While shooting in the Galapagos Islands a few years ago, a friend said to me, "Dennis, you shoot from the heart." We had been traveling together for several days by then and this was the beginning of one of many conversations we had about photography.
I hear a lot of chatter about how the decreased volume of camera sales is going to make some camera makers leave the market, or get absorbed by another company, or worse. Most of that speculation is all wrong for one very simple reason: it ignores the goals of the companies.
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.
I just got back from a trip to Yellowstone National Park to test out the Nikon D500, Nikon D5, and Pentax K-1 DSLRs and I wanted to share my experience, specifically my frustrations with visiting and photographing this amazing location, which has been my top spot for many years for photographing both wildlife and landscapes.
One of the most toxic feelings that a photographer (or human being) is to feel envy. Apparently envy is a trait that is deeply embedded in us, even as babies. But why is it that we feel envy, what are we envious about, and what can we do about it?
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.
I will begin by saying that my intention is not to attack Steve McCurry or defame him in any manner. It is only an attempt to clear certain facts that have come to light regarding his work and to also raise certain questions on aspects that may or may not have been missed, but certainly have not been expressed till now... at least not publicly.
There’s an article, published here on PetaPixel, that’s currently making the rounds on social media. It's called “A Disturbing Trend in Photography.” In it, long-time photographer and photo educator Neal Rantoul makes the argument that the art photography of today is heavy on words and light on quality.
Remember your first time taking photographs? I'm talking about before you joined Reddit or a camera forum, before you started posting pictures to Instagram or sharing them with your friends. The time when you considered yourself a hobbyist. The time when you were considered a tourist in your own neighborhood.
In March, ex-Stanford student athlete Brock Allen Turner was convicted of three felony counts: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. Last week he was sentenced to six months in jail.
I shoot with a Sony a6000, a Sigma 19mm f/2.8, and a vintage Helios 44-6. My entire kit cost me less than $500 (second hand) and technically, it sucks.
I'm old. Believe me, I know it. I'll be 70 in a few months. That fact may make it hard for you to take me seriously, but bear with me for just this post. With age comes wisdom, right? What I want to write here is that I think the field of photography by those making art is changing in a disturbing way. Read on.
I have to admit, when I first started my photography business I didn’t think it was going to be that difficult. I thought I’d get a camera, take some photos, put some stuff out on Facebook and people would start hiring me. They would give me money, I would give them photos—done deal! How tough could it be?
"To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event." — Henri Cartier Bresson
One morning last December, I woke up and noticed that a dream of mine came true: I had taken a picture that went viral. A picture I took at a friend’s wedding had been shared by UNILAD on Facebook with the caption “Best wedding photo ever.”
When I started photography nine years ago, I didn’t have a problem going out and finding inspiration. Everything was so new and, subsequently, there seemed to be no end to the ideas I felt I could produce. Looking back, I can see that my work wasn’t particularly indistinguishable from many others—there was no depth, no originality.
On Friday, I lost my $2,800 Apple MacBook Pro by following standard TSA security protocols at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
I was at John Wayne Airport on Friday morning before the sun rose, heading to a training event in Colorado. Whenever I travel by air and I’m waiting in the airport, my mind takes me back to an article that ran in a photography magazine in the early 1980s when I was a young photographer, still in school, and hoping to make a place for myself in this industry.
Cameras record a ton of information about the exposure settings of your camera, and these have been standardized into EXIF metadata fields. What few people realize is that metadata is not limited to these standard fields, and your camera is recording far more information than you ever thought possible.
Photo projects usually are planned, researched and given approval to. This one just kind of fell into my lap after a single day of shooting on a bunch of expired film on a whim at the Daytona 500.
Recently there has been a spate of very sad, and ultimately defeatist articles decrying the “death of photography”. We have no shortage of examples. Seriously.
It always staggers me that each time I’m in the shower, or camping in my tent, or having a coffee in a rural town in the middle of nowhere in France, I keep getting fantastic ideas for future projects, blog posts, photographs, travels, discoveries, and world domination.
At 1:21am on May 6, 2016, SpaceX continued its run of aerospace brilliance with a night launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, carrying its Japanese communication satellite payload to geostationary orbit.
On April 3, The New York Times Magazine photography critic Teju Cole penned a piece largely dismissing the work of renown photographer Steve McCurry. The piece caused a minor ruckus in photography circles with people (like myself) writing in his defense, while others castigated his imperialist eye and amplified whispers of staged scenes.
When taking a photography workshop, it’s important to perform some due diligence to ensure you’re investing your money wisely. Whether you’re a brand new or seasoned photographer, one things holds true — if you belong to any website, photography Facebook group, or have photographer friends, you are likely to get bombarded on a weekly, maybe even daily, basis with educational opportunities and workshops.
