Parker Photographic Insiders Field Stories. Real Lessons. Every Tuesday. Hello Reader ! Owls. Love them! How 'bout you? One problem. I've never actually encountered them in the wild. Not really. Well... there was that one time in Cape Coral while visiting friends. You might remember that story from a newsletter months back. Burrowing Owls nesting literally two doors down from where we were staying. Technically? Sure, it counts as "the wild." But in my mind? That doesn't qualify. Way too easy....
1 day ago • 2 min read
Parker Photographic Insiders Field Stories. Real Lessons. Every Tuesday. Hello Reader ! I planned for weeks. Round trip: 4,495 miles. Dozens of carefully researched locations pinned on my map. What I did not plan for? The relentless obstacles that would block me from reaching half of them. A snowstorm... in the desert. Road closures without warning. Flash floods washing out access roads. Every curveball Mother Nature could throw. Which left me staring at a surprising dilemma. How was I going...
9 days ago • 3 min read
Parker Photographic Insiders Field Stories. Real Lessons. Every Tuesday. Hello Reader ! The year was 2001. Me, Tammy, and our oldest son loaded up the car and pointed it toward my Grandma's place in the Gaslight Village. That's the historic downtown area of Wyoming, NY... and yes, it's actually called that because the streets have been lit by natural gas lamps since 1809. The whole village sits on a natural gas field. Pretty cool, right?) By day one of our visit, we were climbing the walls...
16 days ago • 2 min read
Parker Photographic Insiders Field Stories. Real Lessons. Every Tuesday. Hello Reader ! I didn't need to drive 1,756 miles to photograph a dramatic river bend like Horseshoe Bend. This bend was way closer to home. Only 220 miles. But here's the thing... it was what I'd call a teeny tiny, micro bend. So small you might actually have to squint to see the curve. Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic. It was definitely still worth photographing. The real question eating at me was simple. Would...
23 days ago • 4 min read
Parker Photographic Insiders Field Stories. Real Lessons. Every Tuesday. Hello Reader ! Somewhere in Ohio. An overcast sky threatening to open up any second. Three waterfalls on today's hit list. All packed into a single ambitious day. The first one was supposedly only a mile away... but that trail had other plans. I climbed uphill not once, but twice. Steep, relentless climbs. And that was just getting to the halfway point. My watch screamed 150 bpm. Averaged 120. My lungs felt like they...
30 days ago • 3 min read
Parker Photographic Insiders Field Stories. Real Lessons. Every Tuesday. Hello Reader ! November 2025... ...chasing waterfalls. Four of them packed into one weekend through Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio. The first one on the list was supposed to be the crown jewel... Brandywine Falls. Sixty-five feet of cascading water. Easy access from the parking lot. Boardwalk. Stairs. Viewing platform. Everything about it screamed "photographer's paradise." Until we actually showed up. I wasn't...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Parker Photographic Insiders Field Stories. Real Lessons. Every Tuesday. Hello Reader ! I've got a confession... I used to preach something with absolute, unwavering confidence that now makes me wince a little. It wasn't exactly a lie... ...but it definitely wasn't the whole truth either. Here it is... "Always use the lowest ISO possible." Yep. Those words came straight out of my mouth. Repeatedly. With conviction. Thing is... I believed every word. Back in the film days? It was gospel truth....
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Parker Photographic Insiders Field Stories. Real Lessons. Every Tuesday. Hello Reader ! This is a last minute message... but, I felt it had to be shared so you don't miss out. Find editing hard? Not sure where editing should start? Not sure when your edit is done? Then, you should know that... ...tonight, I'm hosting two live photo editing workshops. No charge. No hard sells. Nothing to buy. The first is a blind edit where participants will edit one of my hi-res files and share their editing...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Parker Photographic Insiders Field Stories. Real Lessons. Every Tuesday. Hello Reader ! Cracker Barrel. Our family's go-to pit stop on any road trip worth taking. Or right before we catch a flight. Pancakes for breakfast. Pancakes for lunch. Pancakes for dinner. Well... not for me. I'm not a pancake guy. Hand me a country fried steak for all three meals and don't hold back on the gravy. But this next pancake? This one? I'll take seconds. Let me paint the picture. Dead of winter. February...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Parker Photographic Insiders Field Stories. Real Lessons. Every Tuesday. Hello Reader ! Another day. Another walk on the boardwalk. Surrounded by a Canadian marsh... in Point Pelee National Park. I pulled up, grabbed my gear, and immediately heard it. That sound. The electric chatter of Red-winged Blackbirds rippling through the reeds. Loud. Sharp. Relentless. Hundreds of them swarming the cattails. And here's the thing about Red-winged Blackbirds... If you've photographed one... you've...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read