This is exactly why editing matters

The following image is the original wedding photo.

A distracting object was touching the bride’s dress. It was real. It was there. It pulled attention away from the moment.

Here is the edited version.

The object is removed. The dress looks clean. The focus is back where it belongs, on the bride and the emotion of the day.

Editing is not about changing reality. Editing is about protecting the memory.

Weddings do not get a second chance. Moments happen once. Photos are what remain.

If a small distraction breaks the story, it is my responsibility to fix it with care and accuracy.

This is the difference between taking a picture and delivering a finished photograph. 

I enhanced this image by shifting the green tones of the leaves for an artistic purpose, guiding the eye toward the bride and the emotion of the moment.

This type of editing is valid in photography when it is used intentionally to support the story, not to change the truth of the scene.

Photography is not only about recording what was there, but about expressing how it felt.

Background Replacement

Sometimes replacing the background is not about changing reality. It is about removing distractions so the subject can finally speak.

A busy background can pull the eye away from the story. A cleaner background can guide attention, improve contrast, and strengthen the emotional impact of the image. This is especially useful when the original background adds nothing to the moment or when it distracts from the light, the gesture, or the expression.

Background replacement is a tool, not a shortcut. When done carefully and honestly, it helps the viewer focus on what mattered when the shutter was pressed. The subject. The light. The feeling.

Editing is part of the creative process. The goal is not to fake the scene, but to present the photograph in the strongest and clearest way possible.

Here are some examples I have prepared using Luminar Neo, which does a wonderful job in these cases.  

Original

Edited

Original

Edited

Original

Edited

All Right Reserved

For more than 10 years, I have shared some of my work for free on Flickr, accumulating more than 89,000 pictures. That does not mean in any way that those pictures are not important to me. I love them, and by sharing them, I hope that the audience feels at least a fraction of what I felt when I took them. I do not add any restrictions on downloading or sharing; I only add a copyright notice. Expecting the courtesy of crediting the source. 

What does this copyright notice mean?

 

Quote:

"All rights reserved" is a copyright notice meaning the creator retains all exclusive rights (reproduction, distribution, etc.) to their work, prohibiting others from using, copying, or adapting it without explicit permission, serving as a warning that the owner intends to enforce their intellectual property rights under law, though it's no longer legally required for protection in most countries.

What it means: 

Exclusive Control:
    The owner has the sole right to copy, distribute, display, perform, or create new works from the original. 
    Permission Needed:
    Anyone wanting to use the work must first get written permission from the copyright holder.
    Warning:
    It's a clear signal to others that the creator takes their intellectual property seriously and will legally protect it. 

How it works in practice:

    Automatic Copyright:
    Under modern law, copyright protection is automatic upon creation, so the phrase isn't strictly necessary for protection.
    Common Notice:
    It's still widely used in copyright notices (e.g., "© 2026 [Name]. All rights reserved.") as a reminder and deterrent.
    Historical Origin:
    It stems from older laws, like the Buenos Aires Convention, that required such a statement for protection, a requirement now largely obsolete due to international treaties like the Berne Convention.

A little thing like this means more to me than all the money I could have asked for any of those pictures.

 If you need pictures without any copyright restrictions, please check my portfolio.

A few things I have learned about sports photography

I do not pretend to be an expert in this field, but after a year of doing it, I have picked up a few tricks that I would love to share.

Picture No 1

Position: I’m lucky enough to have been given access to the entire arena when shooting karate, thanks to USA Sport Karate in Florida. This allows me to position myself in a way that lets me capture the athletes’ faces while they are performing, rather than taking photos of their backs.

If you are shooting a sport where a ball is involved, it is important not only to capture the athletes’ faces but also to have the ball somewhere in the frame or in the player’s hands. Otherwise, the picture will not tell viewers much, and an image should always convey a message.

If you are a spectator, do not stay in your seat. Try to walk around to find the best possible angle and position. If you can, shoot from a low angle. I am old and cannot achieve this most of the time, but shooting low creates a more appealing perspective than what you see in my photos. Believe me.

Picture No 2. 

Camera Settings:
Mainly, I work with two settings saved into two different custom C slots on my Canon camera.

C2 is configured in Aperture Priority to achieve a narrow depth of field and obtain a blurry background, like the one in Picture No. 2. I switch to this mode when the athlete is not moving too much because, due to the poor illumination at indoor events, the shutter speed tends to be low in this mode. In this setting I shoot in Continues Shooting at a low speed. 

C3 is configured in Shutter Priority at around 1/1200. This is fast enough to freeze the action, and I use this mode to get shots like the one in Picture No. 1. In this setting, I use Continues Shooting at a medium speed of 10 to 12 fps. 

