Focus Forward is where I share my journey in photography. I’ll share the good, the bad, and the ugly, and there’s plenty of all of three.
Have you ever looked at something and wanted to capture a close-up image of it? I mean, really close-up — like “macro” style? You’ve seen the photos of bugs so tight you can see the hairs on their legs. That’s true macro photography. It usually requires a dedicated macro lens, which a casual photographer is…
One of our vacations gave us an opportunity to spend some time in the woods. That’s not terribly surprising, because we love the woods and forests. This particular time, I was leaning against a tall pine tree, and I pointed my camera up toward the sky. There were oaks around us as well, and several…
I’m going to try to do another weekly photography challenge. I’ve started these before and forgotten to continue, or hit a roadblock, or something else kept me from completing it. I’m willing to try again. Week one’s challenge is Eye Lines. Get your subject to direct the eyes of the audience with their eyes. What…
The images my camera captures are pretty big—around 21 MB. But the ones I post online? Closer to 2 MB. Why such a difference? It’s in the image format, but the image format affects more than just size. We’re going to look at JPEG, TIFF, and RAW image formats. We’ll examine what they mean, what…
We love exploring new places. There’s something exciting about discovering what we’ve never seen before. But there are places my family loves to visit time and again. We build memories of the people we were with, the things we did there, and the places themselves. We shouldn’t overlook the things we’ve already seen. Revisiting old…
I see everything as a snapshot. I really do. Well, most of the time. I find that the more active I am with my camera, the more likely I am to capture in my mind’s eye a still image of a live event. The ability to visualize a scene as a photograph is called “the…
If you’ve ever wondered what that weird mountain-shaped graph is doing in your photo editor, you’re not alone. It’s called a histogram, and once you know how to read it, it becomes one of your most powerful tools. A histogram offers a visual guide to exposure, contrast, and tonal distribution. It might sound complicated, but…
The vista was breathtaking! Standing on a hill overlooking a valley in mid-spring, with a narrow road winding through it, I knew I had to capture it with my camera. The little red barn tucked into one of the road’s bends was the perfect focal point. I set up my tripod, connected my remote shutter…
When I’m publishing a photo at one of my sites, I like to tell the story of the shot – where it was, when I took it, and sometimes how I did it. The problem is that I’m often publishing several months after I took the photo, and I can’t always remember those details. As…
I’ve been fascinated by the concept of lens compression for about six months. I wanted to learn not just what it is and how it works. More importantly, I wanted to learn how I might use it in my photography. My biggest challenge was finding the time and location to demonstrate of it with my…
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