Close-up photography or macro photography can open up a whole new world of creative possibilities for you as an artist. It can challenge your powers of observation by forcing you to look at an object from different viewpoints in order to find interesting patterns, shapes, and textures. I know that when I haven’t picked up my camera in a while, close-up photography is one of the best ways I know of to get that creative mojo back. If you’ve never really given this form of photography a chance, here are some tips to help get you started. [Read more…]

A few years ago I took a step back from doing photography as a side hustle. Before that time, I spent many weekends doing senior portraits, family portraits, and headshots. I was shooting mostly outdoors at beaches and parks with off-camera lighting and some light modifiers. While I still had a lot to learn, I had become fairly skilled at capturing images that my clients were happy with.

However, everything changed when the time required to confront several personal challenges that I was dealing with forced me to stop actively pursuing new clients. Sure, from time to time I would still do an occasional shoot for someone that would ask. But for the most part, these shoots were few and far between. Eventually, I completely stopped doing photography as a side hustle. My photography website languished and my camera and lighting equipment started to gather dust. [Read more…]

One of my favorite things to do with my camera, whether it’s my DSLR or my iPhone, is to take close-up pictures of everyday things. It could be an object like a household utensil, a texture like graffiti on a concrete wall, or something from nature like leaves on a tree.

To take these photos I use a macro lens on both my DSLR and my iPhone (check out my resources page for more details). This allows me to get really close which can create interesting effects when combined with a shallow depth of field. This also gives me the opportunity to examine something closely and experiment with different angles and points of view in an effort to make something that’s considered ordinary become much more interesting. The end result can often be a pretty amazing abstract image. [Read more…]