To be a photographer, one must photograph. No amount of book learning, no checklist of seminars attended, can substitute for the simple act of making pictures. Experience is the best teacher of all. And for that, there is no guarantee that one will become an artist. Only the journey matters.
Harry Callahan
(via theglasschild)
Amen.
My advice to new photographers is always this: You’re going to suck for a while. And that’s okay. Keep shooting. One day, you won’t suck as much.
Last year I shared some photos from around the house, where the light comes through the windows in lovely ways.
This year, I took an earlier look at the winter light that comes in. As the season changes, so does the light, and it’s fun to chase it around the house when the sun comes out.
On weekend afternoons like this, the house is pretty quiet. When the sun is out, it almost teases you to start thinking about spring. All these windows. It’s a great tableau.
You may be surprised to learn that people miss on average 70 percent of their feeds. As Instagram has grown, it’s become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share. This means you often don’t see the posts you might care about the most.
To improve your experience, your feed will soon be ordered to show the moments we believe you will care about the most.
The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post. As we begin, we’re focusing on optimizing the order — all the posts will still be there, just in a different order.
If your favorite musician shares a video from last night’s concert, it will be waiting for you when you wake up, no matter how many accounts you follow or what time zone you live in. And when your best friend posts a photo of her new puppy, you won’t miss it.
We’re going to take time to get this right and listen to your feedback along the way. You’ll see this new experience in the coming months.
Terrible. I’m so sick of this we’ll-decide-what-you’ll-see algorithm crap.
I’ve been on an eBook kick lately. This one is a product of my 2014 portrait project with the guys from the Central Michigan Model Railroad Club that first appeared on this blog.
Now, it’s a free eBook, available as a PDF download or an Apple iBook.
This is the project that kickstarted my community-focused portrait projects, like Artists In Jackson. It was fun to revisit this project and see the guys again.
Enjoy, and let me know what you think!
Welcome Year Zero – Grass Lake, Michigan
Thanks to my urbexing pal @sethingtons-creations for the quick portrait. Check out my interview with him – he does good work!
Seth Duimstra is a Jackson, Michigan-based photographer, and good creative friend of mine. Seth and I (along with his lovely wife Aynee) have shot together a few times, but what I appreciate about Seth is his good advice.
By the way: that’s me in the first portrait shot above. Part of our fun urbexing trip.
I’m Seth Duimstra, a husband, dad-to-be, and I guess I’d consider myself as a “creative” so how’s “creative photographer” sound? Aside from photography, I paint, do graphic design, and recently I’ve been exploring video among other random creations.
I’ve always enjoyed taking a good pic but I started really messing around after I got out of tattooing. I still needed an artistic outlet and I had a DSLR that i never figured out how to use properly. so I jumped down the proverbial rabbit hole.
What is there NOT to like about photography? It’s like seeing through other people’s eyes, reliving a memory or a feeling, and so much more. Not to mention the human element in itself just is so interesting to me. People are weird and I love it.
I feel like a dabble with a little bit of everything. I have my favorites but they all fit into one of two ways for me, documentary or artistic. I think keeping things mixed up keeps me from getting bored. I love product photography because I generally work with local artists; so not only do i get to get a first hand private viewing of some pretty amazing work, but i also get to have a small part in their own success.
Landscape and urbex are all about the adventure to me. I generally do this with other photographers, so not only are we hunting for those great images but I get to document the adventure as well. Street photography is also a blast when I get the opportunity to visit other cities. Portraits/candid photography has to be my favorite though. People in general fascinate me… no two alike (even twins), your personality shows through… not to mention just the random expressions we all make in the moments that are only there for a split second and they’re just oh so wonderful.
I just recently started messing around a little more with themed type shoots, Its fun but I’m just getting started so the jury is still out on that. 🙂
Always pondering something, as of late I’d say testing my newsletter concept. I’m itching to get outside more now that color will be back here in Michigan soon. The best way to know what I’m up to would be follow my Instagram or blog. 🙂
For more of Seth’s work, visit his portfolio page, his Facebook page, or follow him on Instagram.
