Let’s be honest—landscape photography is like fishing with a camera. You cast your tripod into the great unknown, baited with hope, and wait for nature to cooperate. Sometimes you catch gold. Other times, you get a sky so bland it looks like it called in sick. When I started my photographic journey, I fell hard for landscapes. There’s something deeply […]
Over the years, I’ve watched technology transform photography, graphic design, and other creative industries—and the latest wave of AI is simply breathtaking. When Change Rolls In Every business faces a turning point. Picture a scenic mountain pass near Denver: as you drive, the familiar landscape gives way to unexpected vistas. Similarly, when the market evolves—like AI stepping onto the stage—business […]
One of the most common questions I get is: “how do I choose the right lens for what I am shooting?” It seems like there are a million choices they are all in millimeters and they have f numbers attached to them. What the heck is the difference between a prime and variable aperture zoom/telephoto lens? Do I need a […]
Sometimes I feel like you should just not have to say that jumping into a lion enclosure to take a selfie is just not safe. Whether it is jumping into an animal cage or onto active train tracks to get that shot, it isn’t worth it to put yourself and others at risk. Even when you are absolutely sure that […]
TFP stands for Time for Prints (sometimes also referred to as Trade for Prints or Time for portfolio). In the world of photography, TFP represents a collaborative arrangement between a photographer and a model. Here’s what it entails: Definition TFP involves a mutual exchange where the photographer agrees to provide the model with a specified number of selected photographs from […]
A question I often get is how to protect your work as a photographer. Just like with everything, there are a million opinions, and most are uninformed or just flat out wrong. Perhaps the most common misconception about protecting your work is that if you say something is copyrighted, then you are safe if someone steals your work. Likewise, many […]
Practice safe portraiture Hearing about the death of someone while taking photos is always heartbreaking for me. Recently, A Singaporean tourist, Nur Aisyah Binte MD Akbar (39), tragically died after falling off a cliff while taking a photo with her husband. The tragedy occurred at Minnewaska State Park near Rochester, New York, on December 22, 2023. The couple had been […]
When it comes to choosing the right memory card for your camera, there is no shortage of choices. SD, CF, CF Express, MicroSD, SDXC the choices seem endless and there is a lot of conflicting information about the best type and brand to choose. Even worse, in online reviews, it often feels like the reviewers have spent little or no […]
When we start in photography, just like any other art form, it’s fun to explore and experiment with different modifiers, lights, and gear to help us try and sort out our artistic style. I started shooting seriously in 2000 but waited until 2013 to buy my first ND filter. Now that we are ten years in, what brand of ND […]
Are you looking for a simple, fun, and creative way to spice up your portraiture? I created this image in a single frame (no photoshop other than to adjust the shadows) with a single strobe and some stuff I found lying around the house. The technique is called light painting, and depending on the light source you use and it’s […]
In my years as a photographer, I have found that there are two very distinct types of people creating photographic work. The first type of person tends to lean on their past accomplishments. They took that one photo on vacation or at a sporting event and that is the image they show to anyone who is willing to view their […]
A C Stand is a heavy metal stand which holds its roots in early film production. The stands were used to hold lights, modifiers, silks, backgrounds and much more on film sets. Their stability and versatility make them a staple for any studio work. One of the most common questions I get is what is a C Stand, and do […]
There are a lot of visually impaired people who use still cameras as an important tool to capture a scene (like birthday party, or other special event) and see it later on a larger computer monitor. The inherent problem with this solution is that until recently, there were no DSLR cameras available with accessible menus. In late 2021, Sony launched […]
AI (Artificial Intelligence) photo editing has been around for a few years now. How have programs which implement Machine Learning and AI to simplify complex editing tasks changed the photography industry? What are the positives and negatives for utilizing these programs in your editing workflow, and what is on the horizon? The driving forces If you are a professional landscape […]
Over a decade ago, the Federal Government outlined exactly the circumstances when a photographer would need to obtain a permit to shoot in a National Park. From the legislation: The Parks “shall not require a permit or assess a fee for still photography in a System unit if the photography takes place where members of the public are generally allowed,” […]
I have been using Luminar in my workflow for a few years now. I always found the program to have specific uses in my photography workflow, in earlier versions I liked the color adjustments a bit better than Lightroom, and in later versions I liked the Accent AI for the vibrance it added to an image when used in subtle […]
In a recent article by Dan Zafra from PetaPixel, the ugly truth about shooting big locations and events is revealed. Dan talks about his experience shooting Yosemite’s Firefall. Once a year during the first couple weeks of February, the sun lights up Yosemite Horsetail Falls giving it a lava-like or fire-like appearance. The rampant popularity f photography has caused events […]
As a photographer, most of us are completely focused on creating new work. Whether you shoot landscapes, weddings, portraits or products, we are all constantly amassing new folders of work. Most of the photographers I work with have a hard drive that sits on their desk that gets new files placed onto it once a week, month, or quarter depending […]
Before we go further, I should present a warning that some opinions in this article may be triggering for many professional-level photographers. Today’s topic is: do cheap/budget photographers hurt the market as a whole? I know a ton of pro and non-pro photographers and I have spent many hours pondering and debating this question. Every market has them Whether you […]
Lighting modifiers can be very confusing. I’m often asked about the difference between the light dispersal pattern for a beauty dish and a softbox when shooting portraits. Other questions you might have are: should I buy a beauty dish? Or is there a difference between a fold up beauty dish and one of those hard to store solid units? and […]
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