Articles from JT Blenker

A disturbing trend over the past several years has been visitors in national parks visiting less traveled areas and not respecting the beauty and resources that these natural and culturally important destinations deserve. With the wanderlust culture and the demystifying of areas via social media tourism, previously unknown and culturally significant places are becoming public attractions with the inevitable issues that go along with some individuals that simply don’t respect the destinations themselves.

Tonight, Tamron announced the Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di OSD lens, an incredibly small and light weight ultra-wide-angle zoom for 35mm full-frame DSLR cameras. With an emphasis on portability and reducing backlight flare, this could be THE ultra-wide-angle lens to make it’s way into your bag.

Adorama TV is always bringing easy-to-understand tips and tricks to photographers with a plethora of education and tutorials. In the video, Gavin Hoey shows us how to adjust our lighting to where we are shooting our subject.

One of the most profitable pieces of equipment a professional photographer can own is also one of the least used today. It can be simple to use while being relatively affordable to purchase and can elevate your lighting immediately. 

Godox has been disrupting the lighting industry for several years now with their budget-friendly options for studio strobes and on location lighting. The Godox system is growing even larger with the addition of their newest on-location light, but does this new light make sense to those budget-conscious photographers that have adopted the system?

The basis for many photographers choosing Canon has always been their lens lineup, and that line up should be growing even larger very soon. The drool-worthy, professional red ring "L" series super-telephoto lenses from Canon are getting some upgrades. 

Your bags are packed and you're heading to an amazing national park to capture lakes surrounded by mountains or secluded sand dunes towering hundreds of feet in the air. What are the best lenses for your soon-to-be epic photography trip? 

Who we are as artists and photographers is usually a process that takes time and a deeper internal dialogue to understand, and the initial direction we go will almost always be left on the wayside as we develop our abilities and discover our passions. How do some of the most accomplished photographers in the world start in the industry and do they grow into or out of their genres?

You've had your camera, your passion growing with every click of the shutter, and now you're thinking that this thing that you love could be a money maker. You say to yourself, "I'm going to become a full time photographer!" But first, what are some of the steps to go full time?

"In The Starlight" begins with Mathieu Lelay showing the beauty and values of the film as we experience the sights of the cosmos through the travels and photography of Paul Zizka. The all-encompassing night sky surrounds the film’s creator and subject making the silent case for humanity’s awe of the night sky with a universal message that we all share this very small part of a vast galaxy across a grand and timeless expanse. 

Canon has announced their new top-tier 70-200mm telephoto lenses. The EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III and the EF 70-200mm f/4L IS II are finally here with their predecessors receiving updates eight and twelve years apart, respectively, but is the new flagship 70-200mm f/2.8 just a paint job?

If you’ve gone hiking out into pristine wilderness or to the tops of a mountain, bringing a tripod may not be at the right up there on your list of essentials. What do you do if you want to capture the beauty of the landscape in front of you, but also want a visually compelling image that is wider than any lens you may have?

Do you really need all those megapixels in that shiny just-released camera, or is your current 20-something-megapixel camera still just as good as the day you bought it? Let's talk a little about why the megapixel race is great for some photographers and might not even matter for others.

When looking at lighting, you have a lot of choices with companies like Profoto, Broncolor, Elinchrom, Paul C. Buff, Godox, and others. Have you asked yourself if the lights from those companies fit how and where you shoot? Does it makes sense to buy that $2,000 strobe or would a couple cheap speedlites achieve your vision?

As creatives, we tend to live our passions with every fiber of our being and eventually, some of us try to make money at this thing we once saw as an all-encompassing hobby, but what happens when you really try to make your passion a profession? Are you trying to make your photography a business or are you in the business of photography?

Michael Shainblum has been creating jaw dropping and memorable time-lapses for years and he has just released a new video centered on the Italian coast of Cinque Terre. Glimpse of Cinque Terre is a beautiful time-lapse that showcases the area and spans several scenes of day moving into night while capturing the surreal coast.

When creating imagery of any night landscape, you are taking your camera and the other equipment you own and pushing them to their limits. With that in mind, should photographers be upset when their favorite imagery is put together in post?

Being a landscape photographer means that the most meticulous or sometimes frivolous thing we do is pre-plan. Sometimes, these plans are our way to take the chance of making a mistake or they're so we walk away with what our mind has already created but our camera hasn’t captured. What happens when our planning doesn't work?

You’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on a fantastic camera body that outputs 5K or 8K imagery, but the film you’re working on requires some time-lapse b-roll for transitions. Instead of breaking out that DSLR, you can set up your RED camera to shoot that time-lapse and use the near same post-processing as you would for the filmed imagery you are currently capturing.

