Photography Tips

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

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.

Protecting Your Photography: What Recent Security Threats Mean for Creative Professionals
News

Protecting Your Photography: What Recent Security Threats Mean for Creative Professionals

Why Photographers Need to Care About Cybersecurity I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the intersection of creativity and security. As photographers, we store our most valuable work—and personal information—on our devices. That’s why I want to talk about something that might seem outside our usual realm of f-stops and composition: the growing threat of spyware targeting everyday users. Recently, major tech companies have begun alerting users about sophisticated mercenary spyware attempts.

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

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.

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

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.

What Two Photographers' Best Shots Teach Us About Letting Go of Perfect Conditions
Video Tutorials

What Two Photographers' Best Shots Teach Us About Letting Go of Perfect Conditions

There’s a version of photography advice that sounds like this: use the right gear, plan the shot, control every variable. And then there’s the version that actually reflects how great photos get made. I’ve been doing Sunday morning photo walks for years now, and the shots I’m most proud of rarely came from a perfect plan. They came from a weird moment, a broken piece of gear, or a phone I grabbed because nothing else was close enough.

Why Encouraging Other Photographers Is One of the Most Powerful Things You Can Do
Video Tutorials

Why Encouraging Other Photographers Is One of the Most Powerful Things You Can Do

There’s a version of photography culture that feels like a competition. Whose gear is better, whose edit is cleaner, whose follower count is climbing faster. I spent my first couple of years shooting in that headspace, quietly comparing myself to everyone and saying very little to the people around me. What changed things wasn’t a new lens or a Lightroom preset. It was a stranger at a coffee shop asking how I got a particular shot, and me actually sitting down and explaining it.

How to Build a Consistent Instagram Style (And Actually Grow): Lessons from Shooting in the Rain with Peter McKinnon
Video Tutorials

How to Build a Consistent Instagram Style (And Actually Grow): Lessons from Shooting in the Rain with Peter McKinnon

Every few months I’ll look at my Instagram grid and feel like it was made by five different people. A moody forest shot next to a bright flat-lay next to some overexposed candid from a wedding I second-shot in 2019. If you’ve ever felt like your feed has no identity, you’re not alone, and more importantly, it’s fixable. I’ve been going back through tutorials from photographers whose grids I actually admire, and this one from Peter McKinnon, shot on location in what quickly becomes a full-on rainstorm, hit differently.

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

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.

How to Stop Being Invisible and Start Owning the Street: Body Language Lessons from a Pro
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How to Stop Being Invisible and Start Owning the Street: Body Language Lessons from a Pro

There is a specific kind of photograph I have almost never taken, and for years I told myself it was a style choice. I preferred quiet, graphic, geometry-forward street work. Clean lines, long shadows, anonymous silhouettes. Honestly, some of that is true. But if I’m being real, some of it was also avoidance. Getting close to strangers with a camera strapped around your neck is uncomfortable, and if you can build an aesthetic identity around not doing the scary thing, it’s easy to convince yourself you’re being intentional when you’re actually just being cautious.

The 4-Step Composition Process That Changed How I Read a Scene
Video Tutorials

The 4-Step Composition Process That Changed How I Read a Scene

Every Sunday morning I do a photo walk. No agenda, no client, no pressure. Just me, whatever camera I feel like grabbing, and whatever Seattle decides to look like that day. And for years, I would show up to a location, pull out my camera within about 30 seconds, and start shooting. I thought I was being efficient. What I was actually doing was skipping the most important part. I came across a tutorial by landscape photographer Mark Denney where he breaks down his four-step process for finding and building a strong composition on location.

The Skill No Camera Can Teach You: How Empathy Makes You a Better Portrait Photographer
Video Tutorials

The Skill No Camera Can Teach You: How Empathy Makes You a Better Portrait Photographer

I’ve been teaching photography for a few years now, and the question I get most often from beginners is some version of “which lens should I use for portraits?” Rarely does anyone ask, “How do I make my subject feel safe enough to be themselves?” And that gap right there is exactly why so many portrait sessions produce technically fine images that are also somehow completely lifeless. The gear is fine.

Karl Taylor's 5 Portrait Photography Tips (And What I'd Add From the Field)
Video Tutorials

Karl Taylor's 5 Portrait Photography Tips (And What I'd Add From the Field)

Portrait sessions used to make me genuinely nervous — not because of the camera settings, but because of everything happening on the other side of the lens. I’d spend so much mental energy on my lighting ratios that by the time my subject arrived, I was distracted and they could feel it. The photos showed it too. Stiff expressions, guarded eyes, that unmistakable look of someone who just wants to get it over with.