One of my recent articles was on how developing a niche can help you make more money from photography. I received a lot of emails and questions over the next week and a strand that run through almost all of the contact was about making the transition to full-time professional. I was pleased with the interest in this question, but I wasn't overly surprised as I tackled the very same issue for several years. There's no exact formula, but there are some important tips I can give. Sadly, most of these I learned along the way, but hopefully some readers can use this to make that leap to professional feel more like a hop.

Not all that doesn’t glitter isn’t gold. For non-professionals and professionals alike, a second-hand camera or lens is often a cheap way to upgrade one’s own photographic toolbox. Here, you find some tips for making a good bargain.

Given the choice, most of us would probably buy the latest and greatest camera bodies as soon as they came out, because hey, new toys are cool, right? But most of us don't have unlimited budgets, so it's important to know when you really need to upgrade and when it's just a case of gear lust. Here's what to consider when you're wondering if it's time to buy a new camera.

There are infinite ways of upgrading gear as a photographer. Moreover, camera companies market their next product as the next best thing in the industry. All this results in a lot of confusion, speculation, and simple ambiguity. If we could, we would all upgrade everything at once, but money is a limited resource that we need to allocate with a high degree of efficiency.

Before taking on the definition of "fine art photography," perhaps we would be wise to consider Einstein's words: "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." Having said that, pretty much every single photographer oft considers their work and career in the context of "fine art."

You’re scrolling through your Instagram feed when you see it: the disembodied hand or indiscernible part of a skyline. It’s not a mistake, you’ve just discovered the Instagram #setofthree.

Holiday season is officially upon us, and now is the time when we start searching the internet for what to buy your loved ones, friends, and family, or even a cheeky treat for yourself. In this article. I choose five items that I think are ideal for landscape photographers old and new.

I was originally going to call this article "five things I learned from coffee with John Schell" but in typical Schell fashion, our meet up involved Pho which doesn't mix too well with coffee. The former Fstoppers writer and current Los Angeles-based photographer has had one of the quickest rises to popularity that I've seen in photography in quite some time. His identifiable style and consistent stream of quality work have made him an extremely identifiable brand that has grown a 20,000 plus Instagram following in a fairly short amount of time. Here are five things I learned about Schell, his work, and his journey to photography.

Not every shoot goes according to plan; sometimes, everything goes wrong and nothing seems to fix it. Each time you look at the back of your camera, the photos just seem wrong. This isn't your work or vision. You just aren't on your game. But that doesn't change anything for your client! They still expect professional quality images that meet the standards of your portfolio. Rather than panicking and sending the entire shoot off a cliff of miasmic distress, take a moment to gather yourself and reorient the shoot so that it can still be successful, even if you don't end up delivering exactly the perfect images that you originally had in mind.

A few years back, I managed to find a beater of a Hasselblad XPan for a song. I've tried to find a shooting style that would help me stand out from the crowd, and the panoramic format appealed to me. I didn't realize it at the time, but this purchase sent me down a rather obsessive path, trying to find the best panoramic cameras for news and editorial work.

I have a lot of respect for photographers who solely focus on beauty imagery. It’s definitely a skillset that I’ve been honing over the past few years, but ultimately one that I’ve come to develop an appreciation for. However, beauty photography does not have to be terribly difficult. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create beautiful beauty lighting with a single studio strobe and a reflector.

The Internet can be a strange place, but it always felt that the mind-bending obscurity and randomness of the human consciousness was reserved for Tumblr and other meme repositories. It seems, however, that Instagram is no longer immune.

If your subject is far away, you can use a longer focal length to bring it closer. When the subject is very large, a shorter focal length can capture it al at once. But did you know the focal length can also be used in another way?

Both Tamron and Sigma have been shaking up the photography industry by releasing one premium lens after another. Many of these lenses are actually better than the Nikon or Canon equivalents. Tamron's 35mm and 45mm 1.8 lenses have created a new segment; wide angle primes with VC (vibration compensation). But does anyone really need this?