In both configurations, I use Auto ISO. Over the last few years, I have been using DXO PureRaw to clean noise from my images as the first step in my post editing process. This is a step I can afford to take because I do not have to rush sending my pictures to anyone. Sports photographers working for an agency do not usually have this luxury. Most of them send the RAW or original files to the agency, which is responsible for selecting the images and retouching them as needed.

In this scenario, you may set the ISO manually, but you must adjust it if the lighting changes depending on your position.

I'm shooting now with two cameras, one set with a 70-200mm lens and another with a 50mm lens, this last one for wide angle shots.  

At the last event, I ended up with around 2400 pictures. Of those, fewer than 1000 reached the eyes of the end viewers after I edited them.

I am not saying this is the right or best way to shoot sports, but it is the approach that works best for me.

DO NOT USE FLASH. That distract the athletes! This distraction can cause accidents!  

During the last weekend

Last weekend was a foggy one. Some people think foggy days are bad for photography, but on the contrary, I think foggy and cloudy days are special because the light is evenly distributed, and you don’t get harsh shadows in your photos. Some may complain about fog adding an extra layer of grain to their portraits, but I do love that layer. 

On foggy mornings, the light is more consistent than on cloudy days, when it can vary depending on the clouds. For someone who uses Auto ISO, like I do, this isn’t a big concern. For photographers who shoot fully manual, however, it means constantly adjusting settings, and that may be the reason why they don’t like these kinds of days.

There are 2 pictures that I love from this last weekend. 

These were somewhat difficult shots because the bird, a Carolina Wren, was perched in a very dense bush, making focusing challenging. The branches in the foreground added an extra 3D feeling to these pictures, which I love.

AI and Photography

 I recently created and posted this AI created image in Instagram and Facebook. 

 The original picture used to create this one is this:

The way this works is simple. You upload a high quality image to the AI application you choose and create what they call a prompt, where you describe the image you want the AI to generate. The more specific and detailed the prompt, the better the results you’ll get from the tool. That’s the secret. Up to a point, creating these descriptions is an art. It’s a fantasy that starts in your head.

The reaction to this post was mostly positive. My grandson Liam, this is his picture, complained that he was missing his freckles.

There was one rude comment that I deleted because it was not just against AI, it became personal. I do not allow people to call me names simply because they do not like what I post. If you do not like it, just keep scrolling. I am happy to debate any topic as long as we keep it civilized. When name calling starts, the conversation enters the territory of stupidity, and those who provoke it usually win because they have plenty of experience there.

That comment made me think about the fact that some photographers feel attacked by AI. That person probably felt that way and was expressing his frustration in my post. If I depended on photography to pay my bills, I would probably be worried too, and I would feel the same way.

The fact is that AI is here, and like anything that represents progress, you need to adapt and start using it to your advantage. If you cannot take your model to a beautiful location like that river, and you do not have the gear to light the scene the way it was done in that image, then master AI and get the results you want using this new tool. Do not go around blaming others for your inability to adapt.

Are images produced using AI still photography?  

That’s a good question, and it’s one the photography world is still arguing about.

In my view, images produced using AI are not photography in the traditional sense. Photography has always been about capturing light from the real world through a camera at a specific moment in time. AI generated images do not capture light or reality. They create a visual interpretation based on data, prompts, and algorithms.

That said, AI imagery is still a visual art form. It shares goals with photography such as storytelling, emotion, composition, and aesthetics, but the process is fundamentally different. It is closer to illustration or digital art than to photography.

Where things get interesting is when AI is used as a tool within photography. Noise reduction, sharpening, subject selection, sky replacement, or even guided edits still start with a real photograph. In those cases, the foundation remains photography, even if AI plays a major role in the final result.

So for me, the line is this: If there is no camera, no light, and no moment captured, then it is not photography. It is something new. And that is not a bad thing.

Progress does not erase photography. It expands the creative toolbox.

 

 

 

Spontaneity

I know I’ve talked about this a lot, but sometimes it still feels like it’s not enough to truly convey why it matters so much to me.

As a photographer, you’re always searching for the best way to illustrate a moment. You tell the story in a way that draws your audience in, letting your images speak for themselves.

Here is an example. If I’m asked what I like about a competition, my best answer would probably be this:

 

 Or this:

I like seeing how much they enjoy it. I love realizing later at home, while editing, that I was able to capture moments that clearly show how happy these boys were with their performance.  I could not answer with words the question in a better way than these images. 

Spontaneous moments are priceless. When you are out there photographing a sports event, or any event at all, do not limit yourself to documenting what is happening. Look for images that show what makes that moment meaningful to you and to the people living it.

What Changed Last Year?

Last year I was invited to document my grandson’s karate completions. You know, in the role of the family photographer.

