As a photographer, I have many of my photos in people's homes, usually as metal prints, because people seem to prefer them. Like most of you, I've got a lot of my work scattered around my house too, either as framed or metal prints.
A chilly September morning. The crispness in the air added weight to the solemn moment. My composition was all figured out. I patiently waited for the final elements to come into place.
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Although adventure photography is a pretty niche part of the photography industry, we want to give it the spotlight in our next episode of Critique the Community. Let's hear what the community says about your pictures.
Children are notoriously hard to shoot and most photographers generally avoid doing shoots involving them. There are ways to make it easier though! It's true, they get grumpy, they don’t listen, they misbehave, cry on set, and this all ends up delaying everything by hours. It can be quite the handful to say the least. Let's just say that I have no idea how parents do it!
There never seems to be anything new or exciting to shoot around our hometowns. For me, it seems like I’ve photographed everything at least once if not twice by now. So what should we do? Perhaps taking some advice from a self-proclaimed advance selfie artist might help.
Traveling to create new photography can get expensive fast, but whether it's for personal work, stock, or your portfolio, it is often a necessary part of advancing your work. There are lots of ways to monetize these images and tricks to shoulder the upfront costs involved in creating them. This is the approach and tips I use to get the most out of my travel photography.
A recent trip down memory lane reminded me that sometimes the best place to look for something new, is a to remember something old.
Boudoir photography is not a new concept, however, the way in which it is viewed has changed drastically over the years. When it once was an art form on the female body, represented solely indoors in a bedroom, the title now has moved to include other versions. It could be argued that if it does not adhere to specific criteria, it cannot be called boudoir.
It is well known that if your client can hold the photograph, whether in an album or print, they are more likely to purchase it. They can feel it in a much more intimate way than just being on a computer screen.
While beautiful, classic family portraits will never go out of fashion, sometimes clients desire something that shows the fun, frivolous nature of their relationships with each other, as well as the lifestyles they love. A fun, outrageous portrait that shows the special family dynamic may be just what your clients are looking for.
Urban lifestyle photography has seen a surge in popularity in the last 10 years, particularly with the rise of Instagram. Here, COOPH give eight tips for improving your urban lifestyle shots.
On a multi-day assignment in Portland last week, I took advantage of my day off between assignments to experiment with the Sony a7R III and try it out in my normal workflow.
Lifestyle photography means different things to different types of photographers. Some might say photojournalism is the truest form of lifestyle photography. A portrait or wedding photographer would describe it as putting their subjects in real life situations and capturing almost candid moments.
In the grand tradition of turning lemons into lemonade, I thought I would share with you a quick story about how a less than desirable situation for me this weekend turned into a chance to improve my business and my approach.
Chinese Photographer Ying Yin’s was inspired to travel and see snow. While visiting Japan’s northernmost region during the peak of winter, her photo series “Wind of Okhotsk” looks like the end of the earth, with buildings isolated by the intense weather.
Throughout the course of long, mentally intensive days covering events from behind a camera, likely the last thing on your mind is maintaining good balanced posture or equal weight distribution.
Netflix is using AI to follow viewer habits. The AI then chooses the best image or photograph to present and advertise movies that it thinks you would like. It makes sure the movies put their best foot forward and shows you the best side of it, based on your preferences. If you're an action movie type, it's going to choose photos of the movie that best shows this side of the movie.
Rania Matar moved to the US due to the Lebanese Civil War, pursuing photography after September 11 when she became interested in telling a different story from the Middle East. She grew up surrounded by the civil war in Lebanon, whereas her daughters are being raised in the United States.
Russell James has quite firmly held the position of official backstage photographer at the Victoria’s Secret shows for 22 years – since the first in 1995. Now, he’s written a book about the experience.
This year has been marked by a single hashtag: #MeToo. From Hollywood to the Oval Office, it seems that accusers are finding their voices and taking a stand for themselves and countless others who haven’t been able to speak out. Naturally, awareness of sexual harassment is coming to light in all industries, and the photography industry is no different.
Photographer and filmmaker Mathieu Stern took to the streets of Paris to see what shots he could produce using three different vintage lenses, creating various different bokeh effects.
He took some model friends out in the evening, testing out the results of his chosen equipment.
If you don’t know him by name, you’ll likely have laid eyes on his work. Getty photographer Chris Jackson is the man behind many of the official images of the British royal family and has now spoken of Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s engagement photos.
LA-based rock band OK Go is no stranger to innovative music videos. Their single, “Here It Goes Again,” was accompanied by a treadmill-orientated dance routine that sent the clip viral upon its release in 2006. Now, the band is hitting headlines once again for their creative and resourceful visuals for "Obsession."
In this series, I attempt to identify the key professional virtues I have found to be the most important in building my own career, as well as identifying traits of other successful photographers and business leaders that are most key to their success. Today’s virtue: adaptability.
You don’t need me to tell you the importance of social media. Many of you under a certain age likely can’t picture your life without it. Judging by the number of selfie sticks and Facebook screens annoyingly lighting up dark movie theaters, social media had apparently become as important as breathing. Even those who came of age before the dawn of the smartphone are not immune to its charms.