Warren Richardson and His EOS 5D Mark II Win World Press Photo of the Year
He probably would’ve won using a Canon 5D classic, too.
Just goes to show you – to make great work, nothing beats an artistic eye, being in the right place, and a bit of luck.
Jamie MacDonald is an everything photographer – the guy just makes and makes. Jamie and I have shot together a few times, and I always respect his sense of experimentation and adventure.
My name is Jamie MacDonald and I am a professional photographer for Olympus Imaging North America, podcast host, and workshop leader. My position with Olympus takes me all over the place doing workshops and promoting not only their equipment, but also my work, and my podcast focuses on the world of mirrorless cameras.
I got started in photography when I decided I needed a camera for a family vacation back in 2007. I had never owned a camera, and thought one of those fancy interchangeable lens cameras was just what I needed. Once I started shooting I realized it wasn’t just the camera that I needed, it was a reconnection to my past life as an artist that I abandoned after high school.
I like that my photography is not subject limited. I like that when I walk out the door the world is my muse and I feel as comfortable shooting an impending storm, as I do a senior portrait session or an eagle in flight.
That is such a difficult question to answer, but I’ll try my best to put it into words. When it comes to inspiration I guess I should say that I am always in this weird state of wonderment about the world around me. The best way to explain it would be to ask you to remember a fond childhood memory, and when you have one picked out, think about how it makes you feel. I have that same sense of excitement and yearning to drink up life as I did when I was a kid. I even tell people that my soul has not grown up yet. So I guess I try to explore things visually in a way that shows I am still in a state of wonder about the world I live in.
Life. That is the theme I explore. Life is everything, and comes in every conceivable color and shape and form. I get the same level of excitement discovering a patch of weedy flowers growing through the cement, as I do standing atop a mountain shooting the sun filling the valley below me. I imagine that sounds crazy, but it is a part of who I am and how I see my world.
I sincerely wish I had a glamorous answer for that question, but I do not. I have never once had a project come to mind, and yet I think I need to do some sort of series of photos as a way to grow myself. But I just haven’t had anything come to mind.
I DO however have a lot going on in the way of photography workshops and events this year. I will be presenting at the Out of Chicago Conference in June. There I will be doing a class titled “The Art of the Dramatic Landscape” where I discuss my approach to landscape photography, with an emphasis on my particular post processing methodology. I am also co-leading an astrophotography workshop in the mountains of Arizona in May, a weekend workshop in Philadelphia, and a few events here in Michigan. It is going to be a busy year!
Find more of Jamie’s work on his portfolio site, at @sl33stak on Tumblr, and on Flickr.
- Sunsets
- Fireworks
- Waterfalls
- Trails
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner
- Lattes
- Leaves on branches (even in autumn)
- Dew-covered flowers
- Anyplace with a gift shop
- Anything with its own postcard rack
- Portraits of wrinkly faces (just because they’re wrinkly)
- Concerts with more than 25 attendees
- Rain on windows
- Celebrities
- Area 51
- Anything that’s popular on Tumblr
- Anything that’s popular on Instagram
- Anything popular
- Anything the pros are doing
Use all the extra time to create something awesome.
Add to that list: Iceland.
After a month, my photographer profile project is complete. Almost 20 photographers shooting everything from landscapes to portraits to products to documentary reportage.
I tried to think of one thing I learned doing this project – a consistent theme that ran through all the interviews. Maybe what I learned is that there are all kinds of photographers, with all kinds of backgrounds, and we all get into the hobby or profession in a million potential ways.
It’s these folks, after all, that gives those rebloggers and “”curators”” something to latch on to. It’s these photographers who are making original material. They shoot what interests them. They put stuff out into the world. They’re makers.
Other than a theme, the one thing I learned was that most artists you admire are approachable and friendly, and more than willing to participate in a crazy idea you have. For many of these photographers, I’ve followed them for years on Tumblr, or Flickr, or Instagram, and have always wondered how they got into photography. To learn more, all it took was an email and a proposition.
I should’ve done this years ago.
Check out all the photographer profiles, and stay tuned – I may have a few more coming in the next few weeks.
