Starting has always been tough. They don’t tell you that when you buy a camera. Or the new lens you get so excited to use. “This,” we think, “is going to change everything!” Except it doesn’t. At least not yet, because you’re (to misquote Julia Roberts in Notting Hill) still just a girl standing in front of a boy asking …
Stop Looking (Only) for Subjects?
I went to Kenya last month with the usual mix of excitement and worry. Excitement for all the normal reasons, not the least of which was being in front of wonderful things in beautiful light with my camera in my hand. Worry because I really didn’t want to come back with different versions of the same photographs I’ve made before. …
6 Ways to Be Less Un-Ready
This post is accompanied by some of the work I shot over the last 4 weeks in Kenya. What a trip it’s been. I hope you enjoy the images! My grand-dad was a Scout. At the time he was the highest decorated man in the scouting movement in the UK, a movement whose motto is “Be Prepared.” I like to …
Are Your Shoulds Hurting Your Creativity?
I ask myself a lot of questions as I make my photographs. What’s this scene really about? What do I include, and what do I leave out? What possessed me to get up at 5 am and sit in the rain? Those kinds of questions. Like you, I also ask myself what I might do with my exposure, how I …
It’s Enough to Know Enough
Put the coffee on, maybe pour a glass of wine. This will take you about eight minutes to read, but it might be a great way to recalibrate for the year ahead. If you’re looking for the winners of the Gura Gear Giveaway, you can find those towards the bottom of this piece. My first camera was relatively easy to use. A …
The Power of Mood
Photography can be many things. For some, it’s about capturing scenes. For me, it’s about conveying emotions and suggesting narratives that resonate deeply, first with me and then with the viewers who might experience the image. I’m not so much after eyes as I am hearts and minds. Mood does that. The mood of a photograph is its emotional tone—a …
(In)Decent Exposures?
5 Ways to Greater Competence & Control In my last dispatch, I talked about competence, hoping that asking “Is my work getting better?” might lead you to more productive places in your craft than asking “Is it good?” I suggested that a first step might be to get better at the basics of your craft before running off all half-cocked to …
Is it Getting Better?
Two weeks ago, I suggested you stop asking if your photographs are good and that you not concern yourself with whether they are or are not art. I advocated a more playful approach guided by what you love and what brings you joy. I argued that the growth in your craft could be channelled by that love because the more you love doing …
Stop Making Art?
My photography is never so difficult and robbed of its joy as when I try too hard to make it “good” (whatever that means) or worse: to make “art.“ The moment I focus my concern on the outcome of what I am making or how it is received by others, my work becomes rigid and self-conscious. Not only does the …
Between What If? and What Now?
I once wrote that “what if?” was the central question for creative people. I also once wrote that our expectations of what we hope for—of a place, a subject matter, even an idea—can blind us to the reality of it. You show up in Venice to photograph the city in fog and experience agua alta, the high flood waters of …