DSLR Camera Buying Guide and Recommendations

  April 2, 2013 - 3:00 pm | ,
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I had someone send me a question today, and it’s a question that I’m asked quite often so I thought it would make a great little blog post for the day.

She hacanont3s 2 boys and a very young daughter and is thinking about getting a “good” camera, which usually means a DSLR. The boys play baseball, the girl will be in pageants and they know they go to some pro sporting events so she was wondering what would be a good camera for her. Of course, I’m sure the holiday and vacation photos are in that mix as well. It’s a great question that I know a lot of people out there have. Purchasing an expensive piece of equipment in the $500-$900 range is a daunting task. You want to get the right one.

So let me give a little bit of spiel of my thoughts and opinions on the “good” camera question. First of all, and this is VERY important, cameras are only tools to get you the photo. The more that you spend on a camera will not mean that it will take better photos. Each

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Grayson – The Broad-winged Hawk at WCV

  February 8, 2013 - 10:49 am | ,
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All photos on this page, and more, can be seen and purchased here. Proceeds from the purchase will go to the Wildlife Center of Virginia.

The Wildlife Center of Virginia has many educational ambassador animals at their facility. Everything from screech owls to bald eagles. All of their animals are very special, each with their own unique personality. Grayson, WCV’s broad-winged hawk is no different. And I must say a FANTASTIC model for me. :)

 IMG_4206

 

Did you know that the Broad-winged Hawk can migrate to southern climates as far as 3,700 miles away?

It is very true, their range is in the northern and eastern parts of North America and some, not all, migrate in the winter to Florida, southern Mexico and northern South America.

The ones that do migrate will fly in flocks of more than forty, and up to hundreds of thousands at heights anywhere from 1,800ft to 4,300ft. They, like other raptors, soar using the thermals to carry them. Their migrations can last for 70 days as they travel up to 62 miles per day.

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2013 Workshop Schedule Release

  January 26, 2013 - 7:58 pm | ,
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Hi everyone, and thank you for reading.

I just released my workshop schedule for 2013, below.

This is a tentative schedule as I have many more things in the works, so check back here and at Scotty T. Photography for more info. You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook to receive updates to the workshop schedule and announcements on new additions.

COMING SOON!

Location Workshop with Birds of Prey – this will be an amazing experience where Scott will teach you some of the best practices of getting great wildlife photos. After that, you’ll be on location at a facility where you’ll have the opportunity to photograph numerous raptors; different specials of hawks, falcons, owls and more. It surely will be a day to remember. Currently Scott is working out the details and more will follow very soon. We are looking at an April timeframe.

Location Workshop with Wolves – this is still in the works but looking more and more likely for a spring or fall session.

Scheduled Workshops – visit here to register for any of the workshops scheduled

Introduction to Adobe Lightroom – This workshop is online, so you simply need an internet connection. You’ll

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Chayton – WCV’s Peregrine Falcon

  January 25, 2013 - 8:46 am | ,
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All photos on this page, and more, can be seen and purchased here. Proceeds from the purchase will go to the Wildlife Center of Virginia.

The Wildlife Center of Virginia has many educational ambassador animals at their facility. Everything from screech owls to bald eagles. Most of the time the larger eagles and red-tailed hawks get most of the public interest, but the Peregrine Falcon has always been a raptor that completely amazed me. Chayton, one of nature’s most amazingly beautiful and deadly creatures, was one of the most loved of WCV’s educational animals.

Unfortunately Chayton had to be humanly euthanized on January 24, 2013 due to major problems with his feet. He will be missed dearly by WCV staff, fans and me and my family who got to meet Chayton during our photo shoot (I’ll speak more to that below).

IMG_3750-Edit

Did you know that the Peregrine Falcon is the fastest member of the animal kingdom?

It is very true, Peregrine Falcons are the Ferraris or the Lamborghinis of the animal world. Many years of evolution has turned the Peregrine Falcon, like

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Shooting the Wildife Center of Virginia’s new Barred-Owl

  January 17, 2013 - 10:23 am | ,
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All photos seen on this page, and more, can be purchased here.