 I have been documenting their lives since all three of them were born. They have played baseball, football, and soccer, but never at the level they are now with karate. Besides that, these other sports demand a different type of photography: they are outdoor sports, and I relied more on zoom lenses. Karate is an indoor sport, and a 70–200mm lens works very well in this scenario. All of this was new to me, and I was not expecting to shoot more than 5,000 pictures at these events.

For somebody shooting mostly widlife, this is a huge change, believe me. In one hand you have the silence of nature and in the other hand you have the endless noise that you find in sport events. In one hand you have wildlife and in the other hand you have people moving fast and constantly. So I had to adjust to the new circunstances. 

Karate gave me the chance to shoot amazing pictures, especially portraits of the athletes during their process before and after the competition.

 Each of them is a different universe. They meditate a lot before competing. I have seen their smiles and their tears. I have seen their transformation from peace to fury.

Karate has given me the chance to explore the human mind, and even though I do not have access to their thoughts in those intriguing moments, I enjoy imagining what they might have been thinking.

 You don’t find this kind of joy by asking someone to pose for the camera. It comes from stealing the moment as it quietly reveals itself.

 

Cave Photography

Pardon my title; I do not know if there is such a type of photography. I’m talking about photographing caverns. Most people think that caverns are cold places, but the fact is that they are not. Normally, caverns stay warmer than the temperature on the surface, and that is what happened during our visit to Florida Caverns. It was about 40°F on the surface, but when we went inside the cavern, the temperature was around 60°F and the humidity was very high. This sudden change caused my camera lens to fog up to the point that I could not use the camera for most of our time in the cavern.

While I knew about this temperature change, I completely forgot about the humidity, so I was very disappointed when I realized that I could not use my camera. Fortunately, this change did not affect our phones, which run warmer. I was able to take pictures like the one you see above. 

Thinking about this issue, the only solution would have been to warm the lens somehow before entering the cave, something that could have been done while we were driving from our accommodation to the cave, using one of those USB-powered devices. If you are planning to do this type of photography, learn from my experience.

By the end of the tour, I was able to take few pictures using the camera.  

Overall, I was happy with how the pictures taken with the iPhone 16 came out. As people say, better than nothing. You can find more pictures here. For other recommended gear, visit this page. 

A cave without proper lighting may not be very attractive to some people, but certain spots, when illuminated with colored lights as in this case, become a spectacle worth seeing.

 

After two weeks.. I'm back!

After two weeks of posting nothing on this blog, I'm back.

We took a few days to visit the Florida Panhandle. Unfortunately, there was a cold front passing through, and there were not many photo opportunities during that time. Except…

The amazing opportunity of taking pictures of a couple of Bald Eagles playing around while flying. 

 It's always an immense pleasure photographing these birds.  

We took our grandsons to visit the Florida Caverns, located in the small town of Marianna.  

 A very colorful place that I recommend anyone staying in that area of Florida. 

After coming back from this short vacation, and now in 2026, I visited my favorite spot for wildlife spotting and photographing: Crews Lake Wilderness Park. I never leave that place empty-handed.

During the last two weeks of 2025, I found a family of spoonbills there, and they were still present during the last weekend.

 Flamingos are not seen that often in Central Florida, but Spoonbills can be found around, specially during the winter migration. 

In about two weeks, the 2026 USA Sport Karate Season starts, and I have been checking my Canon 5D Mark III to use it more often in my photoshoots. I received as a Christmas Gift from my daughter a Double Shoulder Camera Strap Harness, and I'm planning to put it to work in this new season. The Canon R6 will be armed with the 70-200 f2.8 and the 5D Mark III with the 28-80 L lens. In this way I'll have a huge range from 28 to 200 mm. More than enough for this kind of event. 

As you can see, the planing starts long before the season begins.  

You can check pictures of the past season in this Instagram reel.  

 

 

 

Pictures from last weekend

Last weekend was a good one from the point of view of birds and photos. I managed to capture a nice picture of a red-winged blackbird. 

From far, this bird looks black, but when you look at their pictures, you can see little brown and red lines. The bird behind the male in the front is a female of the same species. 

The above you can see the details of the female. 

I also took some pictures of swallows flying. I do not have to say that you need a lot of skills and patience to get them sharp. 

Another photo from last weekend

 The Carolina wren is a small bird with an outsized personality. Despite its compact size, it fills forests, gardens, and backyards with a bold, ringing song that often sounds far too powerful for such a tiny body. Its warm reddish-brown plumage, long curved bill, and distinctive white eyebrow give it a lively, alert appearance that matches its energetic behavior.

Common throughout the southeastern United States, the Carolina wren is a year-round resident, even in colder months when many birds migrate. It’s known for its adaptability, often nesting in unusual places, flower pots, mailboxes, old boots, or any cozy nook it can find. Pairs are strongly bonded and frequently seen together, reinforcing their reputation as loyal and resilient birds.

