goals

Photographers are a crazy bunch. Laying on the pavement, climbing trees – standing on crates just to get the right angle. We can collect some pretty interesting comments and gather a lot of strange looks. It’s inevitable. But we need to overcome. In this article, I share about my own silly experiences and how I overcame my own fears.

Passion is absolutely necessary for any photographer to excel at his craft. We explore the passions of famous photographers and discuss why you should shoot your passions as well.

Wrapping up Get Pushed, Round 25, we highlight three inspiring photos from the group. Read on to be inspired by these great works.

NextGEN Gallery – the leading gallery plugin for Wordpress – was recently acquired by Photocrati – a leading Wordpress template for Photographers. Read on to hear why this affects you and why we think this is great news.

Lists are a great way to track your ideas and thoughts, but they can also be a great way to inspire yourself for the future. There are two lists I use most of all: The Photo Bucket List and the Photo Theme List. Read on to learn how to fill your down-time with these great lists.

Don’t fall into the trap of trying to justify the prices of your works. It’s a downward spiral that should be avoided. We have some business advice when it comes to pricing your photos. Read on to learn more…

So, you’re ready to purchase your second (or possibly your third) lens for you camera gear collection.  I’m going to assume you’ve been shooting with your SLR for about a year, maybe more, and you’re comfortable with the technical side of photography.  I’m also going to assume you’ve been smart about your upgrades to date and you’re adopted a reasonable upgrade philosophy.  In other words, you’re thinking intelligently about which holes you need to fill with your lens upgrades.  A second or third lens is not likely to replace the lens you already have.  I would expect that the lens you have is a jack-of-all-trades (master of none) type, something like an 18-200mm zoom with a variable max aperture starting in the f/3.5 range.  Or possibly you have two lenses, an 18-50mm and a 50-200mm, both with variable apertures starting in the f/3.5 range.  They’re good as all-around type lenses, but they aren’t allowing you to get the extra pop that you want in your photographs.  And that’s why you’re looking to upgrade.  Of course the needs of your upgrade depends on where you want to go.  And so I’ve separated out the different upgrade scenarios based on where you …

A personal photographic style is what sets your photos apart from other photographers.  A personal style is what we are all struggling to achieve.  Which is amusing as it’s the one thing that occurs naturally.  Your personal style is a nice mixture of your experience, subjects you love and the works of others that you admire.  And it’s constantly evolving.  Imitation is the best flattery, and you can learn a lot and evolve by mimicking the works of others. I’m touching on a very sensitive subject here.  There is a fine line between copying a style and imitating a style, and it’s a difficult line to definitively draw.  In my opinion, copying is when you flat out throw your own experiences and your own techniques to completely and blatantly recreate another artist’s style.  We don’t want to copy.  Never mind the bad karma and the potential for legal repercussions.  Copying does not help you evolve as a photographer.  What we want is to evolve.  Mimicking another person’s style – which requires you blending a bit of their style in with all of your style – is one way to evolve.  There’s nothing wrong with mimicking a style. Personally, I often try to incorporate elements …

It’s not enough to be an expert in photography. It’s not enough to be a master of composition. If you want to get anywhere, one should look beyond photography. Read on to learn why expertise outside of photography is what a photographer is really known for.

Do you know Chance? He’s got his own agenda, and he could care less if you get a great photo. But he has a hand in much of your work. So it’s time to become his friend…