My brilliant friend, Vanessa has written a great article for the environmental news website, Grist. She details her experiences living “off the grid” in a wooded cabin in rural Washington and how her life differs now living in Los Angeles. How does someone go from living with solar panels and an outhouse [...]

I took these shots of my husband, Shayne, on Christmas day. I’m very pleased with how they turned out. It made me think about what it takes to make a great portrait of someone. Here are the three ingredients I think most important to a great portrait:

After a long hiatus, I have returned to the blogisphere! I needed a break and life has been lively and busy these many weeks. I’ve also been in a picture-taking slump, and hadn’t found much inspiration for shooting or writing.
Shayne has been travelling for most of the month, which is always challenging [...]

3 POINT LIGHTING
Three point lighting is often the best way to create a flattering portrait, shoot a great headshot and make an interview on video look professional. Here is the essence of three point lighting:
Key Light – This is your primary light source.
Fill Light – This light adds illumination to the shadow side [...]

BEHIND THE LENS: INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S PHOTOGRAPHERS
SERENA DAWN BOGGS
Serena Dawn Boggs is a North Carolina-based freelance photographer, specializing in images of children and families. Her work is rich, fun and candy for the eyes. A little yin and yang in her aesthetic, she wows us with contrasty jewel colors and luminous, high-key skin tones. [...]

It’s great to see that a recreational site like Flickr can be used for something really important like finding missing children. Chris at Shooting The Kids found out this page on Flickr with photographs and profiles of missing children. Please take a look and pass on the link. It’s grass roots efforts [...]

“But all I did was see the light…”
That’s what Shayne said to me after I went nuts over these shots he took of Chloe yesterday. That’s it, the essence of photography wrapped up in a single sentence. - “all I did was see the light.”

There’s no substitute for great light. Sure, you can [...]

Zooms, telephoto, wide angle lenses? Ever feel confused about how to use different lenses or what the difference might be between them? Here is an easy primer on what camera lenses are all about.

Speaking in very general terms, here are some of the characteristics of wide lenses and long lenses: