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minimalism

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Newsletters are getting personal

A lot of my advice, especially to small businesses, involves getting more personal in their email newsletters. It remains a struggle to convince some businesses to include real names (not just the brand name), be a little less perfectionist in their designs, and write like a real human. The more

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Where were we 10 years ago?

It’s been a decade since I gave this short talk at Ignite Minneapolis, titled “How to Take Perfect Photos Every Time.” I’m sure title was inspired by the sarcasm of the infamous 2009 Merlin Mann and John Gruber talk about blogging ,“149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog

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A Lesser Minimalism

Minimizing your processes is more important than minimizing the amount of your objects. Objects are often just the byproduct a process and a reflection of its health. But there are painful places where the two ideas meet. One of the first nerdy courses I bought, many years ago, was MacSparky’

A Lesser Minimalism
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Apply Constraints

We know creativity thrives with constraints [https://hbr.org/2013/01/how-intelligent-constraints-dr]. But what does it have to do with anxiety [https://www.cjchilvers.com/30-practical-tactics-to-decrease-your-anxiety-intro/]? Have too much information and too many options when making decisions is great trigger for your anxiety. This is why minimalism is so popular

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The Importance of Being Small

I've received hundreds of suggestions about how to grow my list [https://www.cjchilvers.com/subscribe] (my primary publishing outlet). Dozens of people approach me about doing podcasts on everything from music to photography to self-help, so I can boost my "visibility" to the creative community.

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Your Gear Does Matter

You can’t claim gear doesn’t matter and then criticize someone’s gear. If you look back over the life of this blog, I stopped criticizing fancy camera gear a long time ago. I had to face, while writing the A Lesser Photographer book [http://craftandvision.com/products/a-lesser-photographer]

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Obsessed with the Ordinary

Even though I prefer to chase a story, I can't help but admire the photographers who would rather give us new views on the ordinary people, places and things all around us. There's stories in them as well. This is a different kind of minimalism. It&

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Science Says Buy Everything!!

Fast Company has been looking at whether you get more out of buying experiences or things. First, they published The Science Of Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things [http://www.fastcoexist.com/3043858/world-changing-ideas/the-science-of-why-you-should-spend-your-money-on-experiences-not-thing] , then followed it up with Scientific Proof That Buying Things Can

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Yes Photography Is So Easy Its Ridiculous And

> “Yes, photography is so easy it’s ridiculous and that’s what makes it so hard. In the end it’s not so much about making the pictures it’s what you do with them.” — Harvey Benge [http://harveybenge.blogspot.com/2015/10/paul-graham-photography-is-so-easy-its.html] (via the A Lesser

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Unlearn Photography

I imagine you’ve taken some photography classes, perhaps even workshops. At the very least you’ve devoured the blog posts. You may have spent a lot of money, but I’m betting you’ve definitely spent a lot time reading about photography. Today, I have no grand solutions for