motivation

Why You Should Follow Lesser-Known and Local Photographers

Between 2008 and late 2016, I took tens of thousands of pictures and proudly vomited the vast majority of them online. While I’d toyed around with things like depth of field and long exposures, I didn’t understand anything about photography, so my camera rarely left ‘auto’. I’d checked out an online tutorial or two, but as far as I was concerned, ‘exposure compensation’ was something victims got after winning a public indecency lawsuit.

The Camera is a Pen: Brainstorming as a Photographer

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the ebbs and flows of inspiration, particularly with the ups and downs of the last few years. Since I work with a variety of photographers, I get to observe their patterns of motivation, and it’s been fascinating to think about.

136 Inspirational Photography Quotes in 2024

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But I wonder, what else do “they” say? In order to find out, I’ve culled together the best photography quotes on the subjects of photographs, cameras, inspiration, and more, as said by some of history's most famous and talented photographers.

Just Get the Words on the Page: On Motivation and Photography

I’ve recently been speaking with a variety of photographers about the struggles they are having, and motivation is often at the top of the list. I share a lot of these struggles, and I think a big part of any creative practice is learning to fight through them as best you can.

Five Episode Series by HEX Focuses on Women Photographers

Hex, a company that makes premium designer bags for photographers, is in the process of publishing its five-part series titled "Women In Focus." The series follows five different women photographers at different stages of their careers and discusses their lives, challenges, work, successes, and failures.

Finding Inspiration in the Limitation

As a professional outdoor photographer, my mind had been in a place of backcountry skiing, snow photography and ramping up for spring commercial projects—the same place it has been every March for years. I like this time of year, it feels like my fitness, my vision and my bandwidth all line up to result in outdoor missions and photography that really feed the soul, and the bank account.

A Few Tips on Mental Resilience for Creatives

Fortunately, we are beginning to find ourselves in a world where it's okay to open up a little more about mental health. It’s great! It’s the age of empathy and humility now, and I think once we begin to empathize properly with each other, we’ll be in a much better place. We’ve all got the same prehistoric brain, and it’s surprising how you can begin to essentially ‘re-program’ your thoughts.

Blunt Advice for New Graduates from a Successful Photographer

Watch your step recent photography graduates, because famed photographer and director Chase Jarvis is about to drop some serious advice. It comes in three parts, and its aimed at those of you who recently got out of school and jumped into the creative 'real world.'

10 No-Nonsense Tips On How to Become a Better Photographer

If you've been dreaming of making photography your full-time occupation, photographer Scott Robert Lim has some no-nonsense, sugar-free advice on what it takes to become, not just a better photographer, but a great photographer who can compete in the landscape today.

A Letter to My 18 Year Old Self: If I Started Street Photography All Over Again

Dear Eric,

You are 18 years old. You just got a point and shoot digital camera from Mom as a high school graduation present. You are super excited, as you never had a camera before. A lot of exciting things will happen in your life surrounding photography. I wanted to write this letter to you and give you some advice I wish I knew. This is coming from your 26-year-old-self.

Video: A Must-Watch Commencement Speech for Creatives at Every Stage in Their Journey

Neil Gaiman is an author, a writer whose work you have probably read at some point or another, but the advice he offers in this 20-minute commencement address is as applicable to photographers as it is to any other creative who is embarking on (or currently in the middle of living) a life whose goal might be best summed up by the phrase 'make good art.'

Great-Grandma Betty Inspires Instagram as She Battles a Terminal Cancer Diagnosis

Zach Belden's 80-year-old great-grandmother Betty was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. Knowing that she would have to endure unimaginable hardship, both physical and emotional, Belden came up with an idea that would help keep her spirits high and make the remainder of her time on this planet as joyous as possible.

His solution turned out to be Instagram.

The Gap: An Inspirational Video About How All Artists Struggle in the Beginning

We're not in the habit of reposting things we've covered before, even though at least once per week we run across some post or video from a few years ago that is going 're-viral' and is being covered by everyone who missed it the last go around (and some who didn't).

For this video, however, we're making an exception. And we beg your forgiveness for that but the truth is, our readership has more than doubled since 2012 and it would be an injustice not to share this with those new readers. Plus, those who have already seen it will definitely benefit from re-visiting this motivational message.

How to Jump Start Your Motivation

No matter how much energy you have going into a project, it's likely that at some point you'll run out of steam. When you're hours in to editing your photos and are beginning to have an existential crisis about the real meaning of the words "tone curve," you'll suddenly stop and wonder why you're doing this in the first place.

Then the next day, when it's time to return to editing, you'll stare blankly at your computer screen or come up with any number of excuses or tasks that will prevent you from getting started.

Dance-Lapse: Woman Uses Her Camera to Capture a Year of Learning to Dance

How good can you get at something in 365 days? If you're former Microsoft exec Karen Cheng, pretty darn good. Her goal was to learn to dance in one year, and she spent that year documenting the experience and showing her progress right up to her final impressive performance in a San Francisco subway station.

The Science of Meaning and How to Stay Motivated in Our Work

At TEDx Rio de la Plata, author Dan Ariely gave an interesting talk on motivation and how to feel good about our work. Challenging the conventional belief that money equals motivation, he shows how injecting meaning into our work -- be that by making the work itself harder or having others acknowledge it -- has a huge impact on why and how we stay motivated.

The video doesn't specifically mention photography, but the lessons still apply. Without meaning, motivation dies; and the ways we get meaning are either by having others acknowledge/use our photography or by challenging ourselves to push the limits of our skill.

Directed, Edited, Written, Acted, Scored, and Produced by Shane Carruth

Think it's difficult to juggle multiple aspects of your photography business? If you want to see an example of a highly motivated creative individual, check out what American filmmaker Shane Carruth has been up to in the film industry.

In 2004, Carruth released the indie sci-fi movie Primer. It had a ridiculously low budget of $7,000, and went on to gross over half a million dollars and gather a large cult following.

Man Finds New Life as a Photographer After Being Shot and Paralyzed at Age 8

The short 4-minute-long video above is probably the most inspiring thing you'll see today. It's the story of Jaleel King, a man who became wheelchair-bound at the age of 8 after being shot in the back by an angry neighbor. The blast from the sawed-off shotgun almost killed him, but he fought through that challenge -- and every other challenge that has presented itself since.

13 Tips for Staying Motivated in Photography

Here's a common story: one day you become enthusiastic about photography, and find yourself jumping at every opportunity to take photos and to improve your work. You keep this up for a while, but slowly the enthusiasm you once had starts to fade. You start feeling like you've stagnated in your growth, and that you're just doing the same old thing, over and over again.