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 …
Choosing Gear
It seems every photographer has a gear list on their blog. Some do it to show how pro they are. Some to show off. Some, like me, because they ran out of ideas to blog about. But no one seems to talk much about why they choose their gear and that seems to be the more important question. There are …
A Failure to Communicate
A recent article on F-Stoppers, written by a wedding photographer, starts with the title, Why I Can’t Use a Mirrorless Camera Professionally. Anytime an article starts with “Why I Can’t…” I prepare myself for a personal defence of a position that should otherwise be titled, “Why I Won’t…” and I brace myself for a list of limiting beliefs. Now I …
Postcards from Rome
It’s Sunday morning here in Rome and the church bells are chiming. We woke this morning to our second earthquake in a couple days; a good sign that it’s time to go home. But what an amazing 5 weeks it’s been with students and new friends, lots of amazing meals and wine, and days to wander unknown streets looking for …
Postcards from Italy
It’s been a while since I said hello, and the last time you heard from me was probably during the chaos of the 5 Day Deal over the last week. Thanks for your patience on that. Together we raised over $200,000 for 4 excellent charities, including The Boma Project with which I am so personally involved. This sale also funds …
Starting Your Next Personal Project
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. …
My Fuji Menu Settings
This is a short one. I’ve had a handful of questions asking me how I set up my Fuji cameras and as I set them up almost exactly the same way I’ve always set up my digital cameras, I thought I’d address it here. Don’t let the title fool you, this applies to almost every camera I’ve used in one …
Four (More) Ways to Discover Your Vision
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 …
Best Places
After several years of photographing some truly wonderful corners of this planet I get more than a few emails each month asking me where are the best places to photograph in this city or that country. I try to reply helpfully, but what I want so much to say, without sounding like I’m being contrary, is this: there’s no such …
Four Ways to Discover Your Vision (Part I)
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, …