Category: Stories
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You’re Letting YouTube Comments Stop You
“Negative comments DO hurt. They’re supposed to.” Every creator guru tells you to ignore the negativity. I am telling you the opposite. It hurts because you care about your photography, about your art. That is normal. I have never forgotten the worst things people have said about me in my career. Not one. So do…
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This Wildlife Photo Won an Award? I Don’t Get It.
This wildlife photo won an award, and I don’t get it. It is a Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner. Somewhere in all that snow and ice, there is a mountain hare. I have stared at it like Bigfoot footage, frame by frame, and I see snow, ice, and confusion. “Once you finally ‘see’ the…
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Street Photographers vs. Paparazzi: Who Is ACTUALLY Worse?
Why do street photographers love talking about ethics but never mention the paparazzi? I started this one defending street photography. I ended up questioning the whole genre instead. Funny how that happens. Here is the uncomfortable part. “Paparazzi chase celebrities for money. Street photographers photograph strangers for ‘art.’” Put them side by side and the…
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Photographers Can’t Agree on This
“Are these the most debated topics in photography? I got five of…” them, and photographers will fight about these until the end of time. Film versus digital. Film people talk about soul and discipline and intention. Digital people call film slow, expensive, and fake nostalgia. Me? Once I went digital I never went back. Shooting…
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Do You REALLY Need the $2,200 Ricoh GRIV Monochrome?
“I’m trying to talk myself into a $2,200 black and white camera…” Somebody stop me. The Ricoh GR IV Monochrome takes incredible pictures. I will admit that up front, because the purists are already typing. But every time I shoot black and white on my GR III, I conclude the same thing: I don’t need…
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Your Photos Are Terrible: 10 Street Photography Truths
Ten street photography truths. Number one: it is a contact sport. You will talk to people. If that offends you, go find a mountain and shoot landscapes or dog portraits. Sometimes you take someone’s picture just to shut them up. I do it all the time. Two: there is a difference between looking like a…
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Orange & White… in Black & White | Ricoh GR3 Street Photography
I had a brilliant idea. I would shoot the University of Tennessee Orange and White Game, the most colorful event in East Tennessee, entirely in black and white. About thirty seconds into filming the intro, I realized how dumb that sounded. So naturally, I doubled down. Out came the Ricoh GR3 with its Hard Black…
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I Didn’t Expect This From the Sony A6700
I bought the Sony A6700 and the eye tracking intimidated me at first. It would lock on and I could not switch subjects. I made a whole video about it. Now I am testing the black and white straight out of camera. The setup: A6700 with the 16-50mm kit lens, 24 to 70 equivalent. I…
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Do All Zoom Lenses Do This? | Sony A6700
Gear nerd question of the day, and I genuinely do not know the answer. My Sony a6700 has an APS-C sensor. The 16-50mm kit zoom is attached. I zoom the lens on camera and the display reads 16mm at the wide end, 50mm at the long end. But the camera KNOWS it has a crop…
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April Fool’s! OM System Aperture Realignment
Big announcement. OM System is flipping the script on the aperture. Introducing the Aperture Realignment Standard. ARS. Finally, f-stop values that make sense: big number, big opening. Small number, small opening. Revolutionary. Because let us be honest: “Small aperture, big number. Big aperture, small number. Didn’t ever make sense.” It has confused photographers for decades.…
