Happy New Year to all of you. I hope you had a great Christmas, New Year and holiday season. It was a bit busy around here. My oldest son graduated from University of Florida the week before Christmas, so we had a lot of family get togethers and parties along the way.
As I do every year, I gather my favorites photos from the year before and share them. I think overall, it’s just a good exercise for a couple of reasons. First, I think it forces you to go through some of your older photos and bring them in to your photo library. All too often, we get busy and don’t look at everything. I also think it’s good to take an inventory of where you are in your photography world, what you did well, and maybe what you could have done better. And looking at those photos from the previous year helps you to do that.
I’ll kick it off with my absolute favorite photo. I’m sure many of you can appreciate what a proud moment this is. Not only is he a wonderful 22 year old, but he graduated with a pretty difficult major (Mechanical Engineering) and managed to do with with a 3.85 GPA. Proud doesn’t even begin to explain the feeling and I can’t wait to see his how he leaves his mark on the world – he’s light years ahead of where I was when I was 22. That said, if anyone needs a smart hard working engineer and wants to help him start his career be sure to send me a message (kidding… well, kind of… I’m sure he’ll take any help he can get) 😉
Editing
As many of you know I’m a really simple photo editor. These days, if a photo takes me more than 2 minutes to edit I usually toss it and move on to the next. With wildlife I try to capture a great subject, in great light, doing something interesting – and that typically doesn’t leave much editing to do other than some basic toning, cropping, and noise reduction in Lightroom – and distraction removal in Photoshop. For landscapes I would definitely take a little longer if needed, but I didn’t shoot many landscapes this year.
Anyway, most of the bear photos you see below were edited with a hybrid approach. While I was traveling, I typically opened the photos in Bridge and did quick edits in Camera Raw. Then when I got home, I loaded them in to Lightroom Classic, put them on my main photo hard drive, and some were edited there.
The rest of the photos and anything I’ve shot since July 2023 were organized and edited in Lightroom (not classic) using the new “Local” feature to browse the photos, pick favorites and edit (gasp!!!)
And as you know (or should know), all of the editing controls are the same in Camera Raw, LR Classic, and Lightroom – so it doesn’t really matter where or how it was done. They key to this – and most important part – it was DONE and that’s all that matters.
Gear
Full discloser… I shoot Sony mirrorless (I have since 2014) and am a Sony Artisan of Imagery. At the end of 2022 I got the Sony a7R5 and I also shoot the Sony a1. So the photos are a mix of the two, and most were shot with the 200-600mm lens.
Settings
My settings for wildlife are ridiculously simple. Lowest aperture the lens will go to (mine is f/6.3). I turn on Auto ISO so the camera chooses that. And I vary the shutter speed based on the speed of the subject I’m shooting but it’s almost always faster than I need.
I’m not posting settings with each photo because… well… it’s tedious and very redundant as they’re all almost the same. But if you want settings, I posted an album on my gallery website that has the settings for each photo. Click here to see it. (Press the i button when viewing the photos)
Generally though, all photos are at f/6.3 and around 1/800th to 1/1600th shutter speed with Auto ISO on. Posting the ISO wouldn’t matter because they all had noise reduction applied but ISO’s range from 800 all the way to 6400.
If it was a bird in flight, the aperture was f/6.3 and shutter speeds were probably in the 1/2500th to 1/3200th. Again, Auto ISO was on for every one of these photos.
I shoot (and have shot for over 20 years) with matrix/evaluative metering 100% of the time, and auto focus was set to Continuous with various AF modes used depending on the situation.
The Photos
Again, I posted an album with larger photos and all settings. Click Here to View it.
The bear photos were taken on a trip to Alaska in June 2023. Some of the others were taken on a trip in to the northeast as well as right here in the Tampa, FL area.
Here we go. I hope you enjoy them!
PS: I generally don’t name the birds in my photos. Please don’t ask me to, or I’ll just put “Juvenile Purple Breasted Pickle-feather” for all of them 😉
Puffins! I also got to photograph puffins for the first time ever! The features on these birds are amazing. So much fun to have a large photo of one on your screen, and zoom in close to look at the detailed characteristics and coloring.
Landscapes
Since my kids left for college a few years ago, I took up golf. And now, pretty much all of my trips revolve around golfing. This year, I had the chance to take a trip to Ireland, as well as some others throughout the year.
