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Stop Chasing Bangers: What Peter McKinnon's Viral Rant Taught Me About Posting Better Photos
Video Tutorials

Stop Chasing Bangers: What Peter McKinnon's Viral Rant Taught Me About Posting Better Photos

There’s a trap I fell into for a long time, and if you’ve been shooting for more than six months and posting regularly, you’ve probably fallen into it too. Every photo I shared had to be better than the last one. Every Sunday walk had to produce something jaw-dropping, something scroll-stopping, something worth the caption I’d spend twenty minutes writing. When it didn’t, I’d just… not post. And then the gap between posts would grow, and the pressure would compound, and eventually photography started to feel like a job I wasn’t getting paid for.

How to Brighten Your Photos for Print (Without Blowing Out Your Edits)
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How to Brighten Your Photos for Print (Without Blowing Out Your Edits)

There is a specific kind of disappointment that hits when you pick up a print order and the image looks like it was shot in a cave. You edited it perfectly on your monitor. It looked rich and moody and exactly right. Then it came back from the lab dark, flat, and missing half the shadow detail you spent an hour coaxing out in post. I have been there more than once, and for a long time I chalked it up to “the lab” as if it were some mysterious force beyond my control.

How to Build a Professional Infinity Cove (And Why It Changed How I Think About Studio Backgrounds)
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How to Build a Professional Infinity Cove (And Why It Changed How I Think About Studio Backgrounds)

There is a specific frustration that comes with shooting products or full-body portraits against a regular wall. No matter how carefully you light the scene, you get a shadow line where the wall meets the floor, a hard edge that breaks the illusion of infinite space. You can fix it in post, sure, but that adds hours to a job that should feel clean from the start. I have spent more editing sessions than I care to admit painting out that corner crease, and every time I think: there has to be a better way to just build the thing right.

Is the F-Stop Ajna the Right Camera Bag for Landscape Photographers? Here's What Eight Months of Real Use Looks Like
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Is the F-Stop Ajna the Right Camera Bag for Landscape Photographers? Here's What Eight Months of Real Use Looks Like

I have a complicated relationship with camera bags. I’ve owned probably a dozen of them over the years, and every single one was “the one” until it wasn’t. Too small for a full day out, too heavy for a quick street session, zippers that catch on everything, straps that dig in after two miles. When you’re hiking to a location before sunrise with your whole kit on your back, a bad bag isn’t just annoying - it actively gets in the way of making good images.

Street Photography and the Law: What You Actually Need to Know Before You Shoot
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Street Photography and the Law: What You Actually Need to Know Before You Shoot

Every time I post a street photo on Instagram where someone’s face is clearly visible, I brace myself. Not because I’ve done anything wrong, but because the comments section turns into a courtroom. “Did you get their permission?” “Isn’t this illegal?” “What about GDPR?” I used to fumble through responses, half-confident in my answers. I knew enough to keep shooting, but not enough to explain myself clearly. That changed when I sat down with this Sean Tucker tutorial on law and ethics in street photography.

How to Shoot Street Photography When the Light Is Terrible (And Make It Work)
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How to Shoot Street Photography When the Light Is Terrible (And Make It Work)

Sunday morning photo walks in Seattle are not always the golden-hour dream you see on Pinterest. Half the time I’m out there squinting into a flat white sky, wondering why I dragged myself out of bed. For a long time, overcast days felt like wasted shooting time. I’d pack up early, go home, make coffee, and tell myself I’d try again when the light was better. That habit cost me a lot of good images.

5 Photography Habits That Will Change How You See a Shot (Based on Peter McKinnon's Best Advice)
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5 Photography Habits That Will Change How You See a Shot (Based on Peter McKinnon's Best Advice)

Every Sunday morning I take a photo walk through my neighborhood in Seattle. No agenda, no client, no pressure. Just me and whatever camera I feel like carrying that day, sometimes my mirrorless, sometimes honestly just my phone. And even after years of shooting professionally, I still catch myself falling into lazy habits: same eye level, same angle, same safe composition. Which is exactly why I sat down with this Peter McKinnon tutorial a while back and ended up taking notes like I was back in school.

How to Photograph Rainforest Waterfalls in Bad Weather (And Why You Should Go Anyway)
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How to Photograph Rainforest Waterfalls in Bad Weather (And Why You Should Go Anyway)

I once spent an entire vacation chasing a single waterfall shot. Every evening, my dinner went cold while I crouched in wet boots adjusting my tripod by millimeters. My family thought I’d lost my mind. But here’s the thing I kept trying to explain: waterfalls only look that good after heavy rain. The flow is fuller, the rocks are slick and dark, the ferns are dripping and lush. The miserable conditions are the whole point.

How to Read Light in the Field: Lessons from a Day of Autumn Landscape Photography
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How to Read Light in the Field: Lessons from a Day of Autumn Landscape Photography

Every Sunday morning I do a photo walk. It started as a way to stay sharp between paid shoots, but it’s turned into the single best thing I do for my photography. The problem I kept running into, especially in the early days, was showing up to a beautiful location and coming home with nothing. The light was fine, the scenery was there, but I had no framework for how to find a shot when one wasn’t obviously presenting itself.

Feeling Stuck in Your Street Photography? Here's How Sean Tucker Is Working Through It
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Feeling Stuck in Your Street Photography? Here's How Sean Tucker Is Working Through It

Every photographer I know has hit a wall at some point. Not a gear wall or a technical wall, but the quieter, more frustrating kind: you’ve found something that works, people respond to it, and then you realize you’ve stopped growing. That’s the wall I kept running into last year. My Sunday morning photo walks started feeling like I was just executing the same three compositions over and over. I knew what I was doing, which was exactly the problem.

How to Use Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) to Turn a Boring Shoot Into Something Beautiful
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How to Use Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) to Turn a Boring Shoot Into Something Beautiful

There’s a specific kind of disappointment that hits when you drag yourself out of bed before sunrise, drive to the coast, set up your gear, and then watch the sky do absolutely nothing. No clouds. No color. Just pale, flat light and the quiet sound of your creative motivation leaving the building. I’ve been there more times than I’d like to admit, and for a long time my response was to pack up and go home empty-handed.

AI Won't Kill Photography — But It's Changing What Authenticity Means
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AI Won't Kill Photography — But It's Changing What Authenticity Means

Every few months something shows up in my Sunday photo walk conversations that I can’t stop thinking about on the drive home. Lately it’s been AI-generated images, and specifically the question one of my regulars asked me point-blank last week: “Should I even bother learning photography if a computer can just make the same thing?” I didn’t have a clean answer, which bothered me more than the question itself. That’s what sent me back to a video I’d bookmarked a few weeks earlier.