Photography Tips

What Peter McKinnon's Photo Assignment Reviews Taught Me About Seeing in Color
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What Peter McKinnon's Photo Assignment Reviews Taught Me About Seeing in Color

Every Sunday morning I walk the same neighborhoods in Seattle with my camera, and I still catch myself defaulting to the same kinds of shots. Interesting light, sure. Decent framing, usually. But intentional? That’s the harder question. One thing that’s helped me shake loose from comfortable habits is watching how experienced photographers critique work, not just make it. Seeing someone break down why a photo lands, or why it almost does, teaches you to look at your own images differently.

The Photography Skill You Can't Buy: How Visual Exercise Will Transform Your Eye
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The Photography Skill You Can't Buy: How Visual Exercise Will Transform Your Eye

I used to think I needed to be out shooting to get better at photography. If I wasn’t behind a camera, I wasn’t practicing. That belief kept me stuck for longer than I’d like to admit, because real life rarely cooperates with scheduled creative sessions. Between client calls, errands, and the general chaos of adult existence, my camera spent a lot of time sitting on the shelf. Then I came across this Sean Tucker tutorial on developing your photographic eye through what he calls “visual exercise,” and it reframed something I thought I understood but clearly didn’t.

How to Stop Copying Other Photographers and Actually Find Your Own Style
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How to Stop Copying Other Photographers and Actually Find Your Own Style

Every Sunday morning I do a photo walk. No agenda, no client, no mood board. Just me, whatever camera I grab off the shelf, and whatever Seattle throws at me. And for the longest time, I kept coming home with images that looked like someone else made them. Not bad photos, but not mine either. I could tell I was unconsciously copying the photographers I admired most, and I had no real framework for breaking out of that.

Landscape vs. Portrait Orientation: The Deciding Factors Working Photographers Actually Use
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Landscape vs. Portrait Orientation: The Deciding Factors Working Photographers Actually Use

Every Sunday morning I do a photo walk. No agenda, no client brief, just me and whatever I happen to grab on the way out the door. And for an embarrassingly long time, I noticed I was coming home with roll after roll of horizontal shots. Same orientation, every single time, almost like I’d forgotten the camera could rotate. It wasn’t until I started being intentional about it that I realized how much I was leaving on the table compositionally.

How to Stop Shooting Everything and Start Shooting Something: Lessons from Rachael Talibart's Photography Journey
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How to Stop Shooting Everything and Start Shooting Something: Lessons from Rachael Talibart's Photography Journey

Every photographer I know goes through the same phase. You buy a camera, you shoot everything, you watch tutorials, you improve. And then you hit this uncomfortable wall where technical skill is no longer the problem. The problem is not knowing what you actually want to say with your camera. That question sat in the back of my head for longer than I’d like to admit, even after I’d been shooting for years.

Gear Doesn't Make the Photo: What a World-Class Photographer Taught Me About Creative Obsession
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Gear Doesn't Make the Photo: What a World-Class Photographer Taught Me About Creative Obsession

There’s a particular kind of photographer I keep running into at workshops. They want to know what lens I used, what my ISO was, whether I shoot mirrorless or DSLR. And every time, I find myself wanting to redirect the conversation to the more interesting question: what were you thinking about when you pressed the shutter? I’ve been chasing that question for years, which is why a recent Peter McKinnon tutorial stopped me mid-coffee on a Sunday before I’d even laced up my shoes for my weekly photo walk.

7 Photography Lessons I Wish Someone Had Told Me at the Start
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7 Photography Lessons I Wish Someone Had Told Me at the Start

There’s a particular kind of frustration that comes from looking back at your early work and realizing you were solving the wrong problems. I spent a embarrassing amount of time early on obsessing over whether I needed a better wide-angle lens when what I actually needed was to learn how to stand in a better spot. The gear wasn’t the problem. I was. Once I accepted that, things started to click.

Stop Memorizing Composition Rules — Start Understanding Why They Work
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Stop Memorizing Composition Rules — Start Understanding Why They Work

Every Sunday morning I do a photo walk around Seattle. No agenda, no client brief, just me and whatever I decide to shoot. And for years, my gut approach to composition was basically: rule of thirds, leading lines, done. The shots were fine. Technically correct. But they felt a little lifeless, like I was filling out a checklist rather than making a picture. What was missing wasn’t more rules. It was an understanding of why any of those rules exist in the first place.

How to Choose the Right Light Modifier for Portrait Photography (A Practical Breakdown)
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How to Choose the Right Light Modifier for Portrait Photography (A Practical Breakdown)

Picking a light modifier used to feel like guessing to me. I’d grab whatever was already on the stand, fire a few test shots, decide something looked “off,” and then spend twenty minutes swapping gear and second-guessing myself. It wasn’t until I started systematically comparing modifiers side by side - same subject, same position, same power - that I actually understood what each one was doing to the light, and why.

So You Want to Photograph the Hard Stories: A Beginner's Guide to Documentary and Conflict Photography
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So You Want to Photograph the Hard Stories: A Beginner's Guide to Documentary and Conflict Photography

There’s a category of photography I’ve always admired from a respectful distance. Not landscape work, not portraiture. I mean the photographers who walk into the hardest places in the world and come back with images that make you stop scrolling and actually feel something. I’ve spent a lot of time on the technical side of photography, teaching exposure triangles and composition rules, but I’ll be honest with you: the “why do you do this” question is one I find far more interesting than the “how do you do this” question.

What Modern Camera Manufacturers Can Learn From User Feedback
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What Modern Camera Manufacturers Can Learn From User Feedback

What Modern Camera Manufacturers Can Learn From User Feedback After spending considerable time with numerous camera systems—from mirrorless bodies to compact rangefinders—I’ve developed some clear perspectives on what separates good camera design from exceptional camera design. While no camera manufacturer has achieved perfection, some are getting much closer than others by listening to what photographers actually need. The Features That Matter Most When evaluating cameras across different brands, I consistently return to one fundamental question: Does this camera solve real problems I face in the field?

How Long Should You Really Keep Using Your Memory Cards?
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How Long Should You Really Keep Using Your Memory Cards?

How Long Should You Really Keep Using Your Memory Cards? Memory cards are the unsung heroes of digital photography. Without them, we’d have nowhere to store the thousands of images we capture throughout our careers. Yet I’ve noticed that many photographers—from beginners to seasoned professionals—rarely think about when to retire their cards. This oversight can lead to data corruption, lost images, and serious headaches in the field. The Hidden Lifespan of Digital Storage I want to be honest with you: memory cards don’t last forever.