Once you compromise a "deal" for a "friend" to do pictures, you will be stuck with that "deal" forever. Lesson: charge what you need to make, regarldess of friend status. If they're a true friend they'll understand (and go to someone else who just bought their camera and has everything set on automatic and thinks shooting RAW is some weird fetish fade of taking pictures of meat)
View Entry
Holidays are the worst time to be a photographer. At any family get-toghether you will inevitably be "asked" to take various pictures of family members — because "you're the photographer" (of course for free, effectively turning your holiday party into work). The simple solution: NEVER BRING YOUR CAMERA TO FAMILY EVENTS (this also applies to office parties, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, bar, restaurants, bookstores, bus stops and sidewalks)
View Entry
You'll find that number of moments, memories and occassions you capture (in photos) for other people means the fewer you capture of your own.
View Entry
So this is apparently the best examples of the tilt-shift technique. Sadly, a real tilt-shift lens will never yield the selective focus that enhances that "minature" look (specifically on images like this, or this or this). So, just know, its not really tilt-shift photography, but "I'm Good At Using Masks In Photoshop To Make Things Looks Really Tiny" Shift.
View Entry
Not everything that's fake is bad — for instance breast implants, but HDR is not one of those things.
HDR = Wrong. Bad. Fake.
View Entry
Photoshop is a wonderful tool (don't get me wrong), but without a great photo all your filters and effects don't give you a great image — it just makes you the George Lucas of the photography world.
View Entry
Your job is in danger. Pretty soon photographers, you will be obsolete; thanks to Adobe Photoshop. You won't even need a photo, Photoshop will just create an image based on a "hunch" of what you might want.
View Entry
Not everyone who claims to be a photographer can get away with it, as this poor shlup found out. Not that wedding photographers need more pressure, yet if you suck, you could get your ass sued. Might as well give a homeless man a disposable camera than go cheap for your wedding photos — you get what you pay for.
View Entry
Paint me confused, but I don't get all the photos of legs. Legs with knee-highs. Legs in water. Legs with hipster sneakers. Wow, I've never seen that before. Why aren't they're hairy man legs? Because its gross. Sure you got the sexy goods ladies, but honestly, big deal. Move on.
View Entry
Using film is the equivalent of a photographers beard (all an elobrate distract from the truth, that you most likely aren't a photographer, but a snapshot elitist)
View Entry
You're not a real photographer until you shoot in 1) RAW format; 2) Manual mode. That is all.
View Entry
Imitation might be sincerest form of flattery, but it also comes close to making you a no-talent hack who steals ideas and claims them as their own. Find inspiration, not imitation.
View Entry
You know what's cool about that aged, weathered, desaturated colorization look on photos? When those photos are actually aged and weathered. Don't recreate history, try something new.
View Entry
One would think that a photographer would have the best possible pictures of his own family. Sadly, this is impossible, for it will always end in tears.
View Entry
As in painting also in photography, until you master the basic elements of balance, composition, lighting, contrast, and subject matter you should not attempt minimalism, abstraction or HDR. Especially HDR. Are you getting the message yet?
View Entry
Perspective is everything. You are can change the entire tone, mood and impact of your photo, so move around every now and then.
View Entry
Don't forget — have fun. If you're not having fun, trying things, experimenting, leaving your comfort zone, then you're not really experiencing all that photography is.
View Entry
If you ever use "Threshold" on an image, you will be immediately shunned by the photography community, striped of your camera and flogged with a box of Adobe Photoshop 3.0.
View Entry
There's nothing wrong with adjusting levels, curves, balancing color and making an image the best it possibly can be, but flaunting that you don't Photoshop™ isn't a sign of photography superiority, it just means you've wasted alot of money developing film.
View Entry
When photographing a wedding it's inevitable and unavoidable that you will be taking photos that are shamefully clichéd and overdone. But it's ok, you know, for true love and all.
View Entry
Next time you find yourself on a mountain top, do the world a favor and don't take a photo of someone with their arms wide open (or you might owe Scott Stapp some royalties).
View Entry
When technique and style become more important than subject matter, you need to step back and try again. Never sacrifice concept and composition for technique.
View Entry
Just because you saw it on a greeting card doesn't mean its good. Say no to selective coloring, it's what Jesus would want. (via Kim van Zyl)
View Entry
Out of your 1000's of photos, how many are truly exceptional? It's not hard to take a picture of everything you see (or take the same picture 1000s of times), it just shows a lack of discretion and discerment. Quality not quantity. (via Ryan Burgess)
View Entry
Blurry lights are pretty and all (or should I say "bokeh") but mostly like when you drink one too many egg nogs at a Christmas Eve party with your dull in-laws who talk endlessly about who recently died.
