Peter McKinnon

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.

6 Photography Bad Habits You Need to Break (And How to Actually Do It)
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6 Photography Bad Habits You Need to Break (And How to Actually Do It)

Every photographer I know has a list of things they wish someone had called them out on earlier. Not gear mistakes or technical errors, but habits. The quiet, low-stakes decisions that compound over time until one day you realize they’ve been quietly capping your growth for years. I came across this Peter McKinnon tutorial a while back and ended up pausing it four times to take notes, which doesn’t happen often.

What a Pro Packs for Travel Photography in 2025 (And Why the Bag Setup Matters More Than the Gear)
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What a Pro Packs for Travel Photography in 2025 (And Why the Bag Setup Matters More Than the Gear)

Every time I repack my bag before a trip, I second-guess myself. Do I need the second lens? Is the tripod worth the weight? I’ve overpacked for a weekend in Portland and underpacked for a two-week shoot in Iceland (yes, I learned this the hard way). So when I sat down with Peter McKinnon’s 2025 travel camera bag breakdown, I wasn’t looking for a shopping list. I was looking for the reasoning behind the choices, and that’s exactly what this video delivers.

Starting Before You're Ready: What Peter McKinnon's Journey to 1 Million Subscribers Taught Me About Creative Risk
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Starting Before You're Ready: What Peter McKinnon's Journey to 1 Million Subscribers Taught Me About Creative Risk

There’s a photo on my phone that I’ve never posted anywhere. It’s slightly blurry, taken in bad light, and the composition is nothing special. But I look at it constantly, because it’s from the week before I started seriously teaching photography. It captures something true about where I was, even if it captures it imperfectly. I thought about that photo the entire time I watched this milestone video from Peter McKinnon.

How to Shoot Fine Art Photos of Everyday Objects Using Focus Stacking
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How to Shoot Fine Art Photos of Everyday Objects Using Focus Stacking

I have a confession: one of my most-shared photos ever is a close-up of a half-eaten granola bar sitting on my kitchen counter. Shot on my phone, terrible lighting, zero planning. People went wild for it. That experience taught me something I’ve been chewing on ever since – the subject almost never matters as much as the perspective you bring to it. That’s the core idea behind this Peter McKinnon tutorial, where he photographs a five-cent gummy bear alongside a $50,000 Phase One IQ4 camera system and makes the case that fine art isn’t about the subject.

Stop Making These Beginner Photography Mistakes (A Breakdown of Peter McKinnon's Best Advice)
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Stop Making These Beginner Photography Mistakes (A Breakdown of Peter McKinnon's Best Advice)

Every Sunday morning I do a photo walk through my neighborhood in Seattle. No agenda, no client, no pressure. Just me and whatever camera I feel like grabbing. And even after years of doing this professionally, I still catch myself making some of the same lazy habits I had when I first started. That’s why when I sat down with Watch the full tutorial on YouTube from Peter McKinnon, I found myself nodding along more than I expected.

How to Find Your Photography's Story (What Jeff Bridges' Photo Book Taught Me)
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How to Find Your Photography's Story (What Jeff Bridges' Photo Book Taught Me)

I have a confession: I spent about three years chasing the same kind of shot I kept seeing on Instagram. Same compositions, same color grades, same light. I thought I was developing a style. I was actually just borrowing everyone else’s. It wasn’t until I started pulling photography books off shelves, the physical kind, that something shifted in how I thought about making images. That’s exactly why this Peter McKinnon tutorial stopped me mid-scroll and made me want to write about it.

What a Knife Maker's Pockets Taught Me About Intentional Everyday Carry (And Why It Matters for Creatives)
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What a Knife Maker's Pockets Taught Me About Intentional Everyday Carry (And Why It Matters for Creatives)

I used to throw whatever I needed into my bag every morning without thinking twice. A lens here, a battery there, my phone stuffed into whatever pocket had room. Then I’d get somewhere beautiful on a Sunday walk and realize I’d forgotten my AirPods, or my backup card, or the one thing I needed to actually enjoy the shoot. It sounds small until it happens enough times that it starts affecting your work.