Articles by " Kurt Budliger"

By Kurt Budliger | May 8, 2012
Posted in: Arizona, Creativity, Landscape Photography, Tech Tips |

Cloud Light

All photographers are students of light but as landscape specialists we’ve got to be keenly aware of the subtle nuances of light on the landscape, particularly if we want our images to stand out in a crowd of ever-growing landscape imagery. In my last post “Getting Lucky at the Grand Canyon” I included a sunrise shot from Yaki Point on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. There is nothing [...]

By Kurt Budliger | May 3, 2012
Posted in: Arizona, desert, Grand Canyon |

9 Comments

Getting Lucky at the Grand Canyon

No, not like that. Geesh get your minds out of the gutter! I’ll leave those kinds of posts to George and Ian, they’re much bigger players than me I mean truly getting lucky with the light and atmospheric conditions when out photographing. George wrote a great post a couple of weeks ago with an awesome message about finding a spot and sitting on it, coming back over and [...]

By Kurt Budliger | Apr 26, 2012
Posted in: Landscape Photography, Vermont, Workshops |

7 Comments

Spring in Vermont Photo Workshop

Greetings from Arizona! I’ve been on the road with my family for the past week visiting a few gems in the desert. My kids have been loving the new sights, sounds and smells, a world very different then their home state of Vermont. It’s mostly been a family trip but I’ve gotten a few opportunities to get out and shoot. My wife truly is amazing in that respect. The weather [...]

By Kurt Budliger | Apr 9, 2012
Posted in: Belize, Inspiration |

8 Comments

Fresh Eyes

Sometimes we’re too close to our work to make the right judgment about whether it’s good or not good; whether an image is a keeper or destined to a life of obscurity in the deep recesses of a hard drive. More specifically I think we’re too close to the event or experience to make these critical decisions. We often return home from a trip or even just a local evening [...]

Social Media or Social Medium for Photographers?

By Kurt Budliger | Mar 28, 2012
Posted in: General, Inspiration, Landscape Photography, Vermont |

6 Comments

Social Media or Social Medium for Photographers?

I’ve been one of those reluctant users of online social media. I’m one of those Gen Xers that actually wrote and passed paper notes to friends in high school. I remember when google was just a number. I learned to use a road atlas and not rely on a little blue pin when navigating cross country, had a calling card and used payphones to call home in college. I didn’t [...]

Making Chicken Salad Out of Chicken S@#&

By Kurt Budliger | Mar 20, 2012
Posted in: Belize, Creativity, Outdoor Lifestyle |

10 Comments

Making Chicken Salad Out of Chicken S@#&

In my former life I was a middle school science teacher. I’ll never forget the crusty old Vermonter that taught PE and coached basketball at the first school in which I taught. He had a wealth of knowledge and wisdom, which he regularly shared with the new teachers eager to gobble up every little tidbit of pedagogical experience and advice that only comes from 30 years in the trenches. He [...]

Photograph with Intent – Part 3 “The Decisive Moment”

By Kurt Budliger | Mar 5, 2012
Posted in: Belize, Creativity, General, Inspiration, Landscape Photography |

6 Comments

Photograph with Intent – Part 3 “The Decisive Moment”

As I alluded to in the first two posts of the series (“Getting Picky” and “Creative Exposure”) our photographic journeys are very much an evolution, everyone on their own path and pace. Except unlike the slow and steady pace of biological evolution our evolution as photographers is very much like an arc or curve. We tend to progress/evolve very rapidly at the beginning of the journey, and as such the [...]

Photograph with Intent – Part 2 “Creative Exposure”

By Kurt Budliger | Feb 14, 2012
Posted in: Creativity, Outdoor Lifestyle, Tech Tips, Vermont |

11 Comments

Photograph with Intent – Part 2 “Creative Exposure”

In my last post, Photograph with Intent – Part 1 “Getting Picky” we looked at the importance of slowing down and becoming a more selective photographer, only tripping the shutter if the scene really gets your juices flowing or speaks the language of your creative voice. Another area that many of us drop the ball of intentionality, and often overlook as an important creative element is probably one of the [...]

By Kurt Budliger | Feb 8, 2012
Posted in: Acadia National Park, Creativity, Inspiration, Landscape Photography, Tech Tips |

18 Comments

Photograph with Intent – Part 1 “Getting Picky”

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my career in photography is getting to teach what I love, whether in an intensive workshop format or more formal academic setting. I’ve been teaching digital photography courses (I & II) at a local college for a little over 5 years. My spring semester digital photo II class kicked off a couple of weeks ago and has really got me thinking about how [...]

Winter Photography: Be Prepared, Be Successful

By Kurt Budliger | Jan 24, 2012
Posted in: Landscape Photography, Tech Tips, Vermont, Winter Photography |

15 Comments

Winter Photography: Be Prepared, Be Successful

Winter is arguably one of the prettiest times to be an outdoor photographer; winter white can transform an otherwise lifeless brown landscape into a magical wonderland. However, winter is also one of the most challenging times to be outdoors shooting. Frankly the biggest limiting factor in winter photography is personal comfort (for me anyway, I’m a wus). If you’re not comfortable you won’t be free to think and see creatively [...]

“…If You Can’t Be With The One You Love,…”

By Kurt Budliger | Jan 12, 2012
Posted in: Creativity, Inspiration, Landscape Photography, Vermont |

12 Comments

“…If You Can’t Be With The One You Love,…”

“…Honey, Love The One You’re With” (Stephen Stills). I’ll leave it up to you guys to do your own dit, dit, dits. And I do apologize in advance if the song gets stuck in your head, it’s pretty catchy. It seems as though I’m into the mantra thing lately (see my previous post Just Do It!), especially if it relates to improving one’s photography. As many of you already know, I [...]

By Kurt Budliger | Jan 5, 2012
Posted in: General, Inspiration, Landscape Photography, Vermont |

7 Comments

Just Do It!

I don’t have any New Year’s Resolutions or great epiphany to share at the close of 2011 and I’m about to celebrate (if you can call it that) my 42nd birthday on Monday. Don’t worry, I’ll include my shipping address below so you can send gifts. That means I grew up in the ‘80s and am a Gen X’er (whatever the hell that means). I watched Dukes of Hazard on [...]

By Kurt Budliger | Dec 22, 2011
Posted in: General, Inspiration, New Hampshire, Tech Tips |

10 Comments

How Photography is like Tequila

For some they both can be an acquired taste, a little bitter at first but after a while starts to get easier to swallow. Just think about the first time you tried to shoot an epic sunset and came home with nothing but washed out skies or blocked up foreground details. I don’t think I need to remind you about the first time you drank tequila, or maybe someone does? [...]

Want Your Images to Look Different? (part 2)

By Kurt Budliger | Dec 12, 2011
Posted in: Acadia National Park, Creativity, General, Tech Tips |

4 Comments

Want Your Images to Look Different? (part 2)

In part one of this series I offered 5 strategies for jumpstarting your creative juices and beginning the journey toward creating unique or different images. Part one can be found here and is probably worth reading in conjunction with this post. 6) Incorporate motion. Many of the techniques we’ve learned as nature photographers have been geared toward maximizing sharpness in our images. We use tripods, small apertures for depth of field, [...]