Over the years I've seen a lot of weird and bizarre photo products. While the photo market is a relatively modest niche all by itself, there are always those willing to cater to the sub-niches and micro-niches within. When a Flashkon 2000...
Sometimes my day to day life as a photographer is so wrapped up in new technology that I forget all about the basics of photography. In an era when digital cameras and electronic imaging are threatening to blow conventional silver-based...
Oh, what a world we live in. Cell phones the size of a pack of chewing gum, 200 channels of cable TV, the Internet and digital cameras that anyone can afford. As technology marches forward everyone seems to get all wrapped up in the hardware...
The word "portrait" has had a fairly strict definition for ages. From the days of Rembrandt and Carravagio through modern photographic masters like Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, the portrait has remained a constant. While techniques...
You're all familiar with Murphy's Law--Anything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong. Certainly being a working photographer is a great way to see Murphy's Law in action on nearly a daily basis. While I pride myself on being prepared for every...
There was an era long before my time when a pro photographer shot with big, heavy, hot tungsten lighting. In the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, hot lights were the state of the art. Giant 1k, 2k, and 5k tungsten fixtures from Hollywood suppliers flooded the...
If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, photography is all about light: where the light is coming from, how it hits your subject, how you expose your film to capture it, etc. Since my profession involves getting the right kind of light...
You need a portfolio. If you call yourself a photographer and you don't have an up-to-date portfolio of your best work, I think you're missing an essential tool.
I've always wanted really exotic lenses: super wide fisheyes, perspective control tilt and shift lenses, super fast rare earth element thoroughbreds, and super long telephotos. I've managed to buy, rent, or borrow just about everything out there in...
I have always considered myself a pack and head guy. You know what I mean--big powerful studio flash generators, long cables, and fan-cooled light heads. Growing up I always thought of a pro photographer as the guy with the view camera...