incredible pictures of birds and insects. There are some truly incredible wildlife photos on his Facebook.

Atta boy Jerry! I am totally blown away with your handling of insects and close up photography.
nikonsniper steve

Soaking Your Feet In God's Creation

Photo Opportunities

When I look back over the pictures I have been able to shoot in the past few years I am blown away by the incredible beauty of what my lens has captured. WOW! I feel lucky to have been able to do this kind of thing. Most of the photos were shot while I was keeping up with a schedule of customer visits while traveling in the western USA. The better photos are actually shot on weekends of downtime when I am waiting to begin another week on the road.
Either way, the photos rarely reflect the emotions of what I am feeling at the time of shooting. I am often exhausted and racing from one stop to another. I dart every direction chasing the flashes of light I see out of the corners of my eyes. These flashes always drag me back for a closer look. Do you ever see flashes of light or color and turn around to go back and shoot? I never did when I was young but it seems I do this all the time now. I'll bet I have days where I put the car into reverse more than 100 times. Now my nose has become my guide and I follow it as much as possible. Maybe they will find me at the bottom of a hill one day after my nose sends me chasing a flash of light off a cliff. Either way ... for sure I had a blast all the way down taking pictures.
The term "run and shoot" was used to describe an offense used in the CFL and NFL for a while ... it also describes most of my weekends. I really appreciate your comments and encouragement when I see your reactions to the photos I have taken over this past year but I have seen a bit of a pattern of what you are all collectively appreciating.
It is with that in mind that I would like to make a suggestion for you who are photographers and want to live a day like me. Try to nail down places you do not normally go on a sheet of paper and set out early to chase those photo opportunities. Chart out 4 or 5 major things to shoot. Fill the whole day. Figure out the best times to be in each of them and shoot from every angle possible when you are at each one before moving on to the next one. THIS IS THE KEY I HAVE DISCOVERED ... Try to have moments along the way while traveling between your 4-5 spots when you deliberately say ... I am going to backup and go and see that other thing that you see along the way. It seems to me that my best shots are often the shots in between when I had no idea something would happen. Prepare yourself for that. Be careful driving if you are not used to thinking like this along the way.
When I am driving, my camera is literally on the floor within quick grabbing distance. It is always ready to fire in a fast shutter speed. That way I have a chance to catch that deer that suddenly appears. Remember ... if a turtle shows up ... you always have a chance to slow down your shutter speed for greater depth of field. You just don't get that opportunity when a beautiful Corvette comes flying around the corner.
The most important thing you do is to take in as much as possible of what you are seeing. Stopping to smell the roses IS really a good idea. Creation is a beautiful thing to see and it is most often ignored. God is screaming out to get your attention. I think He is shouting, Hey, come see this thing I made for you to see and learn more about me!
Keep an eye on the blog as I will be shooting the beautiful State of Colorado for the next week. Have a great Tuesday.
NikonSniper Steve

Pair Of Sunglasses For Your Camera Lens?

Not happy with the color in your outdoor photos? Have you ever thought that the sun bleached all the color you saw with your eye out of a photo after you got your photos back from the lab? Then treat your camera lens to a good pair of shades.



I have bought HOYA HMC 77mm PL-CIR Circular Polarizers for my lenses and have been very happy with the results. Obviously you need to get the correct ring size for the lens you wish to polarize. The wider angle lenses seem to benefit much more from this type of filter.

Example - photo with no polarization.


Example - photo with polarization.


These photos were taken 7 seconds apart. No settings were changed on the camera. All I did was rotate the filter! This type of polarization filter is convenient because all you have to do is rotate the filter to turn the polarization on or off. You pay more for this convenience. I believe the filters were about $170 each. Cheaper versions are available but they must be removed from the camera manually to remove the polarization.

NikonSniper Steve

Beautiful Photography Award #7

This month's winner of the NikonSniper "Beautiful Photography Award" is ... KenRockwell.com.

This month I decided to put a very different website on my winner's list. Usually you will see that I am after sites that show me tons of ability in a specific discipline of photography. This month, I decided to make you aware of a great source of information regarding photographic equipment.

I am often asked for my recommendations regarding various camera equipment. I believe that every photographer can benefit from the information and easy to use knowledge on Ken Rockwell's website.
Consult his wealth of information and ideas often. Consider contributing to his website if you find the information helpful.

Hope you all find this information as valuable as I do! Great job Ken Rockwell.

nikonsniper steve

Beautiful Photography Award #6

This month's winner of the NikonSniper "Beautiful Photography Award" is ... Arctic View by Elaine of Alaska. Check out the fantasy of photographing the Alaskan frontier. I am vaulted into a rugged world that is totally foreign to most of us every time I drop in to see what Elaine is doing with her wonderful blog. I guarantee you will enjoy yourself and think about making a trip to Alaska when you see her beautiful photography.

Alaska is a MUST DO for my future travel. This is a spot I would like to travel to in every season.
Thanks Elaine!

nikonsniper steve

Beautiful Photography Award #5

This month's winner of the NikonSniper "Beautiful Photography Award" is ... Montana Girl of Montana. Check out these birds and wildlife in Big Sky country. I am never disappointed when I drop in on this blog for a peek.

Montana is on my radar for future travel. Thanks Montana Girl.

nikonsniper steve