Jun 11th, 2009 at 11:00AM: When you're first starting out in photography, you're likely to read, or hear, or have told to you: "See the light. When you can see the light, you'll be a great photographer. You just have to see the light." Many times, I've had new photographers retort with exasperation: "God, I hate that. 'See the light.' What light? There's just light! I see it! What are they talking about? How do you 'see the ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
throughthegadlinglens posts
Through the Gadling Lens: seeing the light
Jun 11th, 2009 at 11:00AM: When you're first starting out in photography, you're likely to read, or hear, or have told to you: "See the light. When you can see the light, you'll be a great photographer. You just have to see the light." Many times, I've had new photographers retort with exasperation: "God, I hate that. 'See the light.' What light? There's just light! I see it! What are they talking about? How do you 'see the ...Through the Gadling Lens: the latest, greatest shots from the Gadling Flickr pool
Jun 4th, 2009 at 11:00AM: It's been a little over three months since the last time we waded through all the amazing images shared in our Gadling Flickr pool, and it seems like it's time to do so, again: after all, schools have closed (or are about to close) for the summer break all over the world, and prime vacation-photo-shooting season is upon us. So to help provide you a little inspiration before you head out for your ...Through the Gadling Lens: buying your first SLR camera
May 28th, 2009 at 11:00AM: So. It's the beginning of the summer, and maybe you have a fabulous trip planned. And maybe up until now, every time you've traveled, you've taken your trusty point-and-shoot camera. It's served you well: you've figured out all the presets, you've captured some amazing shots, and you know your machine inside and out. But now, you're ready for a challenge -- you want to have a bit more control over ...Through the Gadling Lens: planning a staycation? Here's how to do it, and shoot it right
May 21st, 2009 at 11:00AM: Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we're fast approaching Memorial Day weekend here in the United States, or what is otherwise known as the Unofficial Start of Vacation Season. For some of us, this means that we're ever closer to that fabulous trip we've been planning for months (or maybe even years). We're finally going to be jetting off to some faraway, exotic place for a few fun-filled ...Through the Gadling Lens: shooting with something other than a $5000 digital SLR
May 14th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Yesterday morning, I received the following e-mail: Hello Karen, I have been experiencing quite a bit of "camera envy" lately. Maybe you could write something about that. How you don't necessarily need a fancy Canon 5D to take great photos ... Just an idea... Have a great day! ~Robyn I love this idea. So today, I thought I'd share some great images that were shot with cameras other than fabulously ...Through the Gadling Lens: photo gifts for Mother's Day
May 7th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Last week, my friend Willy pinged me via instant message: "Hey, do you have any ideas on how I can share photos? I have a ton of them sitting on my hard drive doing nothing." I know the problem: if it weren't for the fact that I had a photoblog, I'm sure most of my photographs would never see the light of day. But since we're approaching Mother's Day here in the United States, it occurs to me that ...Through the Gadling Lens: self-portraits!
Apr 30th, 2009 at 11:00AM: A confession: I hate having my picture taken. Hate it. When someone offers to take my photograph, I immediately respond, "Oh, no. No, no, no. I was designed to be behind the camera, not in front of it." You can imagine what a joy I am to travel with. The result, of course, is that I rarely, if ever, end up in any holiday photographs. So this week, I thought I'd take a moment to talk about taking ...Through the Gadling Lens: the most overrated photography-related items take on a trip
Apr 23rd, 2009 at 11:00AM: Every now and then, while I'm out in public, I'll see someone who clearly was seduced by the "coolness" of a camera-related item or gadget, but who clearly has no idea what it does. (A most recent case in point: at my daughter's Christmas recital, a man with an expensive SLR camera, a 300mm lens and a flash that was worth more than my car. Umm, excuse me, sir? You're focusing on something that is ...Through the Gadling Lens: taking photographs of strangers
Apr 16th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Yesterday afternoon, I received a message from my friend, Jennifer: "Okay, this may be way off base, but what about the etiquette of photographing interesting looking strangers while traveling? Do you ask permission first? (What if you don't speak the language?) Do you take stealth photos? Only shoot strangers from behind?" I have to say that this is quite possibly one of the most common questions ...Through the Gadling Lens: what's in my day pack?
Apr 9th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Reader Nancy e-mailed me this week:
Hi Karen!
