Let’s talk projects. No matter if they’re big or small, we all need projects. They drive our creativity. They jump start our photography, and they give rise to our personal and professional successes in life. A project could be taking a specific trip or photographic expedition, shooting a portrait series, writing a book or an ebook, revamping or creating your website, developing a new marketing campaign, making a calendar. Anything that moves you forward and exercise your creative skills and that has some kind of end result.

 

Whether it ends up working out successfully is not so relevant. What matters is that you come up with ideas and start working on them. However, ideas are not always easy to come by. In the course of daily life, sometimes we don’t make the time that’s necessary for us to develop and foster our creative ideas. Check out 6 Ways to Find the Big Idea… It’s worth a read. I’ve got a couple of ideas on the burner for this fall, do you?

 

 

I’m hesitant to broach this topic, mainly because I’m not a hating type of guy. I certainly have strong dislikes with certain things, but I rarely hate stuff. That said, there are few things about photography that just aren’t any fun, like waiting to get paid, stressing about a shoot or how to find new clients, inadvertently wasting time because I screwed something up. I know that I’m not alone here. Check out 14 Things Photographers Hate About Photography and take comfort that it’s not all rosy and gold for everyone.

 

 

The Nikon 36 MP D800 was announced back in early February, and since then, it’s dominated the photography world. However, six months later, they’re still very hard to come by. Many of the large camera stores are still on back order and are struggling to fill their waiting lists. Amazon has finally been showing D800 bodies in stock. They come and go on a daily basis, but if you click here, you may be able to get lucky and pick one up. Also, this month, the D7000s are on sale for over $100 off.

 

 

If you’re thinking about buying one of the two fantastic Fujifilm X cameras, the X100 or the X10, now is the time. They’re on sale until August 11 at both Amazon and B&H Photo. The X10 is $50 off and the X100 is a whopping $200 off! Gotta love summer sales! Speaking of the X10, I’ve got some exciting news that I’ll let you in on very soon. Say tuned!! 

 

 

Joe McNally has a brand new online class over at Kelby Training, called Shadow, Motion and Light. It’s free to current Kelby subscribers, which you can do on a monthly or yearly basis. Overall, Kelby Training is a really good deal, considering the vast amount of training materials and the top tier of professional instruction that’s available on the site. It’s even better with discount code KTCJQ12, which will get you $10 off an annual subscription. 

 

 

I’m featured today on the B&H Photo Insights Blog, with an article called How I Built My Camera System. It’s a detailed look at the gear that use on a regular basis, what gear I started out with and how and when I decided to upgrade as I progressed through my career. Check it out.

 

 

I keep adding more photos to my Tumblr page. If you haven’t surfed on by, come have a look. I’m excited about all the possibilities that Tumblr has to offer photographers. It’s a great place to put up a photo gallery, a blog, a series of photo essays, or just check out other people’s work. You probably already know this. I know, I’m a little late to the game. Go ahead and laugh at me. I can take it.

 

Have a great week and enjoy the posts below!

 

Dan