Shooting big events, is it worth it?

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 […]

Lessons learned form the Marshall Fire

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 […]

Are cheap photographers ruining the market?

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 […]

The difference between a beauty dish and a softbox

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 […]

Stellar Data Recovery software

A few weeks ago, I was asked by Stellar Data recovery to test their software and review it from the perspective of a photographer. They provided me a 30-day license key so I could review their software from a clear and unbiased perspective. One of the most terrifying things about being a photographer is the fear of losing important images. […]

Canon to discontinue the 5D line of cameras.

Disappointing news for any Canon shooter who use the 5D line. I personally shoot the Canon 5DMkIV (and the MKIII) and was looking forward to the announcement of its successor. Canon will discontinue the 5D line of cameras, apparently going all in on their new mirrorless R5 and R6 as the first in line for the new 5 series. This […]

Ten things you want to say when critiquing a photo

I hang around in a lot of the online photography forums and often find myself wanting to say things that would be considered inflammatory or just in bad taste. This is a short list of some of the things I ask my monitor when I see “those” shots.   Cool job on the HDR, let me guess, are you a […]

Loading RAW files into an older version of Lightroom

I have done a ton of research and sorted out the best way to open RAW files on your computer. I have also figured out the best way to resolve the issues with opening RAW images from a newer camera on an older version of Lightroom. As a bonus, I have also discovered the best way to catalog and keep […]

Olympus to sell off their imaging division

Long-time camera  industry member Olympus announced today that they would be selling their imaging division to Japan Industrial Partners who bought the lagging Vaio laptop brand six years ago from Sony Corp. and turned it into Vaio Corp. Japan Industrial Partners has experience resurrecting  failing consumer brands. I don’t think anyone considers Vaio’s laptops as top of the line by […]

Sony product advisory for some SD cards

Sony has released a product advisory for some of their SD cards where the data would be corrupted when being written by a camera or even worse not written at all. If you use Sony SD cards make sure to take some time to check the information below ato see if your cards are affected by this issue.  The notice—first […]

What is the difference between RAW and .jpg?

We often hear about shooting in RAW versus .jpg, what is the RAW format and why is it better than .jpg? Once you have a RAW file how do you get it back into .jpg format to share it online? Why do RAW files look drab compared to the image displayed on the back of your camera? All good questions, […]

Using Native American regalia as props

Recently I posted an article about my Native American heritage, you can read the original article here. In that article I talked about the practice of using Native Headdresses as props in portrait photography and why that isn’t ok. I spend a lot of time in photography forums attempting to educate photographers on Native culture and why it is offensive […]

Disabled Artists, get your work shown.

In 1999 a car accident left me with no vision in one eye and 5% low functioning vision in the other. In the small corner of vision I have remaining, I can see light and shadow and color. I picked up my camera and began shooting seriously in 2000. My love of photography began in 1986 in college. My parents […]

Exploring the toxicity of internet photography forums

Exploring the toxicity of internet photography forums Earlier this month, I posted a teaser on several internet photography forums for an upcoming comparison I am working on between the Profoto B10 and Godox AD200 strobes. I left the following post up for a little over 24 hours so I could gauge the overall reaction in what has increasingly become a […]