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When the great becomes commonplace

In Scenes & Scenarios, Wildlife by Tony Sweet

I remember years ago, after submitting images for an article, a phone call from my editor. “Please… no more slot canyon shots. Please….” I was disappointed, but I understood. For several years after the slots got “discovered” by people with their new DSLRs, slot canyon and desert southwest images were all over the internet. That’s when the handwriting was on the wall, from what I could see. Images that were previously inaccessible to all but the most dedicated photographers and requiring specific, finely …

Fall in New Hampshire – An Annual Color Riot

In Equipment & Technique, ND Filters, Polarizing Filters, Scenes & Scenarios by Tony Sweet

Our annual New Hampshire photography tour is one of our most visually stimulating workshops. We’ve been shooting and conducting workshops there for 15 years and really look forward to going back each year. It’s also when I keep my Singh Ray filters close at hand. Clear, chilly mornings will be wet, creating a glow on the fallen colorful leaves patterns, which is always a great subject. However, the color can be dulled by the glare deflecting light away, resulting in …

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Field report on Singh Ray’s incredible 15-stop Mor-Slo ND

In Equipment & Technique, Landscapes, ND Filters, Scenes & Scenarios by Tony Sweet

After several chats with Bob Singh about my need for such a filter, I was really pleased to receive one that I could test. There’s just one word to describe this filter — Wow! Less than a year after Singh-Ray’s introduction of the 10-stop Mor-Slo ND filter, here comes another technical breakthrough for all of us who work in Long-exposure Land. Many more logical photographers might ask why Singh-Ray’s 5-stop and 10-stop Mor-Slo filters are not enough? Why can’t we just …

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Tony Sweet demonstrates the use of three Singh-Ray filters he describes as essential to his art

In Black & White, Equipment & Technique, Infrared Photography, Landscapes, ND Filters, Scenes & Scenarios, Water Features by Tony Sweet

In a time when many photographers believe that hardware filters are passé, there are still three types of filters that I use as often as I did back when I was a film photographer: the solid neutral density filter, the infrared filter (used on my unconverted cameras), and the always important graduated ‘split’ neutral density filters. Let’s start with the Solid Neutral Density filter I’m now using. It’s the new 10-Stop Mor-Slo ND filter from Singh-Ray. Extremely long exposures cannot …

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Tony Sweet finds Singh-Ray’s 10-Stop Mor-Slo filter delivers long-exposures without all the clean-up

In Equipment & Technique, Landscapes, ND Filters, Scenes & Scenarios by Tony Sweet

There is an obvious color cast — mostly strong magenta — that can sometimes be dramatic and nice, and at other times dramatic and problematic. Rather than taking time to color correct such images on the computer, which can be quite time consuming with less than acceptable results, I’ve opted more often to converting the image to black and white, which works to my satisfaction much of the time. But, what if color is the reason for making the image? …

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Finding out that Iceland is a great place to apply the versatility of the Vari-N-Trio and ColorCombo

In Equipment & Technique, Landscapes, ND Filters, Scenes & Scenarios by Tony Sweet

Now, thanks to our new series of workshops, organized in cooperation with the folks at Focus-on-Nature in Iceland, I have been able to realize that dream. We began our series there last summer and have the next workshop set for July 10-16, 2011. Since there are also a number of other workshops held there throughout the year, I thought it might be helpful to pass along a few general observations and suggestions for those planning to photograph in Iceland. During …