Category: Stories
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Canon EOS R8 Un-Unboxing: First Impressions
Pure GAS purchase. No box, no unboxing. Just the camera. I bought it at Best Buy despite the fifteen percent restocking fee, because a Best Buy credit card gave ten percent back in rewards. Two hundred ten dollars off a camera that is the exact same price everywhere. B and H, Adorama, Amazon. Like Kohl’s…
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You Shoot Weddings… But THIS Is Where You Draw the Line? | Photography News of the Day
Hang on. Let me get this straight. You are a working wedding photographer, in an era with fewer weddings than ever, and you are turning down jobs because the groom wants a photo in his boxer shorts? Groomsmen too. The photographer said, in print, that had he known, he would have turned down the job.…
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Coached by the Street Photography Legends (Sort Of)
I hired the greatest coach in street photography history. ChatGPT. My best friend. I submitted five random street photos and demanded honest good, bad, and ugly critique with no confirmation bias. Here is ChatGPT’s self pitch: studied millions of photos, books, interviews, essays, critiques. The combined wisdom of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alex Webb, Joel Meyerowitz, Vivian…
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Why Eterna Failed Me on the X100VI
In a street photography forum, some non shooters claimed that festival and parade shooting is too easy, like shooting fish in a barrel, and should be avoided. I answered by linking my last two parade and festival videos. Then I went somewhere even easier: the tourist trap. Gatlinburg, Tennessee. East Tennesseans stay away. Everybody else…
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I Told You Not to Buy This Camera (And I Was Right)
I told you not to buy the Fujifilm X-Half. And now PetaPixel has named it the number one worst camera of the year, so let the record show I was right. $850 plus tax, over $900 out the door, for a novelty. Light leaks on purpose. Locked into film simulations for 36 or 72 exposures…
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The Best Fuji Lens for Street Photography
I have shot them all. Here is the truth, running down my Fuji lenses from wide to long. Some are third party Fuji non lenses. The Rokinon 12mm manual. Ridiculous. Odd pictures. Does not talk to the camera. Never used. The Fujifilm 16-55mm f/2.8. The OG. The Mac Daddy. My first Fuji lens. Sharp, about…
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Photography is Dead. Again | Check Out The Full Video.
A follow-up to my “Photography Is Dead. Again.” video, where I listed the jobs AI is killing. Photo contests. Editing software. Jobs up and down the list. Well, a viewer named Brent wrote in to tell me he is still working as an event photographer. Brent, I appreciate you, but event photography is dying too.…
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The Top Three Elements for Perfect Street Photography
Street photography comes down to three things. Light, color, and weird people. That is the whole formula. I took the Fujifilm X-H2 out to the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville to prove it. If you have never been, Big Ears is this wild mix of Americana, folk, and world music, and the crowds show up…
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Confessions of a Canon Hoarder
I have a confession. I am a Canon digicam hoarder. And I am only slightly embarrassed about it. Somewhere along the way I started buying old Canon point and shoots at auction. Not when they came out. After. When nobody wanted them. I have multiples of the same camera. I have, and I am not…
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I Have Never Taken a Photo in the Rain
I got my first camera when I was nine years old. That was fifty years ago. And in fifty years of taking pictures, I have never once photographed in the rain. Not once. I am a goofball about my cameras. I like them pristine. The idea of taking a camera out into weather on purpose…
