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Do You "Take" Photographs or "Make" Photographs?

I use to default to writing “make” photographs, because of the endless rants I used to hear back in my darkroom days (the 90s). Of course, as photographers who took their craft seriously, we painstakingly “made” photographs, we didn’t just “take” them willy-nilly. It’s even in my book

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No Worries

Via Jack Hollingsworth [https://twitter.com/photojack/status/821803627111206917] : > "Amateurs worry about equipment. Professionals worry about time. Masters worry about light." -  Anonymous I disagree. Every photographer should consider their time, equipment and lighting. No photographer needs to worry about it. Also, why wouldn't the

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Which Rules Apply to You?

Some of us photograph for the pleasure of photographing. For that kind of photographer, there are no rules. Some of us are artists primarily. For that kind of photographer, the rules only exist for the breaking. Some of us are professionals. For that kind of photographer, the rules are many,

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Turning Mistakes into Ideas

I picked up the book Failed It! [http://amzn.to/28JffL0] on a recommendation from a reader. It's all about embracing our mistakes and understanding our amateur failures may be better than a professional's successes. > "Dare to be disliked. You might even like it.

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Your Biggest Advantage as an Amateur

For a professional photographer, the photograph is a product. For an amateur photographer, the photograph is a byproduct of a life well lived.

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What Are You Willing to Give Up for Photography?

As much as photography adds to our lives, we often forget it comes at a cost. Besides money, we invest our time, creativity and attention. When we focus that energy on one thing, it comes at the cost of other things. To leave this unexamined is a recipe for frustration

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It's Never Been Easier

I replaced the word “writer” with the word “photographer” below, because it really applies to both (or any modern creative profession). This perfectly describes the era we’re living in: > “It’s never been easier to be a [photographer]; and it’s never been harder to be a professional

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Amateur Media Will Win

I’m doing an annual pruning of my photo blog reading list. It’s an audit of the blogs that have been interesting and the blogs that have proved useless. A trend is emerging. I’m getting further away from group blogs, big publications and networks of photographers/writers. I’

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The Pros Do Not Own Photography

But you’d never knew based on the debates they have. This is an actual question appearing on the Society of Publication Designer's website [http://www.spd.org/2013/02/dashwood-books.php], from an interview with David Strettell, and highlighted on the popular A Photo Editor blog [http:

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Pro Photographers Discovering the Advantages of the Amateur

Over on Chase Jarvis’s blog [http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2013/02/3-undeniable-reasons-to-pursue-personal-work-why-being-the-guinea-pig-pays-off-bigtime/] , pro photographer Joey L. lists 3 reasons pursuing personal projects can help even the professional photographer: > You’d be surprised at how many artistic people there are out there who reach a certain level, then