We all picked up the camera to shoot things that we love. However, with all the other stuff going on in life, sometimes we forget to keep shooting the stuff we love, maybe because we’re being paid to shoot other things, or simply because we run out of time and only get a chance to make a few unrelated images during the week. 

Maybe you’d do a portrait series, document a certain place, or capture a particular landscape during different seasons or weatherconditions. Give it some thought, and then see where your ideas and creativity take you.

“What’s the picture about?”

With that in mind, how you do you approach a scene so that you do walk about with killer shots? Without knowing the answer to this all important question, you run the risk of making boring, cluttered, pictures where nothing prominent stands out to greet the viewer. You run the risk of losing your audience, who will remember very little about your photo as soon as it passes their eye, no matter how many frames you capture.

 

“What’s the picture about?” tells the story, and creates the narrative on which the foundation of the image is built. It gives meaning to everything that lies within the borders of the photo and it defines the relationships between all of the different subject elements that make up your shot.

 

“What’s the picture about?” ensures that your photograph has a skeleton, legs to stand on, room to breathe and enough muscle mass that it can throw its weight around with agility. You want your imagery to quick and nimble, not unsightly and obtrusive.

 

You should know the answer to this all important question before you press the shutter, because if you don’t know what the picture is about, then your viewer won’t know either, and that’s a very bad thing.

 

Reviews are staring to come in for my new eBook ZEN PHOTOGRAPHER. The verdict seems to be that people really like it! Here’s what one person had to say about the book. If you haven’t picked it yet, there’s still time to get it at the special launch price. 

 

 

 

If you read my last newsletter issue, you saw that I’ll be offering brand new Alaska photo workshop tours, starting in 2014. I’m super excited about this venture, because this will allow me to teach small groups of photographers not in a classroom, but out on location in some of the most spectacular places on earth. It can be pretty overwhelming to plan and shoot the images YOU want to capture in Alaska, so this is your chance to learn from me in person while shooting once in a lifetime subjects. 

 

We’re meeting with a tour operator this week to start fleshing out itineraries and we’re working hard on all the back end stuff. Let me know if you’re interested in this kind of thing, and I can put you on the list for info as soon as we announce our first trips. As one of my followers, you’ll get first crack at singing up for any of these trips.

 

 

Although the majority of my work is outdoor photography, sometimes I shoot inside. I’ve got a kit full of lights, flashes and expensive sofboxes, but you don’t NEED that stuff in order to get good light. Last year, I stumbled on this $20 floor lamp at Lowes. I didn’t need a floor lamp, but the shade was a cool elongated Chinese lantern style that extends to about 6’ tall. 

 

I bought the lamp, stuck the light part in the closet and have used the shade for a number of portrait and interior shoots with very good results. See it in action here. 20 bucks very well spent.

 

 

You’ve probably seen some of the awesome eBooks that Craft and Vision publishes. Not only are they filled with great content and photography motivation, they’re pretty cheap; only $5 per title. You may not know that they’ve got a three free titles as well. Download TEN (Ten Ways to Improve Your Craft) and Great Ways to Make Stronger Photographs Vol. 1 and Vol.2. There’s no reason not to. Free inspiration ready for you to devour and put to use with your own subject matter.

 

 

Whenever you’re trying to learn new software, it takes time to get yourself up to speed to the point where you need to be in order to be efficient. This is especially important with photography, because every time you take new pictures you shoot new photos, you back up the entire system and increase your own workflow. If you don’t get a handle on how to edit, process and archive your photos quickly, you’ll fall underneath your own catalog and you won’t be able to get up.

 

If you’re new to Lightroom, I recommend taking a look at Phil Steele’s Lightroom Made Easy course. It’s a 5-hour online video course that breaks the essential and vital elements and tools of Lightroom into 24 short, easy to understand tutorials. For many people, learning this way is much more effective than flipping through a book, and in fact, the entire course costs about the same as a book. Less, actually, because this week, you can get the course at a special price and save 15%.

 

 

With our recent wind storms, all the leaves have blow off the trees here in Anchorage. Maybe they’re still on where you live, though, so I hope that you’ve been enjoying fall and shooting lots of photos! 

 

As always, thanks for reading, enjoy the recent posts, have a great week and don’t forget to share this newsletter with your friends!

 

Dan