Browsing all posts in Inspiration.

Your Weekend Photography Project – Get Low

I took this shot while balancing precariously with one foot a rock, the other foot on a branch, camera held down at a level lower than my feet. There was no way to look through the viewfinder to compose the shot, of course. So I set the camera on aperture priority (f/2.8), zoomed it all [...]

Decorating Your Home with Your Photography

By Steve Russell Happy New Year to all our readers from Tiffany and me. I thought it would be fun to start the New Year discussing what to do with all the photos we’ve accumulated over the years. While most of us probably put some of our images on a web site like Flickr, Smugmug [...]

Your Weekend Project – Portraits Without Faces

The art of capturing a person’s portrait without including their face is gaining popularity in lifestyle photography. I see it quite often in family portraiture and wedding photography as well. It’s a fun way to include aspects of your subject’s personality that isn’t immediately apparent in their smile. This New Year’s weekend, I encourage you [...]

Reflections on 2011

By Steve Russell In the last few weeks, Tiffany and I have each contributed articles about photography wish lists and goals for 2012. While I didn’t actually write down goals for 2011, I thought I would reflect on what I did and didn’t accomplish, photography wise, in 2011. For the most part, I’ve never been [...]

It’s Okay, Really, It Is

There are photographers, myself included at times, that tend to over think the whole process along the lines of: 1. Will this customer or group of people like this subject? Will they like the way I think I want to photograph the subject? 2. I can’t photograph that subject; I’m the only one that will [...]

Photo Shoot/Edit Music Playlist

And now for something a little different! I have a couple of playlists on my iPod, one that I like to play during a photo shoot (unless the photo shoot is of a person, then I let them play their own playlist), and one that I like to play while I’m editing my photos. There [...]

Product Review – Black Rapid RS-7 Camera Strap

Sometimes I’m convinced that the worst piece of equipment in photography is the camera strap that comes with your camera. Not only is it a marginally functional piece of equipment, you get the same strap no matter how expensive your camera might be. If you purchase a brand new DSLR for $600 you get a [...]

Ten Photography Goals for 2012

Last week Tiffany invited everyone to grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable. I thought I would suggest something a little stronger as I list my goals for 2012. So grab a cold one and get comfortable. To be very honest, I rarely write down goals but usually have them accessible in my head. [...]

Twelve Goals for 2012

Grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable, because it’s time once again to start thinking about our goals for the new year! I can’t believe 2012 is just a few weeks away – where did the year go? I do one of these lists every year, because I want to continue to learn and [...]

A Splash of Color in Lightroom

Here is how to add a splash of color to a black and white photo, using Lightroom 3. The original photo (SOOC): I want to make the entire photo black and white, with the exception of the red stairs. In the Develop module, click on the Adjustment Brush, and in the tool menu that appears, [...]