Before 2021, I had been teaching photography exclusively to aspiring professional photographers. Every time I was asked to teach a photography workshop it was from emerging photographers looking to level up to go pro. But a shift happened around 2021. Phone cameras...
Here’s what most beginner photographers overlook… fascinating light. Inexperienced photographers usually search for interesting subjects rather than obsess over finding interesting light. This is not to say a good photo can't be made by searching for interesting...
The other night the moon was a beautiful crescent, and the only camera I had on me was my iPhone. So I used it! Although I wouldn't recommend doing moon photography with an iPhone if you're serious about taking super high quality nature photos, I also wouldn't...
This photo was taken with my fancy Nikon camera, high quality lens and with a pro lighting set up: Taken with a Nikon mirrorless camera, professional lens and lighting. The result gives me sharp texture, a gorgeous soft background and lighting that perfectly...
HOW TO MAKE PHOTOS BETTER That's a big question! So let's break it down. Here are 5 practical things you can do today to improve a photo. Try one, or all five! 1. DON'T BE SHY, GET CLOSER AND ZOOM IN the benefit: clean, classic perspective - looks more professional....
Getting Started in Photo Editing If you want to start editing your phone photos, the best editing app (hands down!) is Lightroom Mobile*. I always recommend this app to my students because of two main points: it's a free app it's made by Adobe - the #1 choice by the...
WHY PHONE CAMERA PHOTOS LOOK DULL Most phone photos look flat straight out of the camera. They're usually a little grey, a little dull, and missing a bit of pizzazz. That's normal. Phone cameras are purposefully designed to take average photos for the masses. They are...
Rules of Composition have been used for thousands of years to make art that leaves an impression. The intentional arranging of elements within a frame wasn't always called "Rules of Composition", but the practice has remained largely unchanged over all these years....
What do professional photographers choose, RAW or JPG? When professional photographers use DSLR or mirrorless cameras, they shoot in RAW format, rather than JPG. RAW images capture more detail and data, making them far superior to JPG images. The lighting, colour and...
What do these photos have in common? For one, a lot of them aren't sharp or in focus. Some are fuzzy. Some have motion blur. Others don't even have a clear subject. The bottom line: these aren't correctly captured. But that was the point. In order to push your...
Last month I taught a phone photography workshop to a group of PhD and masters students at the University of Manitoba in their micro diploma program in scientific communication. It was such an inspiration to hear about their pursuits in advanced science and research...
"Wow, who took that photo?" This might be one of the most common questions after someone sees a remarkable photo. It's not "how did they take it?" or "why did they take it?" or "where did they take it?". We as humans want to know who took the photo. We want to know...