*** An Interesting Side Note ***
I mentioned earlier how most of my trips now revolve around golf. Did you know that all of the photos above were taken with my iPhone 13 Pro? I actually looked through my photos for the year and realized that I never even put a wide angle lens on my camera. Why? Because I never took my camera with me on any of these trips. I’m curious about your thoughts on this?
That said, I belong to a golf club here in Tampa and when I golf I like to enjoy golfing so I don’t bring my camera. However, nearly EVERY time I play I see hawks all over the course. And they’re close and they constantly do cool things when I see them, so I do get tempted.
But I’m a minimalist. I bring no electronics when I play, except a tiny digital range finder (that gives me the distance to the green) that I clip on my bag. I turn my phone off and I just enjoy the sport and perhaps a little Bourbon when I make a birdie, because what’s golf without a birdie shot?
Just not the type of birdies shots you’re thinking of! 😉
More Birds
The rest of the photos are birds from various places. Some are from a trip to New Jersey and the others are shore birds in the Tampa area.
Closing Thoughts – Things I Noticed From Looking at My Photos This Year
I mentioned to you earlier that looking through photos from the year can help you see what you did and didn’t do. Here’s what I learned…
I realize that I virtually take all wildlife photos now. That’s super crazy for me considering 10 years ago it was the exact opposite and they were all landscape.
But I also realize it’s not because I don’t like landscape photos anymore. It’s because I simply value my time doing other things more. Landscape photos require you to get your camera to an amazing place -plain and simple and there’s no workaround for it. And I just don’t want to take time from other things, to travel, and do that. Now, the times I have gone somewhere to photograph landscapes in the last few years, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. So I know I still love landscapes. But it is time consuming and something I just don’t make time for.
For decades I was jealous of people that lived in great landscape locations (which Florida is definitely not). But now I get to live that part of photography life with bird photography. Within an hour of where I live, we have several world class bird photography locations, and that requires me to travel less since I can just hop in my car and get some amazing photos.
So what does all this mean? Who knows? I don’t plan on changing anything as I’m very happy with where I’m at. But things change, people change, and I have no idea what I’ll be writing about this 10 years from now 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
Fantastic photos! I especially love the bear shots. I also love taking wildlife photos, but don’t match up to the same quality for the most part, but do have some I’m pretty proud of.
Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful photos and how lovely to celebrate your son’s achievements.
Good evening Matt
I really enjoyed you thoughts (don’t get me wrong I loved your photos as they are simply beautiful.. I loved the silhouette)
I just subscribe and I will look back into my pictures although last year life and work got in the way … so not much time for photography. Which also led me to a lack of motivation!
I belong to a photo club and back in October, when we started our session, one of the theme was to do a project during the season and showcase it at the end. One of our member did a presentation on iPhone photography. This presentation kind of gave me a purpose. As yourself, what I enjoy most is landscape photography, particularly when I go on backpacking trips. But since COVID everything changed and then life got in the way…
So living in the city (Montreal, Quebec), I decided to do the photo project for the club using my iPhone only (iPhone15) and showcasing my project through a short slide show.. I never really wanted to use the iPhone as a camera before but, with the project in mind, the idea is to facilitate my opportunities for outdoor photography while hiking, snow shoeing etc (as I don’t usually carry my photo kit then). Or just around the city… though cityscape is not my favorite subject.. another challenge …
So baby steps, I am still having issues to transfert my photos from the iPhone ..iCloud etc to LR… which is also my second new thing for this year… that is, moving from LRC to LR … Let’s see where all this goes … and what happens in the next couple of weeks..
My wife and I were in Alaska last summer as well. We couldn’t afford staying at one of the remote lodges but on August 28 we took a boat from Homer across Cook Inlet to a beach where we spent an hour photographing a mother bear and two cubs. She was fully occupied digging clams on the wide flat beach and wasn’t interested in us. We were able to get fairly close and didn’t feel threatened at. Maybe we should have been more afraid. As we were leaving, a cart full of photographers showed up from the Silver Salmon Lodge. After reading about your trip, I wondered is you might have been in that group. I’m no bear expert, but the mother bear in your photos looks familiar.
Hi Carl. That was me, but probably about 2 months earlier than you were there. Thanks!
