MA 
Mark Denney
@markdenneyphoto
Mark Denney is a professional landscape and outdoor photographer based in North Carolina, United States. After a 17-year career in the corporate world, he took a radical turn in his life in July 2018 to dedicate himself completely to nature photography and content creation. He describes himself as a naturally anxious person who found landscape photography a form of "Zen meditation," a tool that allows him to practice patience and disconnect from the fast pace while waiting for the precise moment when the right light appears to capture an image.
As an educator and lecturer, his work focuses on teaching the narrative capacity of photographs, encouraging his followers not to obsess over the final result, but to appreciate the photographic experience in its entirety. He is widely recognized for his YouTube channel, where he shares editing tutorials, composition tips, and vlogs of his van trips under the banner "Cameras, Vans, & The Great Outdoors." In addition to his teaching at workshops and his weekly newsletter The Morning Blaze, he is an ambassador for brands such as NiSi Optics and f-stop Gear, and his content has been featured in prestigious publications such as Outdoor Photographer Magazine and ShutterBug.
Previous videos
19
You Think Your Camera’s Safe… Until This Happens
Published: May 13, 2026 · Duration: 13 min 38 sec · 68K views
*👉 Set your camera up once and never fight your settings again. Get my free Camera Setup Guide here A couple days ago while photographing waterfalls in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I slipped on a rock and dropped my Nikon Z8 and 14-24mm lens completely underwater. What followed over the next several days was one of the most stressful photography experiences I’ve ever had.
This Habit Held My Photography Back for 10 Years
Published: May 6, 2026 · Duration: 13 min 24 sec · 48K views
Go to to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. 👉 Download my FREE Camera Setup Guide and set your camera up once so you never have to fight your settings again: For a long time, I believed that simply spending more time behind the camera would naturally make me a better landscape photographer. But somewhere along the way, I realized something uncomfortable...the habits that helped…
You’re Giving Too Much Space to the Wrong Parts of Your Photo
Published: Apr 29, 2026 · Duration: 13 min 57 sec · 14K views
Go to to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. *👉 Set your camera up once & never fight your settings again. Download my free Camera Setup Guide Here: If you’ve ever looked at the back of your camera and felt like something about your photo just wasn’t working, even though the light was good and the settings were right, the problem might not be your exposure, your lens, or the…
Fixing White Balance Makes Photos Worse — Here’s the Fix
Published: Apr 22, 2026 · Duration: 12 min 54 sec · 19K views
*👉 Download the Free RAW Editing Guide* *Stop guessing what to adjust, what to ignore, and when to stop.* * Fixing white balance seems like the responsible thing to do when editing your photos, but in many situations it can actually make your images look worse. This is especially true during blue hour and golden hour, when the color in the scene is not a mistake to be corrected but a mood to be preserved. In this…
You’re Ignoring Your Camera’s Most Powerful Dial
Published: Apr 15, 2026 · Duration: 10 min 13 sec · 120K views
*👉 Set your camera up once and never fight your settings again. Get my free Camera Setup Guide here There is one dial on your camera that can completely change how your camera behaves, yet most photographers either overlook it or underestimate how powerful it really is. If you find yourself constantly adjusting ISO or rebuilding your exposure every time the light changes, this video will show you a faster and more…
Making Your Photos Sharper Is Making Them Worse
Published: Apr 8, 2026 · Duration: 12 min 25 sec · 11K views
Go to to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. *👉 If you want consistently sharp, natural-looking photos, download my FREE complete RAW photo editing guide here Most photographers believe the key to sharper photos is simply adding more sharpening, but in many cases, that approach can actually make your images feel less sharp. If you’ve ever taken a photo that looked perfectly…
The Tool Lightroom Still Doesn’t Have — Until Now
Published: Apr 1, 2026 · Duration: 13 min 19 sec · 99K views
*👉 Join The Morning Blaze for weekly photography tips, editing workflows, and field insights:* * If you’ve ever used a sky mask in Adobe Lightroom and noticed that harsh halo or unrealistic edge where the sky meets the landscape, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most frustrating limitations in Lightroom, and surprisingly, there’s still no dedicated control to fix it directly. In this video, I’ll show you the exact…
Your Blown Highlights Are Not Ruined — Here’s the Fix
Published: Mar 25, 2026 · Duration: 12 min 14 sec · 27K views
*👉 Download the Free RAW Editing Guide* Stop guessing what to adjust, what to ignore, and when to stop. Most photographers assume that once highlights are blown, the photo is finished and there’s no way to fix it. I used to believe the same thing.
