experience

My name is Jessica Rosa, and I've been a professional photographer for more than 20 years. I feel cheated by Yelp's advertising services, and I want to help other photographers not make the same mistake I did. This is about my experience in purchasing Yelp "full-service" advertising, and you need to know this before you enter a contract with them.

As I write this post, I have just finished slogging through a tedious and time consuming photo edit that could have been 100% avoided. Here's the story of what happened.

One of the often recurring discussions among professional photographers is whether or not we should ever work for free. I’ve been known to rail against those who do and against clients who request free pictures... so why did I recently waive my own rule?

When I started working in photography, digital already ruled the industry. I never got the chance to perform controlled photography (don't wanna use the term "professional") using film.

It's been a pretty dismal autumn in Vancouver. The sun makes guest appearances, but the rain has the stage for the most part. Business as usual, if you've ever been here.

Kamchatka. Just the name evokes so many different and exotic feelings as flashbacks emerge from National Geographic features.

In recent years, as a pro wildlife photographer, I’ve been doing incredible features worldwide, but Russia is complicated and Kamchatka is remote and isolated… so it took me a couple of years to get everything ready for my special photography project in one of the last wild places on earth.

I recently had the great pleasure of shooting fashion photography for the first time with Suede Brooks (model), fellow photographer Bil Brown (he arranged it all), as well with stylists and makeup professionals, and Cindy (creative director, and lighting assistant).

We all have heard about cases of sexual harassment or simply disrespectful attitutes towards females in workplaces, which sometimes get buried under the never ending mazes of bureaucracy, some other times they lead to job losses, penalties, warnings, sometimes plain ignorance.

Varanasi, India is an incredible place, a real eye opener and a step back in time. You witness events you may have never imagined, or have ever wanted to see. It's completely unavoidable and totally unpredictable. It's the kind of place that you shouldn't expect anything, but embrace every moment.

Here are random observations from my time as staff photographer for Dean for America. I wrote this some time ago as advice for somebody who was going to be a campaign photographer.

A couple of weeks ago, my team and I pulled together a weekend poolside shoot with models, perfect weather, and a drone. I operated the drone and got some beautiful footage. Magnificent footage. Award-winning footage.

The doctor looked straight to my mother's eyes. He wanted to break eye contact but he couldn't. There was bad news to deliver first.

Every year, around the beginning of April, I find myself getting lost in the emotions I felt after witnessing and photographing the aftermath of the explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013.

Exploring and photographing abandoned houses always comes with its share of surprises. It also often confronts you with some moral questions and scenarios -- there are many “what if’s” that can be associated with this hobby.

With years of experience, I have learned how to handle most daily situations encountered as a photographer. With the emergence of social media, people can be very picky about photos and privacy. I understand.

If you think having your photography go viral online is always a good thing, be careful what you wish for. American documentary photographer Nina Berman found that it can be quite a nightmare.

On March 10th, 2016, I woke up with great expectations: I was heading to the White House to photograph Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and American President Barack Obama.

Here's a beautiful 2-minute video by Great Big Story in which photographer Anuar Patjane talks about what it's like to swim with and photograph whales in the ocean.

In December 2015, Donald Trump held a campaign rally not too far from my house. I didn’t go, but it drove home the idea that the election was coming, and elections mean news. It also got me thinking about shooting the news again.

On a May evening in 2005, a group of us were spending time in my parents’ garage. We’d just graduated from high school days earlier and didn’t know what to do with ourselves. One of many boring nights spent pissing the time away, high on the excitement of graduation and fear of the future; I’m quite sure I’d have forgotten all about that night if it wasn’t for the noise we heard in the driveway.

My name is Aram Pan, and I'm a photographer documenting North Korea through 360° panoramas, photos and videos. I’d like to share with everyone my experience with what I call “copyright infringement abuse.”

Basically, I feel that the YouTube copyright reporting system is seriously flawed. Here's what happened to me...

I am a photojournalist with a severe anxiety disorder and last week it got the better of me while trying to work. Here’s what happened.

Every year from mid February to mid March a big event takes place at Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada. The polar bears mothers, who entered the maternity dens in October to give birth to their cubs in November, are ready to exit for the first time with the four months old newborn.

Last year, I spent 13 days in the field and waited for 117 hours in sub-zero temperatures in front of a den in order to capture photos of the young families.

Flashback to last summer. July 2, 2015, the day after Canada Day. And the day I got kicked off a beach in Toronto for taking pictures...

As photographers in the United States, we hold the majority of power when it comes to our images. We automatically own the copyright to all photos we take, we are the ones who register our photos with the U.S. Copyright office, and we are the ones who license our images to clients, publications, and even the models in the photos.

That copyright, in addition to the model releases we obtain from our photographic subjects, allows us to have a substantial amount of control over what we can do with those photos. This can sometimes create a moral ambiguity as to how we decide to publish those photos, blurring the lines between what is right and what is ethical.

My name is Mark Cersosimo, and I'm a hobbyist photographer and filmmaker living in New York. Way back in 2014, when President Obama announced that U.S. relations with Cuba would be normalized, I knew I had to make a move. While “tourist” travel is still prohibited, 12 new options became available in January 2015.

So, I went with my girlfriend. Upon returning we’ve been inundated with questions from our curious American friends who up until now, Cuba had just been a twinkle in their eye. I’ve decided to share our experience, as I know millions of others out there are eager to visit our “it’s complicated” friend, Cuba.

My name is Will McGugan, and I'm a photography enthusiast living in London. This year I spent my birthday in a forest in Finland with no company other than about dozen wild Eurasian brown bears and more mosquitoes than I care to count.

My name is David Anderson and I'm a photographer from Scotland. I recently decided to take a different direction in life: I quit my job, bought a camera, and started traveling to places in Europe I had always dreamed of visiting and photographing.

Nick Cahill is a photographer and filmmaker based in Incline Village, Nevada. One of his photos was recently selected for the cover of National Geographic magazine -- the "Guide to the Night Sky" issue. We had a chat with Cahill about his life, work, and cover photo experience.

The following is my account of the most infuriating, frustrating and insulting photo usage theft I’ve dealt with. After attempting to resolve it with letters, phone calls and lawyers, I’ve decided the most beneficial thing I can do is lay out my experience in a cautionary tale and let people know how this company feels about photography.