Whitsunday Islands Photography Sailing Safari

Esther BeatonAnnouncements, Landscape Photography, Photography Tours, Photography Workshops, Queensland, Travel Photography, Workshops & CoursesLeave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to do longer than one-day workshops and heres’s one that will thrill some of you to bits. Together with Southern Cross Sailing Adventures, I’ll be running workshops aboard a well-known tall ship, the Solway Lass. But wait, theres’s more! It will be in the Whitsundays, a land beautiful beyond belief. There’s the amazing Whitehaven Beach, the dolphins, … Read More

Think the Reciprocal Rule is safe? It fails with high resolution cameras

Esther BeatonBird Images, Photography Techniques, Photography Workshops, Quick Tips, Wildlife PhotographyLeave a Comment

Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) on nest among casuarina trees, Lake Tuggerah, Central Coast, New South Wales

The reciprocal rule is handy to know when you are hand-holding your camera, especially with a long lens attached. It states “always use a shutter speed whose reciprocal is faster than the focal length of the lens”. So if you’re hand-holding a 500 mm lens, you have to use a shutter speed of 1/500 or faster. I still don’t fully trust … Read More

28 Best Reasons to do Bird Photography

Esther BeatonBird Images, Photography Techniques, Photography Workshops, Wildlife PhotographyLeave a Comment

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) (subspecies coromandus) at nesting site, in willow tree, farm dam, Dooralong, Central Coast, New South Wales

Bird photography is the most challenging, difficult, expensive and time-consuming of all the areas of nature photography. Why on earth would anyone want to go to all that trouble? But something’s going on, because not only is there a rapid rise in bird watching, but also in nature and wildlife photography. If you’re not already on trend, maybe some of these … Read More

Tripods and heads for Bird Photography

Esther BeatonPhotography Equipment, Photography Techniques, Photography Workshops, Quick Tips, Wildlife PhotographyLeave a Comment

Gimbal head holding 200-500 mm zoom lens on Benbo tripod.

A tripod comes with three features: the legs, the head and the mount. Each is an important choice. Needless to say, the more solid and heavier the tripod, the more sturdily it will hold your long lens. A well-built tripod will last decades (like my magnificent and trusty Benbo as you can see by these pics). The legs should splay … Read More

Waterfall Trickery

Esther BeatonLandscape Photography, Photo Critiques, Photography Workshops, Quick Tips6 Comments

It’s great when you learn from your students. The last Day Safari workshop was a big fun day out. We shot wildlife in the morning and waterfalls in the late afternoon. Participants quickly understood how to use different shutter speeds to create various amounts of “silkiness” in the waterfall. But my students taught me something about these waterfalls that I never … Read More