Articles from Danette Chappell

Whether you’ve thought about it or not, psychology plays a huge role in successful photography. Even when considering technical aspects of photography like composition, exposure, depth of field, etc., psychology is part of the “why” behind proper camera settings. It's no surprise then that color plays a big role in emotionally provocative photography, and Michael Carroll recently published his book, “Retrographic” to document a project in which already emotionally-charged photographs from history are colorized to evoke even more emotion.

In a creative world where there is a mentality of “bigger is better,” most photographers will be shocked to hear that Time Magazine just released 12 magazine covers for their September issue all shot on iPhone.

I remember the excitement of wanting to start and have a thriving wedding photography business. I remember how my heart would skip a beat whenever I’d get a new photography inquiry regarding my services, and I remember how desperate I was for any type of wedding photography gig. I also remember not knowing how to price myself, being scared that if I charged too much, clients wouldn’t want to book me. Or if I told a client no to a request, they’d find another photographer. I look back on the first few years of my business very fondly, but I also remember a few times that being a wedding photographer made me want to crawl into a hole and hide from the world forever.

In a possible push to make Stories on its main platform gain traction, Facebook is allowing some users to cross-post their Instagram Stories directly to Facebook using the platform’s mobile app. According to Business Insider, a spokesperson for Facebook and Instagram confirmed that the feature is being tested by a small percentage of users, predominately in Portugal.

Do you remember when it was easy to trick search engines into ranking your website high for a search term? Or the time when it was sufficient to insert your keyword all over your website and you'd rank high in search listings? The good ol’ days of purchasing a domain name that was literally your top preferred search term to rank for, and stuffing your website with that same keyword and tricking Google into listing your website first are long gone and the rise of content marketing has taken over.

Instagram announced a new feature today specifically involving the gallery option for posting multiple photos at once. When Instagram first introduced the gallery option, they introduced it in true old-school Instagram fashion, allowing users to post multiple images at once, but requiring all photos to be in a square aspect ratio. Now, however, Instagram added the ability to preserve your photos' original aspect ratio, even within galleries with multiple photos.

Daniel Dean knew the total solar eclipse would be an incredible opportunity for him to capture something amazing. A few months prior to the eclipse, the idea of being able to photograph the celestial event became a blip on his radar after seeing in the news that the first solar eclipse crossing the U.S. since 1979 would be happening again in August. Here is the story of how this awesome time-lapse solar eclipse video came about and how it was made.

Lets face it, even days after the total eclipse over the United States, people are still completely enthralled by the celestial event. Hundreds of thousands took to the sky on August 21st, 2017 and witnessed the rare occasion, and of course many photographers took advantage of the day. We’ve seen some incredible images come out of the event (check out Top 10 Solar Eclipse Photos Found Around the Web).

You’ve got a solid website, your photography skills are on point, you’ve been around for awhile, but you still aren’t getting any clients. Peers’ businesses are booming, you know there are plenty of clients to go around, and yet, you’re still struggling to get by with your photography business. There are a ton of factors that go into why a business fails, but here are a few reasons why your photography business may be failing.

London-based Director Oscar Hudson recently released a mind-boggling music video for Bonobo’s “No Reason,” and it's incredible. The music video, which is an homage to Hikikomori, a growing problem in Japan of adolescents and adults who withdraw from society and become increasingly isolated, was filmed using one continuous shot and only in-camera effects and no CGI.

Recently as I was looking into some backlink research on Google, I realized that one of the first links that comes up when searching for my business is my Yelp business page. This isn't surprising. Yelp is an established business and has an established website with high domain authority, of course it's going to rank well within search engines. What was surprising, however, was how the title of the link read, "The Amberlight Collective - CLOSED."

Snap Inc’s wearable camera sunglasses, aptly titled Spectacles, launched with plenty of momentum and seem to be a hit among those who have already purchased the device (since Snap recently begun selling Spectacles on Amazon, user reviews are predominately positive). However, according to Snap’s Q2 earnings, interest among perspective buyers may be waning.

Ah, the Internet. I have a love/hate relationship with the Internet. On one hand, I view it as my own personal world of opportunity providing me with free education, marketing, and entertainment. On the other hand, I view the Internet as a cold dark place full of criticism. But alas, I think of myself as a weenie. As a person, I’m emotionally driven rather than logically driven. It can be one of my greatest weaknesses, and sometimes one of my greatest strengths.