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Rex Jones
Saint George, UT

Articles written by Rex Jones

You Should Collaborate Regularly With Other Photographers

At this point in time, I have lost track how many photographers I have run into who view other photographers around them as mortal enemies. Don't be that person; instead, realize that your camera-laden peers can be incredible sources of friendship and reciprocity.

Why Everyone Loves Slot Canyons

Slot canyons can be found all around the world. These narrow canyons can be made of sandstone, ice, granite, clay, or other naturally occurring materials. Some of these canyons can be rather large in both width and depth, while other canyons can be incredibly narrow and difficult to navigate

Techniques for Beach Compositions

Capturing those beautiful seaside scenes can be incredibly fun as well as a completely unique challenge. If you are planning on going after some beach compositions of your own, then this video is made just for you.

Renaming Files in Lightroom

I had originally been using a simple program called NameChanger to rename all my files before importing them to Lightroom, but ever since I realized that Lightroom had all the controls that I needed for setting up custom naming sequences for my files, this is all I use anymore. Here's how you find and use it. It's pretty simple.

How to Optimize Your Post-Shoot Workflow

Photography is one venture that has an endless amount of opportunity and possibility. With these possibilities comes a tremendous potential for education and improvement.

Are You a Fan of Vintage Styles? Check This Out

One of the things that I thoroughly enjoy about photography is the range of possibilities for style. Style is such a personal thing to each of us. We all have our own very different tastes in style, we all come from different backgrounds, and we all have different opportunities for learning and evolving our own styles. Just think about it, even if we were to all use the exact same sets of presets and programs to process all our images, the end results would still be different because of what we put into the shot while actually on the shoot.

How to Rework Old Photos for Adobe Stock

Do you have old photographs just hanging around on your hard drive, taking up space? If you do, then perhaps you should consider uploading them to Adobe Stock. You never really know what sort of image someone out there is looking for - they might just want to use that shot that you currently have buried away in the archives. Sometimes, these old shots may require a little bit more work in order to ensure that they will measure up to stock submission standards, but the opportunity to make revenue on work you've already shot makes it a worthwhile venture. If you have old files you want to breathe new life into, the following guide for prepping and submitting those archived shots is just for you.

How to Take the Best Fog Photos

For a while now, I have been a big fan of the videos that Tony and Chelsea Northrup put together. Their channel is a wealth of knowledge that I visit many times. This particular video, one of their most recent, is one I found to be particularly helpful. If you are like me in that you don't often have the chance to shoot in fog, much less shoot in it frequently, then these tips will be helpful to make the timing and execution of your foggy excursions be that much more successful.

How to Make Instagram Story Vlogs

I don't know about you, but I often find myself in this weird limbo state with Instagram. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing really well with how I interact with those that I follow and those that follow me. Yet there are still plenty of other times when I stop and just wonder how the hell am I supposed to put this app to any use? Social media is changing the way that content is created, the way it is shared, and even the way it is understood by those who view it. I am continually learning about how to best put it to use the way that it is designed to function.

It's Worth Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

I think we all tend to figure out, one way or another, what works specifically for us as individual photographers. There are some styles that I simply don't shoot, some subjects that simply don't interest me, and elements that I simply would not put together for a shoot. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have many times found myself in a creative rut. You know, that mental state where you can think through the mechanics of most your shoots and it's just not as interesting as it has been in the past?

Three Ingredients for Great Landscape Photos

I realized a while back that I watch a lot of YouTube videos. Sure, I'll kill some time while laughing at something completely idiotic, but most of my time on the website is looking for my next lesson in photography. For me, photography is something that I don't think I will ever stop learning, and it's one of the things I like most about it. I love the fact that there is always something else for me to learn, something new for me to try, and countless of other photographers from whom I can learn.

Photographing Infants and Toddlers: Working With Short Attention Spans

Some time earlier this year, I had this idea to try and find my own approach to portraiture solely for children. It was a multi-faceted idea which came to me pretty much at random. I was reviewing some of my recent portrait work when I realized that I had only ever worked with a couple of children as my subjects throughout my entire running career as a photographer. I figured out a long time ago that family portraits really just weren't something I was interested in, but that didn't really have anything to do with my actual choice of subjects. Just because I didn't want to shoot family portraits didn't necessarily mean that I couldn't work with kids.