Hi Matt,
I checked out the Album with the larger photos. I could NOT find the photo settings that you said were in the full-size album. Is there something that needs to be done to show the camera settings for the photos?
The photo of the bears are fantastic, I love the dub waving at you
Hi Art. When you click a photo poke around the screen and you’ll see some icons in the top right. Thanks.
Hi Matt,
Just wondering which are your favorite “world class bird photography locations” in case there are some of which I am not aware?
I live in Sarasota.
Hi Rick. For me it’s Ft Desoto Beach. Thanks.
Totally fabulous photography. I shoot my Canon R5 when I have it with me – which is approaching never. I now have a travel tripod from Peak Design (small, weighs nothing, but very strong and stable). That tripod and my iPhone 15 Pro Max represent all the gear I need to carry most of the time. The result is that I have an increase of about 500% in useable shots (worthy of editing). The reason is that all the times I used to think, “Darn, I wish I had my camera with me.” are now great photo ops! I still have need of my long glass (up to 500mm) and my R5. Canon does not make a lens long enough for me to con.sider shooting a grizzly bear with cubs! My favorite of your favorites is definitely the cub waving goodbye to you, but all of your bear shots were just unbelievably terrific. Locking eyes with the grizzly bear has to rate as one of the top 100 most dangerous things a human can do.
Thank you for your great instruction, sense of humor, and always inspiring my photography to new heights.
Love your photos, my biggest issue is choosing, I hate just having to choose a few I am really bad at choices and virtually impossible to choose just one.
Love all your favorites. I’m a minimalist too and have always been drawn to your work and your teaching, all the way back to NAPP times.
I just must tell you how much I enjoy your emails and lessons. Not new to photography, but fairly new to following you. Thank you for your clear and concise instruction; I don’t even mind the ‘Word from our sponsor’ moments 🙂
The very best to you and your family for 2024.
Super great images Matt ….. thanks for sharing. I was particularly interested in your comment about using only your iPhone – the images are amazing!!
Your photos are amazing. I am a portrait and family photographer and spend time editing those. But your photos inspire me to do more work on landscapes. I live in Arizona and have wonderful views in my community.
I have followed your classes since first watching you on Creative Live. You are a terrific teacher and I enjoy using your LR presets.
Thanks for sharing your faves!!!!
Your photography is beautiful. I especially love the bear photos.
Thank you for sharing these amazing photos and all the tips through out the year as well !! they are very appreciated Matt!
Happy New Year to you and your family as well ( GO GATORS!!)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, insight, and incredibly awesome photos. I’ve always loved landscapes but I find myself doing more wildlife recently. I’ll be going to Alaska (again) for more bear shots and was wondering if you went to the Lake Clark area for your photos. Brooks Falls was fantastic and the Lake Clark area seems even more wild.
I’ve learned a great deal from your video instruction and hope that you continue to educate.
Sincerely,
Craig Schoenbaum
Craig, We visited Alaska in August of 2023. Katmai NP (Brooks Falls), is well known for bears, but Chichagof Island and Admiralty Island near Juneau also have great opportunities for Bear sightings. You can see some of my bear shots via a link in my comment a little earlier than yours. Lake Clark is wonderful but has mostly Black Bears and they are not as concentrated as the other sites where bears fish for salmon. Good luck!
Phil Nelson
Great photos Matt, love that your son’s is your absolute favourite. As photographers (well, try to be) we strive to get amazing images, but those with strong connections are always the best!
Interesting your comment about iPhone. We visited Europe this year and the majority of my images are iPhone 14Pro Max and most people wouldn’t know, the quality is pretty good but convenience is 10/10! Wonder what we’ll be shooting with in 10yrs time??
In ten years we will probably be shooting with an iPhone 25 Max ?
Awesome photography!!! I hope 2024 is as good for you!
Some great shots, thanks for sharing. I had a wonderful year of travel in 2023 and here are some of my favorite shots from last year for you to enjoy. Thanks for your work and what you do.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/x8Hy5UCQCPC46g5L9
Thank you. Love to see your perspective. Maybe your next pursuit will be flower pix so you can do at home. Lol.
I see that Sony has taken great strides v. Nikon/Canon. I have used Minolta/Sony since 1969.
Interesting our difference as i try to keep ISO as low as possible with my a99ii that must be obsolete now.
Thanks again. Happy New Year. Congrats on having a new Engineer in the familia.
