Category Archive: Photography Articles

Personal Development for Photographers

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-09-26T11:30:08Z in Personal Development, Photography Articles, with these tags: courage, creativity, editing, fear, freedom, goals, life, photographers, realism, skill, 4 Comments. 2,963 words.

Personal development is universal, so it includes photographers. A lot of photographers are stuck in a lot of ways. They take too many photos, entangle their intuition with technicalities, refuse to rise above spectatorship, or abandon their creativity for the comfort of rigid rules. I did all these for some time, so I want to help others rise above these limitations.

Too many photos

Most photographers live with a scarcity mindset. This means they believe they must be taking photos every moment, in case they miss the ‘perfect’ moment. There is only one ‘perfect’ moment (scarcity), so it’s important not to miss …

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Being a Free Photographer

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-07-01T05:55:39Z in Personal Development, Photography Articles, with these tags: courage, editing, fear, freedom, 9 Comments. 1,807 words.

break away

I run into a lot of photography purists, but I don’t believe any of it myself. Photography is nothing but a series of manipulations. You’re manipulating the scene by composing it any differently than a non-photographer. You manipulate the appearance of the scene by zooming in or out. You manipulate your viewers’ outlooks by composing to exclude unsightly objects. Motion blur, shallow depth of field, under or over exposing… these are all creative manipulations on your part. You may not have as much creative control as with painting, but you can still be quite expressive. …

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More stuff:   Photo: Sunset    The “Pure Photography” Myth    Welcome  

How Not to Be a Photographer

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-06-30T23:37:27Z in Photography Articles, with these tags: cameras, freedom, guides, lists, rants, 1 Comment. 932 words.

• Make sure everyone is smiling and pretending to be happy before taking the picture. Candid photography? Never heard of it.

• Don’t take photos of people; they don’t want you to take their photos anyway. Just stick to rocks and plants.

• Make your rocks blurry and your flowers over-exposed. Then claim it’s art.

• Pump up the saturation and contrast on that rose, so it’s just (255,0,0) all over. Then everyone will appreciate the beauty.

• Print your photos, then scan the prints at 600 pixels per inch. Now you have 48 megapixels!

• Never switch from auto mode. Only scary people use …

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How to Break into Stock Photography

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-06-23T08:20:18Z in Photography Articles, with these tags: editing, guides, metadata, model releases, passive income, photoshop, stock photography, 8 Comments. 3,197 words.

The five chapters in your adventure:

1. an introduction to stock photography
2. taking the photos
3. nitty-gritty editing
4. how to pitch a model release
5. building effective keywords

— 1: an introduction to stock photography —

Stock photography is not art photography. If you’re looking to express your creative spirit while making a comfortable living, this is not the place for you. You can do the latter with work, but not the former, because stock images are boring as salt.

Curiously, the best stock photos are interesting. Crafting a photo that is not boring yet appeals to advertisers is …

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More stuff:   Back to School    Photo: The Dead Auditorium    Welcome  

10 Reasons Why Photography Sucks and Isn’t an Art Form

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-06-20T08:32:30Z in Photography Articles, with these tags: art, lists, myths, photoshop, rants, 12 Comments. 1,313 words.

The wishing well

“I wish photography could be an art form. I love it so much, but it’s just too easy. If only there were some way to mentally cripple the majority of the population from being able to take beautiful photos, or if I could make the craft so needlessly difficult to only be accessible to a tiny few. Maybe then I can trick others into thinking I have talent where there is none. Oh photography, why must you be so simple and uncomplicated!”

We’ve been tricked—all of us—into believing that photography is an art form requiring skill, …

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Torrential Rain

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-06-17T21:48:18Z in Photography Articles, with these tags: dark, guides, lighting, rain, storm, 0 Comments. 589 words.

After weeks of threatening skies that produced nothing, we’re finally getting some rain in Daytona Beach, Florida (Ormond Beach actually, but they’re close). I was drenched on the way to school yesterday, and we just had quite a cloudburst at my house. Here are two photos:

One thing that you’ll find when it’s raining a lot… is that it’s hard to get a good picture! First, it’s very dark out, so motion blur becomes a big problem. Second, you’ll take lots of photos where it looks like nothing is happening! (I …

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How to Always Get the Perfect Shot

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-06-16T04:56:29Z in Photography Articles, with these tags: burst mode, guides, raw, shooting, 2 Comments. 629 words.

There’s one technique that I’ve found useful, when you’re waiting for the perfect photography moment, to never miss it.

Snap so many shots, you can’t miss.

You’re bound to get a good shot of those falling raindrops if you take 50 photos instead of one. Now, there are a few pre-requisites. First, you have to have the shot well composed. The shutter speed must be adequate, and the exposure dead center. If you mess up this, you’ll just end up with 50 bad shots instead of one. Focus can be a problem, because the camera may change itself automatically between shots. Switch …

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How to Use Zooming for Explosive Photos

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-06-15T20:47:16Z in Photography Articles, with these tags: blur, cameras, effects, lenses, motion, odd techniques, zooming, 1 Comment. 804 words.

This is an interesting technique that I used in my latest photo, The Explosion. Simply, you zoom the lens as you take the photo, and you get some cool motion blur, no Photoshop required.

The Explosion — the world pops using zooming

Now, there are some concerns that you wouldn’t face with your normal photo, where the focal length stays constant through the exposure. Namely, these are:

• You can’t do it on most compacts, because the zoom is locked while taking the photo, as it’s controlled electronically. Using the method on a DSLR, where you turn the barrel …

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How to give file names to your photos

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-06-08T21:02:14Z in Library Science, Photography Articles, with these tags: dam, exif, files, internet, librarianship, metadata, theory, time, uris, 9 Comments. 4,541 words.

This is a lengthy post (~4500 words). I cover file names in great detail, but go much further into the differences between a literal and abstract asset management system (descriptive file names vs. not), spend many paragraphs debunking time zones, daylight time, traditional date formatting, and use 500 words to debate underscores vs. hyphens vs. spaces to break up words in your web addresses. The implications go way beyond mere file names. Read on if you’re in for a adventure . . .

I don’t like that all the articles I read on organizing your photos recommend giving them descriptive file …

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More stuff:   Spamming Everyone    How Not to Be a Photographer    Welcome  

How to Brand Your Prints

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-05-17T04:28:18Z in Photography Articles, with these tags: backprinting, branding, guides, prints, 0 Comments. 1,917 words.

the back of a photo, annotated with laser printing

Photos in print are much harder to brand than photos on your website. If your printing in any great quantity, the tedious process of writing out your name, website, and other pertinent information on the flip side becomes insurmountable. Secondly, most photographic papers have a resin-coated backing, which stubbornly refuses any water-based inks. My methods in this article are aimed toward unframed 4*6 prints, as that’s what I deal with myself, but they can be easily applied to other …

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