Printing Photos

Basics of Getting Started with Printing

Printing photos is one of the main reasons many of us get into photography in the first place. For many of us, the reason we bring a large DSLR into the field is to get pictures that can be blown up and put on our walls. I want to give you a basic guide for where to get stuff printed, and how you can do this cost-effectively.

Big Box Retailers

Walmart and Costco have some of the most affordable photo printing options on the market. They can basically print anything you want in most reasonable sizes on any medium. Expect to pay about $30–$80 for a canvas or wall print, and cheaper for simple photo prints.

The downside is that you often have to go in person to pick up your prints. The online framing and printing software they offer is also very basic, so you really need to make sure you know exactly what you’re printing. You may find you need to reprint a few pictures, but with the low costs, it’s generally not the worst deal.

Online Retailers

Shutterfly and SmugMug are great options for printing as well. They have a much wider variety of sizes and mediums to print on, but they do charge a premium. They also have much more robust editing and preview software, so I would recommend them for odd-sized or odd-medium prints, and if you’re particular about something being precisely printed.

Home Printing

This is probably the most restrictive and freeing option at the same time. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but hear me out: you’d likely be surprised by the wide variety of mediums your home photo printer can handle. The downside is, you now have to frame, print, and order ink yourself.

In the end, you have to print a lot to make a home printer worth it. Home printers are great if you have book-binding kits and want to keep making coffee-table books. It’s also fantastic if you have a bunch of standard-sized frames and want to keep rotating out pictures as you take them. These might sound like niche use cases, but surprisingly, both of them fit me perfectly.

You’ll want to look into the Canon Pixma line, and do your research on what you generally want to print. I think the Series 300 or 100 is a fantastic place to start. Canon has a monthly ink plan that is controversial, but I think for many people it’s actually very cost-effective. I found I was paying more when I was just buying ink outright.

In the end, seeing your work in print is extremely rewarding. I recommend printing out some of your favorite pics and going down this rabbit hole with me. I think you’ll find more motivation to pick up that camera!

Wildlife

Getting Good Wildlife Photography Shots

I bet many (if not most) of you have seen photos of incredible wildlife. The internet is packed with seemingly one-in-a-million shots! The reality is that nobody can predict what you’ll see, and the point of this blog isn’t to give you a magic formula for capturing once-in-a-lifetime photos on demand. Instead, I’m here to help you get awe-inspiring shots that will wow most people in your orbit—and keep you inspired to keep shooting—without getting bogged down waiting for that one-in-a-million moment.

Pick Your Location

Location is everything. In this case, you want to find spots that have tons of wildlife. Sounds straightforward, right? What I really mean is: look for places with a variety of insects, spiders, small animals, and, if you’re fortunate, larger animals. Costa Rica, Central Africa, Alaska, Patagonia, and Yellowstone are all good examples. Large animals are relatively rare—mostly a North American and African thing—but smaller critters can be just as photogenic. The key is to go where there’s always something to capture so you don’t get bored.

Pick Your Time

Early mornings and dusk are famously great for spotting medium-sized animals, but night is an underrated and phenomenal time to shoot as well. Invest in a good flash, and don’t be afraid to head out after dark. Some of my best photos were taken well after sunset. Of course, if you have the time, don’t skip afternoons either—you can see interesting things all day long. But if you need a break, take it during the brightest midday hours.

Pick Your Animal Type

When you’re in a place with abundant wildlife, you’re more likely to catch animals in interesting moments. For larger animals, almost any shot is impressive just because of their size—most people rarely see big animals up close, so there’s a built-in wow factor. Smaller animals can be just as captivating, but the trick is to catch them doing something cool or frame them in an interesting way. Some of my favorite pictures are of snakes and lizards—especially when they’re eating or set against a unique background.

Whatever you do, avoid the trap of waiting around for something your guide claims is “super rare.” For example, if you’re in Costa Rica, don’t pass on photographing colorful poison dart frogs just to get one poorly focused sloth shot from a mile away. Guides often want to wow you with the rarest animals they know of, but for anyone who’s not a local, nearly every creature is going to feel rare and novel. Focus on capturing good shots of whatever you actually see instead of chasing something that may never appear.

Being Ready

Keep your camera in hand at all times—no camera, no shot. Animals are notoriously unpredictable, and the quality of your photos is directly tied to how ready you are in the moment. Make sure your lens settings are dialed in and your focus is adjusted before you start. And most importantly, be mentally prepared to snap that shot the moment something happens. I’ve missed hundreds—maybe even a thousand—opportunities by not being ready. But on the flip side, I’ve also captured a few once-in-a-lifetime shots simply because my camera was always in my hands.