The Wildlife Center of Virginia has many educational ambassador animals at their facility. Everything from screech owls to bald eagles. But they recently brought a new Barred-owl into their educational program. I had the greatest pleasure on photographing this stunning bird a small time back.

Click here to see about adopting this(soon) and other animals

Barred_owl_profile

Click to Purchase and View More

Currently  this beautiful little girl doesn’t have a name at WCV. Just yesterday they announced a fantastic opportunity for children to take place in a naming contest for the new owl:

From WCV:

“The Wildlife Center of Virginia is enlisting the help of K-12 students in coming up with a name for a Barred Owl  – a non-releasable bird that will soon be traveling the state as one of the Center’s education ambassadors.

This female owl was found in Richmond in early September 2012.  The owl was exhibiting neurologic symptoms when she was initially rescued; while the symptoms gradually

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Shooting NFL – Cowboys vs Redskins

  January 8, 2013 - 10:50 am | ,
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All photos seen on this page, and more, can be purchased here.

You can also click on the title of this post and leave your comments at the bottom of the post.

As you may or may not know, I absolutely LOVE taking sports photos. I’ve always been into sports and combining that love with my love for photography seems to be a pretty good match.

Redskins QB RG3

Redskins QB RG3

I’ve shot a LOT of local high school sports over the years and my photos are used by the Warren Sentinel, the local newspaper, for their sports section. Shooting the high school sports is an absolute blast, but I finally got the opportunity to move up to the BIG TIME, THE REAL DEAL, THE NFL. I won’t go into how I managed this, but I finally got the opportunity to stand on the sidelines and take photos at an NFL game. Not just any game either, the last game of the season where the Dallas Cowboys visited the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field. This game was huge, not only because of the ongoing rivalry over the years, but

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2012 Holiday Gift Receommendations for Your Photography Nut

  December 7, 2012 - 7:29 pm | ,
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Hi everyone, and Happy Holidays.

My wife always claims that I’m so hard to buy for on the holidays, and since I always get questions about gear that I use or recommend, I thought I’d put together a list of my recommendations of photography related gear that your photo nut would LOVE. Some of the picks will be Nikon, Canon or another camera vendor specific, but I’ll do my best to spread it around. I’ll also give a quick summary of what it does and why its COOL.

So let’s get into the fun. Of course, after or during your reading if you have any questions please comment on this post and I’m happy to answer. You can also contact me at any of the means below:

Email – scott@turnmeyer.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com/turnmeyer

Duracell Memory Cards – That’s right, I said Duracell – Ranging from $15 – $150duracell1 duracell2

Every digital camera needs a memory card to store the photos on, and every photographer always wants a bigger or faster card. There are a lot of great manufacturers

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Crystal Cove, CA

  July 19, 2012 - 10:52 am | ,
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All photos seen on this page, and more, can be purchased at photos.vaphoto.com.

You can also click on the title of this post and leave your comments at the bottom of the post.

Taking landscape photos are without a doubt one of my favorite things to photograph. It allows me to see different areas of the country/world, and most times when looking for a nice landscape your find local treasures that you would’ve have noticed before. I do a occasional trip here and there for work, and since I live on the East Coast, any trip to California sparks the thought of that beautiful west coast seascape. California is an extremely beautiful area and it’s shoreline has millions of picturesque spots ripe for the landscape photographer.

Crystal Cove Sunset

This trip I was headed into LA for a couple of days. The last time I was in LA I headed north to Malibu for some nice coastal sunset shots(blog post coming soon), so this time I wanted to head a bit south. I did some research and found quite a few places, but Crystal Cove really peaked my interest.

Crystal Cove

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New York City Landscapes

  June 23, 2012 - 12:13 am | ,
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by Scott Turnmeyer,
scott@turnmeyer.com

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter at
Facebook – www.facebook.com/turnmeyer
Twitter – www.twitter.com/scottturnmeyer

All photos seen on this page, and more, can be purchased at photos.vaphoto.com.

You can also click on the title of this post and leave your comments at the bottom of the post.

