Many times when I am preparing to shoot a portrait, I have to make a decision on background color. I check three things: the purpose of the shot, the model's features and hair color and wardrobe. First of all - there is no right way to do this stuff. Anyone who tells...

I love the simple portrait/headshot. I would be happy to shoot faces every day. Old faces, young faces, tired faces, happy faces, sad faces and more. The human face has so many facets of interest. When we are very young, we learn to recognize faces. Mom, Dad,...

It was a muggy summer night in Chicago. We had been shooting all day and wrapped a three day catalog shoot. We took a few hours to eat and go dancing at a club near the studio, and then go back to the studio to shoot some more. I don't remember the year... late 80's I...

We are doin something a bit different on this post. Kinda like PBS's "Dialing for Dollars" only the money doesn't go to us, it will be going to the Toys for Tots Charity. We are simply showing off some wonderful images that our Project 52 folks have done, and offered...

(LOOKING FOR A COOL AND UNIQUE PHOTO GIFT? Check out our Lighting Essentials Charity Print sales page. Only $27 for a 14" print, with shipping included. All profit will go to Toys For Tots, the Marine Charity for kids. See the Charity Print Sale page for more...

I recently spent some time in my studio with a photographer who was struggling a bit to find his 'style'. He thought that I could help him find what it is that he was doing wrong, and came by for a long working lunch. His assumption that I could help him find his...

OK... Snarky Rant follows: You have been warned. So there's this photographer on Google +, Colby Brown, and he is writing a book about Google + and photographers. He decided to run a contest or something like a contest, to get some photographers who are actively...

It is Thanksgiving week in the US. It is a day that was set aside to give thanks for all that we have and take a moment to reflect on our year. It is also a time for being gluttonous, preparing for the biggest shopping day in the year and when family who may not speak...

Last week, Zack Arias received an email from someone excoriating him for ruining the photography business, teaching "n00b's" misleading information, fouling the water, defiling the tenants of Mordor, and general misbehaving. Or something. You should read it here, and...

I was wondering aloud on twitter last night and asked if anyone had any questions they wanted answered... four tweets later we had these. One I believe I answered by tweets, but these three were so strong that they needed more than the 144 character response. Here...

Wacky Winner Gets ME Contest. Yep – I will either come out to you and do a one on one workshop, or you can come here to do one in Phoenix. If you decide to come out here, airfare will be taken care of round trip (there are some caveats – see below). The workshop is...

I have wanted to do this for a long time, and now that I am changing stuff up, it seems like a great time to hold our Lighting Essentials Appreciation Weekend. What it is: A weekend for us to have fun, make photographs, meet old friends and make new ones. There will...

This is the last weekend of October. Only two months left till the new year, and hopefully some new directions. Seems like I always think of January, June, and September as transitional months. Maybe from all those years in school... I dunno. But change is in the air,...

Selina Maitreya's new course is something that is as unique as it gets. It is fresh, fun, exciting and with such a personal twist to the usual consultants approach, that you will be quite amazed. I have been working with the first month, and just received the second...

There is a reason why the above was not chosen as a worldwide statement meant to inspire us to try a different method of computing... ya know. As photographers, we see this sort of thing all the time. "To get more work, become better than your competition". Really?...

It has been a long, hot summer here in the desert. Takes its toll on us sometimes. Creativity can be a little stifled when it is 120 degrees in the shade... heh. And yeah, I do have a studio to shoot in, but like that old adage about being careful what you wish for,...

The phone rings a little before lunch. You answer it and a voice on the other end says, "How are you. You showed your book here at the agency a few weeks ago, and we have a job we would like you to bid on. We will email over the particulars if you are interested." The...

I am very sad that my friend Kirk Tuck closed the door on his wonderful blog The Visual Science Lab. I sent a hearfelt note urging him to reconsider, but he has very strong and equally heartfelt reasons why he felt it was time to let it go. And I know that feeling. I...

I am working with a sculptor on some creating collateral and website materials. She didn't have any good images of her working, so we put together a shoot schedule that brought me to her studio in Paradise Valley. I love going on location to shoot portraits and I pack...

Garry Winogrand had a wonderful and unique way of thinking about photography. He was asked once why he seemed to photograph everything, seemingly without regard as to what he was photographing. His response:"I photograph to see what the world looks like in...

(NOTE: I would like to thank those students and alums who helped me become one of the top workshop teachers on Photo District News, Reader's Poll for September, 2011.) I was recently asked to discuss what I liked about teaching photography, and why I thought it was...

There has been one strong thought in the back of my mind lately. It sort of hangs there like a candle that is almost ready to die, but keeps the flame going for another few seconds. Then it flickers nearly to extinction - and lights up again with the slight change of...

Photograph of sunrise in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. God I love iced green tea. Especially when it is really hot outside. And even more when I am outside with the extremely hot outside. The soft, gentle flavors and the coolness of the ice help with the - at times brutal -...

(Photo by Cole Bennett: "One frame from the fairly extensive photography project I've been working on with the YMCA of Simcoe Muskoka (which is within my county." Meet Cole Bennett, a commercial photographer in a small town in east-central Canada. Orillia, Ontario is...

I am so enjoying working with the Project 52 photographers. It is one of the things I am having the most fun with. If you are not familiar with Project 52, it is an ongoing project that started last January, and is continuing till Christmas this year... 52 weeks, 52...

Well it's that time. Time to choose the winners in our Summer contest: "Summer in My Town". The assignment was to make between 6 and 8 images to show off what summer is like in your town. We had a lot of entrants, but not so many uploads. But we got some good ones,...