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

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.

PowerVision PowerEgg X Drone Review: What In Tarnation Is This?

Picture an egg. Now picture an egg with a camera on it. Now picture an egg with a camera on it that can fly. Now picture an egg with a camera on it that can fly in the rain. Now picture an egg with a camera on it that can fly in the rain and land on water. You are now picturing the PowerEgg X.

ON1 NoNoise AI Versus Topaz DeNoise AI: Noise Reduction Throwdown

ON1, an established photography software company located in Oregon, recently released its new noise reduction application called NoNoise AI. As a longtime user of Topaz Labs DeNoise AI, it only made sense to pit these two machine-learning-based noise reduction programs against each other and see which one comes out on top.