One advantage of owning a home, or living in an apartment with a pretty yard, is that there’s abundance of great photo opportunities right outside your door. Today’s topic is garden photography, and the following tutorial from Quiet Light Photo provides five time-tested tips for getting the job done to perfection.

Instructor Adam Gibbs specializes in all forms of nature and landscape photography, with an avid following on YouTube among subscribers who appreciate his shooting and editing advice. He summarizes today’s episode this this: “Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out these five tips will help you capture the beauty and essence of any garden.”

Gibbs insists that by following his advice you’ll be able to easily transform photos from ordinary to extraordinary. He begins with a tip that’s important when capturing all types outdoor images so be sure to keep it in the back of your mind. This one is all about experimenting with unusual  camera angles and perspectives.

You see how a simple shift in viewpoint can turn a ho-hum shot into one that really demands attention. Getting down low for a ground-level shot, for example, makes plants appear larger and more dramatic. Conversely, shooting from above provide a bird-eye view of a garden to show off its layout and interesting patterns.

Gibbs’ second tip is what he calls “Tell a story with smaller vignettes.” This is what he means: Instead of capturing the entire garden in one shot, try focusing on individual flowers, unique plant arrangements, or even interesting corners within the garden. As he says, “these detail photos will convey the garden’s character and mood more effectively that a single, wide shot.”

Next on the list is incorporating man-made objects within the frame to add a human element to your photos. Simple elements like garden tools, benches, a bird bath, and sculptures, will add depth and context to an image.

There are two more tips to go and they’re just as easy and effective as those summarized above. One involves capturing close-ups and patterns, while the other demonstrates how to use overcast skies to enhance colors and minimize noise. So take a look and see how all five techniques will significantly improve the garden photos you shoot.

After watching the lesson take a look at Gibb’s popular YouTube channel where you’ll find an abundance of shooting and post-processing advice.

And don’t miss the tutorial we posted earlier from another accomplished pro who explains the meaning of the term “fast lenses” and how to take advantage of them for the best photographs possible.

Before you swat that annoying mosquito that’s just sucking your blood, hold on. This week is Insect Week. I have generously given a lot of blood to mosquitos over the past few weeks and didn’t even get any photos of them in return. Instead, I tried to photograph butterflies in flight. With a fairly heavy 500mm lens, this is quite a challenge, but great fun and excellent practice for photographing birds in flight. Just give it a try. But before you head out to a meadow somewhere, check out the photography news as we approach the halfway point of 2024.

Featuring thick, vegetable-tanned leather and the amazing tensile strength of seven-strand nylon parachute rope, WotanCraft Paracord X leather neck straps and wrist straps are available with traditional split ring or Peak Design Anchor Lock fasteners and are as attractive as they are practical. With a style that harkens back to their military inspiration, they add another dimension to WotanCraft’s already extensive line of beautifully designed photo accessories.

Key Features
• Vegetable-tanned, high-quality leather
• Thick, hand-stitched linen thread
• Ultra-strong Peak Design Anchor Lock option
• Japanese CURA Split ring option
• Seven-strand nylon paracord rated at 550 pounds
• More than 100 style/color variations
• Hand-finished detailsSpecific Pertinent Details
Atwood Paracord 550 is made in the US to the highest possible standards. Constructed around seven strands of nylon inner core, Paracord 550 has a tensile strength of 550 pounds and is resistant to moisture and UV radiation. It’s universally used by outdoor enthusiasts and is a staple found in every emergency kit. Paracord is often fashioned into bracelets worn by adventurers who insist on having it always available when needed. By combining this uber-durable material with top-quality leather, WotanCraft has created the “Parashooter” lineup of camera wrist and neck straps that offer rugged styling and outstanding performance.

Peak Design Anchor Locks are legendary and are rapidly becoming the de facto standard for all camera straps. We’ve reviewed them many times at Shutterbug, including here. Anchor Locks make it a literal snap to remove or switch straps via their quick-release design, so you can share one strap among several cameras, or switch from neck to wrist carry.

