Infolific » Nature Photography

Tiger Pictures

Clayton Schug — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:16:29 +0000

Tigers are wonderful animals. I think it must be all the jungle movies you see as a kid that makes them so exciting to see. I suppose I could pretend that I was on a safari somewhere when I took this shot. The lush green grass would probably be a [...]

Squirrel Pictures

Clayton Schug — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:00:23 +0000

Squirrels seem to be everywhere I go. I'm so used to seeing them when hiking that it actually strikes me as odd when I don't. Despite being common, I don't have many pictures of them. A good example of taking things for granted, I suppose. I'll have to watch out [...]

Insect Pictures

Clayton Schug — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:24:11 +0000

Insects make for great macro photos. They look quite different up close, but that closeness also makes taking photos of them tricky. At distances that measure in inches, there is a problem with the depth of field being quite small. More often than not, a good portion of the insect [...]

Snapping Turtle Pictures

Clayton Schug — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:53:06 +0000

Just prior to doing some horseback riding on a beach, I decided to do a little walking. I had hoped to see some nice sea birds. Seemed like a reasonable expectation to me. Instead, I came across a snapping turtle. At first I didn't know what it was as I [...]

Invite Hummingbirds And Butterflies To Your Garden

Clayton Schug — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:16:31 +0000

Shutterbugs with green thumbs are in luck. With a little work it's possible to bring the magic of butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden. Just select the right plants--butterflies like bright colors while hummingbirds and butterflies both like blooms with plenty of nectar. Is there a more perfect way to [...]

Lizard Pictures

Clayton Schug — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:04:49 +0000

Lizards are annoyingly skittish when you want to take a picture of them. They're so skittish that 3 out of my 5 pictures are from a zoo. The first lizard picture is from a park in the Florida Keys. The second picture is from the Bronx Zoo. The next two [...]

Landscape Photos

Clayton Schug — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:58:40 +0000

Images of the landscape will give your presentations a sense of place. The person viewing your images will understand what it was like to be there at the location you were photographing. This is besides the fact that landscape photography is a beautiful genre all to itself; whole books are [...]

Filters: An Introduction

Clayton Schug — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:18:24 +0000

Specialized filters are on the market for many different effects, but I tend to keep them as simple as possible and use only two or three types of filters. Because it goes onto the camera's lens, the quality of the filter will affect the quality of the lens. Stay away [...]

Frog Pictures

Clayton Schug — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 03:45:28 +0000

Frogs abound in the parks I frequent. They're even on some corporate campuses that are open to the public that I visit. Frogs are fairly docile creatures which make them easy subjects for photographs. The hardest part is getting the camera down to their level for a natural looking shot. [...]

Underwater Pictures

Clayton Schug — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:20:34 +0000

In Florida you can go snorkeling in water that is clear enough to take pictures. That's where these ones were taken. I didn't use my usual DSLR for these though since the waterproof casing would cost more than the camera. Instead, I borrowed a friend's point-and-shoot that had a waterproof [...]

Harbor Bird Pictures

Clayton Schug — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 23:40:03 +0000

I was recently on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina. This island marks the southern most end of what is called the Outer Banks. The busiest part of the island happens to be around a fairly good sized harbor. And where there's a harbor there are harbor birds. While enjoying the [...]

Moving from Adobe Bridge to Lightroom 3

Clayton Schug — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:48:41 +0000

I just spent literally the whole day reading Scott Kelby's Lightroom 3 for Digital Photographers. I had been thinking of moving to Lightroom for quite some time, but when I tried the demo a while back, my computer was too slow to handle the sort of non-destructive edits that made [...]

Death Valley Pictures

Clayton Schug — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 09:34:39 +0000

This national park does a good job of living up to its harsh name. It is the lowest, hottest, and driest place in the United States. And year, it's 3.3 million acres which span California and Nevada are considered to be both tranquil and beautiful. Although I don't think its [...]

Exposure: An Introduction

Clayton Schug — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:17:30 +0000

Built-in camera meters are precise and typically give great results, however there are times when you will want to over- or under-expose your image. A good exposure accurately renders an image that represents what you saw through the viewfinder. When you have too much light, the image will be overexposed [...]

16 of the Best Animal Photo Captions You'll Ever Read

Clayton Schug — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:23:11 +0000

I love it when I come across things that appeals to me on multiple levels. Such is the case with Despair Inc.'s Demotivational posters. They combine animal photography with cynical, anti-establishment one-liners that make me laugh.

Be an Ethical Nature Photographer

Clayton Schug — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 08:03:09 +0000

There is an ethical responsibility in being a nature photographer. Your camera is a tool, not a license. It gives you responsibility, not a right to interfere with others. Everyone has a right to enjoy the natural world as they wish to do so. Whether you use the camera to [...]

Moon Pictures

Clayton Schug — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 07:48:17 +0000

A full moon looks bright to the naked eye, but to a camera it's actually a dark object. I say that from the perspective of requiring a shutter speed that is too slow to allow for hand holding of a camera with a zoom lens. Because of this, a tripod [...]

Chipmunk Pictures

Clayton Schug — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 07:19:58 +0000

Small woodland creatures have a built-in cuteness factor that you won't find in other creatures. Even though they're common, it's still fun to take pictures of them. And sometimes the angle is just right that they look even cuter than normal. Chipmunks certainly score fairly high on the cuteness scale. [...]

Use Photography to Document Your Travels

Clayton Schug — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 04:52:44 +0000

I know some photographers don't care about having images of people, modes of travel, or images of lodging but these images can really bring your presentations together. I am not talking about the gratuitous group photo of everyone standing around the table at the final dinner; I am talking about [...]

Taking the Best Nature Photographs

Clayton Schug — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 04:52:43 +0000

Baby Animals If you want to pull on someone's heartstrings when they are viewing your images, show them photos of baby animals. Cute does the trick, and there is nothing more cute than young animals, especially if they are mammals. Besides being adorable young animals are often animated and comical, [...]