Pace e bene.
Amazing shots. Love them all. Next time you are in Va and want to golf reach out!!!
I appreciate your common-sense approach to photography. I had an oppotunity to go to Florence and Tuscany in Italy this year and got some landscape shots. Exciting. You also have the gift of teaching. Thanks for sharing!
Landscapes are nice, many are beautiful; but there’s nothing like capturing wildlife. Your shots are great.
your bird and animal photos are magnificent. can you tell me how to get to high shutter speeds? i know it sounds silly but…
I have a Sony a7r 3 which i love.
Hi Vivien. I’m not sure how to answer that. There is a dial on your camera that adjusts shutter speed and you would move that dial. If you’re not sure, I would definitely suggest downloading the manual and checking it out. You’ll find it pretty quick. Thanks!
Do you ever go to Ding Darling on Sanibel? The Spoonbills are awesome.
These photos are really amazing. Loved looking at them. Thanks
Awesome shots love them all.
All these pictures are fantastic…thanks for sharing
These are amazing photos. They are so alive…and not just because they are wildlife, but because of how you have caught them and edited them. Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing.
I love your photos and sharpness you on the birds flying, May I inquire the camera and lens you were using,
Hi. It’s all listed above. Thanks.
Love all of the photos Matt. Your comment about the weather in Ireland got me to think back to our trips to Ireland and Scotland. Of the 20 or so day of golfing over several visits I thinks it was windy everyday and we got rained on probably 30 times. Also great bear photos. We went to Lake Clark NP as our first trip out of covid. Very enjoyable! Your comment about your No Light No Problem has got me back to your video class. anything new in the plans for classes?
Your photos are amazing. Love the golf shots…some beautiful courses (I’m a golfer as well). My faves are the bears and the Puffins. I just LOVE Puffins.
Amazing shots!
Nice collection Matt!
In 2022 I got to spend time with the Grizzlies of Katmai along with a bear guide. I can see from your photos you had a similar experience, and that is falling in love with these gentle giants. What an experience being so close to them yet feeling safe. They make great photo subjects!
All of your photos are breathtaking to me. My area lends itself to landscape or prairiescape photography. 2023 has been a year with very few bird photography opportunities for some reason. Hopefully, 2024 will be more bird plentiful.
Fabulous photos Matt- a delight to see. Thanks for sharing
I’m playing catch up. Fantastic collection, Matt! The rim lighting on those bird shots was exquisite and I love that little bear waving at you!
Gathered some of my favorites….know what I want to focus on. Project for 2024 is a calendar. Have a couple trips planned so have tucked the idea of a book I. My mind. Thank You Matt!
For a guy who isn’t a pro photographer , these are pretty good photographs!
Just to clarify, after reading someone else’s comment, the bird photography was not taken with your iPhone, unless you managed to scotch tape a 600mm lens to your Sony iPhone.
I’m enjoying the course, thanks.
I guess to me, a pro photographer is some one that makes money from selling their photos. I don’t. As for the iPhone… that is correct. The Ireland Golf course photos were taken on the iPhone. Everything else was my Sony camera.
Matt,
Thanks for sharing the wonderful photos from 2023! Like you, I love the landscapes, but don’t like carrying all the equipment to a site and waiting. I keep looking for different subjects to shoot. Sometimes the phone camera just works better!! M favorite photos from you are the humorous ones. They just make me laugh! Your idea of photo books is somewhere I will be exploring. Too many photos of trips that are not easy to look back on and share.
Matt, thanks for sharing the wonderful and interesting photos. It gives me a tiny bit of a push to pull my best shots together and design a photo book for my own enjoyment. Just need to figure out how to do that. 🙂
Hey here’s a thought: make sure your son gets a job in a very scenic location so a few times a year you have no excuse not to get a few photos of landscapes.
Ha! For better or worse, we raised Florida boys. Not sure they’ll ever leave the beach 🙂
Outstanding!
Love the images, and more so when you said they were taken on your IPhone, I recently upgraded to a Samsung phone with an exceptional camera, live in Scotland and had family from Australia and Canada over the festive period, many photos taken on both camera and phone and the quality on the phone is amazing! Making me thinking of downsizing….
Thank you for this great advice. It really made me take a hard look at what I have done, my successes and my not so great successes. It made me look closely as to why I didn’t like the photo and what I can and will do better. Yes mama bear was on watch!
