All-star wedding photographer, Roberto Valenzuela says “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect” instead of the more common “Practice Makes Perfect.” I have thought a lot about that since I heard his talk at WPPI many years ago. As I grow older, I realize that there are times when I was “practicing” my photography but practicing the wrong things. Not everything you do with a camera in your hand will necessarily drive you to your end goal.
Category Archive: Insights
Today’s photo is designed to illustrate the value of using symmetry in your compositions.
It’s also a good illustration of repeating objects.
The subject is my Danelectro Longhorn bass guitar. The composition tightly frames only a small portion of the instrument. This particular guitar has a very unique shape.
I am hoping to provide some insight for those of you who want to level up your photography and have come to realize that buying a new camera or lens won’t (by themselves) make that happen. You need to be deliberate in your photography.
An old-time, professional photographer once told me that we don’t get paid to take pictures. We get paid to see things that “normal” people do not.
I once led a photo workshop to the Green Mountains of Vermont. Our group was there to photograph fall color and we had a cornucopia of opportunity everywhere we looked.
If you look up the word Sepia, and do a little research, you may be surprised that the word is originally Greek for the common cuttlefish.
But that is indeed relevant to photography because sepia tone is NOT black and white images that were made 120 years ago and have faded, it started as a process. You are probably more familiar with gray scale (black and white) but there is also brown scale (sepia.)
My pal Rick Sammon has a Facebook group where he offers education and inspiration on a regular basis. He asked me to contribute an image and some tips to his group. In case you’re not following that group, I wanted to provide the tips here on my blog as well. I hope you enjoy them.
Does it make sense? It sure does, if you use the right tools and you have a relatively […]
Throughout my photographic career, at every turn where I found a bit of success, there was one constant. One thing that set me apart. And I’ll let you know right now it wasn’t because I was talented.
It’s official. I am an “old-school” photographer. You might think because I am 100% digital I am not able to be an old-school photographer. But that’s where you’d go wrong.
You see, I am indeed old. Ask anyone. And learned photography well before many of you reading this were born. I learned how to be a photographer “back in the day.” So in my mind, I am an old-school photographer.
