Sunday, November 8 | 12:00 to 1:15 p.m. | Auditorium
Presentation Description
Do any of these sound like you? You never go above ISO 6400, on principle. You rely on AI noise reduction to clean up every photo after the fact, instead of getting it right in the field. You second-guess your settings the second the light gets less than ideal. Every one of those habits is costing you images you’ll never get back.
Annalise Kaylor is done letting those old habits go unchallenged. Drawing on years of pushing ISO into territory most people are taught to fear, she makes the case that the noise you’re so afraid of is just information you haven’t yet learned to read. That the real problem has nothing to do with your gear and everything to do with the invisible, self-imposed ceiling photographers have built for themselves and never thought to question.
Equal parts science and permission slip, this session is built for photographers ready to understand the real science of mastering exposure — and to see, with real-world examples, that underexposing to play it safe actually introduces more noise than pushing the ISO and exposing properly to begin with. This presentation gives photographers the skills to photograph decisively instead of defensively, and the confidence to trust their own eye over an inherited set of outdated rules.
Presenter Information
Annalise Kaylor grew up an unapologetically curious and semi-feral kid in the Northwoods of Wisconsin — the kind of childhood that, in hindsight, was basically training for a life dedicated to exploring wild things in wild places. For more than a decade, that background has served her well, taking her to 41 countries and into some of the most demanding field conditions on the planet.
Annalise’s photography and visual storytelling have appeared in Audubon Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC’s Discover Wildlife, and the Associated Press, as well as on PBS, the Discovery Channel, Great Big Story, and more. Along the way, her work has helped further the causes of conservation organizations and NGOs including The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, and Habitat for Humanity International.
Her photographs now live in the permanent collections of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations, and have been exhibited across North America, South America, and Europe — including the Planet Ocean exhibit at Gasometer Oberhausen in Germany and the current exhibition at the Midwest Center for Photography.
One of the most sought-after wildlife photography educators, Annalise has built a reputation not just for teaching people how to get the shot, but for grounding that instruction in the biology, ecology, and behavior of the animals themselves. It’s an approach that has earned her a following among photographers who understand that better photography comes from a better understanding of the natural world.
When not in the field or teaching a workshop, Annalise can be found reacquainting herself with the Northwoods that raised her, dog Susan in tow, and spending time with the people who make the time in between trips just as worth showing up for.
