The more work I do as a photographer, the more I realize the importance of personal projects. While I do everything I can to book jobs shooting subjects that I enjoy, the reality is, photography is not just a hobby, it is a job and not every job is enjoyable all the time. Sometimes, staying inspired can be difficult, especially when you are taking a job for the money or experience alone; this is exactly why personal projects are so important. Last week, I had the chance to talk to Brent Foster, a filmmaker who has recently been working on a personal project. He gave me an inside look at what goes into one. From equipment to execution, he gave me a behind the scenes look at his project "While I'm Here | The Legacy Project."

Professional Aerial Photographers Paul Hoelen, Emmanuel Coupé, and Scott Jon McCook are here with the ultimate guide to getting you started with aerials yourself. And of course, they shared some mouthwatering imagery that will make you ask the question: “Are these shot on Earth at all?”

All this weekend, we're giving you exclusive coverage of PhotoPlus Expo in New York City, where all brands meet, announce and show of their latest products and innovations. Yesterday, we were able to give you an inside look at the Sony A7R, TriggerTrap RedSnap, DEFY Gimbal system and others. Today, we're able to show you an inside look into Samsung, Manfrotto, and more.

Sure, you could go grab incredible live shots of an artist and post them all over the internet. Guess what? If those images aren’t in their manager’s hands when it is time to make the new round of posters or t-shirts, you’re no further along in terms of advancing your photography business than you were before you hit the shutter button.

Jeremy Cowart is a photographer after my own heart. He started out in one of my favorite cities Nashville, TN, befriend a bunch of rockstars, shot their album covers, moved into celebrity portraiture, and continues to give back with projects like Help Portrait. Our good friend Pye Jirsa with SLR Lounge recently sat down with the nomadic photographer and picked his brain a little about creativity, post production, a new LifeFinder Tour, and a new iPhone App. If you get worn out listening

There's a lot more to creating unique and edgy content than keeping a camera fixed to your face. From eating scrumptious tacos and filming rock-busting, high-horsepower off-road race trucks in Baja, Mexico to cruising the scenic Rubicon Trail in the Sierra Nevada creating content for some of the motorsport industry's biggest names, it's all in a week's work if you're Matt Martelli, the creative director and CEO of one of the fastest growing media companies on the U.S. West Coast, Mad Media.

North Face athlete. National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. Painter. Cinematographer. Filmmaker. Whether climbing first ascents or hanging off cliffs to film hallucinogenic honey hunters, Renan Ozturk's bio reads like that of five people. Fstoppers was lucky enough to interview this talented creative. Find out all about him and his process here.

Manfred Baumann is a highly regarded portrait photographer specializing in working with the biggest names in Hollywood. Baumann has spent years developing a timeless style to his work that continues to be in high demand. Fstoppers chats with Baumann to get the low down on what drives both his creative process and how he built a strong business in a very tight niche.

As photographers, much of our time is divided between our camera equipment and our image editing software. And, if you're like me, you spend some time keeping an eye on the latest releases that will improve our editing speed and quality.

Photographer Karen Glaser is best described as a photographer of water. Declining to be “pigeonholed,” Glaser pulls from the genres of landscape, underwater, fine art, street, and documentary photography in her approach to capturing the complicated, beautiful, and diverse aquatic landscapes of Florida.

When I photograph events, I do my best to become a “fly on the wall.” I try to stay out of the way, to be unobtrusive, to not affect what’s happening around me and just document what I see. To be a photographer in the White House and be a fly on those walls — surrounded by high stress, classified this and that, diplomats, dignitaries, tragedies, and achievements, while being charged with capturing all of it, 24/7/365 — would obviously be a job that would take all you’ve got. And to do it for not one, but two presidents? That’s nuts. But there’s one guy who did it. His name is Pete Souza.

In a recent article entitled "Why You Shouldn't Submit Your Photographs to Magazines," I discussed Vanity Magazines and how, in my opinion, they often fail to deliver enough value to justify the photographer's effort. As a result of that article, I've had the opportunity to talk with the editors of two of the more well-known and better-curated vanity, or submission, magazines, Lucy's and Jute, to find out how their work benefits photographers.

Chris Field shot this amazing time-lapse video, but that’s not all he did; he also generously shared with us the BTS video, which is a dream come true for anyone who wants to see how others do it. Chris spent three months of shooting and over 80GB of images and video. As you may realize, putting all that footage together is a process on its own. On his website, Chris shares with readers all of the ups & downs of such an elaborate time-lapse shoot. It is absolutely mind boggling all that went into creating this video. Chris spoke to Fstoppers about the process in great detail.

