THESE PDF COPIES ARE FREE COURTESY LIGHTING ESSENTIALS AND THE TALENTED PHOTOGRAPHERS FEATURED INSIDE.
Interview with David Giral, Montreal Photographer
Our Interview with Montreal Photographer David Giral. I met David in Toronto at the Workshop. I loved his work and asked him to do this interview with us. 1. How long have you been in business? Was it a slow transition or did you just open shop? Until recently, I...
First Live Broadcast: Discuss Photography and Promotion
This is for today's date: Thursday, July 29, 2010. It will not be archived unless I decide to, you know, archive it... we'll see. We are going to try a little something different. Recently we have discussed pricing and the perils of "shooting for free" and the perils...
Shooting Waverunners in Mexico – In the Ocean
Well, I am kinda with my buddy Kirk here. We have had some distinctly powerful discussions on working for free and what to charge. So we are going to lighten it up a bit with some discussions on images. So let's take a look at something I am working on right now. I...
Enough Negativity: Ten Things to Positively Affect Your Photography
While some pros are worried about kids shooting Facebook and concert pix for free, I think that the perspective is really skewed when we start to become more interested in what non-consequential folks are doing and forget to be excited about this wonderful thing...
No Assignments Without Experience, No Experience without Assignments… Yeah, That Makes Sense, Right?
Rant/Rave today. So it kinda sounds like this to a lot of young photographers: 1. You can't get gigs unless you have experience. 2. Without actual shoots you cannot get experience. 3. You must always charge for your work (see # 1 above) 4. Get an assistant gig. 5....
What is the Difference Between Shooting for Free and Shooting for Me?
And I should add to that headline... "and not giving a damn?" Today's RANT on common sense. A recent post at Blackstar Rising has created a mini fire-storm there. The post, by John Harrington, who runs the very popular and quite informative Photo Business News and...
Sometimes It Is About Being Able to Simply Get the Shot
A bit of a Rant - a bit of a Rave. Something for everyone. I just had lunch with a photographer friend of mine, Ken Easley. We were chatting about business when Ken brought up a recent assignment he had finished. It was a shoot of 13 or 14 corporate head shots. I will...
On the Matter of Style: Some Examples
We were talking about style and vision in the last few posts. I thought I would take this point to show some photographers who I believe show a lot of vision and style. This is as nearly a random sampling of the photographers I love as possible. There are a lot of...
What Makes a Photograph “Great?”
A reader left this rather innocuous comment on the post about gear, 'What We Mean When We Say “It’s Not About The Gear'". I read it a few times then decided that it was one terribly difficult question followed by one that may be even more thorny. Just the kind we...
Photoshop Can Increase the Power of Your Strobe! (Sortof)
Increasing Strobe Power with Photoshop. Yeah... that's right. We can actually create an impression of more power with our speedlights by carefully thinking about the images we make. Photoshop gives us the edge. But it takes careful planning and attention to detail to...
What We Mean When We Say “It’s Not About The Gear”
This post was instigated by a post a friend of mine made. Brian Matiash's blog post, "It's not about the gear?" takes a well written hit at many of us who state that being a good photographer is not about the gear. I think he has some valid points, but I also think he...
Four Photographers on the Trek to the Top
Guys... I got so tired of hearing how it is so horrible out there, and how there's no this and no that. I just got over it. So I decided to put out a tweet for some emerging photographers to chat with. No formal questions, just some chatting. I was so happy when I got...
My Turn: DPP’s Article on FREE Images Examined
I am a voracious reader. I love it. I read all sorts of stuff, and love to learn something new. I also suffer fools badly, so if someone thinks they are gonna say stuff and I will just take it, well... sometimes they get an earful. It is something that makes me who I...
Our First Big Contest: Shooting to a Layout
UPDATE: OUR WINNER IS Rasheid Scarlett! Congratulations, Rasheid. Well, here we launch into our first big contest. Shooting to layout is a very important part of shooting commercially. And there are some tricky issues if you are not familiar with doing it. It isn't...
Be Visible to Everyone When They Need You. Mobile Sites
A guest post by Daron Shade, Photographer and Web Designer. I never really thought that a mobile site was important for photographers until recently. My studio has a great address, 302 S. Park Ave. Unfortunately, the streets of Tucson were not so much designed as just...
Ten Things That Can Help You Get a Photographers Assisting Gig
Getting an assistant gig is top of mind for a lot of commercial shooters starting out. It can mean exciting photo shoots, learning the ropes they didn't learn in photo school (and them's a lot of ropes), and an opportunity to work in their chosen industry while...
27 From 27: Recent Photographs from the LE FLickr Pool
Well, we have another set of images from the pool. I wanted to make it hard to pick so I went back 27 pages and took the image from each page that seemed to command the top spot. Damn, it was hard. Lots and lots of talented people shooting out there, and a lot of them...
A Chat with Steve of “Standbagger” Fame. Cool Gear for Photographers.
I made some gear changes recently. One is a well-known, very popular company and the other is a small startup company with one employee. Standbagger is the the small company I refer to, and of course you cn see from the cover shot that I have gone with Profoto Compact...
In Praise of Natural Light: Examples and Discussion.
I guess I missed International Available Light Portrait Day, but then I am wondering when I get to color eggs and hide them in our miserably small back yard. My bud in Texas, Kirk Tuck, did a nice little post on Available Light, and got me thinking about how much I...
New York, May 2010: Fun in the Big City, a Look Back
Well, that went fast. And not as I expected at all. Faster and crazier than planned, and it left little time for writing and posting. My sincere apologies on that. I am way behind my time on keeping the blog fresh, I am afraid, and will try to correct that this and...
An Evening with Parish Kohanim, Atlanta Photographer
RAVE: Last evening I had an opportunity to listen to Parish Kohanim speak about his photography, philosophy and decades of shooting for the world of advertising. I remember picking up a Black Book oh so many years ago and finding his pages. He was in "South" category,...
You Know That Guy… I Hate That Guy. Am I Somehow More Successful Now?
Well... maybe it is the change of weather. Maybe it is simply a function of the internet allowing a diverse level of interaction. The great democratization of opinion and content. I dunno. But it seems designed to actually create a more divisive institution. And we...
A Few Portraits from the Archives
On the heels of my E-Book on Portraits, "The Heart of Portraiture", I have a few other portraits to share. And I discuss why I like them. Article on the E-Book is here. First some housekeeping: GoingProNOW is our emerging commercial photographer seminar with Selina...
“The Heart of Portraiture” E-Book: 20 Portraits Discussed.
I wanted to do something for this month (May) as it represents the month I started working on the whole Lighting Essentials thing about 4 years ago. The book I am working on I call "The Heart of Portraiture II" and it includes nearly 40 shots with lighting diagrams...
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