Are you waiting for a change in the weather to start shooting?

I just saw a headline in the newpaper, "The Dog Days of Winter Are Upon Us..." Oh, it can be tough to get inspired when the most colorful thing in my yard is a large slug crawling through the moss!

However, the weather is a BIG topic with scientists and politicians, which makes it newsworthy, which makes whatever weather we're having right now something that "someone" just may need to illustrate sometime in the future, which means that NOW is a great time to get out and shoot!

Just imagine someone who's experiencing the OPPOSITE weather from yours. Now imagine that person needing a photograph that shows YOUR kind of weather. Suddenly, that dreary weather has a bit more "value" to it....

If you're having trouble getting images accepted due to "exposure", this blog just might help...

First, since your images live or die on the screen, consider getting a basic monitor calibration tool. It will help set your brightness, contrast, and color to the levels accepted as "correct" by people like the editors at dreamstime, and the people who are probably going to buy your photographs. The goal here is for you to work in the same "visual environment" as your customers. I've seen good monitor calibrators starting at about $70(US). They are easy to use and worth the price.

The next step is to learn how a "good" exposure of a your subject should look on screen. Download a comp that somewhat resembles your shot, open it in your photo editing program,...

I've looked over some portfolios done by photographers who bemoan low rates of acceptance or sales...

I see some GREAT images, with good technical skills and solid aesthetic appeal. However, there is something that MIGHT help boost those numbers. Allow some SPACE within your composition to make your photo more USEFUL!

(I know you're often told to "get in close to your subject", but there are many ways to succeed here!)

For you, the subject IS what you are photographing, for your "client" the subject is the FOCAL POINT of a nice image. When you have the camera and subject together, try to imagine how your photograph might be used. Picture it in a magazine as the background for the headline of an article (YES, it needs some "space" for type ...

I've read a few articles that have the same theme: "I've used all my GOOD photos, and don't have any travel plans... WHAT do I submit???"

All you have to do is look! Wherever you live is unique and exotic, to someone from the other side of the world! Your life, your stuff, your house-hut-home-apartment-tent are all one of a kind environments that are just waiting to be mined for images.

Please trust me on what I'm about to say... The ability to find usable images in your own backyard will make you a better photographer the next time you're in an "interesting" place. When I'm sent on assignment, I can't guarantee I'll have good weather or enough time to shoot the stuff I THINK should be shot. However, I still have to bring home the images that make it worthwhile ...

I just blogged about something a talented art director always drilled into my head when we worked together. That got me thinking, and I remembered something else he insisted on, "Everything you DO to your photograph, do for a reason."

The first time he told me that was in response to my suggestion that we use a diffusion filter I had just purchased. He sighed and gave me the aforementioned advice. He explained it wasn't to quell creativity or spontaneity, it was to be sure the photographer was actually in control of all the elements at their disposal.

Doing something because it just looked pretty, or because you happened to like a color, or thought a shadow was cool just didn't cut it! For him, the photograph was a strong means of visual communication....

My favorite art director always started a project with a detailed description of our target audience. We never talked about lighting, backgrounds, models, or even budgets until it was very clear to the entire creative team who we were aiming to reach.

Although I'm presently pulling images from my existing files for submission here, I still have built an image of who I think is going to buy my photos. I'm not under the impression these shots will be the cornerstones of major ad campaigns, or that they will grace the pages of slick annual reports or corporate capabilities brochures.

Instead I imagine someone wanting to make a get-well card for a relative, someone looking for a new desktop image from a place they've never been, someone making a ...

After shooting professionally for thirty years and billing as much as $7,500 for a single photo, it's fairly amusing that I'm excited about netting $1.20 for this photo. However, the days of big budget, large format, highly designed, heavily art-directed, intricately styled & expensively propped, commercial advertising photography are behind me.

I still shoot full-time for a living, but now it's in-house at a publishing company. The photographs that mean the most to me are along the lines of that feather in the sand; "found" scenes and objects that I happen across when I chance to have a camera in hand...

This image was found last year while on vacation with my family. I look at this shot and can still feel the sun and smell the breeze that formed the waves and ...