I’ve had some good camera drops in my lifetime. I think my favorite was the time it slipped out of my hand and in an effort to break the fall with my foot I kicked a Leica M4 across the driveway. Ironically, the most painful drop was my first single-lens reflex camera. I was fifteen. I was so excited that the mail order delivery had finally arrived I couldn’t wait to get in the house to open the box. I fumbled with the packaging and, whoops, camera on the driveway again. Same driveway, I might….

Q: What are all of those flashes you see at the Olympics opening ceremony lighting? A: The back of the head of the person sitting in front of the photographer. It’s always amazed me how many decent photographers never really absorb this very simple idea. A flash behaves the same way the headlights on your car do; if things are close to your car they look bright. If things are far away, they’re lost in the darkness. Maybe it’s because a flash, well, flashes that people seem to think that it has some kind of magical power. It doesn’t; it’s….

Picture one of those beautiful, Currier and Ives big giant snowflakes snow falls. If you’re in the woods by yourself; it’s just about one of the most peaceful things you can experience. There’s no wind; you can actually hear the soft luscious flakes landing on the ground. This is photo heaven. You’ve got your camera and you can’t believe it’s all come together like this. Nature, camera, you’re dressed right—it’s too good to be true. But somehow the pictures don’t do the magic of the moment justice and you can’t quite put your finger on the problem. It was too….

One of the great benefits of using a flash is that it freezes action. When I advise people to turn their flash off they often complain to me that they take lots of blurry pictures—it’s a normal reaction to flash withdrawal. The pictures without the flash almost always look more natural, but, yes, you are going to take more blurry pictures. One of the big life lessons of photography is that there is a price to pay for everything. Growing up can be painful. But freezing action with a flash should definitely be in your photographic repertoire. If you can….

Have you heard that seventy is the new fifty? You hear it from people about to turn seventy. Well, it’s no more of a stretch to say that cell phones are the new point and shoots. Here’s why. In terms of picture quality phones are quickly catching up to at least the inexpensive cameras. They’re simple and convenient—you really do just point it and shoot it. They fit in a pocket or a purse. I take more family photos with my cell phone than any other camera. I’m not saying that if I had to pick one camera to take….