Usually for me it starts after the peak of fall foliage. After a busy year of spring portraits, wedding season, fall shoots, and some photographic trips sprinkled in, by the end of fall I find that it's easy to get a little bored with photography. Typically the inspiration needle on my gauge is in the red.
Anyone who pursues photography professionally knows all too well how absolutely time consuming the business side of the industry truly is. Between managing clients, keeping your inbox at zero, and still trying to find time to pursue personal projects or just have a life outside of photography, you can sometimes lose yourself to the rat race.
All you photographers out there! Does your camera strap look dull, worn out with the leather sweating the time and comfort out of your skin?
At this point, we should all know that almost all jobs and opportunities to find success in photography are built off networking. Now there are tons of ways to network and the path you pick will depend solely on the niche you associate with.
Lately, I have been attending more events to cover as a photographer, especially anime and comic conventions. My approach to most of my convention coverage is walking around the event and trying to take as many photos as possible of the cosplayers there, kind of a run and gun approach.
The inauguration of Donald Trump meant the end of Pete Souza’s position as official White House photographer. Stepping into his shoes, Shealah Craighead has spoken for the first time about the experience of shadowing President Trump.
Sometimes as creatives, we lose sight of what originally attracted us to the creative process of photography and videography in the first place. We get lost in the noise while we are busy juggling social media, websites, managing shoots, pitching to clients, and constantly reinventing our work.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has long warned tourists of “arrest and long-term detention.” Despite the threat, around 100,000 people visit the hermit kingdom annually. In 2016, Photographer Raphael Olivier was one of those people. Here we showcase some of his most surreal photos from the trip.
This video is a double-whammy. It's trying to uncover where ideas come from, and the conceptual and artistic execution of the video is so well done and it provides a kind of answer for the rhetorical question of where ideas come from. I've had creative block. You want to put the next portfolio piece together, but you don't know what to do exactly.
A couple of years ago, I broke an important rule I made for myself: never take my camera on family outings. We were going to visit the zoo with extended family, and my grandmother said, "You should bring your camera!
After years of working in typical areas of photography, Eneil Simpson, has found his calling in a very surprising place: the operating room. As a former flight instructor, Simpson stumbled into very unique and rarely seen world of ophthalmic and surgical photography, after asking his eye doctor if he could sit in on and take an environmental portrait of him.
I met a new contact on a job recently that encouraged me to delve deeper into the world of lifestyle imagery when thinking about my next shoot. She explained that over the years in between paid gigs, she would self-produce and fund her own micro shoots to use as portfolio material, but more importantly, as stock imagery to be sold.
Human nature can sometimes get the better of us. But sometimes knowing when to apply lessons and when to forget them can be the difference between taking photographs or taking photography to the next level.
I am self taught.
Unlike most people in Photography, I didn’t pick up a camera for the love of making art. I never thought of myself as an artistic person but I wanted something better than my phone to document my hikes in the Appalachian Mountains.
We all dream of having huge production budgets for our shoots, so imagine being one of the lucky few who get to work as stills photographers on one of the TV’s biggest shows, "Game of Thrones." With a budget of $10 million per episode for its latest season, you can only imagine the fun these photographers have on set.
A casual conversation leads to an interesting question. There I was again. Spouting endless drivel at the beginning of a date. Trying desperately to impress her with my chatter.
David and Victoria Beckham’s eldest – an aspiring photographer – is due to release his first photography book later this week. Entitled "What I See," the book is listed by the publishers as “a series of snapshots of his life,” but has been panned on social media and other online platforms.
Sometimes the who, what, and how is surpassed by the when. Timing can be everything.
Sometimes 30 seconds can change your life. Has the following story ever happened to you?
With the goal in mind to write up a reference for planning a week of photography in the wild, it's almost unthinkable to not include an article about gear an rules about sleeping in the great outdoors. Not on a campsite, not in a hotel or any form of modern comfort, but out in the backcountry, sleeping under the stars.
As a professional photographer, money is never too far outside of the frame. But even as the budgets and day rates continue to rise, it is important that an artist never forget why it all started in the first place.
We’ve all seen Jerry Maguire. Well, at least I hope you have. Wait, you haven’t seen Jerry Maguire? What’s wrong with you? Seriously, go out and…
Social media consumption is at an all-time high and is on pace to increase at an exponential pace for the foreseeable future. We all seem to have capable technology on us always, whether it be a cell phone or dedicated interchangeable lens camera. With this rapid rate of consumption and the accessibility of technology we are living in a world saturated with quality content everywhere we look.
An unnamed man living in Wisconsin hired a photographer to catch his sunrise mountaintop proposal, but all did not go to plan.
Jacob Peters, an Arkansas-based photographer, woke at 2.30 a.m. the day of the shoot, in order to beat the couple to the spot they would later be engaged. He hiked up Hawk’s Bill Crag, a scenic cliff overlooking the Ozark National Forest.
Creative genius rarely erupts onto the scene full force and in your face. Its entrance into the world is often quiet, gentle, allowing only a few to see it and recognize its brilliance.