Brooklyn Bridge Long Exposure

Hello again everyone, sorry for the brief delay in posts. Things have been very hectic but now I’m set to get back on track. I’ll be posting blog posts like this at least once a week now, and each will show photos, provide some explanation and give some great photo tips on how I got the photos. So please keep following and enjoy.

I’ll start by saying that I’m not a big city boy at all, so New York City has never really appealed to me. I was there a few times for work many years ago, but that we before the passion for photography really kicked in. A few weeks ago I had to opportunity to go to New York City again and this time I wanted to do something that now

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Shooting Silhouettes

  April 10, 2012 - 11:13 am | ,
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by Scott Turnmeyer,
scott@turnmeyer.com

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter at
Facebook – www.facebook.com/turnmeyer
Twitter – www.twitter.com/scottturnmeyer

All photos seen on this page, and more, can be purchased at photos.vaphoto.com.

You can also click on the title of this post and leave your comments at the bottom of the post.

I absolutely LOVE taking silhouette photos. I personally feel that they can be some of the most beautiful and dramatic photos that you can take. You can get some fantastic silhouette photos during a sunrise or sunset, especially if you have some of those fantastic colors in the sky behind. In this post I’ll go through a few things that I look for when setting up for a silhouette, camera settings and a few other tips. Hope you enjoy it.

First I’d like to go through and break down my latest silhouette photo, which is the one above of the lifeguard tower. This photo was taken in Malibu, CA during a beautiful March sunset. I actually didn’t come to the beach planning on taking a silhouette, but as I walked past this tower I couldn’t resist. I always get

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Cooper’s Hawk Rescue to Release

  March 8, 2012 - 5:15 pm | ,
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by Scott Turnmeyer,
scott@turnmeyer.com

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter at
Facebook – www.facebook.com/turnmeyer
Twitter – www.twitter.com/scottturnmeyer
All photos seen on this page, and more, can be purchased at wildlife.vaphoto.com. A large portion of all sales will be donated to the Wildlife Center of Virginia!!!

You can also click on the title of this post and leave your comments at the bottom of the post.

One evening in mid January I was coming home from shooting high school basketball photos at Warren County High School when I came across a little Cooper’s Hawk is distress. This post will go through the adventures that this little guy and our family has had over the past two months.

The Cooper’s Hawk is a medium-sized hawk found in our area. It is most definitely a bird of prey, or raptor, and the males tend to be smaller than the females. They are absolutely beautiful raptors with short rounded wings and a very long tail with dark bands. The adults have stunning RED eyes and a black cap. The Cooper’s Hawk prey almost always on small to mid-sized birds, which would

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Spring is in the Air

  March 3, 2012 - 3:06 am | , ,
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by Scott Turnmeyer,
scott@turnmeyer.com

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter at
Facebook – www.facebook.com/turnmeyer
Twitter – www.twitter.com/scottturnmeyer

All photos seen on this page, and more, can be purchased at www.vaphoto.com.

You can also click on the title of this post and leave your comments at the bottom of the post.

Fair Territory

We’re fast approaching Spring, and that means warm weather, peanuts, popcorn, fastballs and homeruns. That’s right, it’s almost baseball and softball season. This year will be much like last year where we’ll be covering numerous leagues for both parents, friends, families, organizations and the newspapers.

Baseball and softball have always been my most favorite of sports. I played baseball for many many years, even coached a bit, so now that passion for the game transpires into photography.

With us hitting the fields again, there will also be many parents out there with their cameras trying to get those lasting memories of their kids playing ball. Here are a few things to think about when you are out there, hopefully they get you some extra good shots this year.

Tips:

1. Understand the game that you are photographing. This

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Wildlife Center of Virginia Open House

  February 28, 2012 - 3:08 am | ,
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by Scott Turnmeyer

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter at
Facebook – www.facebook.com/turnmeyer
Twitter – www.twitter.com/scottturnmeyer

All photos seen on this page, and more, can be purchased at wildlife.vaphoto.com. A large portion of all sales will be donated to the Wildlife Center of Virginia!!!

You can also click on the title of this post and leave your comments at the bottom of the post.

