Weeks ago I posted an image to the Vision-Collective, my private mentoring community to which many of you belong. The image was Wynn Bullock’s Child in Forest, 1951. The responses to that image and the resulting conversations were intriguing to me. Some responded to the image as I do, finding in the image a sense of idyllic calm. Some were …
Hone Your Creativity: 3 Ways
Two weeks ago I published Leaving Dafen (From Craft to Art), an article that discusses the shift from craft to art; rather, it promises that such a shift was possible and points out the need for courage to make it happen. It’s not an easy subject, nor one I intend to make simple. But I think that at the …
How To Get Sh*t Done
Have you ever felt like you’re insanely busy but not actually accomplishing anything? Like you’re frantically doing stuff but never getting stuff done? Being creative, no matter what the discipline or genre means making things, it means creating, and to do that – whether it’s one photograph or a significant body of work, never mind all the things we need …
The One About Creative Burnout
I’m tired. Not like the “I need a nap” kind of tired, but the kind of tired that goes into your soul and slows your thinking and makes you dread the things you were so excited to put on the calendar only a few months ago. The kind of tired that feels like the first signs of burning out. And …
How to Deal with Creative Boredom
I get about a dozen emails or comments on social media every month asking me what to do when you wake up one day and you realize you’re bored and you feel like your photographs are boring and because the only only thing worse than making boring photographs is being bored yourself, and because I think there’s a connection, I …
Change How You Make Photographs.
Today’s the day you’ve been waiting for! For some of you it’s the day I finally stop teasing you about The Compelling Frame. For some of you it’s the day I finally stop talking about it. If you’re among the first, then you’re in luck! If you’re among the second group, I’m sorry to say you’ve got another week to …
3 Ways to Start Seeing Better
This is the final of three videos I’ve made to introduce you to the course I’m releasing next week. The Course is called The Compelling Frame and I’ll give you a sneak peek at it in this video. The video is about learning to see because while we’re exploring making stronger photographs with composition and visual design I think it …
3 Ways to Improve Your Compositions Now
Last week I put up a video about Making Images That Connect. This morning I’ve put up the second video. If the first video was about the need to make stronger images, this is about how we begin to really do that. It’s not a long video and it’s not a full-on course in composition (that’s coming!) – but doing …
Making Images that Connect
If you’ve been around here a while you know I’ve been on a bit of a tear about the importance of composition in making images that connect: images that do more than just get a like on Facebook or Instagram. And I’ve been around long enough to know that this is the big hurdle of most photographers – sure, we …
Stoke the Fire
Sometimes you lose the fire. Sometimes, after years of loving something, you can’t find the spark. I’ve had a couple photographers recently tell me they’ve lost it, that they awoke one morning to find their groove had become a rut and they felt trapped and directionless. It happens. And sometimes the answer is just pick up the camera, get out …