How To Be A Second Shooter

Mastering wedding photography usually starts by apprenticing as a second shooter, a position that can sometimes make or break a wedding shoot

By David Schloss, Photos by Sarah Phillips

Capturing a wedding is one of the most important photographic assignments, because it is impossible to re-create a wedding and the images are cherished not only by the bride and groom, but by their families and offspring, often for generations to come. While most people book a photographer for their portfolio, skills and personality, they don’t realize... Read more

Telling A Story With Portraits

An editorial approach to portrait work can yield amazing results

Text & Photography By Thomas Boyd

The most meaningful portraits tell a story; they not only memorialize a person at a specific time and place, they give us insight into that person as well. Really great portraits tell us as much about the photographer as the person they photographed. The significance of the portrait you take today may not reveal itself for years and the portraits we... Read more

Keep It Simple

Not interested in taking traditional wedding photos? Consider one of these beautiful alternatives.

Text & Photography By Danielle Cohen

The array of incredible wedding photographic styles and wedding photographers to choose from today is staggering. Whether it’s highly conceptual composite images you love or simple, natural film pictures that’s your thing, the time is just right for wedding photography as a true expressive art. Most of today’s couples have sophisticated tastes,... Read more

The Art Of Expression

The skills gained by shooting weddings and portraits can transform your photographic style

Text & Photography By Tracey Clark

My career as a photographer began in the wonderful world of weddings. Fresh out of art school, with only a minimal amount of technical training, I stumbled into a job as an assistant to a wedding photographer. Little did I know at the time, what I learned shadowing an established, very talented wedding photographer not only would teach me everything... Read more

The Faceless Portrait

Capture portraits that convey meaning without focusing on the face

Text & Photography By Meredith Winn

There’s a story behind every faceless portrait. It lures you in with bits and pieces that make up the whole. These are the details that anchor story to image—the relationship between two humans and the way their hands clasp, the femininity found in fabric or how the wind catches a hemline at 7 p.m. on a hot August afternoon. These types of faceless... Read more

Photo Contest Tips From The Judges

Improve your chances of winning a photo contest with these rules of what NOT to do, gathered by the Digital Photo judges

By David Schloss

Photo contests are a wonderful way to challenge yourself. Nothing motivates a photographer to create beautiful images more than the thought of submitting them to a panel of judges, and the chance of winning a prize doesn’t hurt, either. Even if you don’t win, the experience will make you a better photographer. Unfortunately, most photo contests... Read more

Athletes And Their Environment

Using the great outdoors and the natural world to humanize athlete portraits

Text & Photography By DL Byron

It was like glitter had been thrown on the climb—shiny, bright bikes and multicolored jerseys sparkling between mileposts on Las Flores Canyon Road outside Malibu, California, while the Rally Cycling professional Continental cycling team warmed up at spring training camp. On assignment to document the start of the team’s season, I spent some time... Read more

My Own Backyard

Become a better landscape photographer by practicing these techniques without traveling far afield

Text & Photography By Tracey Clark

I live in Suburbia, plain and simple. The streets in my Southern California town have been plotted out in a grid formation, with strip malls on most corners and tract homes that resemble one another. Besides the beach being only a few miles away (my favorite part of living here), many of the natural elements around me have been placed there by human... Read more

Accelerate Time

How to create stunning time-lapse video with a process that has become easier than ever

Text & Photography By Tom Bol

“NEVER SAY NEVER.” I absolutely love still photography. In fact, my family probably would tell you I’m obsessed with taking photographs. There’s something almost indescribable about the magic, power and expression a still photograph can convey. Every day I grab my camera and seek out an image that moves me and, hopefully, others. A few years... Read more

Light Fantastic

Capturing the magic of nighttime photography

Text & Photography By Meredith Winn

Exploring the world at night with your camera opens up many fun opportunities to play with exposure. Chasing light outside is an excellent way to learn more about your camera settings while creating artistic images. Long exposures, bokeh effects and painting with light are just a few ways to get creative, learn some new techniques and reinvent how... Read more

Focus On The Details

Create unique images of the natural world using your smartphone

Text & Photography By Meredith Winn

Photography is a powerful tool. We wield our cameras with the possibility to share a different perspective of the world. In this day of instant everything, I find myself taking a majority of daily photos with my smartphone. This little device has become a great resource for documentation, and it often acts as a lifeline for keeping me present in the... Read more

Shooting A Series

Ordinary moments become a collection of family treasures

Text & Photography By Meredith Winn

Long before the days of #hashtags, dipping back in time when social media was a new phenomenon, photographers shot in series to collect a grouping of “similars”—images that documented a specific location or subject over time. This is an interesting practice that not only shows how you grow as a photographer, but shows how the location changes... Read more

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