New blog series and more

I'm taking up a new track for my my blog. I'm going to be starting a new series of articles with tips and tricks to help you explore new photographic avenues without re-mortgaging your house. I'll be showing you ways to modify things you might already have, inexpensive gear to buy that will do the job of much more expensive gear, and techniques that may save you from buying anything at all. I'm a Nikon shooter so many of my specific equipment recommendations will be Nikon-centric, but other manufacturers (Canon, Pentax, Sony, etc.) will have similar or equivalent pieces that will also work. Along the way, if I make a recommendation on equipment, I'll insert links to a website or two where you can find them, and clicking those links and buying through them will help me keep the website going.

But this isn't ultimately about gear. It's about thinking differently about how to make photos. If you have a photographic challenge, it's easy to throw money at it. Photography is one of the few lines of work where you can essentially buy into your job. Ultimately, though, as a photographer you're judged by your work, not what you used to create that work. So however you get to your photographic goals, the important thing is that you get that shot. After that, whatever you put together to get it doesn't matter. But thinking differently about what we value about photography does.

I'll also be posting more informative blogs about the basics of photography. Things as rudimentary as exposure, aperture, and composition all the way up to the infinite variables of lighting techniques. I've had people ask me about putting on classes or workshops, and while I'm leaving that door open, I thought I'd rather reach a wider audience with my blog. Then if you learn something useful that you'd like to try, you can spend the money you would have spent on classes instead on that new lens or a tripod or some other tool to expand your photographic palette. Then if you choose to support what I'm doing, you can use the links I'm providing to get those things and I'll get a little kick-back. Kinda like PBS except there's no pledge drives and the "thank you gifts" are much better.

I saw an interview with Quentin Tarantino once where he was asked what his advice for aspiring filmmakers was and he said basically just to get out there and do it. Spend the money you would have spent on school on a camera instead because you'll learn faster just doing it than sitting in a classroom. I would also add there's things that experience will teach you that you can't learn otherwise. So I'd also like to see people posting their results and experiences with the subjects I cover. Art is more than a lecture. It's a conversation.

If you learned something useful from my site and want to help me keep it going you can buy through our affiliate Amazon.com Camera Store