I recently took my first ever photography trip to California. My plan was to hit up Mt. Shasta, Lassen Volcanic NP, and Lake Tahoe. I wanted to share some of the things I did right, as well as some of the things I did wrong.
Ever wanted to try one of those cool smoke bomb shots, with thick, bright smoke in eerily sculpted curves floating around fashion models? I’d never tried one but I’ve seen quite a few images online that amazed and delighted me, so when the local model photography group in Orlando planned a smoke bomb shoot at a secluded junkyard, I was there early with a bag full of smoke grenades and a couple of poses I knew I wanted to get. This is what I learned.
My name is Alex Hengen, and I'm a non-pro, non-wedding photographer. Last year I took a few pictures at my sister's wedding, and my cousin, having his own wedding coming up, saw some of my shots on Facebook and asked if I would photograph their wedding. I agreed.
Let me begin by saying that I’m not a hunter. But I am surrounded by hunters because I live in Minnesota. I’ve heard countless stories about deer hunting from co-workers and friends, but the most interesting story was from a seasoned hunter who told me that now he only hunts for a “trophy buck” because he’s hunted everything else and he’s only interested in getting “the big one”.
He goes on to describe what the big one may look like – broad shoulders, big neck, and apparently the size of the rack doesn’t matter. When he goes hunting he may let herds of less attractive deer walk by during the course of a weekend without lifting his gun. This may sound like an elitist attitude, but it made me think about using this strategy in street photography.
365 projects. It seems that most photographers attempt one at least once. It’s a massive commitment, but you can make it easier on yourself and get a lot out of it if you approach it the right way.
At the end of 2014 I made the decision to dedicate 2015 to completing one of these projects.
This first year of officially shooting full-time has flown by. I didn’t realize how scary it was to graduate college, leave school forever, and be on my own. For years that’s all I wanted. I hated school. I hated anything that held me down. It wasn’t until I didn’t have anything to hold me down that I realized just what it takes to run a full time wedding photography business. Here are the top five tough lessons I (and probably any creative entrepreneur) face the most.
I am not at the top. I’m not even skating the middle, but I have been doing this photography thing for a while, and there are some things I've learned along the way that I thought I would put out to the universe. Mainly because these things were bouncing around in my head and it’s nice to put things out there... so here they are.
You know that moment when you agree to do a favor for a friend, and it turns into something a bit... well... more? This past weekend I ended up taking headshots of 80 people during six non-stop hours of shooting. Here is the story of what happened, things I learned from it, and some random thoughts on the experience.
In 1877, photographer Eadweard Muybridge settled a longstanding debate on whether or not a horse completely leaves the ground at any point during its gallop by taking a single photograph of a horse completely airborne. In the same way, photography was also used recently by a group of researchers to uncover the mystery of how cats drink.