Guides

You really can’t do this alone. Anywhere worth going has guides who can spot more animals than you could ever hope to see on your own. Don’t skimp on hiring a good one. But be sure to check in advance that your guide is okay with you taking photos—especially at night with flash. Most guides are fine with it, but some have restrictions to protect the wildlife. Respect those rules. Responsible photography is what keeps these places open for all of us to visit and photograph.

Note on Safety

I need to emphasize this: I’ve been pretty lucky so far, but there have been multiple times I was inches away from something that could have seriously hurt me. I’ve had at least five close calls with venomous snakes and spiders that could have been fatal. You have to stay alert and not let the thrill of getting the shot override your common sense. Be vigilant and mentally present—no photo is worth risking your life.

Put It All Together

By following these steps, you’re setting yourself up for a phenomenal wildlife photography trip. Be curious, be proactive in your planning, and you just might land those National Geographic–worthy encounters you’ve been dreaming about. Above all, stay safe and have fun out there!

On taking a photography trip.

As you can imagine, I have taken many a photography trip in my life. I have seen all the continents except Australia and Antartica and I have been to over twenty countries! I often travel with friends or family, and for no reason other than pleasure, but I have also taken trips solely focused on photography. This is how I planned those trips.

What defines a photography trip?

Every Person who does a photography trip has a different idea of what it means to them, this is what it means to me: Photography trips for me aren’t designed to be relaxing or slow paced, they are designed to get at least two to four solid entries to my portfolio. This may not sound like much, but on an average I get one portfolio pic for every seven hundred to a thousand pics I take. This means that I am usually taking an average of three thousands pics on these trips. This may seem like a lot, but landscape trips tend to be closer to seven hundred pics total with about fifty to a hundred per spot, and wildlife trips often have about five thousand a day when shooting at 14FPS burst mode.

Landscape trips:

These trips are usually done over two to four days on a long weekend. I will go to some corner of this country and take as many landscape photos as I can find. Some of the key subjects are waterfalls or large rock formations, and many if not most are taken well after the sun has set. These trips often have extremely packed driving days with four to six hours of driving a day, and usually end at around 2 am to maximize astrophotography time. I am not a sunrise photographer usually, so I often wake up just around noon and start my day in the early afternoon on these trips. My record was probably in New Mexico with nine full hours of driving time in a day.

Wildlife Trips:

These trips usually involve early mornings and end earlier in the day. Animals are active most at dawn and dusk so these are the times I will also be most active. They days often involve 5 am starts and end around 9pm or whenever it gets too dark to shoot. The exception was Costa Rica. I was taking pics of reptiles and amphibians that were far more active at night, and ended up taking the majority of my good pictures after dark with a flash. Wildlife photography is considerably more active. The driving itineraries tend to be shorter, but the hiking and photography takes a lot more time and effort. I also end up with closer to twenty or thirty portfolio entries on these trips.

Taking good Photos without a DSLR

Anyone who knows me knows that I am often inseparable from my DSLR camera! Much to their and my surprise I have found myself taking it out less and less because my iPhone is taking some fantastic pics and is a tenth of the weight!

Here are some iPhone pics I took recently at Mt. Shasta:

Photography in your own backyard

It’s been a while since I posted so I figured I would talk about something close to my heart: Appreciating the beauty around me.

For a long time I felt that the only way to get good photos is to travel hours away from home to some of the most scenic places on earth. Im glad that now, years later, I am finally gaining some sense.

Traveling to far away traditionally beautiful places often does not give you the time or the chance to take a unique photo. With the limited time you have on site, you often get fairly typical and non extraordinary photos of some very extraordinary places.

Recently, as the pandemic made travel challenging, I have been spending more time visiting parts of California that I neglected for being “too nearby”. In the process I have taken some surprisingly amazing photos!

The picture above was taken not too far from my home. It shows a relatively common seagull eating a relatively common sea star. Most any bay area local has seen both of these creatures on pretty much any beach, but to catch this raw moment where this bird was eating this sea star created a surprisingly good photo.

This trip, having been closer to home and far more relaxed, allowed me the time to wait for this bird to eat this starfish! This was a truly unique experience for me, most of my trips rarely leave me more than twenty minutes to line up a shot!

This focus on capturing as many photos as possible and rushing through a place often detracted me from capturing moments. On a local trips I’ve had far more time to capture moments like a rainbow over a waterfall, a thunderstorm over a local mountain, or a bird eating a starfish. I think these pics are the ones I’ll remember most because they represent a moment that will likely never happen again in quite the same way.

I think you’ll find, as I did, that slowing down and enjoying the nature close to home may provide far more interesting moments than rushed trips abroad!