Guest Writer

For a while I've wanted to pour out everything in my heart, but it's been bottled up. Out of fear, humiliation, and hurt. What I've encountered in the past few days is one of the hardest moments of my professional life, but I need to address this face-forward.

Finding work in the photography industry is always a challenge, and becoming uninspired is always a fear. Through his couple years of being a photographer, Phil Chester has found some ways to help find happiness in his work, and help build his craft into a successful business. He shared his experiences recently on The Define School blog and we're sharing it with you here.

When I first started shooting, I would spend absolutely no time planning my shots. I would focus tons of time and energy into every other aspect (location, wardrobe, mood, etc) but in some weird turn of events, it must have slipped my mind that the end goal is "The Shot." How that slipped my mind still baffles me. Instead of putting in the effort to plan what my actual finished images would look like, I found a model, found a location and showed up on shoot day with a plan to wing it.

It's nice to have friends from far off places. Especially when they are talented, hard working photographers who have something interesting to share. Such is the case with Helsinki-based photographer Anders Lönnfeldt. Anders started out working in radio, TV and short films but these days his focus is on commercials, music videos, portrait and concert photography. In this post, Anders demonstrates how to knock out character rich portraits for a magazine

Guest writer Felix Hernandez R. is a commercial photographer based in Cancún, Mexico. He is a very active member of our Fstoppers Facebook group and is well known for his stunning composite work and food photography. In this article he explains how accomplished his amazing series, 'Magic Moments' with the use of compositing and underwater photography.

There is a fine line between having a well defined photographic style, and constantly putting out the same stale, boring work week after week. A fine and dangerous line. A line that can make the difference between being a successful, inspiring photographer and a photographer who has lost his audience and has even lost interest in his/her own work.

Guest writer Josh LeClair is a commercial photographer based out of Marquette, MI. After seeing the stunning work done by Ian Ruhter with wet plate photography, he decided to try it for himself. LeClair does it on on a much smaller scale using a holga camera.

What is a first look? Guest writer and wedding photographer, Susan Stripling shares exactly what a first look is, her personal opinion, why this trend is so popular, as well as the pros and the cons.

Finding the right light for your images can be a daunting task, especially when shooting outdoors and with unpredictable lighting conditions. Professional fashion and portrait photographer Lindsay Adler, is here to give you her list of the worst lighting conditions outdoors, and how to correct them in camera, to give you the best possible photos.

Guest writer Julia Kuzmenko McKim is an Internationally published Beauty, Fashion & Portrait photographer, digital artist, retoucher and educator. An International College of Professional Photography (Melbourne, Australia) graduate represented by Aston Models Agency, Beverly Hills, CA. You can find more of her work on her website, Facebook, or blog.

Guest Writer, Matt Kennedy is an International Wedding Photographer and has been shooting weddings for 7 years throughout North America, Mexico and Italy. He is well known for his Sparkler Shots and Marketing techniques and is always willing to share and raise the bar for the industry.

Guest Writer and photographer Phillip Schmidli wanted to harken back to memories of the movie ET with this stellar shot of the moon. To do so, he placed a model in front of the full moon and shot with a telephoto to recreate that famous scene from the classic film.

A photographer and digital artist by the name of Terrence Blanton has released a new website and photo series called "Eagle Faction" that is explosive and very influenced by Call of Duty and Battlefield. Terrence got ahold of a local Airsoft team to help create a fictional series about a team of former military and outdoorsmen that band together to help salvage their local territory of America after a collapse and invasion in the year 2023.

Guest writer, Adrienne Erin is an amateur photographer/designer and freelance writer who does social media marketing and has found that Pinterest is a fantastic social space to market a photo business, given the visual nature of the platform. She has shared 5 simple steps at how to get started on Pinterest.

Pinterest is the most visual of the emerging social media platforms, and this makes it an ideal platform for a photography business looking to reach new clients. If you're unfamiliar with Pinterest, it serves as a sort of virtual pinboard.

Automotive photography can be an extremely rewarding niche in the photography industry. The fast, shiny, power-inducing machines that rush by in a blur of color can be a thrill to anyone photographer, but it can also be daunting making sure that every detail is just perfect. Automotive photographer John Zhang walks us through the post processing of one of his lates shots of a Lexus LFA.

Guest writer, Patrick Gensel is a photographer from Northeast PA with a passion for travel and adventure. He sent us this fun inspiration project on abstract macro photography. Hopefully this very thorough demonstration will spark your imagination for your own abstract macro project.

Guest Writer's and Dale and Jill Lempa of Lempa Creative are a husband and wife team of photographers from Cary, NC who specialize in wedding and engagement photography. If you're a wedding photographer, then you can understand how stressful or hectic weddings are. Sometimes it might not occur that the bride is just as, if not more stressed out than we are. Dale and Jill have taken the time to share these helpful insights in just what the bride is thinking and how you as the photographer can help!

Guest Writer, Paul Monaghan is a self taught photographer based just out side of Glasgow in Scotland who has has been shooting for the better part of six years. When he first started, he would shoot everything around him from landscapes, people and concerts. Eventually, he found his way to birds.

Guest writer, Julius Ise is a professional photographer based out of Germany. In January he traveled to the beautiful beaches of Miami. While he was there he called around to several modeling agencies to set up a shoot. This is a great example of shooting personal work. He was able to get some great shots for his portfolio while at the same time helping out the models at DecoModels.

Guest writer J. Dennis Thomas is an Austin, Texas based photographer and the author of the Nikon Digital Field Guide series by Wiley Publishing as well as the author of Concert and Live Music Photography, Pro Tips from the Pit and Urban and Rural Decay Photography ,Finding the Beauty in the Blight published by Focal Press.