View Entry
Can't we just say "depth of field" or even "blur", must we get all French and say bokeh? (yes, I know it's a Japanese word, I just really dislike it when people throw in a French word into normal flow of conversation as if to say "I'm an incredibly super smartypants tool who must feel superior to others by using words that aren't even in my language")
View Entry
“I know some photographs that are extraodrinary in their power and conviction, but it is difficult in photography to overcome the superficial power or subject; the concept and statement must be quite convincing in themselves to win over a dramatic and compelling subject situation.” —Ansel Adams
View Entry
The difference between a snapshot and a photograph is the same as the difference between moments and memories.
View Entry
It's not the equipment you have, but how you use it.
If I had $157,000 I'd love to have a 50MP Hasselblad H3DII, a fully customized Profoto lighting system and every filter and gadget known to man. But guess what, your photos can still suck (they just suck with more detail).
View Entry
You know that thing that you do every time you take a picture (the low lit, macro feet holding a coffee mug with a flower in it, with a hint of boobs and a self portrait, vignetted to white in HDR?). Here's a thought, try something completely different. Now.
View Entry
You're making Jesus cry; you and your HDR retna burning photos. Stop looking making Jesus cry, so stop the viewing of or making of such imagery. Only you can prevent HDR.
View Entry
In photography — as in writing — take a picture every day, regardless of subject matter or quality (that doesn't mean you have to show it to the world), experiment, practice ... it's the only way to find your visual "voice"
View Entry
Somewhere down the line you have to stop only taking self portraits. Other people actually exist, and you can take their picture as well.
View Entry
No one will ever utter these as their dying words: "I wish I had taken more HDR photos". HDR, the answer is still no.
View Entry
Still with the flowers? Ever hear the saying "there is nothing new under the sun"? Please, get it out of your system and move on — unless of course your ultimate goal is to be hanging in the hallways and bedrooms of hundreds of Marriot Courtyards throughout the south-land.
View Entry
Close ups of rusty cars and gears and industrial machines and fine and good, but its like that time in high school when you dyed your hair and talked with a fake British accent for 2 months. You get it out of your system, and then never do it again.
View Entry
Please stop taking a picture of yourself, taking a picture of yourself. Or how about this; you can do it once, then you need to move on.
View Entry
So, sepia toned images ... why? You have to ask yourself, does doing this make my image better, or is it that you really like to "experiment" in (fill in your favorite photo editor)?
View Entry
Sure a picture is worth "a thousand words", but those words can actually mean something if you learn two things: subject matter and composition.
View Entry
If you're going to spend money, spend it on a great lens. The better the lens, the better the picture.
View Entry
I have AlienSkin's Exposure too, but I try not to use the Yellowed Polaroid effect on every single picture I take.
View Entry
So there's over 3 billion photos on Flickr, the 5,446,638 photos of cats are still too many.
View Entry
So you have this fantastic idea, where you put a wedding ring in a book (preferrably the Bible) and get the shadows just right so that they form the shape of a heart. Brilliant right? Yeah, no it's really not. It's been done, 15,000,000,000 times (and probably better).
View Entry
Problem solving is an essential tool of a photographers kit. Never is the solution more HDR. Molten ketchup in my eyes, washed out with lemon juice and lighter fluid and lite on fire with an old cigar is more pleasant to my eyes than anything in HDR.
View Entry
Filters are an essential part of photography, except the fog filter. Nothing screams "I got my photography chops working at Sears™ Portrait Studio" more than a fog filter. You're doing it wrong.
View Entry
Macro flowers. They sure are pretty. They're also amazingly boring. Once you've seen 5 you've seen every single one that could ever be photographed for the rest of time. Please move on to new subject matter.
View Entry
Vignetting isn't bad (it can help bring focus and mood to a photo) but vignetting to white is like humping a door knob. Just stop for the sake of humanity.
View Entry
I know it seems cool to give that ancient, weathered look to your photo but unless you've actually traveled back in time, you need to get over it and move on. Even if you have traveled back in time, its still boring.
View Entry
What's the deal with your feet? Why should we care about your feet? Unless you have 12 toes, its just a fetish and that makes you weird
View Entry
Hurray, You have a DSLR camera! (I think my cat does too) But this does not make you a photographer.
View Entry
If you are a woman then obviously you have boobs. Most women do, yet they somehow manage to not show them to the world for Flickr views.
View Entry
Congratulations, you own Photoshop. I know this because I can see every filter you used in your photos. That's not good.
View Entry
Its awesome that you still use film, bravo. Sadly your composition and subject matter still make your photos suck.
View Entry