ARCHIVED ARTICLES
2013: Books Without Photos… Oh My!
I love books. My wife and I have enough for a small library I am sure. Every room of our home has books in it. And a good quantity of them as well. We read avariciously. Marian prefers fiction, while I spend a lot of time with non-fiction and poetry. It gives us a...
2013: Essay One: Distractions
2013. Seems like only yesterday we were all freaked out about the Y2K fraud. And we have made it 12 years into what was called the new millennium, to find that it is pretty much like the old millennium... with a few tweaks. This is New Years Day. A time for many of us...
Meet Matt Dutile: A Passion for the Image
Matt started his photography career here in Phoenix about 4 years ago. Actually, four years ago today as I understand it. His work is focused on travel and lifestyle, and he is working for several clients that have sent him to some pretty cool locations. You can visit...
Post Processing: A Small Harbor in Maine
There are times when I am shooting when I am in complete control of the situation. Well, at least as much control as the world lets me think I am capable of. And there are times when I am not taking a photograph, but in fact taking a capture to allow me to make a...
Pogoplug: Now This is Useful AND Cool
I just set up my Pogoplug. I plugged it in, turned it on, set it up and went to work Took about 2 minutes. Tops. Wait... you may not know what a Pogoplug is. Now this thing is cool. Think of it as a network drive / personal cloud sort of thing. With a very cool set of...
Shooting Shiny Stuff at P52
Sometimes photographers have to shoot shiny stuff. Lighting works very differently on things that are shiny compared to how light works on more diffused subject matter. The shinier the object, the more it will be reflecting the light sources - both main and secondary....
OT Sunday: Eliot Carter, American Composer
Eliot Carter was my favorite contemporary composer. It was his first and second string quartets that opened my mind to the possibilities of linear melody/rhythm and the transformative nature of time. I discovered his music in my second year of music school and have...
An Open Letter to a New “Photography” Blogger
(from a recent forum post where a new blogger was talking about 'getting out there and doing it... going pro.) Hi, I just looked at your blog and I have a few questions. Who are you trying to reach with the blog? Clients? Or other photographers? Clients would be a...
The Fabulous Sandwich: Some Examples
Some shining examples of food shooting and shooting to layout from the Project 52 group. The assignment: Your assignment is to do a very interesting sandwich shot that fairly reeks of “high end cuisine sandwich” – and for this you will have a layout. The designer has...
Business Slow? Have You Tried These Ideas?
Today? I mean today... These are simple ideas, built to do quickly or without being in a rush. Do at least five of them every day. 1. Have you checked in with past clients? Have you kept up with them? And more importantly, have you kept them up to date on what you are...
“Fredericksburg Today” a New Book by Steve Collins
Steve Collins has been a friend for several years. We met at a workshop, and he has been a huge part of Project 52. Steve is building his business one client at a time in Fredericksburg, VA (a small town outside of Washington, DC). I have watched his work grow...
Trick or Treat… or Something…
My kids love Halloween. I can remember every trek through the streets with plastic pumpkins in hand, towing a wagon with the smallest riding along. The great folks over at Project 52 have been adding zombie and other un-human images to our Flickr page. I thought I...
Three Bidding Fiascos: Be Prepared or Stay Home
Recently I had an opportunity to sit and chat (over delicious Mexican food) with two very good photographers. Dave and Steve are both well seasoned, and full on commercial photographers here in Phoenix. As things do, we began discussing gigs and some of the war...
OK, Now I’m Hungry… the Food Photography of Michele Drumm
Michele Drumm is a photographer in the Washington DC / Fredricksberg area of Virginia. Her work ranges from still life to environments, but one of her great loves is shooting food. From meticulous studio shoots to on location editorial work, Michele brings a bit of...
Should You Shoot ‘Edgy’ Work for Your Portfolio?
Recently a photographer asked about whether or not "Fantasy" makeup or "Avant Garde" images should be included in a commercial photographer's portfolio. The work he was specifically asking about was a kind of shoot one sees a lot on Model Mayhem... multi-colored...
