Photography is Attitude, Not Hardware

Photography is an art that is based on vision and intent. It is about attitude, regardless of your equipment. We can blame the layman, but we are equally to blame. Find out why, read on.

Learning From One Month of Daily Photos

After a month of shooting daily, I have garnered some more insight into the benefits and hindrances of such a project. It’s a challenge, but there’s a lot to be learned. In this follow-up post, I share all of my insights from my own experiences.

Learning Photography Without Rules

Many beginning photographers start out by learning the rules. Perhaps this works for some, but for many, it’s difficult to apply the rules until we fully understand their purpose. In this article, we briefly discuss why such rules exist, and the proper way to learn how (not) to use them.

Andre Gunther: How to Develop Your Own Style of Photography

Andre Gunther wrote an interesting article, How to Develop Your Own Style of Photography, mapping out some tips and tactics one can use to develop their photographic style.  Your photographic style is something that we like to discuss a lot here at Shutter Photo, so I thought it was an appropriate article to bring to [...]

Pride: A Photographer’s Best Growth Tool

Pride is everything and anything in your work. Like many aspects of our art form, there is a delicate balance. Learn to control your pride and use it to your benefit your photography in this article.

Crossing Boundaries: Breakfast of Verbal Champions (via TerribleMinds)

Okay…so when Chuck Wendig shares his wisdom with the world, it’s predominantly from the perspective of a writer.  After all, that’s what he is and that’s what pays his bills.  But the boundaries between art forms are blurry.  What Chuck speaks about in his latest post, Breakfast of Verbal Champions, can apply to any creative [...]

Most Popular Photography Hacks of 2009 (via Lifehacker)

Lifehacker is one of those sites you stumble upon every once in a while.  It doesn’t always relate to something that’s interesting to you, but occasionally they pull through.  In celebration of the end of the year, Lifehacker has a number of great re-caps in a number of categories.  But since photography is our thing, [...]

SP@Flickr: “Sepia” by Kika Clore-Gronenborn

When is a subject both transparent and right before your eyes at the same time? When is unorthodox lighting incredibly appealing? Read on to see why Kika Clore-Gronenborn’s photo, “Sepia”, breaks all the rules but remains inspirational.

Tale of Two Tunnels – Learning From Similar Photos by Others

When you stumble upon a photo that is similar (and possibly better) than you’re own, don’t get bitter. Learn something. Strap on your analyzing hat and learn as much as possible from the other shot. Read on to see an example and to see what (and how) you can learn from a photograph similar to your own.

Learning to See Creatively (A Book by Bryan Peterson)

Shutter Photo reviews an instructional book, “Learning to See Creatively” by Bryan Peterson, professional photographer, instructor and author of many books on photography. Read on to see our thoughts and learn how this book can help you improve your photography. A must-read for beginners.

Composing Photos Using the Building Blocks of Design

To help new students understand basic design concepts, instructors will introduce them to the basic elements of design – or as I like to call them: Building Blocks of Design: Line, Shape, Form, Texture, Pattern and Color. Read on to see how we can approach these elements and consciously compose interesting photographs.

Skill and Vision: Yin and Yang

This weekend, while I tried (and failed) to produce a new portrait for myself, I had two somewhat related and equally eye opening thoughts:

Technical skill is nothing without Creative Vision.
Creative Vision is nothing without the skill to back it up.

I think this is somethign that I understood all along, something that waited in the depths [...]