Great images, love your expansion of things you love to capture, Matt. Thanks for all you do!
Great photos, as always! Congrats on your Gator grad…we took a few photos at that very same spot, visiting my nephew who played baseball for the Florida Gators (he’s in the pros now!). Looking forward to your Fresh Start course! Thanks for all you do to keep photography and editing simple and doable!
I love the waving bear photo too!
All your photos are so good….the bokeh backgrounds for the bird photos are stunning!!
Hi Matt,
Thanks so much for sharing your photos and offering the Fresh Start program. I especially love the waving bear cub, that shot’s hilarious! I had no trouble quickly picking out my 2023 favorite photos. Being a non-tech savvy geezer, my next challenge will be figuring out how to get them onto a website for sharing. It will feel great once I do that!
Thanks, Matt,
I’ve finished the first project, selecting 20 photos from 2023. However, it could have been 200.
The next problem for me is how to put them on a website that can be shared.
More homework for me.
Best regards,
Michael
Hello Matt,
great photos!!!
Can you please delete my comment, unfortunately I posted it on the wrong page. I’m so sorry.
Silvia
Matt, thank you for sharing, great photos, by the way the photo of the two Grizzly cubs hugging is similar to one I got in Haines AK back in 2010. – Thank you for sharing – michael
I very much enjoy your bird photos. They are expressive and capture a telltale gesture or even the personality of a bird. Your control of depth of field, your details and your backlighting all contribute to an image that makes me want to linger and learn.
Thank you for showing these images.
Matt – thanks for the great photos. This first video of Fresh Start 2024 has been energizing and inspirational! So many of your comments associated with Video one are touching a nerve for me. My wife and traveling partners encourage me to “sell” my photos”, which quite frankly I am not interested in. I am beginning to realize that I have some photography skills. I absolutely enjoy photography, but self-confidence and self-acknowledgement has held me back. I am looking forward to the rest of Fresh Start 2024! I will begin adding ebooks to my editing workflow in the future.
Thanks again, Matt!
Thank you so much for sharing, I will now make changes to some of the angles in which i shoot my photos, cant wait until next week .
Thanks so much for sharing these amazing photos and giving us the stories too. Congratulations on your son’s graduation- what a great milestone and memory of the event(s).
I love your philosophy regarding photo taking. I need to take heed of this and remind myself that this is a hobby not an Income-bearing occupation. I am constantly berating myself that my images are boring compared to my husbands, He has such steady hands. But I do enjoy being outdoors taking wildlife images.
Keep up the educational side of things for us.
Matt, like most of us our photo work changes year-to-year…and, in some instances comes full circle. Great images!
Matt, your eye sure caught creative photos of the birds and wildlife! You captured true beauty and personality in each of your photos. Your subjects made me want to reach out and meet each one of them.
You are a gifted teacher and a photographer. Thanks for the part you play in your students’ lives!
Lighting…whether it be highlighting the subject or the main topic…you do it well!!
Thanks. Next to a great subject, it’s the one and only most important thing I look for when shooting. Can’t make a great photo without it.
Hi Matt, thank you for sharing your wonderful images with all of us. Great inspiration for me. I live in San Diego and just replaced my camera with Nikon Z 8 and finding my self taking pictures of all the see birds almost every weekend.
I was wondering if composition techniques is going to be one of topics that you will be touching. If not, would you be able to elaborate on silhouette photography. What type of settings do you use. Seems like, that is one of the area I am struggling with.
Congratulations also on your son’s graduation. As a parent with two college kids at home I am looking forward to one of those special day my self.
Hi. Remember, this isn’t a photography or editing training class so we won’t talk about composition. I do have a class called ‘Inside the Composition’ at mattk.com/composition if you’re interested.
As for silhouettes, I don’t really change anything. Shoot in to brighter light, which is what causes the silhouette and the camera pretty much takes care of itself for me (and adjust it in post if needed). I just look for light/color that a silhouette will look good up against which is the most important part.
Thank you Matt.
Love the photos. Seems like a good exercise to do at the end of every year.
I love your photo of the adult bear, caught in the act, with its arm digging up something, and its eyes saying to me, “What are you looking at?” The eyes always tell a tale.
