While there is great value in the idea of the artist or photographer working away in blissful isolation, there is also a lot of value in learning from others. One school of thought is that if you work in isolation that you will be free to create your own, completely personal and original voice as [...]

They say variety is the spice of life and when it comes to photography, this is certainly true. With film there is a financial advantage (superficially) to being frugal in our shooting. Film and processing costs money we may not want to spend. But with digital photography there are no such financial benefits from being [...]

Shooting spontaneously is great, and can produce stunning shots. But with most of us time limited, a bit of preparation ahead of time can maximize your chances. Many people have the impression that photography needs to be spontaneous to be creative. This is true for some people and for some of the time. But like [...]

In a consumer society it often becomes a programmed response that we need a new camera, lens or the latest software to life our work. But have we really obtained all we can from what we have? It is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we can just do something when [...]

Just as revisiting your previous work to see if it can be improved is good, so is revisiting favorite subject matter or places. With the wealth of subject matter and locations that most of us have access to, there is a huge urge to not revisit something or someplace we have already worked but to [...]

As photographers and artists we are usually focused on the individual image or work. This is fine, as far as it goes. Indeed it is necessary for creating that stunning image. But it is not the only option. We rarely use images by themselves. In an article there will be several, in a book a [...]

Avoiding stagnation in your creativity is an ongoing task. It is very easy to settle into a rut. This is a normal but regrettable state of affairs. It is regrettable because it is so easy to do and so many ideas in our culture teach us that stability is good. Stability, perhaps yes, but stagnation [...]

It is hard to judge our images completely when we only examine them on screen. Especially since the arrival of digital, many of us do not print images as much as we used to. Images look different in print than they do on the screen. You can gain a different perspective. The key to the [...]

The way SLRs are being sold today may not be doing your photography any favors. Fix this by the purchase of one extra lens. Today when you buy an SLR, whether analog or digital, it either is a body only or it comes with a zoom lens. Kits zooms are usually ok lenses but with [...]

There is no point shooting a lot if you never analyze what you have done. The process that should go hand-in-hand with shooting more is analyzing more. Analyze more means to bring more conscious consideration to all the images you look at, both yours and other people’s, and to setting aside the time to actually [...]

Ideas of natural talent are being overturned by a focus on practice. Practice makes perfect. Like many skills, photography requires practice, practice and more practice. Recent research is presenting a convincing case that our old ideas about some people possessing natural talent and genius are wrong. Sure, people may have a natural predisposition in certain [...]

Other people’s reviews can assist you when making a purchase decision. But once you have your gear, you need to do your own testing. Reading the manuals is only the first step of getting the most from your camera gear, you have to become familiar with how it actual works in practice. This means playing [...]

Clean images are not always what we want. So let’s dirty up your photography. If you think back to analogue photography, we often made use of very grainy film, soft focus, blur or rough forms of printing to create a particular look. There is no reason not to do the same with digital.  There are [...]

Where people are looking in your images offers you another level of control. We are very sensitive to where people are looking. Consider how disturbing it is when you are talking to someone and they look away from you. We are very keyed into people’s eyes and we can use this in our photography. One [...]

Optimal growth and development occurs when you are outside your comfort zone. The concept of a comfort zone is a useful one. Your comfort zone encompasses everything you already know, can do readily, people and places you know, and such. When we are within our comfort zone we are, as it goes, comfortable. It is [...]

Sometimes we are so overwhelmed by choice that we actually do nothing. There is a fix to this. Choice is a wonderful thing, it is the freedom we crave and so many in the world do not have. Yet choice can be a double-edged sword, especially when it comes to creativity. Whether we are a [...]

ImageMaker photography tip number 6 Photography, along with other art forms, has so-called rules: rules of composition, color theory, and so on. Rather than being called rules, they really should be called principles. Part of our growth as an artist is to know these principles. Study of composition: ideas of rhythm, mass, line, form, contrast, [...]

ImageMaker photography tip number 5 For many of us there is such a rush to new creation of images that we do not reconsider our old ones. Especially for those shooting digital, but even for film users, there is a perpetual focus on our latest images. We may do a lot of work on an [...]

ImageMaker photography tip number 4 When you shoot off-tripod, just how flexible are you? Shooting on tripod is for when you want to really work, carefully, a single position for a while. Shooting off tripod allows us huge freedom of movement, yet many of us do not make as much use of this as possible. [...]

ImageMaker photography tip number 3 Most of us do not use a tripod anywhere near as often as we should. But this oversight is easy to correct. Tripods have other benefits than just supporting the camera in very low light. They can help to make images sharper even at hand holdable shutter speeds, take some [...]

ImageMaker photography tip number 2 You cannot create photography (or any other form of art) for a fictional, ideal customer or buyer. You can only create for yourself. Now obviously if you are shooting commercial photography for a client you must please the client. That is a different situation and shooting to please the client [...]

ImageMaker photography tip number 1 Shoot what you love and what you hate. Anything you are ambivalent about, leave. Emotions are powerful and two of the strongest are love and hate. When you are passionate about something your emotions will be strong. The strong emotion you have (either way, love or hate) will eventually lead [...]