Archive for 'Instructional'
Massive Highlight Recovery with the Photoshop/Lightroom Adjustment Brush
Posted on 27. Aug, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
When I first upgraded to Lightroom 2.0, I spent a considerable amount of time playing with the new features. One of the new RAW processing features that really intrigued me was the adjustment brush. The adjustment brush allows the user to adjust…
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What’s riding shotgun while you’re driving?
Posted on 08. Jul, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
It’s summer here in the northern hemisphere and it is a time when a lot of people decide to take a road trip. Summer’s a time when I too spend a lot of time on the road and I recently got home from about a 3,300 kilometre (~2,000 mile) road trip. Usually when I’m on a trip my timelines are fairly tight and I don’t have a lot of time to take a meandering path or wander too much. But, regardless of where I’m travelling, there is one constant about the trip, and that’s…
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Photog goes crazy, starts shooting video!
Posted on 22. Jun, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
I’ve been facinated by the new hybrid DSLRs that can shoot both still and video images. And the video I saw from the 5D Mark II was really, really impressive. It’s ability to produce high definition video at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p) is really stunning. I’m a bit of a movie fanatic and I think part of me harbours a fantasy of…
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Learning wildlife photography – How low should you go?
Posted on 04. Jun, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
Whenever I teach wildlife photography, I go on at some length, about the necessity of getting your camera gear on the same level as your subject’s eyes. This concept doesn’t only apply to wildlife photography, it applies equally well to photography of children, pets or hobbits. When I teach this concept to a group of students, their eyes tend to glaze over until…
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Spring Black Bears – A video report
Posted on 28. May, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
I just returned from a very successful workshop focussed on spring Black Bears. The workshop was held at the Riding Mountain Guest Ranch just outside Riding Mountain National Park in south west Manitoba, Canada. If you’ve never been to this area of the world you really owe yourself a visit. It is truly a remarkable area of the continent with a huge variety…
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3 occasions when it’s acceptable to use digital zoom
Posted on 15. May, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
…I encourage my photography and workshops students to never, EVER, under penalty of death, use the digital zoom on their cameras. At a glance, I can usually guess when an image was taken with digital zoom and it really creates inferior images. But of course, like all “rules” there are exceptions. I’ve thought of three occasions when using the digital zoom on a camera would be acceptable…
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Khumbu Xtrahand Vest – Video Review
Posted on 12. May, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
I’ve had a Khumbu photography vest from the Vested Interest folks for about 4 years now. They have different vests for different types of photographer. The models include the Still, Magnum, Pro Video and the one I use, the Khumbu. For the wildlife photographer the Khumbu vest is a very useful accessory for trecking gear around. Every once in a while I see folks in the various Internet photography forums enquiring about them and thought it would be a useful…
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Top Ten Wildlife Photography Tips
Posted on 30. Apr, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
Creating a tremendous wildlife photograph is an extremely rewarding pursuit. However, developing the skills and techniques necessary to create captivating wildlife images is more difficult than it might appear on the surface. Composition, lighting, equipment, natural history, and patience are just some of the areas…
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Slideshows that don’t suck
Posted on 16. Apr, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
Although I fondly remember watching my dad’s dusty slides as a kid, I’ve never enjoyed watching slideshows of digital images on the computer. Why? Because they generally suck and bore me to tears. In fact, I had a selection of URL’s saved just so that I could lull myself to sleep if I couldn’t sleep. So, when I heard about a service called Animoto that promises to…
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Learning wildlife photography – The power of simplicity
Posted on 01. Apr, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
I’m extremely fortunate in that my passion for wildlife and photography has evolved into my full-time occupation. As part of my work, I get to review and critique quite a number of wildlife photographs. When I think back over the images that stand out from the others I am reminded of…



