Peter McKinnon

Two Tiny Notebooks That Killed My Phone Addiction (And Made Me a Better Photographer)
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Two Tiny Notebooks That Killed My Phone Addiction (And Made Me a Better Photographer)

I shoot with my phone sometimes on purpose, just to prove it’s not the gear that matters. But here’s the thing I had to admit to myself last year: I wasn’t picking up my phone to shoot. I was picking it up to scroll. To check notifications. To fall into a thirty-minute Instagram hole when I should have been editing the shoot from the weekend before. My phone had quietly become the biggest obstacle between me and my actual creative work, and I didn’t even notice until my Sunday photo walks started feeling distracted instead of meditative.

Why Printing Your Photos Is the Missing Half of Your Photography Practice
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Why Printing Your Photos Is the Missing Half of Your Photography Practice

Every Sunday morning I take a photo walk around my neighborhood in Seattle. I shoot, I edit, I post. Then I move on. For years that was the entire arc of a photograph for me: capture, process, publish, repeat. It wasn’t until I started printing some of my favorite shots that I realized I had been cutting the process in half without even knowing it. That’s exactly what Peter McKinnon digs into in this tutorial, and it hit closer to home than I expected.

Thinking Like a 360 Camera Shooter: What Peter McKinnon's Skydiving Vision Teaches Us About Creative Planning
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Thinking Like a 360 Camera Shooter: What Peter McKinnon's Skydiving Vision Teaches Us About Creative Planning

There’s a question I ask myself before almost every shoot: What does this moment look like before I even pick up the camera? It sounds abstract, but that mental rehearsal is one of the most underrated skills in photography and filmmaking. Most beginners wait until they’re on location to figure out their shot. Working professionals tend to have already storyboarded it in their head on the drive over. That’s the thing that struck me watching Watch the full tutorial on YouTube - this Peter McKinnon tutorial where he’s pitching the Insta360 X6.

Stop Waiting for the Perfect Moment: What Last Photos Teach Us About Shooting Every Day
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Stop Waiting for the Perfect Moment: What Last Photos Teach Us About Shooting Every Day

There’s a particular kind of guilt that creeps in when you’re a photographer walking through a city and you don’t take any photos. You tell yourself you were tired, the light was bad, you didn’t have the right lens. I’ve done this on my own Sunday morning photo walks here in Seattle more times than I’d like to admit. The camera’s around my neck and I’m just… walking. Not seeing. That habit of actively not shooting is something I’ve been working against for years, and it’s exactly what Watch the full tutorial on YouTube addresses so well.

The Tape Pull-Tab Trick: A Dead-Simple Camera Hack That Saves You Mid-Shot
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The Tape Pull-Tab Trick: A Dead-Simple Camera Hack That Saves You Mid-Shot

If you shoot video or run-and-gun photos with a camera that has a swivel screen, you already know the fumble. You’re moving from a third-person, behind-the-camera shot and want to flip to front-facing mode fast, but the screen is tucked flush against the body with nothing to grab onto. Your nail catches the edge, you almost drop the whole setup, and the moment is gone. I’ve been there more times than I want to count, and I’ve watched other photographers do the same embarrassing flap-and-grab dance.

When Your Classic Car (or Your Shot) Just Won't Fire: Lessons from Peter McKinnon's Looks Can Be Deceiving
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When Your Classic Car (or Your Shot) Just Won't Fire: Lessons from Peter McKinnon's Looks Can Be Deceiving

There’s a particular kind of frustration that every photographer knows. Everything looks right. The light is good, your composition is solid, your settings are dialed. And yet something is off and you can’t name it. The image just won’t breathe. I’ve been there on rainy Sunday mornings in Seattle, standing in front of a scene that should be working, cycling through my camera menu like I’m looking for a missing sock.

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.

Your iPhone Is Too Good at Photography (And That's the Problem)
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Your iPhone Is Too Good at Photography (And That's the Problem)

Every few months I catch myself defaulting back to my phone. Not because my mirrorless is too heavy to carry, but because the iPhone just works. It’s fast, it’s always in my pocket, and honestly, the results look good enough to post without touching them in Lightroom. That convenience, I’ve come to realize, is exactly the trap. Watch the full tutorial on YouTube In this Peter McKinnon video, he sits down with a fellow photographer and drops what he calls a hot take: the iPhone isn’t a real camera, and we should stop treating it like one.

How to Edit Film Scans in Lightroom (and Why Less Is Almost Always More)
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How to Edit Film Scans in Lightroom (and Why Less Is Almost Always More)

Film photography has been sneaking back into my life lately, and honestly, I wasn’t prepared for the editing side of it. I assumed shooting film meant skipping the computer entirely. Wasn’t that the whole point? Then I started getting my scans back from the lab and realized: flat profiles are the default for a reason. The lab is giving you latitude, not a finished image. You still have to show up in Lightroom.

Why I Started Intentionally Making My Photos Look Worse (And Why You Should Too)
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Why I Started Intentionally Making My Photos Look Worse (And Why You Should Too)

There’s a photo on my Instagram that I’m almost embarrassed about. It was taken on a $200 Android phone, slightly crooked, a little blown out in one corner. It’s also my most liked post by a wide margin. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why. So when I came across a Peter McKinnon tutorial where he describes holding his son, spotting incredible light, snapping a quick shot, and then lying in bed that night feeling almost unsettled by how effortlessly beautiful it looked, I felt that immediately.

Why Manual Focus Might Actually Make You a Faster Shooter (Yes, Really)
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Why Manual Focus Might Actually Make You a Faster Shooter (Yes, Really)

Every Sunday morning I take a photo walk through whatever neighborhood Seattle decides to throw at me that week. And for a long time, I noticed something embarrassing: I kept missing moments. A laugh right before I expected it. A glance that lasted half a second. By the time my camera locked focus and confirmed it, the shot was gone. I blamed my timing. Turns out, I might have been blaming the wrong thing.

Your Lightroom Catalog Is One Outage Away From Gone - Here's What To Do About It
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Your Lightroom Catalog Is One Outage Away From Gone - Here's What To Do About It

There’s a conversation I keep having with photographer friends, usually over coffee, that goes something like this: “Where do you actually keep your photos?” The answer is almost always some version of “in Lightroom” - and that answer has started to genuinely worry me. Not because Lightroom is bad software, but because most of us have quietly handed over custody of our entire creative life to a subscription service without thinking too hard about what that means.