Your Exposure Isn’t Wrong - It’s Your Metering Mode
Published: Mar 18, 2026 · Duration: 12 min 54 sec · 17K views
Go to to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. *👉 Stop second-guessing your settings. Get my free Camera Setup Guide so you can set your camera up once and focus on composition instead: If you’ve ever taken a photo that looked perfectly exposed according to your camera’s meter, only to get home and realize the image looks too dark or too bright, you’re not alone.
Why Your Photos All Look the Same
Published: Mar 11, 2026 · Duration: 12 min 26 sec · 12K views
*Use this link to get $25 off your PPA membership today! *👉 If you want to take your landscape photos from flat, lifeless RAW files to fully realized images with depth, color, and impact, I put together a free step by step editing course that walks through my entire workflow from start to finish. Download it here: Most photographers try to fix weak photos by adjusting camera settings, but more often than not the…
The Focus Mistake Many Photographers Make
Published: Mar 4, 2026 · Duration: 11 min 55 sec · 17K views
Go to to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. *👉 Get the free focus stacking guide here:* Most landscape photographers have heard this advice: stop down to f/11 or f/16 and focus about one third of the way into the scene to get everything sharp. Sometimes that works.
Finally! Ultra Wide Filters Done Right
Published: Feb 25, 2026 · Duration: 11 min 24 sec · 13K views
*Check out the ultra wide filter kit here:* Ultra wide angle lenses create some of the most dramatic perspectives in landscape photography, but using filters on a bulb front element has traditionally meant oversized holders, extra adapters, and limited stacking options. It works, but it’s rarely simple. In this video, I take a closer look at a new magnetic filter kit designed specifically for ultra wide lenses,…
This is What Finishes a Photo
Published: Feb 18, 2026 · Duration: 13 min 45 sec · 19K views
Go to to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. *👉 Get the free RAW photo editing guide:* A simple, start-to-finish workflow so you’re never guessing what to adjust or when to stop. Finishing a photo isn’t just about adjusting exposure, color, or contrast.
You’re Overthinking RAW Editing
Published: Feb 11, 2026 · Duration: 18 min 6 sec · 23K views
Use this link to get $25 off your PPA membership today! *👉 Download the Free RAW Editing Guide* Stop guessing what to adjust, what to ignore, and when to stop. Most photographers assume good photo editing is complicated.
Why This Camera Setting No Longer Matters
Published: Feb 4, 2026 · Duration: 14 min 16 sec · 20K views
Go to to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. *👉 Get the free camera setup guide here:* Most landscape photographers rely on highlight warnings to guide their exposure decisions, believing they’re protecting important detail in the scene. But modern cameras capture far more information than these warnings suggest, and trusting them blindly often leads to exposures that are overly…
The Auto ISO Mistake Ruining Your Image Quality
Published: Jan 28, 2026 · Duration: 14 min 1 sec · 60K views
Use this link to get $25 off your PPA membership today! 👉 Get the free camera setup guide here: Auto ISO gets blamed for ruining image quality, but in most cases, the problem isn’t Auto ISO at all. It’s how the camera is configured.
You’re Missing This in Your Landscape Photos
Published: Jan 21, 2026 · Duration: 14 min 30 sec · 22K views
Go to to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Free Companion Video Course: Learn how to add depth & dimension to your landscape photos by addressing what’s often missing. 👉 Access the free course here: Landscape photos often fall short not because the scene wasn’t good or the edit was wrong, but because photography is a two-dimensional medium trying to represent a…
This Autofocus Setting is Costing You Sharp Photos
Published: Jan 14, 2026 · Duration: 8 min 27 sec · 138K views
Go to to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. *Free Focus Stacking Guide* Sharp photos are not just about lenses, tripods, or technique. In this video, I break down a commonly overlooked autofocus setting that can quietly work against you and cost you sharp photos, even when everything feels right in the field.
One Simple Photography Goal for 2026
Published: Jan 7, 2026 · Duration: 6 min 52 sec · 10K views
*🌟Reserve Your FREE Copy of My Lightroom Colors Course🌟* Happy New Year! This video is all about a simple personal shift I’m making with my landscape photography as we begin 2026. Over the past few years I slowly drifted into the habit of shooting too much whenever I was on location, capturing endless variations of the same composition instead of slowing down and being truly intentional with each individual frame.