Videos of U.S. Atmospheric Nuclear Tests Are Declassified and Released to Public

For a long time cameras have been used to document history both in still images and in motion pictures. Some of these pictures have been around and publicly available for a long time, others are only available to the individuals who actually own the footage, still there are others that have been kept classified and completely unavailable to anyone without the right security clearance. This has been the case for many videos of the nuclear tests conducted by the United States, until now. The researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have just released 62 of these nuclear test videos that are newly declassified.

Shooting in Winter: My Go-To Gear List and Other Suggestions

Personally, I love shooting in winter, I love the challenge to find and create good compositions while my extremities are slowly going numb, and I love the freedom to go and shoot more beautiful scenery while it is devoid of most tourists and travelers. Over the years, my choice of locations has gotten more aggressive in comparison to my earlier ventures out into the cold. I want to go further, I want to hike deeper, and I simply want more ice and snow in my shots. Chasing after some of these views has resulted in the need for more planning, better timing, and investments in higher quality gear.

How to Process Drone Photos in Lightroom

Chances are that many of you are familiar with the works of Michael Shainblum. Not only was he Fstoppers' Photographer of the Month earlier this year in September, but he also garnered quite a bit of acclaim for his iconic shot of the solar eclipse in August this year. Aside from being an impressively accomplished landscape photographer, Shainblum is a skilled photography mentor. I've been a fan of his work for years now, and to this date, his tutorial covering post processing for star photography is one of the most enlightening courses I've ever purchased.

Beating the Winter Doldrums: Creating Beautiful Winter Images Without Any Snow

Creating landscape images in wintertime is always a unique challenge filled with its own obstacles and rewards. Chasing after that one composition that you've been dying to capture, trying to get out and capture that crisp winter scene before any of the snow becomes filled with the footprints of other photographers and adventures, and simply having the opportunity to see familiar views in a completely different season is something that many photographers look forward to.

Art Rangers: A New Way to Support the Preservation of National Parks

The national parks system in the United States has provided enjoyment of the outdoors for millions upon millions of people since August 25, 1916 when the National Parks Service was founded. For over 100 years now we have had access to some of the most incredible hikes and views to be found on the planet. As is similar to any well used item, the parks often fall into disrepair and need to be maintained and upgraded with continued use. The Art Rangers has stepped up to help the National Park Foundation in generating funds to help with the costs of maintenance for the parks.

Combine Photos and Create Collages in Photoshop with Layer Masks

Utilizing layer masks within Photoshop isn't going to be anything new to some of you but if you are one who is somewhat unfamiliar with using masks in your work then this quick tutorial by Colin Smith, with photoshopCAFE, is just for you. Layer masks are best known for hiding or revealing sections of an image in a non-destructive manner. This could be compared to an eraser tool that can be reversed at any time without having to resort to your history panel. Even though the history panel in Photoshop CC now lets you set the controls to record up to 1000 history states, by using layer masks you don't have to undo all of your work in a sequential order in order to go back and modify the layer that you are masking.

Marketing on Facebook Just Got Smarter

According to a news update by Facebook, there are more than 1.2 billion people who are connected via Facebook to a small business in another country. In an age where digital products and online services are easier to create and sell, it naturally makes sense to open up target markets across borders. Last year Facebook introduced cross-border solutions in order to help business connect to the ever increasing mobile market through the social media platform. Facebook just recently updated the marketing options available for businesses who use the platform to market to customers online. There are four new market targeting options, within the Facebook Business module that allow you to connect with new customers who live in areas that would previously have been more difficult to identify.

Sony Releases Imaging Edge: Software to Support Sophisticated Creative Work

Sony just released their new software suite, Imaging Edge, which is the combination of three applications. The three different programs come bundled together in a single installer which is available for both Windows and Apple computers which you can download here. The software set features several functions and controls that aren't exactly new to the world of photography but are designed in a way to help streamline workflows for photographers. In addition, just as was outlined in Sony's original announcement, Imaging Edge is designed to maximize the capabilities of the Pixel Shift Multi Shooting technology.