Editorial

After almost five years in Germany, I've amassed an impressive body of work. I love many of the photos I have taken here, and some of them are even selling rather well. Yet, I have very few images to show when people ask me to show photos of Germany as most people are not into architectural abstracts.

When taking a look at Sigma's newest zoom in its Contemporary lineup, one can't help but draw comparisons to the myriad of other standard-range zoom lenses available. Let's be honest -- it doesn't break any new ground.

In today’s world, it is easier than ever to start a business. Explore Instagram on any given day and you will inevitably see an ad for some new online retailer. It begs the question: How, in such a saturated online marketplace, can a fledgling brand separate itself from the pack and survive?

It wasn’t that the phone hadn’t rung for an entire year, it was that the shoots were always too risky; my urge to be on set was always overruled by my commitment to ensure that making art did not lead to someone contracting COVID.

Perhaps the greatest dream of most nature photographers is the idea of crafting a living off print sales alone. All across the internet are stories of individuals making hundreds of dollars off each print, leading to yearly sales of six figures or greater. Unfortunately, this is very often not the case.

A Wyoming-based photographer has uncovered a large collection of family photographs taken throughout the 20th century and digitized them to reveal and preserve the everyday lives of past generations.

Of the many questions I receive from my students and from viewers of my photographs, “How was it shot?” is perhaps the most frequent. But is it the right one?

This past Mother’s Day marked ten years without my mom. I was 19, a sophomore in college trying desperately to become a respected adult when she died. Predictably, caring for and losing a parent is one way to really accelerate that process.

Some photographers are known for their black and white work (think Ansel Adams, Henrí Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, or Sebãstio Salgado) – while others are known for their use of color (think Ernst Haas, Joel Meyerowitz, Martin Paar, or Steve McCurry). Do you have a preference? If so, do you know why?

I create my landscape photography with film and digital technical cameras and received a request to share how I compose in the landscape with the gear I use.

I have been fascinated by horizons for as long as I can remember. Growing up along Lake Michigan is where my earliest memories and impressions of these horizons were formed and through the years I have remained close to these endless, wandering and mesmerizing landscapes.

Digital rights ownership and control are at the heart of a losing battle that photographers have been fighting for decades. One of the interesting, but overlooked, offshoots of the NFT craze is a technical one: the capability that underscores the value of an NFT is the ability to sign and authenticate it.

It was the late-eighties. I had been working at Galoob Toys as a designer on the Micro Machines line, creating cars and playsets for several years. A dream job, drawing and painting cars and roadside architecture for a living, but I also craved something different that I could do for personal work.

Any writer worth their salt knows that a good story is comprised of three primary components: Character, Setting, and Plot. The same can be said of visual storytelling, regardless of the medium.

Photography is the art of telling stories with light. Millions of photographs evoke emotions and photographs have dramatically changed history, but there is something dishonest about photography. Something that begs the question: Is this a lie?

Part of the beauty of photography lies in capturing a single special moment that will never appear the same way again. While this is what makes each photograph unique, a normal photo alone can typically only freeze a fleeting split second.

I'm often told that being a professional concert photographer is the coolest job in the world. In order to dispel some myths surrounding what I do and also support others who want to get into the profession, I’m going to peel back the curtain of the entire process from preparation to editing.

It was so close to the first of April, it sounded like an April’s fool hoax: the gentle freedom-loving all sharing company would be selling to the greedy capitalistic money-making titan. Or, in other words, Getty Images was acquiring Unsplash. The two unlikely partners officially became at the end of April, sending ripples through the stock photography world and beyond.

I have an irrational fear of ships based on 90-minute voyages on car ferries across the relative calm of the English Channel and yet I was sitting with my wife, Fre, listening to Tony Spencer trying to convince us that we should join him on “the adventure of a lifetime,” the fulfilment of a dream that Tony had been working on for three years.

For most photographers, it’s been an interesting past year and my experience is no exception. My regular work shooting for commercial clients and agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area was upended by the Coronavirus pandemic, and keeping busy has meant constantly shifting gears to keep the calendar full.

By now, we understand the need to cultivate diversity in conservation photography and filmmaking. Scientific analyses urge diversity across multiple disciplines. Countless articles criticize and dissect the lack of minorities in photography. Conversations like #blacklivesmatter are rising in volume.

The first iteration of the Internet, the one we are still somewhat experiencing, was built on the fundamental belief that content should be free.

As a creative director, photographer, and self-proclaimed content evangelist whose lifelong dream is to travel to space, I was left scratching my head when the pandemic hit.

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is about social media likes and followers and how to ‘boost’ those numbers.

In October 2020, the family trip to the local zoo was interrupted by an unexpected telephone call – I had won the 2020 Landscape Photographer of the Year competition, a feat I had never imagined in my wildest dreams. This is the story of that image.

Since February 2020, the entire world has been experiencing what is likely a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. No country was spared, and here at home in the United States, we somehow managed to be one of the most infected countries on the planet. More than a year later, where do we stand?



There have been thousands of articles written about cheap and expensive lights, cameras, and lenses. To me, the light is not as important as the modifier.

When starting out, you will inevitably stumble upon someone telling you to use a three-light setup for portraits and a beauty dish for fashion photography. I think that’s a whole bunch of nonsense. Lighting setups don’t teach you light -- they only confuse you and derail you from progressing.

I am not brand loyal. I merely see a camera as a piece of technology that enables me to push my creative process. However, that being said, it doesn’t mean that all cameras are the same. Each system from the various companies out there brings with them both pros and cons against one another and it is down to you, as a photographer, to find out which works best.

We live in a time when our technology and camera gear usually work extremely well and reliably... Until it doesn’t. Randomly. And at the worst time. When that happens, you’re left feeling unprepared and stressed which is something that none of us enjoy.

I took up photography before the birth of my son in 2005 and moved to Marblehead, Massachusetts from Washington, D.C. in 2008. In D.C., I had no limits on famous landmarks to photograph. When I moved to this town of 4.4 square miles, I wasn't sure how to continue my photography.

There are countless distractions that often hinder our creativity and photographic expression. The pressure and comparison that comes with social media can make digital photography end up feeling like a burden: Each shot must be better than the last and a photo with subnormal likes is a failure.