Among the well-worn tropes within the creative world is this: fake it till you make it. We’ve all said it. Or thought it. Particularly when we feel like we don’t belong, like we have no idea what we’re doing, when we feel like everyone else has their creative shit together and we’re staring into the void hoping no one discovers …
The Biggest Misconceptions in Photography?
The other day I watched (skimmed, really) a video on YouTube promising I’d learn about the 20 biggest misconceptions in photography. The video had 1.2 million views. What, I wondered, could so many photographers be getting so wrong? It turns out the answer included focus breathing, reciprocal rules, sweet spots, megapixel density, the non-existence of depth of field, and how …
My Photography, My Rules.
You know how I’m always going on and on about how there are no rules in photography? I’m going to back-pedal a bit on that because the more I look at my own creative life, the more I realize that I have some very important rules. Rules without which I don’t make the best photographs of which I’m capable. Rules …
How Do I Find My Style?
“How do I find my style?“ Over a month ago I asked you and everyone else who reads these bi-weekly missives about your greatest struggles and A-HA moments; overwhelmingly, finding “style” was one of the most repeated frustrations. It’s a common enough question, and my answer has always been roughly the same over the years (though I worry it always …
How to Please Your Audience Everytime.
We live in strange times. Never before has an artist of any stripe been able to put their work into the world so broadly and so quickly. Never before has an artist been able to hear every voice that cares to praise, criticize, or issue feedback with neither context nor conversation. Most often it’s just a binary reaction: a like …
The Paralysis of Perfection
Is Perfection Paralyzing You? After teaching photography for about a dozen years without stopping to take a break, it’s become clear to me that after a year with the camera in our hands, the primary problems for most of us as photographers are not photographic problems at all. The problem is that we think they are, and so we look …
Wishing for Creativity.
“I sure wish I was more creative.” Have you ever said those words either to yourself or others? Every time I hear “I wish I were more creative,” I want to put my fingers in my ears and run out of the room. La-la-la-la-la, I can’t hear you! It’s a crappy mantra. You can be more creative. Being more creative …
The Long Game of Craft
When I was a kid, new to photography, I poured over magazines lusting over the new gear advertised in their pages, and the photographs I thought that new gear would make for me. I wanted to make the kinds of photographs that would go into those magazines, and win those awards. It made a certain amount of sense to me, …
10 Upgrades for 2019
Happy New Year! I spent last month photographing Venice, then London briefly, with the Leica Q—a beautiful full-frame mirrorless camera with a fixed 28mm lens. It’s brilliant; one of my favourite cameras, ever. The sharpness of the lens is astonishing, as are the tonal qualities, the contrast, and the speed of focus. It’s gorgeous. The photographs it makes are amazing, …
Give Your Photographs The Finger (It’s Not What You Think)
In the now classic comedy, City Slickers, veteran cowboy Curly says to Mitch (played by Billy Crystal), “Do you know what the secret of life is?” Mitch says, “No, what?” And Curly holds up his finger. “This.” “Your finger?” asks Mitch. “One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean sh*t.” “That’s great but what’s the …