"We have to be humane," said the driver. It was nine o'clock at night, and since six there had been no cars or buses on the plain of Chiaraje. We were the last unnatural disruption of the monotonous highland landscape, abandoned with a failed engine.
“Fauxtographer” (according to Urban Dictionary): A person that claims to be a good photographer when in reality they just set their camera to automatic mode a start shooting. This person also happens to fumble over photographic terms or has no knowledge of the terms or switches the color mode to monochrome and calls it artistic no matter what the hell is in frame.
Just because you think it can’t possibly happen to you, doesn’t mean it won't happen anyway.
Who wouldn’t want to explore one of the world’s most haunted places given the chance? Okay, on second thought, maybe most people... Well, while on holiday with my family in Venice, I was recently given that chance and I wasn’t going to turn it down.
A few days ago I met up with two younger photographers at a coffee shop in San Francisco.
I have always seen myself as a young, up and coming photographer, but after two decades in photography I guess I’m now among the established, “older guys”.
In January, the photographer Zoe Strauss made a bracing plea on her Facebook page. The artist, whose work had been recognized by the Whitney Biennial and Magnum Photos, and was the subject of a traveling survey exhibition organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was out of money
A historic building in South Florida burned to the ground recently because in the dark of night, a trio of photographers set it ablaze while trying to “paint with light.”
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.
Recently one of my cousins messaged me asking for some camera advice. He was looking for help choosing a new camera and wondered if I had any suggestions. Without wasting any time I started writing back a sort of stream of consciousness response.
The selfie. Generally maligned by anyone older than 30 as a narcissistic (and sometimes dangerous) pursuit, the selfie has become enmeshed with all forms of Millenial self-expression. The younger generation isn’t content to just photograph their surroundings, they need to be present in the image or video to enhance the authenticity.
Every photographer has gotten the question after a successful shoot: “The photos look great, but can I get the rest of them just in case I need them later? You don’t need to edit them or anything.”
If you’re here for the short answer, the answer is no, but it’s important to me for people to understand why.
I know we all wish there was that one magic tutorial which would take our photography to the next level. And we also get frustrated when we try a technique for the first time and it doesn’t go as planned. It would be great if things were simple, wouldn’t it?
The passing of Prince gave the world pause to consider the nearly peerless artistic success and untimely death of an iconic musician.
In December, I went along to my friend Paul’s leaving do. He was departing the UK to live with his family in the US, and was spending his last few weeks visiting friends in Britain and Europe before the big move.
I rarely tell the stories of my couples on my blog, as I am more of a visual storyteller rather than a writer. But I felt this one was important.
We are in the 21st century. The world has gone digital. It has changed the way we communicate, watch movies, listen to music and take photos.
As a photographer I spend a lot of time taking photos, editing, blogging, and posting to social media. To what end? Are the photos meant to be viewed for the 24 hour period that Facebook displays them and then just gone forever? And then I scrounge up another photo to share and the cycle just continues.
Detroit-born rapper Danny Brown recently caused a ruckus when he posted an image taken in Melbourne by Michelle Grace Hunder to Instagram without permission. The photo had been taken at a music festival for Howl & Echoes, a Sydney-based online music site.
I teach a lot of street photography workshops for a living. I’m always wondering, “How can I best empower my students, help them build their confidence, and ultimately make better images?” Honestly, the most important way for a photographer to make better images is to build their social skills.
I started reading about how to become a professional wedding photographer some time in late 2010. Whether it was on DWF, POTN or Whirlpool, the same advice was being recycled.
Never give away your RAW files
But why?
I just finished reading Karl Marx’s “Capital” and “The Communist Manifesto”—and I was so amazed to see how modern a lot of his ideas are.
I think one of the biggest things I took away from his book is the idea that we are being estranged from our labor—that we no longer have the control of the “means of production”, and what that means is that we no longer have the ability to have control over what we produce.
Behind the lens, I am no longer Ben Helton, married father-of-2 living in the South. Camera in hand, I become invisible and free: a blank canvas in attendance to take in and document the experience around me as it unfolds.
I’m like a lot of photographers. I want to shoot more often. And one big reason I don’t shoot as much as I like is that I waste too much time reading about gear.
I found them on the bottom of a box in a New Jersey antique shop filled with photographic junk from years gone by. They were just sitting there, four faded yellow boxes mixed in with haze covered filters, dirty lens caps, ancient darkroom thermometers and broken cable releases.
To me, creativity is all about cross-pollination of ideas in novel ways.