What truly sets the Carolina wren apart is its voice. Its cheerful, rolling song is often one of the first sounds heard at dawn, bringing life to quiet mornings. For many nature lovers and photographers, the Carolina wren represents persistence, warmth, and the simple joy of noticing the small wonders living right alongside us.

 

 

Simplicity

Simplicity is a recurring theme in my work. This is the kind of scene many people pass by while going about their lives, absorbed in their own thoughts and concerns, without ever noticing it, until the beauty of their surroundings is revealed to them. The image below is a perfect example of that.

 

Last weekend pictures

There are a few photos I took last weekend that I truly love. One of them is the image below, showing a pair of Sandhill Cranes in flight. I especially like how the cloudy background closely matches the cranes’ gray coloring, creating a harmonious look. 

Another photo I enjoy is this landscape, where the dry winter vegetation glows with golden tones, unmistakably revealing the time of year when the image was captured.

The below image captures a quiet woodland scene where winter is gently asserting itself. A winding paved path curves through the frame, inviting the viewer to follow it deeper into the forest. Tall trees stand on either side, their trunks dark and textured, while branches overhead are draped with fading leaves in warm shades of gold, amber, and rusty orange. The remaining greenery contrasts softly with the seasonal colors, suggesting the transition between autumn and winter. Fallen leaves carpet the ground, catching the light and adding warmth to the scene. Overall, the photograph conveys a sense of calm and reflection, a peaceful moment where nature slows down and the changing season is clearly written in color and light.

Path to nowhere

Fulll of Action

Last weekend, I photographed a karate competition focused entirely on the combats. I got some amazing shots that can be found in two Flickr albums, available here and here.

Our grandson Liam participated in this event (pictured above), and considering that he fought for the first time in some of the categories, he did extremely well.

For the first time, I took two cameras: the Canon R6 and the Canon 5D Mark III. The R6 was paired with an EF 70–200mm f/2.8, and the 5D with an EF 50mm f/1.8. I had never used the 5D with the 50mm for this type of event before, and I was pleased to see that it got the job done very well. I missed a few pictures, but mostly because of human error. It’s somehow difficult to shoot with two cameras whose autofocus systems are completely different, especially with one being mirrorless and the other a DSLR. But you get used to it, and I’m sure I’ll keep using this setup in the future. Of course, having two mirrorless cameras would be the perfect setup, but this is what I have. 

Picture taken using the Canon 5D Mark III, released in 2012!

 

Nano Banana

 I asked Nano Banana to create versions of this photo:

And here are the results:

 

I was not pleased with the second photo because, by rotating the subject, it looked like a different kid, in my opinion. Here is the prompt that I used to get the first picture edited by Nano Banana.

"An expressive, natural portrait of a subject, bathed entirely in warm, directional golden hour sunlight. The light should be low, highlighting the texture of the skin and hair with a vibrant rim light. Camera/Settings: Captured on a Canon R6 with a 85mm lens, f/1.8, shallow depth of field (bokeh) in the background. Composition: Leading lines from a distant fence drawing the eye to the face. Style: Cinematic realism, saturated gold and orange hues, high dynamic range. Do not change subject position. Do not edit the face of the subject." 

In my experience, Nano Banana tends to always edit the face of the subject, which is the reason why I do not feel it’s a tool that can be reliably used for editing. However, you get decent results if you try to replace the background or use other tricks in that sense. If you do not put both pictures, the original and the one edited by Nano Banana, side by side, the results look nice, but if you compare them you can notice the AI editing right away. 

You can find other prompts and test them yourself here.  

 

Radio Active Lenses

This story was reported by Fstoppers. Apparently, in the past, radioactive elements were used in the manufacture of lenses to reduce chromatic.

The most interesting thing to me is that some of these lenses are so good that they are still on the market even though they are not made anymore.

BIF: Birds In Flight

I like this location, Crews Lake Nature Reserve, because birds fly low close to the water and at the level of the pier, giving me a nice view of the birds. 

The above picture is a good example of that. The background is totally blurred, making the bird pop up nicely. You can't ask for more. 

My favorite picture from last weekend

 Lately I have been shooting more landscapes than usual even when I still using full time my 100-400 lens with an 1.4x Extender. Probably because I'm rediscovering the good features hidden in Luminar Neo specially designed for Landscape photography, Here is my favorite picture from last weekend. 

DSLRs still alive

According to The Photographer, these are the best DSLRs you can buy in 2025:

The Canon 5DS. This camera, released in 2015, offers a full-frame sensor with 50 MP. It was the highest-resolution camera Canon had ever released.

The Nikon D850. This camera offers 4K video and has been considered, by many, one of the best cameras ever released by Nikon.

These cameras are so good that, even today, their price is higher than that of some of the newer mirrorless models from the same companies.