Ryan Mense

Senior Staff Writer

Ryan Mense is a wildlife cameraperson passionate about sharing visual stories of birds and their ecology through filmmaking and photography. He’s the guy driving under the speed limit in front of you, binoculars in his lap, head whipping every which direction in search of new avifauna. As a writer, he has been covering photo industry news and producing camera gear reviews for the last decade.

Articles by Ryan Mense

The Image Quality Apps from Topaz Labs Let Me Do the Impossible

Many things that used to be true about photo editing are no longer the case, such as not being able to fix a subject that was accidentally out of focus or not being able to recover much detail when doing heavy noise reduction. Topaz Labs is a big reason as to why we can approach post-processing differently now.

DJI Mavic 3 flying

DJI Mavic 3 Review: The Hype is Justified

Drones are fun. It doesn’t matter if we’re flying them or looking at drone photos and videos, there’s still that sense of wonder and awe as earthbound humans. That excitement carries over to watching not only any new drone, but in this case a high-end one that promises so much. There’s always inherent hype when a company like DJI announces a drone, and in the case of the Mavic 3, it may be justified.

Hands-On with Lightroom’s Powerful New Masking System

In a new update, Adobe is greatly increasing the masking capabilities of its Lightroom applications as well as Adobe Camera RAW. While it is not as powerful as what is found in full-fledged Photoshop, you will find yourself wondering how you ever lived without it.

Sony Alpha 7 IV Review: The Best Camera Sony Has Ever Made… Almost

Three and a half years ago, Sony made a statement with the Alpha 7 III. The company wanted to plant the idea that its “base model” did not mean basic. At the time, that camera was specced beyond its price, and it hit everyone by surprise. Now, with the Alpha 7 IV, our expectations are much higher. Did Sony do it again?

GoPro HERO10 Black Review: The Most Significant Refresh in Years

Every year like clockwork, GoPro introduces a new action camera with varying degrees of improvement upon the last. This year we have the HERO10 Black, the company’s second push into 5.3K video recording following the HERO9, but is there enough here to warrant buying the latest and greatest?

How to Do Street Photography with a Smartphone

Street photography might be one of the easiest genres of photography to slide into — it’s just you, a camera, and more or less walking around documenting humankind with an artistic flare — yet it can be quite difficult to progress beyond snapshot-looking images. This article will explore tips for improving your street photography using nothing more than a smartphone.

Tips for Photographing a Vacation with Your Smartphone

Photos are a time machine to the past. Nothing better represents this than vacation pictures. We aren’t taking these photos for us now, we’re taking them for us a year or more down the line to look back on. This article shares ways to think about vacation photography and how all it takes is a smartphone to create lasting memories.