Garry Winogrand is considered by some to be one of the top American photographers of his, or any generation. His books "The Animals" and "Public Relations" are classics, and the number of rolls of film he took over his short life are staggering. When he died he left behind 9,000 rolls of developed and undeveloped film. I can't even imagine the costs involved in processing and scanning those negatives.

Whether you've seen her speaking on stages for Adobe, or lining magazine articles such as Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” you surely have come across the legend and creative photographer that is Julieanne Kost.

I recommend watching this very interesting (and brief) interview of Ramit Sethi on how to charge more for your work. Whether that work is photography, videography, graphic design or anything else, he has some interesting things to say including why charging what others in your territory are charging is a bad idea.

“Saying no is saying yes to what you want.” Chris Burkard is a world-renowned photographer who is on a level of photography and client list that many aspire to be on.

Like many other members of the Fstoppers community, I’m often inspired and taken back by the images I see shared here. Canadian Fine Art Photographer Micahla Latta is one of those community members posting some incredible conceptual photographs to her portfolio, enriching the community with wonderfully surreal creations.

Talented Magnum Photographer, Christopher Anderson, experienced something that completely changed his life. In June 2000, while traveling in Haiti, he met writer Michael Finkel and together they documented a group of 44 Haitians on their journey to the United States. A few days after they set sail, they realized the handmade boat was sinking. Anderson’s first reaction was to continue taking pictures – even though he knew there was a chance they may never be seen.

Art and inspiration go hand in hand. For photographers, curling up in the corner of the bookstore with a stack of magazines, oohing and ahhing at photographs we wish we had created seems to be a part-time job. However, equally as important as what our heroes produce is how they produce it. We can learn a lot from the methodology of the folks that do what we want to do day in and day out. With that in mind, here's a conversation with Art Streiber.

Here at Fstoppers we featured both Brooke Shaden and Lindsay Adler countless of times for their great photographic work as well as their methods of working and handling business. Today they joined forces once again and did an hour and a half live broadcast answering questions asked by fellow photographers - from inspiration to business and struggles. Bring some snacks, sit back and enjoy!

A Texas photographer who uses imagery to uplift, spread awareness and progression of the LGBTQ community visibility is teaming up with Facebook for Pride.

Watch this insightful video on some of the in's and out's about directing in the music video world. In this video producers talk about markets, budgets, and how a little creativity can go a long way. To help them fund more videos visit

American renowned former White House photographer and photojournalist, Pete Souza, for his first ever audio interview hosted by Ohio University, speaks of his time documenting the professional and personal life of former President Barack Obama.

Many photographers go through the purge status in life with the "out with old and in with the new" mentality. So what started out as a fun and playful idea from award-winning boudoir photographer Beth Claire of Lost Highway Imaging, turned into a lucrative niche for her already thriving boudoir company.

Have you ever been curious about what it is like to work with professional models and the process of matching your talents behind a camera with an agency’s catalog of models, but never really knew where to start? Here's a great how-to about getting started with working with a professional modeling agency.

South Africa native Matthew Rycroft creatively combined creepy music, a creepy-looking dude, and some dark, chiaroscuro lighting techniques to create a video that brilliantly mocks the cliché Instagram accounts with which we're all too familiar. The final result is a well thought-out piece that's short and sweet and definitely leaves room for more.

Last week, Sony announced the overall winner of the 2018 World Photo Awards. British photographer Alys Tomlinson was awarded the €25,000 prize for her project documenting pilgrimage sites in France, Ireland and Poland.

Slowly but surely, I find myself shooting more film. It’s getting to the point where my digital cameras are almost strictly for video. They may offer better resolution and more versatility, but there’s a look to film and a fascination with the cameras that pull me to it. The one man that took me into the bottomless hole in my wallet that is film photography is Mat Marrash, a coworker and an avid large format photographer. It's some of the most gorgeous landscape photos of the Ohio Valley I've seen. A few weeks ago, Mat, myself, and the good folks at Rooted Content traveled to Hocking Hills, where Steve and Kyle from Rooted created this short of Mat’s work.

Justin Odisho is a prolific video maker who also shares great video-editing orientated tutorials on YouTube. In this video he discusses how to get clients and how to build your video portfolio with Daniel Schiffer.

In this episode of Smarter Every Day, host Destin Sandlin takes a closer look at the construction of one of the most exclusive photography locations that humans have ever created: the International Space Station’s Cupola module. This seven-windowed observation module has allowed astronauts such as Dr. Don Pettit and others access to shoot some of the most incredible photographs and time-lapse videos made to date.