I was just looking at the 'in my camera bag' sidebar on Chookooloonks, and wondered how you go about things when you're out taking photos...particularly when you're traveling. Say you're in a new city and decide to walk about and shoot for a while. Do you take your bag with ALL your lenses, etc? Assuming you don't, lol, how do you decide what to take ...Through the Gadling Lens: adding some oomph to your landscape shots
Apr 2nd, 2009 at 11:00AM: I was recently talking to a friend of mine, and he was lamenting the fact that his landscape photographs seemed a bit "boring." "I look at all these other landscapes in the Gadling flickr pool," he said, "and they're so much more exciting than mine. What can I do to make my shots more compelling?" To be honest, of all my photography, I struggle with making my landscapes interesting more than any ...Through the Gadling Lens: colour!
Mar 26th, 2009 at 11:00AM: I mentioned before that when I was a new photographer, a photographer friend made me shoot only in black and white for my first few rolls of film. His reasoning, rightly or wrongly, was that "colour film hides a multitude of sins," and only by shooting in black and white would I learn the important lessons of contrast and texture. And I couldn't help but believe part of his motivation was his ...Through the Gadling Lens: the photoblogs of our Gadling photo pool contributors
Mar 19th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Never let it be said that we don't have amazing photographers who contribute to our Gadling Flickr pool. One of my favourite things to do is to just scroll through all the striking images -- or better still, do searches within the pool for images of any of my upcoming travel destinations. Every time I do, I always learn something: something about a far-off land or culture, or I pick up a new trick ...Through the Gadling Lens: try not to focus
Mar 12th, 2009 at 11:00AM: There can be no doubt that a really lovely, crisp image with a sharp focus can make a shot -- and in truth, focus can be one of the easiest technical aspects of a photograph that can be learned and controlled. But just this past week, I was instant-messaging a photographer friend of mine: Me: Hey, have you ever taken a photograph, and you can't tell whether the result is really crappy or really ...Through the Gadling Lens: 7 photography exercises for the brand-new photographer
Mar 5th, 2009 at 11:00AM: I bought my very first SLR camera about 15 years ago. I knew nothing about photography at the time, so I enlisted the aid of a professional-photographer-friend to come with me to help me choose my camera, and, since I had his attention, teach me a few pointers about photography as well. "You'll be buying second-hand," he informed me, "and you will pay nothing less than $500." Gulp. A few days ...Through the Gadling Lens: the best vacation photos from our Gadling pool
Feb 24th, 2009 at 11:00AM: A few months ago, I wrote a post describing the types of shots that I always try to take when I'm traveling -- the kinds of shots which will make a complete album capturing all of the memories and images around my trip. Well, this week, I've culled through the Gadling flickr pool to pick some of my favourite images from some of the wonderful photographers out there, and I thought I'd describe what ...Through the Gadling Lens: learning photog lingo
Feb 17th, 2009 at 11:00AM: One of the pieces of advice that I seem to find myself giving over and over again to those who are new to photography is about looking at as many photoblogs or Flickr pools as possible -- if only to get some inspiration on different angles to try, different processing techniques, or even just want to expect when you finally embark on that long-awaited trip to that faraway land. If you've been ...Through the Gadling Lens: taking photographs in caves
Feb 10th, 2009 at 11:00AM: This week, I got a great email from Gadling reader Matthew, about a really exciting upcoming trip: Dear Karen, My friends and I are going on a week long trip to Varadero in Cuba in two weeks. One of the main attractions that I'm looking forward to is the cuevas de bellamar, I'll be taking my Nikon D60 with the stock lens. I'm not sure what settings I should be using to capture that low ambient ...Through the Gadling Lens: Prepping for a trip
Feb 3rd, 2009 at 11:00AM: Recently, I received the following email from someone I'll call "Willy" (because that's his name): "We're going sailing in Tortola this summer with another couple, and I want to take some great shots. How can I prepare in advance of my trip to maximize success? All I can think of now is to look through Flickr and get inspired. Any other ideas?" This is such a great question, Willy -- and I'm not ...Through the Gadling Lens: Great online resources for photographers
Jan 27th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Before I really got into photography, I used to believe that really fabulous photographs only resulted from really expensive camera and processing equipment. While this might have been true twenty years ago, the truth is that great photography can pretty much come from any type of camera, with any sort of post-camera processing. And the beauty of owning a camera in this part of the twenty-first ...
