Failure Is the Foundation to Success Failure in photography happens to everyone that owns a camera at some point in their life. I have failed many times and I’m sure you’ve failed at least once in something if not photography. Others have failed too, but the key to...
Picasso Knew the Value of Experience I’m often asked about my prices for my prints, my photography workshops or my fees for my photography. My normal answer is, “You’re not paying for how long it took me to print the photograph, not even how long it took to create the...
Interesting Photography Lighting Keys Ask a group of professional photographers how to achieve high-key lighting and chances are you’ll receive multiple answers to achieve the same results for a lighting technique used to eliminate shadows from primarily white...
No Need for A Lens Break A traditional rule in people photography is to avoid harsh, midday sunlight, but there is one way you can be a midday photography rule-breaker and avoid no-income siestas. The easiest fix, look for open shade under a tree or building overhang,...
Let the Wind of Mother Nature Be Your Art Director I’ve conducted hundreds of photography workshopsfor almost two decades now and I can tell you, often I see photographers fighting the elements of Mother Nature, like the wind, instead of capitalizing on the beauty it...
Framing and Background Separation Come Natural When you place a model in something as simple as a doorway, you help separate your model from the background. Here, our agency model Jenni, stands in the doorway of a bathroom. Since the bathroom had intense household...
Like many photographers, the first time use of a photography product can give you doubts, but my first time use of the SUNBOUNCE Sun-Cage, left no doubts in my mind what it can do for a photographer. The SUNBOUNCE Sun-Cage is basically a portable photography studio in...
Sometimes, as photographers, we run out of ideas, and if we’ve planned a photo shoot for a portfolio promotion, it’s potentially costly, especially if we’re paying the model along with the hair, make-up and assistant. Even the great photographers that created...
I’m often asked, “What lens do you prefer to use, a prime or zoom?” My response is usually the lens that best suits my needs, however, primes are my preferred lenses. A prime lens is a fixed-focal length lens, usually with less elements inside as it only serves one...
Chairs come in many shapes and forms and are constructed from an almost limitless variety of materials. This makes chairs a great posing aid for models, but don’t get caught up in believing all chairs need four legs. While working in the Virgin Islands, I photographed...
Improve Your Photography, Get It Straight There are many things to consider when it comes to the elements of composition that make for a great photo, but one often overlooked element is the natural horizon and in manmade forms, horizontal lines. The popular belief...
Throughout my career, I’ve made about a dozen trips to Hawaii, my first landed me in Honolulu as a photojournalist on assignment to cover the military’s Joint Task Force Full Accounting mission. On that assignment, weeks before the 20th anniversary of the fall of...
Photography Sessions with Model Jessica I believe a good photography tip can come from just learning from the story behind the photos, in this case, my photo shoot with model Jessica at Lake Como. Both of these two images were shot on Lake Como close to the Italian...
When we point our cameras into the deep-blue sky to take a photograph, do we always get the color and hues we see? Most of the time yes, but if the sky is gray-dull, or you’re in a creative mood, you can change the sky into any color you’d like. You can even control...
White balance is a subjective decision, and I would suggest not letting the digital camera make that decision for you—thus, it’s best to avoid AWB, or the automatic white balance setting on your digital camera. In AWB, the scene is analyzed during the exposure and...
