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Alex Cooke
Cleveland, OH

Articles written by Alex Cooke

The Reality of Landscape Photography

Landscape photography often requires stepping outside your comfort zone, both physically and creatively. The most striking images can demand long hikes, unpredictable weather, and a willingness to embrace the unexpected. These challenges don’t just test your endurance—they add layers of meaning to the photographs you capture.

Tips to Overcome Creative Plateaus and Grow Your Craft

Finding your style and pushing creative boundaries can be both challenging and rewarding. Exploring lesser-photographed locations, adapting your workflow to new platforms, and embracing periods of plateau are essential steps to growing your craft.

Why Pretty Photos Might Be Holding You Back

Is a beautiful photo enough? It might grab attention at first glance, but does it hold meaning beyond the surface? Many start with the goal of capturing visually stunning images, but over time, it becomes clear that beauty alone isn’t always fulfilling. Photography can achieve so much more by telling stories, evoking emotions, and inviting deeper reflection.

How to Add Natural Blur to Photos in Lightroom Classic

Shallow depth of field is often associated with professional portraiture, providing separation between your subject and the background. But what if your lens or shooting conditions didn’t allow for that effect? Lightroom’s Lens Blur tool offers an option to achieve that blurred background look during editing.

How to Find New Inspiration for Your Photography

Photography can be a rewarding and creative pursuit, but even the most passionate enthusiasts face moments of doubt or disinterest. Addressing this common challenge, one photographer shares personal insights on how to navigate these periods and rediscover excitement in your creative process. His strategies range from shifting perspectives to embracing new tools and projects.

The Unspoken Treasure: Why You Should Consistently Document Your Personal and Family Life

Professional photographers devote themselves to capturing once-in-a-lifetime moments, visualizing concepts for commercial campaigns, and solidifying narratives that clients want to preserve or convey. However, in the hustle of meeting deadlines and the relentless pursuit of aesthetic innovation, many photographers neglect the realm closest to them: their own personal lives, families, and close friends. The tragedy lies in the missed moments—fleeting childhood phases, subtle changes in loved ones, quiet personal milestones—that deserve the same careful attention and expert composition as any commercial assignment.

Lessons to Level Up Your Photography Faster

Photography can feel overwhelming when you’re starting out, especially when progress seems slow and uncertain. But with the right approach, you can develop your skills more efficiently and discover your unique style along the way.

Lessons Every New Wedding Photographer Should Learn

When you’re starting out in wedding photography, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the details. The stakes feel high, and the learning curve can be steep. Lessons often come with time, but you don’t have to figure it all out the hard way.

How Observing Street Photographers Can Sharpen Your Eye

Street photography forces you to think and react differently compared to travel or landscape photography. While the latter might involve waiting for a perfect scene to unfold, street photography demands quick reflexes and an ability to anticipate moments before they happen.

Tips for Working With HDR Images in Lightroom

High Dynamic Range (HDR) images can capture a range of light and detail that’s difficult to achieve with a single shot. Using Lightroom, you can merge bracketed photos into an HDR image with minimal effort, even if the photos are handheld or noisy.

How to Add Intense Sunset Tones to Your Landscape Photos in Lightroom

Editing a sunset photo involves more than just increasing the brightness or contrast. It's about enhancing the mood and bringing out the rich, vibrant tones that make sunsets magical. Using Lightroom, you can transform a good photo into something extraordinary with a few precise adjustments.

How to Perfect White Balance in Lightroom

White balance plays a critical role in shaping how your photos look and feel. Getting it right can mean the difference between a shot that feels natural and one that seems off. But white balance isn’t just about technical accuracy; it’s also a powerful tool for creative expression.

Fine-Tuning Contrast and Color in Lightroom: A Quick Guide

Adding contrast can transform an image, but it often changes more than just light and shadow. It also affects color saturation, sometimes in ways that don’t look natural. Understanding how to manage this is key to creating polished images without overdoing it.

A Year of Photography and the Lessons It Inspired

Photography is more than just capturing images. It’s also about learning from experiences, adapting to challenges, and appreciating the moments in front of you. This approach intertwines photography with life lessons, offering insights that go beyond the technical aspects of the craft.

How to Add Fog and Light to Your Landscape Photos

Editing isn’t just about fixing mistakes; it’s an opportunity to add depth and character to your photos. With a few simple tools in Lightroom and Photoshop, you can create dramatic effects that bring your vision to life.

Should You Upgrade to RF Lenses? A Practical Guide

Choosing between Canon’s EF and RF lenses can be confusing, especially if you’re transitioning to a mirrorless system. If you’re already using EF lenses with an adapter, you might wonder if upgrading to RF lenses is worth it.

Why Trusting Your Gut Can Transform Your Photography

When it comes to photography, intuition might not be the first tool you think of, but it’s one of the most important. Acting on gut feeling can open up creative possibilities and lead to more meaningful images. Learning to trust this instinct can help you refine your style and create with confidence.

Balancing Art and Efficiency in Wedding Photography

Wedding photography is a mix of creative expression and practical execution. Every decision you make, from camera settings to how you manage time, impacts your ability to tell a couple’s story. Striking the right balance between art and efficiency isn’t just a skill—it’s what makes or breaks your role on the big day.