When the world’s most famous grizzly bear, known as 399, was struck and killed by a car in Wyoming last month, one wildlife photographer, Thomas D Mangelsen, took it particularly hard. Mangelsen had chronicled 399 in photos and video from his first magical sighting of her in 2006 until recently.

In this tutorial, I explain three easy techniques for adding vignettes to landscape photos in Lightroom Classic. At the bottom of this story, watch my video showing these vignetting tips in action along with a demonstration of how to add grain effects to your outdoor and nature photos in Lightroom Classic.

Every photographer starts somewhere, often with limited resources. Most of us begin with a single camera and lens, and whether we realize it or not, our limitations foster creativity.

I think there’s a particular mindset among underwater photographers that we constantly want to dive deeper. Perhaps this is due to having depth limits set in diving certifications, thus continually piquing our curiosity to what may be found just out of sight below.

Bears have an undeniable ability to captivate us. Whether it’s the powerful photography of a bear in a National Geographic spread or the brief thrill of spotting one driving in the mountains, these creatures command our attention with a unique, primal allure.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest recently announced the winning images for 2024 with a striking shot of tadpoles gliding through a pond taking the top prize. The overall winning photo, shown above, was captured by Canadian marine conservation journalist Shane Gross.

Wildlife photography can be a deeply rewarding pursuit, but capturing images that go beyond mere documentation requires creativity and intentionality.

The winners of the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2024 were recently announced in London, revealing stunning images including the overall winner (above) by Rafael Fernandez Caballero, which shows a Bryde’s whale about to engulf a swarm of sardines. In Caballero’s winning image, the sardines are forming what is known as a “baitball,” which is a defensive tactic to ward off predators.

As we threaded through the Beagle Channel, I wondered if this icy continent could live up to the lofty expectations I’d formed since childhood. Growing up reading the tales of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, and Ernest Shackleton, Antarctica became a place of myth in my mind. Would it be as awe-inspiring as those stories made it seem?

A lifetime of experience on this planet leads us to believe that a clear sky is always blue. Certainly the clear daytime sky is always some shade of blue. As day ebbs into night and our color vision fades away, the last color we see in the sky directly above us is blue; as night gives way to dawn, the first sky color we see above us is once again blue.

Those who eschew social media may not have noticed the deluge of AI-generated landscape and nature images to be found online these days. Guided by prompts provided by the human “creator” that describe what the image content and style should be, these AI-spawned images are often created with the intent of producing maximum impact, “wow-factor,” and generation of “likes and shares,” though the scenes they depict commonly depart from the realistically plausible or possible in significant ways.

There’s no getting around it: wildlife photography is a demanding genre for photography equipment. Whether photographing lions in the Serengeti, penguins in Antarctica, or even just squirrels in the backyard, capturing wildlife typically puts photographers in situations with rough shooting conditions.