By Wayne Cosshall A lot of rapid progress can come in your photography when you integrate it with the other things you do in life. Photography can seem to be a very distinct activity in our lives. We shoot on social occasions, vacation, and on deliberate photo trips (such as my long trips into the country...
By Wayne Cosshall Do most of your images start with pre-visualization? Or experimentation? Do you only work only one way or the other? Or do you swing both ways, photographically speaking? Pre-visualization is big in the arts. In your mind, you see beforehand what you want to show, capture or create...
By Jon Canfield Most of us got started in photography as a hobby—as a way to express ourselves creatively. Some were lucky enough to know what they were attracted to from the beginning, whether it was landscape, wildlife, wedding, or portrait photography. Others, myself included, had no firm idea of...
By Marc Aguilera Welcome to the 21 st -Century world of amateur and professional photography. Many things have changed, but some have not. Getting published in a national magazine seems to be as much of a goal for photographers as ever. The founders of JPG magazine understand that ambition. There is...
By Wayne Cosshall We all get bored sometimes: bored with ourselves, bored with others, and bored with what we're doing. Boredom with our photography can be a great kick to a new start. The other day I was bored. I was feeling somewhat agitated. I wanted to shoot something (with a camera), but had...
By Wayne Cosshall We all have them, the Creative Blahs, or CBs. Lugging the camera bag seems like hard work. You can’t be bothered going out. Or you go to a normally fertile place photographically, and nothing happens. Maybe you take one or two bad shots just so you can say you shot something. Even worse...
By Wayne Cosshall As a kid, I was fascinated by the image. At first, I tried painting. But I was never satisfied with the results. As I attempted to teach myself painting from books at a young age, I had the mistaken notion that a painting was painted in a complete state from one corner and spread across...
By Jon Canfield I’ve been in a photographic rut for the past few months. Lately, it’s been easier for me to find reasons not to pick up a camera than to get out and shoot. So, for my New Year’s resolution, I’m assigning myself projects to keep the creative juices flowing. I’ve always kept a notebook...
By Michael Frye According to a recent article by Hal Stucker in PDN (Photo District News), most commercial photographers now require that their assistants have extensive digital skills. The article, entitled “Assisting 2.0,” quotes a digital tech who estimates that only about a third of these photographers...