career

I was a month and a half into the photography program at the Art Institute of Colorado in Denver when I decided to skip school for a day for a concert. I had a ticket to see Mumford & Sons playing in Laramie, Wyoming, before they hit Red Rocks in Colorado.

At the time, I was already contemplating dropping out of school, due to feeling that I would never be good enough to make it in the photography world, and would just be wasting time and money.

When you’ve captured as many photographs as renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz has, it’s not exactly a simple task to pick and choose your best work. Shooting for over four decades for the likes of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, her collection of work is as vast as it is rich.

And so, when it came time to create her latest book, rather than selecting just a few dozen of her photographs, she decided to step it up... a lot. Her latest book is a $2,500, 476-page visual journey through every single step of Leibovitz career.

Stanley Kubrick’s legacy will forever be sealed in images. Mostly known for his motion picture work, it wasn’t until after his time as a still photographer that he took on the world of movies. Kubrick began his career as a photographer, at 16-years-old, after a single image seemingly catapulted his way to success.

Update: Mr. Hamilton has gotten in touch with us to tell his side of the story, filling in some of the missing pieces that help explain his actions. Read the full update at the bottom.

Think before you post. This should be the message greeting all of us when we open up our social network of choice. Before we get a chance to do anything else, a big bold ALL CAPS message reminding us that our social media comments have consequences should appear front and center.

Maybe if they had, Australian photographer Mark Hamilton wouldn't be embarrassed, apologizing for a Facebook tirade in which he threatened to release racy photos of a model because she had 'liked' a post that insulted him.

What is your perfect day? And when was the last time you had your perfect day? If you're like most photographers the answer to the first question may come out pretty easily (or not...), but the answer to the second...

That was the question that wedding photographer Jerry Ghionis once asked a fellow photographer, and when she heard the second part, it left her in tears. She couldn't remember her last perfect day, because she was so busy working and working and working at her career that she had forgotten to live the lifestyle she was hoping photography would offer.

Being so close to the release of the 2013 Arizona State University Football campaign, I wanted to take an opportunity on to talk about an image that I created many years ago while still a student at ASU. When many people ask me where I believe I crossed the line from hobbyist to professional, I tell them of this campaign, and actually place the beginning on a single image. The fact that the image still lives on my website is a testament to how much I enjoy it and how much it means to me. It is the photo that opened many doors in my career, yet very few people know the background behind its creation.

Back in 2010, we shared some statistics from CareerCast's annual list of the best and worst jobs, and things weren't looking good for the photography profession. At the time, "Photographer" ranked 126th of 200 on that list, with "Photojournalist" coming in near the very bottom at 189th. Sadly, in the intervening years since we last shared the info, things haven't exactly gotten better.

The Onion has published a humorous tongue-in-cheek piece that many non-professional photography enthusiasts …

As I sat trapped in a coach seat on an aged and tattered American Airlines airplane I had time to think about the whole spectrum of art photography. I wanted to have a clearer window into the different ways in which people who aren't using their cameras to make a living in a traditional, commercial application of photography approach their subjects and their understanding of style. How much is generated internally and how much is a reflexive reaction to a world inundated in images?

I spoke with a person in the film industry on Friday. We were talking about HMI lighting and he made a remark concerning still photographers. I give him credence since his background originally included a successful career in photography. His remark, in regards to the real lack of lighting acumen among most shooters was this: "There's no such thing as a good photographer under 40."

We are in the midst of sea change -- a tidal wave might be more accurate -- within the medium of photography. While the lens is still firmly fixed to the camera body, the body itself appears to have imploded. The inner workings -- that is, the guts of the camera from Talbot’s days (when cameras were called “mousetraps” by his wife who was always tripping over them) -- have changed faster than anyone expected.

Here's a thought-provoking video making the rounds online -- one that you might want to watch if you love photography and have been thinking hard about your career path. It's based on a lecture given decades ago by philosopher Alan Watts, who poses the question, "What would you like to do if money were no object?"

Is a college photography degree worth it? It depends on who you ask. There are plenty of successful photographers out there who have never set foot inside a university photography lecture, while others have done just as well after earning that diploma.

One of the most difficult things I found at the beginning of my professional career was discussing money. I’d happily accept anything that came my way and was pretty short-sighted at the implications it had, not only for myself but the local working community and the economics around that.

I try to stay involved as much as I can with students studying photography at different institutions in the area. Every year I go back to RIT and do a lecture on the business of photography and I feel it's important that I do so.

Recently I got an email from a young photographer asking me about the career of being a still life/food photographer.

Design director Wayne Ford has written up a great piece on the career of American photographer Arnold Newman, who was in the vanguard of the "environmental portrait" movement that emerged in the early 1940s.

Photographer Laurence Kim wrote an interesting article titled “ …

We’ve already featured a video showing what life is like as President Obama’s official photographer, and now …

Freelance photographer Marc Feldman lost his job when Getty Images discovered that he had sent in an altered golf photo for distribution. But Feldman says that it was all an innocent mistake.

Feldman says he was in the press tent after the event, reviewing some photos. The golfer in the image, Matt Bettencourt, and his caddie came by to look at photos as well. The caddie had suggested that the photo would look better without him in it, and Feldman demonstrated how easily he could be removed.

The photographer said he thought he saved the altered image on his desktop, but somehow accidentally transmitted the image along with his final images to Getty."I certainly did not mean to send both of them to Getty," he told Guy Reynolds, the Dallas News photo editor who originally blew the whistle on him.