Imagine being tasked with photographing press events featuring some of the most famous people in the world, on a regular basis. Are you confident that you can come away with photographs as strong or better than those of your peers? Can you find the small, personal moments taking place in the chaos to create images that are unique? Christy Bowe is a photographer who has successfully accomplished these tasks for the past three decades.

Elias Weiss Friedman, better known as The Dogist, has photographed over 50,000 dogs in his career, and as such, he has learned a thing or two along the way. If you are a lover of dogs and photography, check out this fantastic video interview with The Dogist, in which he reveals why he prefers photographing dogs over people and offers a lot of fun insight into his work.

It’s an awfully exciting time to be a creative, as the tools we use are becoming more portable, more powerful, and more connected. Fstoppers sat down with Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, and Scott Belsky, Adobe’s Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President of Creative Cloud, to discuss how new tools are empowering creatives and where the future will take us.

Sandro Miller was the first photographer to document the ENTIRE Cuban Olympic team since the mid twentieth century. Sandro was once kissed on the lips by Muhammad Ali. Sandro once made Michael Jordan cry. If you call yourself a photographer, you will not want to miss this rare video interview with Sandro from PRO EDU.

Podcasts are the latest hot broadcasting medium, so don't let those rapacious advertising executives (looking at you Google and Facebook) manhandle your listening habits with their grubby paws. No, here are 5 of the best photography podcasts to sink your metaphorical teeth in to!

Stop worrying so much about your skills, and learn to think creatively. That was my favorite piece of advice from photographer and artist Pauline Goyard.

He doesn't always know how the second half of the movie will go. He needs to be inspired enough to actually start writing, and if you've seen Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs, the dialogues of his characters are gripping right through.

Adam Hamwey has all the skills a videographer ought to living and working in New York City. However he doesn’t work for a production house, or in a marketing department — he follows somebody around all day and vlogs for them. That’s right, he’s the personal camera crew for one John Henry, a young entrepreneur based out of NYC.

Starting a new self-driven project doesn’t typically involve getting on a flight and throwing yourself into documenting a city undergoing violent civil unrest. I spoke to photojournalist David Butow to find out what led to his award-winning work covering protests in Hong Kong and how he operates when the teargas canisters start flying overhead.

It wasn’t until English photographer Tommy Clarke wound up living in Australia, shooting fashion photography that he didn’t feel complacent with, that he decided to venture into landscape work. Since then, he’s found his niche in aerial photography, and recently unveiled his surreal abstract shots of Holland’s Tulip fields.

During a two-day trip to the magnificent city that is Rome, photographer Milán Rácmolnár came up with the brilliant idea of photographing Rome in infrared. The result is a different and pink perspective on the cityscapes.

In a world full of over-sensitized, manicured imagery, this photographer’s work stands out. His portfolio is beautifully raw and gritty. There’s no posing or redoes. No fake moments. No reading between the lines. What you see is what you get. And what you get is very real.

Lynsey Addario is an amazing photographer and an inspiring human being; she's a photojournalist who is literally changing the world. Be warned, parts of this video are graphic. In this episode of National Geographic Live! Addario talks about some of her incredible stories - from being in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, to imbedding with the Marines, to being kidnapped in Libya, to maternal mortality in Sierra Leone (her images led directly to more doctors in the area) and covering the rebel uprising during the Arab Spring. Addario is a living example of the power of photography and its ability to make a genuine difference.

On July 4th, 2011 Kevin Young's life unexpectedly changed forever, and what started as a fun day with friends at the beach ended up being a horror story for this very young photographer. At the time, Kevin was very busy working on few different projects but his friend convinced him to take a break and have a nice day outside with few friends. When Kevin jumped to the water to swim he broke three vertebrae in his spine and instantly became paralyzed from the neck down.

Building a business is a tedious thing as most of us know. Everyone uses a different approach and some of us fail and some of us succeed, it's the nature of the beast. In my free time I do some Olympic lifting and I found myself searching for new and better techniques online. What I ended up with is not only finding some great videos for my Olympic lifting, but also a different way of building a business.

Wet plate collodion is a photographic process that dates back to the mid-1800s. It involves using antiquated equipment and processes, including toxic chemicals and is difficult to master. So, why would a modern-day successful commercial photographer be interested in pursuing this? And what insights could his journey provide?

It's no secret that I love the music phenomenon of EDM or electronic dance music, and it seems I'm not the only one with fans ranging from all ages across the globe its popularity only seems to be spreading. With so much new music and artists coming into the scene it's interesting to see how the music can be visually interpreted into music videos.