Pignoli - Eastern Screech Owl

This past weekend the Wildlife Center of Virginia started their spring open houses for 2012. This was my first actual open house tour, but I did manage to get a tour a while back when I was there for volunteer Capture and Handling training. Let me highly recommend this tour for any age, our 4 year old absolutely loved it and was bandaging her stuffed animals later that evening. It was great to see how much she learned through it, they do a great job on education.

The tour started out in their library where we got some great background information on the Wildlife Center of Virginia (WCV). Their 30 year history, their mission, a lot of great

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Safari Trek

  February 20, 2012 - 12:45 am | ,
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by Scott Turnmeyer
Follow me on Facebook and Twitter at
Facebook – www.facebook.com/turnmeyer
Twitter – www.twitter.com/scottturnmeyer

You can also click on the title of this post and leave your comments at the bottom of the post.

All photos here, and many more, are available for viewing and purchase at http://wildlife.vaphoto.com.

This past summer I had the opportunity to get some amazing wildlife photos of animals that you would find in Africa. Many people ask me whether or not I took an amazing trip to Africa. I’d love to say yes, but I didn’t. Thanks to an amazing trip to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, I was able to experience the next best thing. In this post I’ll go through the visit, how I got these photos, what lens/camera combination I used and what settings I used.

If you have been to Animal Kingdom before, then I am sure you have taken the Safari ride. This ride is in the back of the park, and should be a staple of any visit. It’s roughly a 20 minute ride through a makeshift African environment. You are on these cool off road trucks and you hopefully get to see most of the

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Getting the “Voltage”

  February 10, 2012 - 2:02 am | ,
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by Scott Turnmeyer
Follow me on Facebook and Twitter at
Facebook – www.facebook.com/turnmeyer
Twitter – www.twitter.com/scottturnmeyer

You can also click on the title of this post and leave your comments at the bottom of the post.

All photos here, and many more, are available for viewing and purchase at http://landscapes.vaphoto.com.

The photos in my Voltage Collection have become some of the most known and talked about from my Fine Art shots. I alwasy get asked “how did you get that shot”. So I figured I could do a little blog post to talk about that night.

First of all, I LOVE Lightning and Thunderstorms in general. To get a shot like this you can’t be timid. Most good lightning shots puts you in the path of a storm heading right at you, and timing is critical. You have to know when to get out of dodge before the heavy rain hits.

Next thing to know is that there are many types of lightning, most that we see in my area of Virginia are: Cloud to Ground – Your standard bolt from the cloud to a point on the ground. Ground

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New Eagle Nest Found and Visit in Virginia

  February 10, 2012 - 1:56 am | ,
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Hello everyone, so late last week I heard of a new eagle nest near my home in Virginia. Luckily, I was able to get permission from the landowner to come in and do some visits, so Saturday morning it was. We arrived about 9:30am to an overcast sky and a bit on the chilly side. We sat in clear view of the nest, secured in a lone Sycamore tree in the middle of a cow pasture. It seemed that maybe it was still a bit early in the season for this pair as no eagle was on the nest, which meant no eggs at this time.

After about 30 min, low and behold, a very large female flew right into the nest and performed some housecleaning. She stayed about 5 minutes or so and then flew out to the west as the male flew in over our heads with a huge amount of hay for the nest. I got a few decent shots of both, but was a bit far away for my taste.

The male then flew our about 10 minutes later

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Bald Eagle Photos – May 22 visit

  May 26, 2011 - 2:45 pm | ,
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So today I head out early in the morning to the local nest in Front Royal to visit the happy and healthy Bald Eagle family. Mom and dad are beautiful and are doing a fantastic job of providing for their three growing eaglets.

After making the trek to the nest, about a half mile high with some heavy camera equipment, I setup my cameras and tripod and get my scan the area. It’s a nice morning, but a lot of high white clouds, not what I was hoping for today because it brightens up the photos so much. When I’m shooting the eagles in the trees, I really like the deep dark blue coming through the leaves. Not today, but hey, get what you can get while you are out here.

I notice right away that there is some serious activity from the eaglets in the nest and mom is in the usual perch above the nest where her and dad watch over the babies while the other spouse is out hunting. I train the camera on the nest to find all three

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