Traditionalists will appreciate the O-style Japanese-made CURA split rings. Each CURA ring undergoes 20 hours of polishing to ensure a smooth finish. Adding to their vintage feel, they gradually reveal their copper-colored core as they age in the same way a black-painted camera slowly wears to expose its brass underlayer. Split rings do not always work well with cameras that have slot-type attachment points, so consider carefully.

WotanCraft manufacturers amazing watch straps, shoulder bags, photo backpacks, bicycle packs, sling bags and genuine leather camera straps as well as other photo accessories. Their Pilot 7 camera bag — reviewed by us here — is the best-looking bag we’ve ever tested, and it’s functional, practical and extremely durable.

Reasons to Buy Today
Exceptional high quality
Unique appearance
Extreme durability
Available with popular PD Anchor Locks
Available in >100 style/color variations
High leverage value-for-dollar proposition

Reasons to Shy Away
Rugged styling is not to everyone’s taste
Leather straps are sometimes difficult to coil into a camera bag

Sum & Substance
WotanCraft Paracord X leather straps are highly recommended. We’ve been using the PD Anchor Lock version of both the neck strap and wrist strap for over a month and give them high marks. The balance between leather and paracord is just right, so the straps are surprisingly comfortable, even for all-day carry. We advocate the Anchor Lock version because it’s easy to switch between wrist and neck carry, or to a thinner strap when desired.

Price & Availability
WotanCraft Paracord X “Parashooter” straps are available in over 100 styles/colors (all variations included) so you’re sure to find exactly what you want. Most neck straps cost $99. Most wrist straps, $49. Both include a multipurpose cloth dust bag. Order directly from WotanCraft. Free international shipping to US.

—Jon Sienkiewicz

Just in case you’ve been living abroad in a cave, we thought we’d remind you that Independence Day in the U.S.is right around the corner. And that means it’s time to bone up on your fireworks photography skills. This tutorial from the Shutter Speak YouTube channel explains a simple and “foolproof” formula for achieving dazzling results.

Watching fireworks displays is usually a breathtaking experience but capturing the magic with a camera can be difficult if you don’t know a few tricks that you’ll learn in this episode with instructor Joseph Nuzzo. As he says, “in this video we’ll show you how to take amazing fireworks photos in seconds, using simple techniques that anyone can master whether you’re a beginner or a time-tested veteran.

Nuzzo is working with a Nikon Z, but the settings and tips he recommends will work equally well with whatever brand of camera you own. You may have to dig around in the menu a bit to find exactly what you’re looking for, but success will be yours if you do as he says.

This first thing you’ll see is that a sturdy tripod is “absolutely essential” for this type of photography—just as it is whenever you’re shooting with slow shutter speeds. Most of you already know the importance of this accessory so we won’t belabor the point here.

Next you’ll want to switch the Exposure mode to Manual so that you can dial in  the specific exposure setting for this this super simple formula. Here’s what you need to do: Set the aperture to f/11, then choose a shutter speed of 3 seconds. The final step is to make sure that Auto ISO is turned off and select ISO 200 instead.

You’re pretty much ready to go when the camera is configured in this way. or a Nuzzo says, “all you have to do now is take pictures.” He notes that you can modify the shutter speed if you wish to experiment with longer light trails. But be sure to keep the other settings unchanged.

Nuzzo recommends starting with a three second shutter speed and not increasing the setting by more than two stops—otherwise overexposure may rear its ugly head. You’ll also see why Nuzzo suggests dialing things back to three seconds during the grand finale when the sky is full of spectacular fireworks bursts.

There are few extra tweaks for enhancing your results, but the foregoing basics will definitely get the job done. Once you’ve done watching, take a look at Nuzzo’s instructional YouTube channel where you find more straightforward methods for making easy work of seemingly difficult tasks.

We also suggest checking out the related tutorial we featured with another accomplished pro who dispels the common myth that your camera’s Manual mode is more complex than Auto modes and how to use it to take perfectly exposed photos in difficult light.