My Experience With A Borrowed MeFOTO Tripod

Recently my wife and I made a trip to our nation's capital city, Washington, D.C. While my wife was going to take part in a conference, I was going to be a tourist and, hopefully, get some great photos along the way.

I knew that I wanted to take a tripod with me, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to take my trusty old (but big) Manfrotto. With that in mind, I asked my friend, and local photographer, +Marty Hegr, if I could borrow his MeFOTO tripod, which I had seen him using on a few photowalks that we had attended together.

Below are my thoughts:

Children's Portraits | Hannah and Preston

Tuesday evening I had the opportunity to make some outdoor portraits of these two young children. I thought I'd go ahead and share a few favorites, giving their mom a chance to see some before the final product is delivered.

Anatomy of a Portrait | Off Camera Manual Flash

One of my favorite techniques, now that I understand it and realize how easy it is, is off camera manual flash. My eyes were opened to this technique last September when I attended WPPI U in Portland.

This is something that I can use for a more formal portrait shoot, or I can use it for the casual playground portrait such as the one above. It's quite simple and something that I am happy to have in my arsenal.

Making of a Photograph | More of an Adventure Than You Might Think

Some people seem to think that all photographers have to do is push a little button. Often the making of a photograph is much larger adventure than they could even imagine. Above you can see what has come to be one of my favorite images, the making of which definitely included an adventure. I'd like to tell you about that adventure.

Bald Eagles and Me | Craig Pifer Photography

While I don't consider myself to be a wildlife photographer, it is certainly something that I enjoy when I can. I don't have the long telephoto lenses of the great wildlife photographers, but I can certainly aspire to that. I do my best with the shorter focal lengths that I have, and occasionally get what I believe to be a decent photo.

Today's excursion to the local Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge certainly yielded good results for me. Please continue on for the story and more photos.

Operation Photo Rescue

Life sometimes has a roundabout way of providing opportunities.

My Favorites of 2012 | Craig Pifer Photography

It seemed like the popular thing to do, compile a selection of photos from the past year that you believe to be your best, or maybe just your favorites.

For the second year in a row I did just that. Rather than just choosing a random number of images, and saying that they are my absolute best, I've chosen 12, one from each month, and am calling them favorites. They may or may not be my best images, but as I reviewed my photos they are the ones that jumped out at me. Perhaps in a month or two I would look back and choose a different set of 12.

Here they are in slide show format:


If you are so inclined you may purchase a 2013 calendar with these images here.

Wedding Photography Slide Show | Craig Pifer Photography

I recently put together a slide show of photo that I took at my brother-in-law's wedding last July. The included photos are from the rehearsal and dinner as well as from the wedding and reception.

They had another paid photographer, so I was just there as a guest, and father of the flower girls, but had fun getting a few shots anyway. Please enjoy the images.