And thanks to everyone who participated!
Love my wolverine print from Andreas Lie (@artbylie). Great double exposure nature photography. How could I resist my state animal? Made for a great Christmas gift.
Check out his Society6 store. Lots of good stuff to choose from, whichever your spirit animal is.
And if you like someone’s art, buy their art.
Dave Lawrence: Documenting Decline in Jackson, Michigan
Fun to be interviewed by the Phoblographer for my urbex and abandoned work.
Gives a good behind the scenes view into what I look for and how I find some of the locations.
As an urbex photographer, it’s natural for me to check out other abandoned building photographers. The problem is, most of what I find is HDR garbage.
That’s why I love the work of Olli Syrjäkari of Finland. His abandoned work keeps the shadows and mystery of the places he explores. When I first saw Olli’s work, I felt like I met a fellow traveler. It was great to learn more about his photography.
My name is Olli Syrjäkari and I live in Tampere, Finland. Pencil pusher by day, photographer by night.
I’m not sure when it started. Probably when I got my first smartphone with a decent camera. Three years back I left my hometown to find my real home. By that time I bought a small interchangeable-lens camera, and it was then that I got serious about photography. Most of my photos are taken with that 100-euro camera. I did eventually upgrade but I went with the philosophy that the camera quality doesn’t matter until you know how to compose and find the light.
I love how my photographs raise questions and emotions. You could say my motto is “emotion is everything”. Also I think it’s therapeutic that I get to relive those moments that are already gone. I tend to hate most of my earlier work. I think for me that’s essential in order to become better.
Thank you. When I see great photography, it really inspires me to get to that level. It makes me grab the camera and get out of the house, do something great. In all that abandoned photography I do, with the shadows and the light, I love that contrast. How things can make me happy and sad at the same time.
I recently realized something. All those places I explore, urban decay, homes people left behind, they get certain emotions going on in my head. Like I mentioned – happy and sad, also yearning, wishful, at peace. I also mentioned I left my hometown where I lived almost three decades, and I wasn’t happy, just a walking corpse. In my new hometown I have felt rootless, alone, anxious, scared but also very happy and content, at peace and hopeful. Something those families have felt when they left their rural homes and dying smalltowns in search for a better life. Narcistically, I think I have been photographing myself.
Sorrow, hope, dark thoughts, rural exodus, abandonment. How shadows can exist while there is light present. How the shadows are eventually winning, light is always just temporary. It needs to be maintained while darkness is the default.
In my nature photography, it’s basically empowerment, conservation, how life finds a way. I love to mix these themes, nature and abandonments. How nature reclaims what we have left behind. What comes after us? How we are temporary here, the light. Nature and entropy are the shadows, but they are the good guys here. We are just visiting and we are very bad guests.
I am having an exhibition next summer, in Tampere, Finland. It will be free of charge but I am hoping to sell some photos to cover the costs. I am also planning to sell prints and licenses to fund my future explorations and exhibitions. Besides that I’m planning to get more into portraiture and people.
See more of Olli’s work at @siderocks, check out his Flickr gallery, and follow along on Instagram.
Ι’m Alexia. A writer and photographer living between London and Athens (Greece). I work in magazines and am the managing editor at Makeshift.
I began photographing with my mother’s camera at the age of 14. It was a Nikon FM3. My first subjects were my school friends. At 16, I photographed my best friend in my first ‘semi nude’ project.
That what you capture is slightly – or very – different from what you aim for. It’s always a surprise. It keeps me on my toes.
I think I am very influenced by paintings and Japanese art. I also get constantly influenced by other photographers; old and contemporary.
turn reality into fantasy; escape
It’s both documentary and ‘art’ photography (I don’t like distinguishing things too much, or put labels on them).
My major themes are urban landscapes, flowers, and human bodies. I lately have an obsession with hands.
I’m planning an exhibition in Greece (Feb-March 2016), and I’m now shooting street, mostly. I now use my phone camera a lot.
I want to shoot nude women again, in the near future.
Follow Alexia’s work on her personal site, @languorouseye, and on Instagram.