Another photographer, that I also follow, has said many times he suffers from “Perfection Paralysis”. I am sure I have this tendency; never quite sure anything is “good enough to be perfect”… I will have to learn how to say, “it is done and it is good enough.”
Thought provoking and helpful video as we all start a new year; Thank you, Danelle
Love your minimalist approach. Do wonder what the A7R5 gives you over the a1. Thanks for your candid style.
Photos are terrific…but what I really enjoyed reading about is your journey from landscape to wildlife photographer.
Your thoughts echo mine. 15 years ago I started selling my landscape photos through Getty and made some nice change over the years – but I too evolved to finding the travel experience less and less appealing.
I also find that bird and wildlife photography is much more challenging. Those fast moving subjects are a joy to track and photograph and getting a sharp behavioral photo is always a thrill.
You are a talented communicator in both your written and your visual communication. My sincere compliments.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for these photos and your frank comments, which gives me confidence. Particularly re the ISO. I have a Sony ARIV which I loooove using as it seems very intuitive to me and suits my way of working. But, I have never been happy with the noise levels of any camera past 400 ISO, although we now have other apps (TOPAZ at your recommendation – excellent product) that can rectify this (and I’m not too thrilled with the LRC version just ye)t.
But I see the quality of your birds and animals in their clarity, that I should relax a bit and see what happens when I let the ISO do its own thing.
Thank you.
PS, I generally photograph urban architectural stuff, without a trip, so there is a lot of heavy darks and lights, so we shall see how it goes.
Thanks for this Fresh….it is getting me motivated again. ?
Thanks! All photos have LR Noise Reduction applied to them which I find better than Topaz at this point.
Hi Matt, I totally agree with your attitude toward photography and life in general. I have used your courses for LRC, Photoshop and LR with the hopes to become comfortable with the post processing my photos, and I want to thank you for helping me to become better in using those softwares!
I will be traveling for the next to weeks, but I will follow through on this course when I come back.
Again, thank you so much for making the learning so enjoyable even at the tender age of almost 70!!! ???
This past year, I have really evolved my photography. Previously it was all landscape, but I was really getting bored with that so I started taking pictures of birds, and water fowl, which was really fun and challenging.I live near Seattle, so there is lots of opportunity since there is water all around and wildlife refuges. I went on 2 photography workshops with the great Art Wolfe , which really opened my eyes to abstract photography and looking at landscapes in a more creative way. I’m looking forward to this year, and as usual the tech side of photography is always my biggest challenge. The computer, LR and PS have become easier for me with the help of Matt’s courses. Looking forward to a creative 2024. Happy New Year!
Matt, enjoyed the sharing of your images. Your comments regarding settings were very interesting and an idea for me to be more adventurous with my settings going forward. Looking forward to the new course.
Thanks again Matt.
It sounds like your photography has evolved as a byproduct of what you love to do. That has been my journey with photography, capturing the scenes around me as I travel, or explore my closer surroundings. Thank you for sharing your beautiful images and insight into why you took them.
Auto ISO and a fixed 6.3 will be my first step, at least before I start the course. Simplifying the process makes it easier to enjoy a shoot and to treasure the moment. Thank you.
Being a Gator mom of two University of Florida grads, I congratulate your son on his accomplishment (you, too!) How these two Chicago suburban kids completed their degrees there with honors amazes me still!
Your photos are great as usual Matt! My favorites are of the reddish egret, not only because of the feather-do, but also the backlight, colors, and sharpness.
This has not been a great year of photography for me. Fractured wrist in spring didn’t help. Lots of flowers photos because they were in my yard and in my house. Some nice horse photos and the local apple orchard. Have not gotten around much since the Covid pandemic, so this year will need to get out more!
Thanks for sharing! The Fresh Start course may be just what I need.
so-What’s your handicap??
I found with the pandemic limiting travel many of my friends and I discovered bird photography.
Great images Matt! Not a bit surprised by how amazing they are. Your statement about using mostly the same settings has got me thinking to try the same. Already, getting some good stuff out of this adventure.
Thanks! I keep it simple. Lowest aperture… Auto ISO… and vary the shutter speed as needed for the subject.