Long exposure photography has a special place in my heart and arguably has been where I spend most of my time when creating landscapes as it allows a greater amount of control over a sometimes chaotic scene. Adam Karnacz from First Man Photography expresses similar sentiments and explains some great tips for photographers interested in expanding their creative options by adding long exposure photography to their landscape arsenal.

Last month, Samyang announced the XP 50mm f/1.2, adding to its lens lineup of premium glass for the high-megapixel cameras of today. There haven’t been any real-world examples of this prime Canon-only lens being used in the field until now.

It’s time to get involved in protecting your copyrights if you’re a photographer based in the USA. The H.R. 3945 CASE Act is a piece of legislation that has been winding its way through Congress since October 2017, and it would allow photographers to better protect and defend their copyrights, but it needs your help!

Are you starting to print your photography? Are you looking to sell prints for the fans of your work? This new video gives a great rundown of colorimetry, papers, and the value of the print.

The Pentax K-1 Mark II has just been announced and will begin shipping in April 2018. It's a well-balanced full-frame DSLR that ticks a number of boxes, but how has the Mark II progressed (or has it?) from the first generation K-1 camera?

Last month when Samyang announced the AF 14mm f/2.8 lens, it came as a delightful surprise to see one of the affordable third-party lens manufacturers finally adding autofocus to their Canon offerings at a much lower cost than the Canon 14mm f/2.8L II lens. So how does the new Samyang 14mm lens stack up?

Several rumor sites are reporting the same release coming from Sigma in the coming weeks: a new, fast ultra-wide zoom that may compete with Nikon’s legendary 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. Will this be a favorite of astrophotographers in 2018?

Two weeks ago I wrote an article concerning Zion National Park's even stricter guidelines for their commercial use authorization permits for photography workshops operating within the park and this spurred a great deal of debate in the photographic community as well as among other professional photographers operating out of the park. Many photographers were upset at the changes to not allow tripods on trails while others were confused as Zion had explicitly stated photography on a tripod was allowed in these areas. Zion National Park has finally officially responded to the concerns in the new CUA.

One of the toughest personal self-searching processes a photographer will go through is defining their style. Many of us will latch on to a composition or a color palette, sometimes by accident, that isn't really defining but is a part of our learning process as photographers. Eventually we learn what we like or value in a photograph and as we create, this becomes our style. But, can you define your style and explain it to someone else or even yourself?

For landscape photographers, a tripod is essential tool for creating those amazing photos showing the movement of rivers and streams. When the dynamic range of a composition is in the double digits, a sturdy tripod will help to blend bracketed images in post. Also, for those who want to create incredibly large panoramas or nighttime imagery, the tool kit begins with an excellent tripod. Zion National Park has become even more restrictive for 2018 and removed the ability for photographers in workshops from using any tripods on any trails within the park.

Rokinon is adding to their line up once again with a new lens design that may delight many photographers.The Rokinon AF 14mm f/2.8 lens looks to be designed in the new style the lens family has adopted the past year. This new lens added to the lineup will hopefully impress not only the daytime shooters, but also the nighttime astrophotographers that have leaned on Rokinon lenses for Milky Way and wide-angle night sky imagery over the past few years.

Today Panasonic announced at CES 2018 the new Lumix GH5S, a video focused camera that should be a boon for the prosumer hobbyists and professionals alike. Panasonic has changed several aspects of the camera to give an edge to the photographer and filmmaker that will enable them to step above the current Panasonic Lumix GH5 in usability and creativity. If you’ve been wanting even more out of your Lumix line of cameras, this may be the tool for you.

Earlier today, TechRadar accidentally listed the full specifications for the new Panasonic Lumix GH5S, which were immediately taken down. Luckily, the Internet saw them, and it looks like quite the exciting camera.

Thomas Heaton has released his final YouTube video of his trip to Namibia, and it ended on a fantastic note. It shows what landscape photography can be, that for many it's not just creating imagery, but a personal way of learning who they are. The tidbits in the video really are just that extra sprinkle of education on top of some life lessons for those who take their cameras to far off destinations. It’s one reason why I and many others enjoy Heaton’s videos so much.

As photographers, our friends, relatives, and significant others sometimes despair at trying to find what may appeal to us and be within their holiday budgets. We may casually let them know that we are super excited about this new gadget that will "really" improve our photography if we only had that one newfangled gizmo. Whether it’s a brand new piece of kit or something that’s been in our bags sitting from a few years ago, we still need to learn what that "new" tool can do.

This week will have one of the most amazing astronomical events of the year (besides that continent-crossing solar eclipse this past August). The Geminid meteor shower is streaking across the sky this week on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. If you didn't know or maybe just forgot, it's time to make plans to get to a dark sky area for a once a year celestial show that many astronomers call the best meteor shower of the year.