Bret Doss’s “Fallen Leaf” Series
Bret Doss is a photographer and an engineer in Seattle, Washington. He and I have traveled the PNW together on occasion and he was my assistant on the Creative LIVE workshops. He is a talented photographer with a wide range of interests. From fashionable portraiture...
Gear List / Links for the UDEMY Portrait Class
Class: Portrait Photography with Simple Gear Link to the Class Page. Stand (even better a stand and a boom) Umbrella Holder Umbrella (shoot through and bounce) Flash (the kind that goes on the camera, but also has the ability to set the power manually) A trigger set...
Facebook Slams the Door on Photographers
As photographers, Social Media takes a hit on all of our time. We do it for various reasons. Because it is fun. Because it is a good way to reach people who are otherwise not reachable. Because it is certainly a powerful part of the lives of all of us in business....
It Costs What It Costs
I purchased a car yesterday. I haven't bought a car for a while, always getting the wife's hand me down... heh. But with the new business, a new ride is imperative. It was pretty painless. I told them straight up that I had no time or energy for haggling (and they...
Project 52 PRO – Works
At the Project 52 PRO group, there are an astounding group of photographers all helping to boost each other into professionalism. Most of them have gotten a paying gig this year, and we are well on the way to making that happen for all of them. The point of Project 52...
On Style: Personal Take
This morning I followed a link on Twitter to a website devoted (supposedly) to helping photographers learn to be better photographers. The name of the post was something along the lines of "12 Super Awesome Ways to Make Epic Images" or something similar - and no, I am...
Instagram… it is Not the Devil (or is it?)
Instagram was a tiny app that grew at an amazing rate. Hipstagram is another app that has grown faster than most, and Snapseed was just purchased by Google. What does that mean? Is it, as one of the articles below suggests, the end of photography? Or is it a new, and...
The Secret Is…
... that the secret doesn't exist. There is no secret. Has never been a secret. Lately I have been noticing a lot more "Secrets to Successful Whateverthehellitis-ness". Secrets that are so secret that you can buy them in a book or an ebook or get them for a buck on...
Cameras Are Tools. Vision is Photography.
I love this article on communication, photography and the distractions of gear and platforms. Photographer Jon Stanmeyer hits the nail smack on the head with this post on the distraction of the medium over the substance of the image itself. "Now here is what’s key...
My UDEMY Class on Portraiture is Live
The good folks at UDEMY.com asked me to create a course for them. Portrait Photography with Simple Gear I chose doing a sort of overview for portraiture. Not your typical headshot stuff, although we do look at traditional beauty. In this course we look at using...
Yes, You Can Trust Your Professional Photographer (Essay Nine)
I don't have a photograph to run with this article. I wouldn't want to even think about what photograph I would run here. And, by the way, this is me being pissed off again. So if that sort of thing makes you uneasy, and you are all fine with an industry leader...
Does Vison Trump Gear? (Essay Eight)
Recently an article caught my attention over at TIME. "Last Launch: Dan Winters and the Shuttle Program. TIME had commissioned Winters to photograph the final launch of the Space Shuttle and they showed a few of the images that will soon be in the book. The images are...
Trees, Roots and the Artist (Essay Seven)
Photography at its best can be a reflection of the world in ways that we have never been seen before. It is the photographer's vision that makes the image become more than it could have been. But at the heart of the photographer's vision, there is a deep foundation of...
Keith and the Kudzu (Essay Six)
Keith was a photographer in Atlanta, Georgia. A dedicated artist and all around fun guy, he nonetheless harbored a deep and unrelenting anger toward the Kudzu that grew all around his studio. (For those unenlightened souls, Kudzu is an Asian plant brought to Georgia...
The Big Camera (Essay Five)
My Deardorff is still one my favorite cameras. Starting to shoot Tintype with it, but it is a bit slow going. I don't have the time I need to devote to the learning curve of tintype exposure. I shoot some black and white with it as well, and will be taking a box of...
