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Compensating for Something?

In The Craft, Tutorials &Technique, Uncategorized, Workflow & Technical Issues by David40 Comments

This is another long one, but if you’ve ever struggled to understand Exposure Value Compensation (or never used it), this might help. Put the coffee on and settle in for a bit. Skipping past the inevitable moment when I’m walking around with my 600mm lens and someone asks if I’m compensating for something, the answer is generally yes. I am. But it’s …

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Creative Failure: Teacher or Trap?

In Creativity and Inspiration, Life Is Short, Pep Talks, Rants and Sermons, The Craft, The Italian Incident, The Life Creative, Thoughts & Theory, Uncategorized by David28 Comments

In the creative life very few things go the way we expect them to, and I suspect when they do, it’s because we’re not reaching far enough beyond our comfort zone, not risking enough. First steps into any new endeavour—whether that’s learning a new technique or beginning a new body of work—are not the steps that get you to a …

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Getting Out of Your Own Way

In Uncategorized by David4 Comments

We’ve all been there. Out making photographs with friends, things are going so well. You’ve lined up your composition, the light is perfect, and just at the right moment…there’s a head in your frame! Who the heck? “Frank! Get out of my shot!” I’m not going to lie; I’m that guy. I don’t mean to be, and I’m sorry. What …

Starting Your Next Personal Project

In Uncategorized by DavidLeave a Comment

There is much talk in the photography world about “personal projects.” Like anything that becomes a catch phrase, the words themselves get more play than the thing they represent. In other words: a lot of talk, much less action. And when it comes to personal projects, action is everything. Here are three ways to gain momentum on your next project. …

Four (More) Ways to Discover Your Vision

In Uncategorized by David1 Comment

In Part I of this article, I discussed ways to begin questioning your broader vision as a photographer. That discussion focused on what I would call macro vision; it’s the way you see the world and the way that works itself into your photographs. But what about vision on a smaller scale—the image-by-image scale? How do you look at a scene …

Four Ways to Discover Your Vision (Part I)

In Uncategorized by David1 Comment

I believe every photographer has vision—to one degree or another, we all have it. Vision is the way we see the world; it’s what we want to say with our photographs, even when that’s just, “Oh my God, look at that.” How we translate our vision into our photographs is the subject of 100 blog posts about the visual language, …

The Next Step

In Uncategorized by David15 Comments

Q: I’m a nature photographer with what I’ve been told is a reasonably solid portfolio, and I blog fairly regularly. I make a little money with my photography, but I think I could do more to increase the income a bit. I’m ready to take the next step toward living my dream. I need to market myself beyond my local …

Planning Is Just Guessing. But With More Pie Charts and Stuff.

In News & Stuff, Pep Talks, Rants and Sermons, Uncategorized, Vision Is Better by David22 Comments

I taught at VanArts this morning, by which I really mean I talked for two hours and hoped those beautiful young minds would learn something from my string of disconnected thoughts. One of the things I  talked about, though with my tendency to digress, I have no idea which rabbit-hole I was down when my time ran out, was poetically …

OFF TO REHAB.

In News & Stuff, The Italian Incident, Uncategorized by David87 Comments

Just a quick note to let you know an unexpected spot has opened for me at The Rehab Centre in Ottawa. It’s a residential thing, so tomorrow I’m moving back to the hospital for the month of August. There they will kick my ass for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Then they’ll let me go home for …