Great and amazing photos Matt! Yes, things change, and I hope to do the opposite of you – travel more this year! I used to enjoy golf quite a lot but didn’t practice enough to be any better than a bogey golfer. Played many scrambles, smoked a stogie on the 18th and did a shot at the clubhouse with good friends. It’s an amazing game for the scenery alone! Wishing you and the family (you have good reason to be proud of your son, I congratulate him and you) all the best in 2024. And I’ll keep learning stuff from ya as always! Peace. ✌️
Thanks for sharing your favorite photos with us Matt. Congratulations to your son and family.
I thoroughly enjoyed your excellent bear images! So sharp and
crisp….and all have the CUTE factor! Your bird photos are amazing…especially your birds in flight. I can often photograph
birds on perches or are just still…but I have trouble with birds in flight.
Your website, tutorials and courses have improved my photography immensely. You are a natural “teacher”, coming
from a former teacher of over 30 years!
Hi Matt,
Thanks for sharing this. I very much appreciate your thoughts, tips and suggestions. i live in N. California and can shoot birds,
landscapes and flowers most of the year. I will b 90 in four months and photography has been my lifelong hobby.
Your website has helped me up my game a lot!
Cheers,
Richard, thanks for the encouragement and inspiration at 90! I’ll be 75 this weekend and was feeling kinda down because i believed i would not be able to justify the high-end mirrorless cameras if I only photograph for a couple more years. You have changed my attitude. I am going to go for it! I lived in N California for 64 years and for the past 11 years have been exploring the beautiful scenery in Colorado. All the best.
Nicely Done!
I kid you not, that first Bear pic, I moved back a little, I guess I was not expecting it.
Really well done – engaging for the viewer~!
Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful images, Matt. I, too, am not a traveler (only driving distance), and I can certainly relate. Sometimes it’s a bit more challenging, but the rewards are great just the same. Happy New Year.
Matt, your photography whether landscapes or birds, never ceases to amaze me. I could stare at each image for a long time enjoying the details and colors! I am hoping that I get excited again with my photography. I lost my husband this past February and have been struggling this year to find the time and interest to get back into my photography. So I am looking forward to a restart this year.
Hi Donna. Thank you for the kind words and I’m so sorry for your loss. I know nothing I can say will help. So I’ll just try to encourage you to get out there and see if you can get that interest back. As you already know with the grieving process… one day at a time. So hopefully you’ll grab your camera one day this week and just go take a few photos. One day at at time, just make some time one day and do it. And always feel free to send me a message if you need any suggestions. I’d be happy to help. Thanks!
Hi Matt
Congratulations to you, to your wife and and esp to your son. I had to look up what 3.85 GPA is and to me it means not only intelligent but disciplined and hard working too!
Very brave of you to risk our take on your pics. I particularly like the bear on his own, the eagle both flying towards you and in profile, and most of the Irish golf courses. Great backgrounds and superb detail and “poses” I’m also not keen on anthropomorphising wildlife, preferring them as they are rather than giving them human attributes. Your tutorials have transformed my use of LR and PS and others. Enriched my photography and enjoyment of observing details. Many thanks!
Enjoy your travels and golf too. From bonny Scotland (aka soggy Scotland!)
Thanks! And remember… I never asked for anyone’s “take” and would never suggest you do (with strangers at least) either. Sharing and asking for a critique are very different things 😉
I just finished looking at your landscape work. You have some really beautiful shots, particularly over water, and they all show a lot of effort. Unless you’re a very lucky guy, you don’t do this kind of work on the spur of the moment. Thanks so much for displaying these.
Hi Dick. Thanks. I’m not sure I ever said it was “spur of the moment”. You have to get your camera in front of something great. Sometimes that’s easy but most of the time it’s not. But once you do it… the rest usually takes care of itself. For most of us… Great photos don’t just happen. They need planning and execution.
Thank you for sharing Matt. It’s always inspiring to not just see other peoples work but hear their story as well. I believe I too am moving towards more animal photography and away from the typical landscape. It’s hard though as I’m surround by both on Vancouver Island.
Nice work.
I haven’t shot for a couple of years, so all of my work now is spent on photos I’ve taken on past trips, making them fit for viewing by friends and strangers and getting them into easily accessible albums.
Your story about shooting lands and then birds reminds me of something I went through. When I first started shooting with real bodies and lenses, I believed that all I would shoot would be wildlife. Period. So that’s how I set up keywords, folders and even tutorials. Then I started to travel. All over. Saw all kinds of great stuff, and naturally, took lots of pictures, hopefully to be displayed in the not-too-distant future. I had to revise my organization a good bit, but now I can revive lots of great memories by going back to my many non-wildlife (and wildlife) photos. Worth every second I spent shooting them.
