Click play to watch this 7-minute video Transcript: I think many photographers put all their creative eggs in too few baskets. They look to the work they do with the camera as job one, which it is. But it’s not the only job. It’s the sexy job, for sure. But it’s insufficient. Some lean heavily on post-processing or development; you …
3 Ways To Love Your Photographs More
Click play to watch this 7-minute video Earlier this week I started a conversation I’ve been dying to have for a while: specifically, why do photographers get so intimidated by the edit and the “Now what?” that comes once we put the camera down? And are we missing important opportunities? For years, I’ve been signing my letters and articles to …
Better Editing, Better Photographs
Click play to watch this 8-minute video I’d love to hear from you on this. Where do you find your greatest challenges when it comes to choosing your best work and doing something with them, staying organized, and doing all the work that happens beyond the shutter? If you feel like talking about it, drop me a note in the …
What’s Missing From Your Photography?
I was both excited and nervous about going to Kenya recently after a two-year absence. Beyond the extraordinary experience of just being in my happiest of places, there is always the pressure of the photographs. Will they be stronger than they’ve been in the past? Will I find ideas that interest me? Will my new gear and my growing familiarity with …
Your Best Shot Isn’t (Usually) Your Only Shot
I traveled once with a photographer who would leap into a scene, press the shutter, and more often than not exclaim, “I got the shot!” Depending on whether you were there at the time or only heard of it after the fact, it was either really annoying or mildly amusing. If the direction into which he leapt to “get the shot” happened …
From “It’s Not Working,” to “How Can I Work It?”
Have you ever spent time behind the camera working on that image you’ve got in your mind only to think (or mutter) to yourself some version of “this just isn’t working”? Have you ever been in front of one of those scenes or subjects about which someone has said, “You just can’t make a bad picture of this” only to …
New Year, New…Gear?
The danger of sound bites is that they lack nuance, and they sometimes come back to bite you in the ass. A dozen years ago, I coined the phrase, “Gear is Good, Vision is Better.” Some of you were around when I sent that out into the world. Some of you started reading my words because I wrote it. It …
What Lens Should I Bring?
If I could use only one lens for the rest of my life, it would be a 16-35mm (unless I was photographing bears, in which case I’d want 600mm). But then again, if that bear was really far away, I might want 1200mm. Or if I were underwater, then I’d want my 15mm fisheye. Oh, and then there are portraits for which I might want …
Perspective and POV: Change Mine By Changing Yours.
I talk to myself when I am making photographs—mostly mumbling, and it’s always questions. Questions like the ones I addressed in the last email I sent you about time, including “Could I leave and find something else? Could I wait a little longer?” Questions about light as well: “Could I be more creative about this, perhaps by underexposing?” And there are …
For Stronger Photographs: More Time
Three weeks ago, I found myself sitting on the banks of Hudson Bay, a stone’s throw from the Arctic circle, waiting for a polar bear to wake from his slumber. One can wait a long time for a polar bear to awaken. Several times, our group of photographers asked whether we should move on, and several times the answer was, …