My wife and I recently took a long weekend in Wisconsin and rented a house right on Lake Michigan. You know I couldn’t resist. One morning I got up before everyone else, grabbed my gear, and walked down to the shoreline to wait for the sun. What I love about this spot is the way that first light skims low across the rocks and lights them up in warm gold, while the lake still holds that cool blue. The waves were rolling in hard against the shore, and I knew right away I wanted to show their motion, not freeze them. Here’s what I used to create this photograph: Nikon D850 on a tripod 24–120mm f/4 lens 3-stop neutral density filter 1 second · f/22 · ISO 32 Why those settings? The secret to this shot is the shutter speed. At 1 second, the moving water turns soft and misty, but the waves still keep their shape and energy. Go too long and the lake flattens into fog; too short and it just looks like an ordinary splash. One second was the sweet spot for these waves. The problem is that even at sunrise, there’s a lot of light coming off the water. To get down to a 1-second exposure, I had to stack up every tool I had: - ISO 32 – the D850’s lowest setting (Lo 1), to make the sensor as insensitive to light as possible - f/22 – a small aperture to cut light further and keep the rocks sharp from front to back - A 3-stop ND filter – like sunglasses for your lens, it blocks light so the shutter can stay open longer And of course, a sturdy tripod. At 1 second, the rocks would never be sharp handheld. A few composition notes: - The shoreline makes a strong diagonal that pulls your eye from the bottom-left corner out to the waves breaking in the distance. - I kept the horizon high in the frame because the real story was down in the rocks and water, not the sky. - I got low so those foreground stones feel big and close, with texture you can almost feel. Your turn: Have you ever tried a long exposure with moving water: waves, a waterfall, a creek? Post one in the comments! And if you’ve never tried an ND filter, tell me what’s holding you back.

I've always looked at the photograph right out of the camera as just the beginning. Photoshop is where I create the final image. In this six-minute video, I walk through the steps I used to create my photograph John A. Roebling Bridge and the Cincinnati Skyline. Most of the time I'm already thinking about the Photoshop process when I take the photograph. This time I wasn't. I'd had a very long day of shooting in Cincinnati. I got to my location before sunset, and as I stood there for an hour or so, the clouds started rolling in. I know from experience that I like the light about 45 minutes after sunset. It can get pretty dark, so I'm actually overexposing the photo so the lights on the river become strong vertical elements in the composition. But waiting that long, when the sunset is just a memory, means I'll have some Photoshop work to do. I use layers in Photoshop so I can work on individual areas of the image separately. I know Photoshop can be very intimidating, and I've used it since the beginning. In the back of my ebook, Understanding Your Digital Camera, there's a beginner's guide to Photoshop that explains many of the terms you'll hear in this video. Now it's your turn: - Try it yourself. Go out about 45 minutes after sunset and photograph a skyline, bridge, or anything with lights reflecting in water. Post your photo in the comments, straight out of the camera or after editing. I'd love to see what you get. - Ask me anything. If a step in the video didn't make sense, like layers, masks, or why I overexposed, drop your question below and I'll answer it. - Want one-on-one help? Many people book a private lesson just to get comfortable with Photoshop. Send me a message here on Skool and we'll set up a time to work through your own photos together. Let's see those blue-hour shots!

This photograph shows downtown Dayton and RiverScape MetroPark from across the river. On its own, it is a cityscape. But the story behind where the photograph eventually ended up is what makes it interesting. A company selected this image as a framed retirement gift for one of its executives. He was retiring and moving to Florida. The company building where he had worked was visible within the photograph, but there was another connection as well: he had spent years running along this stretch of the river. That meant the photograph represented much more than the Dayton skyline. It connected him to his career, a familiar running route, and the city where he had spent an important part of his life. There is a useful photography lesson here: A strong photograph can become even more valuable when it connects with someone’s memories. As photographers, we often think first about composition, exposure, light, and technical quality. Those things matter. But viewers frequently respond most strongly to something they recognize personally. That might be: - A hometown skyline - A favorite park - A university - A family property - A workplace - A vacation destination - A familiar road or neighborhood This is one reason local photography can be so meaningful. What may look like an ordinary location to one person can represent decades of memories to someone else. It is also something to think about when you are deciding what to photograph. You do not always need an exotic location. Photograph the places around you that people have relationships with. Those photographs can become artwork, gifts, historical records, and reminders of important moments in people’s lives. Photography challenge: Think of one location in your community that has meaning to the people who live there. How could you photograph it in a way that makes it feel special rather than simply documentary?

I just finished a new tutorial showing my full Photoshop process for this sunrise image from my Ohio Landscape series. The challenge: the sky and foreground needed completely different exposures. The solution: bracketing in the field and blending in Photoshop. Watch the video below, then try it yourself. Your assignment this week: 1. Find a scene with a bright sky and darker foreground 2. Bracket your exposures on a tripod 3. Blend them using the steps in the video Post your before and after in the comments. I'll give feedback on every one. 👇 What's the hardest part of landscape editing for you? Let me know and I'll cover it in a future lesson.

This photograph is a good example of how shutter speed can change the feeling of an image. I photographed this night scene outside the Oregon Express. What interested me was not only the building itself, but also the activity happening in front of it. If I had used a fast shutter speed, the people on the sidewalk would have been frozen in place. Instead, I used a slower shutter speed, which allowed the moving people to blur while the building and signs stayed sharp. That blur is important. It gives the photograph a sense of movement and helps communicate what the street actually felt like—busy, active, and alive. This is a useful lesson in photography: sometimes you do not want to freeze everything. Sometimes allowing motion to blur can make the image more expressive. A few things to notice in this photograph: - The stationary subjects—the building, signs, windows, and lamppost—remain recognizable. - The moving people become soft and ghostlike. - The contrast between those two things creates visual interest. - The neon and street lighting help establish the mood of the scene. If you want to try this yourself, go out in the evening and look for a place where people are moving through the frame. Use a tripod if possible, and experiment with slower shutter speeds. Compare what happens when you photograph the same scene at a fast shutter speed and then at a slower one. Ask yourself: Which version better communicates the feeling of the place? That is often the goal—not just recording what something looked like, but expressing what it felt like to be there. Have you experimented with slow shutter speeds at night? Post one of your examples in the comments.