Congrats on your son’s accomplishments. That’s a huge deal. Your photos are fantastic. Especially that first bear photo.
Great photos as always. I love all the bears.
A big congratulations to your son. I have a ME degree and I know how hard it is to get it done in 4 years, and to have a 3.85 GPA on top of that is awesome. He’s going to do great!
I love them all. Thanks for sharing. Bears are on my bucket list, but I can’t pull it off this year.
I’m still working on my Africa photos and now I need to go through your LR tutorial so I can ween away from catalogs.. so much to do and so little time. Thanks for all that you do for us! I may not always comment, but I follow all that you do in the background!
Congratulations to all of you on your son’s fabulous achievement…! Thank you for stating your typical settings. I have struggled with getting ISO correct and will now try just letting auto do it’s thing…looking forward to a new year of learning…
Auto works great and I’ve been using it for years. The only time I set ISO is if I’m on a tripod shooting a landscape.
Hey Matt, love the photos. I too live in Florida and am pretty much committed to photographing birds and wildlife. I was lucky to win some contests with the Audubon of Martin County the past few years. I look forward to getting more of your tips and was really impressed with your LR vs LRC comparison which has made me more likely to go to LR on most post processing projects. I followed you a lot when you were one of the Scott Kelby staff.
Hi Matt; I couldn’t agree more with your comment about using your iPhone a lot for your wide angle landscape shots. When I went to the US in 2018 (LA & Vegas), I didn’t even take my “big” camera, One of the pictures, as a canvas, is on the wall of your living room. When I was in India at the beginning of 2023, I took as many pictures with my phone as I did with my camera. My phone is great for wide angle shots and is so much less intrusive in busy, populated areas. Every one has a phone.
beautiful pics, wonder If it is not too much trouble to post some metadata at least aperture and shutter. I assume most of the bear photos were with you iPhone (ha ha) 600mm lens. thanks
Hi Jay. I posted a link to a larger gallery with photo info.
Congratulations to your son on such an accomplish achievement and you have every right to be proud as mom and dad play such important parts in their children’s lives.
Love your photos Matt. For me the bears tell such a loving story I agree with you, there are times to enjoy something different and leave the camera at home.
You are fantastic teacher and photographer. My plan for 2024 is to become a better photographer and even more important much better at editing my photos with your courses beside me.
Have a great 2024
Fantastic bear photos! Thanks for sharing.
I used to live in Tampa (Lutz) and felt the same way about it being a boring landscape location, but I did love the shore birds. I don’t have the patience for the ones that fly away much faster. Work moved us to Colorado Springs in 2015 and now I have killer landscapes, which I don’t hate, but I do miss alligators and great thunderstorms. And the bird photography. I had to leave it to miss it. Out here we have a lot of magpies and ravens, which I hope to capture better this year. Both are entertaining species.
The rim light and silhouette images of the plover and the egrets are my favorites. I’m very much looking forward to this course too.
But my main comment here is for your son. My husband and I work for Engineering Ministries International (he’s an ME and I’m the photographer/videographer) and we have internships and fellowships for early career professionals. We have offices all around the world (which I get to visit to cover stories, and no, that job does not suck). If he’s interested, he can find us at EMIworld.org – we’d love to chat.
And Go Gators! I graduated with a BFA in Theatre Production in 1993.
Lovely photos! Would love to have data (lens, shutter speed, f-stop) on them as it would help me with my own wildlife settings.
Hi Michael. I posted the f-stop and shutter speeds. ISO would never matter because it’s not something I control (Auto ISO). And I also mentioned that there’s a link to larger version with photo info if you’d like to see. Thanks.
Thank you! Reminded me to hunt up my puffin/bear pix from 2005, taken with a D2X. Ran a couple of them through Topaz, to see if it made a difference. Not noticeable… Got to daydreaming about how much fun I had on that trip. Might have to do it again!
Thanks for sharing your photos. Love the bears, they are so cute! The hovering hawk is brilliant.
Birds and Bears, can’t go wrong there. Enjoyed the images and a note of thanks for your classes and photography training in 2023. Happy New Year