We’re Only Living Today, So Today Is The Time To Make It

I was thinking about art and artists and I've come to the conclusion that we are only our output. Whether we "make it" in some definition of success is out of our control, we have no ability to take our work anywhere, we only have the ability to make the work. And make more work....

The Professional Photographer Wears Multiple Hats

I was asked by a client recently if I could photograph an event and just deliver all the RAW photos for them to edit themselves. Being a professional, I had to explain why delivering "uncooked" images is a totally unprofessional and wrong way to work. That's essentially asking for you to start the work, but...

My Photo Bag Contains No Tip Jar

As a working freelance photographer, you never know where your next gig will come from. One day you're photographing an architecture photograph or a political conference, the next day the president of the U.S. Yesterday, I was hired to photograph a 50th birthday party with Polynesian fire dancers that will get printed to remember the...

Don’t Be Good (There are Lots of Good), Be Remarkable, Be Unforgettable

I heard an interesting interview with the celebrity photographer, Albert Watson, and he made a couple of points that resonated with me. You can listen to the whole interview on The Candid Frame's podcast. When he had other photographers show him work, some his own assistants, the photos would often be proficient but forgettable. He...

A Time for Documentary, A Time for Conceptual

I talk about making photos and my approach, and sometimes I forget that there's another whole way to make photographs. Not documentary. Not people that you meet in the street and ask for their portrait. Not street photography. A photographer friend recently commented that she is looking for more photo subjects, new ideas of what...

The Difference Between Going Out to Make Photos and Simply Going Out to Live (and Finding Photos)!

There is one way to make photos that involves taking the camera down off the shelf, dusting off its (n)everyready case, peeling that leather wrap off and setting it aside, removing the lens cap, putting the camera in hand and heading out to make photographs at the birthday party, holiday celebration, or ___________ (your event...

Around The Web: Photo Sites & Podcasts I Like

I have a handful of places I visit on a regular basis. I thought I'd share them with you, if you're looking for some good places for photography. BOOKS - M Train by Patti Smith SITES The Online Photographer - Mike Johnston has been running this site almost as long as there has been the...

Here Comes the Flood, Save the Photos (What Photos?)

Last week, Hurricane Ida tore through New York and New Jersey and one of the towns that was hard hit was one I used to live in, Lambertville, New Jersey. It's a sweet river town situated beside the Delaware River just north of the Capitol, Trenton, and across from its more famous neighbor, New Hope,...

To Be an Amateur Is To Be an Artist. To Be an Amateur Is To Be Unshackled.

Alfred Stieglitz, back 120 years ago, was instrumental in promoting photography as a real art form--equal to painting and sculpture. He was the editor of Camera Notes and later Camera Work and he was the creator of the Photo-Secession which included many photographers wishing to separate from the idea that photography had to be pictorial--painterly--and...

Saving Faces (Or Not) in the Modern World

It's difficult to imagine, but for most of the time humans have walked the earth--117 billion humans since the dawn of time; there are 7 billion on the earth presently--there was no way to save the face of a loved one. People lived and died without ever having a way to preserve the faces of...