"I am changing the direction of my photography as I shoot more film. Overall I hate my own results but I love the work itself. I've been all over the place trying to figure out what type of photographer I want to be when I grow up. As I get older I realize the small...

A recent assignment in my 2014 Project 52 group was to shoot one red balloon... but to stay away from cliche's as much as possible, while definitely creating an interesting photograph in which one red balloon features prominently. The students wee wonderful. Here are...

Meet John Sharpe, a commercial photographer in Calgary, Alberta. The great frozen north (at least in winter) has many roads to artistic and business success. John has been a photographer for 25 years and has shot for local, regional and national clients. I thought...

Part Two of our Thinking about our rates post. (Part One) Understanding what we are worth, and how to construct a pricing structure that we feel good about is quite challenging for many of us. But it is a necessary challenge for us to overcome - see previous...

Project 52 Alum, and incredibly talented photographer Irene Liebler is giving her book away... and you can snag a copy of it. Head on over to her site and download some amazing photography.

I love these photographers magazines. From Michael: "This issue includes an editorial about why there was no Spring 2014 Newsletter, a review of the SmallHD DP4-EVF external video monitor, an article my recent expedition in the Amazon with the CauseCentric Production...

  My bud Bret Doss turned in a wonderful editorial assignment for "Viva Fashionistas", a Seattle fashion magazine. I want to have Bret on for an interview soon. See more about his shoot at his blog. "Hard to Call It Work" has links to more of his fashion work as...

Five scary words to a lot of photographers. There is so much of US wrapped into those five words. I think they may be the scariest words we self employed folks ever hear. Although it is exactly what we want to hear… someone wants to hire us. All that marketing paid...

I met Josh several years ago on the stobist forum. We have stayed in touch and I am knocked out by his wonderful still life and product work. I asked Josh to speak about his photography, and we chatted for an hour. Josh walks us through his transition from LA to...

One of the most important considerations of a photographers work is the subject matter they choose to make photographs. Sounds almost simplistic, doesn’t it? But there is a great deal of thought that goes into this part of what we do. If we have chosen subject matter...

Getting some pushback. Maybe need more messaging work.

This was an interesting week. An old friend and colleague reached out to renew a friendship and to discuss some epiphanies she had recently experienced. Lunch was near my studio and it was with a bit of trepidation that I had agreed. While I think the world of this...

The great shooters of Project 52 Pros, 2014 just completed an assignment I would like to share. The work was to be shot in a style or period and be as faithful as possible in presentation. The reason for the shoot was to introduce them to the special difficulties of...

I want to ride a bike across the country. I want to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. I want to photograph the heartland… from an old Indian motorcycle… with a view camera. I want to do a photo story on Ecuador and Peru and the percussionists of South America. I want to...

Some beautiful work from the Project 52 assignment on 'wet'. From the assignment: WET… Shiny, smooth, liquid… wet is – well, wet. And we have to show “Wet” in a photograph. For a client who wants to keep things dry. You can approach this one in three ways: You can...

Objective: Shoot rare military memorabilia (medals, daggers, insignias, etc.) for inclusion in to an auction catalog and online viewing portal. Images must be large (3000-4000px, .tiff), with no specular reflection, especially the dagger blades (ornate etchings), yet...

Work the scene. Rasmus Hald One of the things that separate a good photo from a great photo is often planning, patience and how we work the scene. In July 2012 I was in Italy on vacation, driving around Tuscany in an RV and we went to Florence for a couple of days. I...

Reno Photographer Daniel Fenwick walks us through a simple, but well crafted food shot for his blog. Daniel Fenwick / website / Food Blog MANY OF THE TUTORIALS DURING "SUMMER SCHOOL" ARE BY PROJECT 52 PRO MEMBERS EITHER CURRENTLY ENROLLED OR ALUMNI.

... and it is true. Names have been changed a bit to keep client/photographer privacy. I had lunch with a photographer today. We had met to go over plans for a big project and chose "The Vig" for delicious sandwiches and salads. What has that to do with the story?...

  I am a Photoshop guy who is finding a lot of love in Lightroom. I would say that about 80% of my work goes from LR (or CR) into Photoshop for finishing. But the other 20% is done totally in Lightroom. Briana and I did this shoot last year for some new portfolio...