Photography tips & techniques for every skill level

Video Tutorials

How to Shoot Candid Street Portraits That Actually Look Like Portraits

There’s a specific kind of street photo I used to think was just luck: a single person, sharp against a blurred background, completely unaware of the camera, yet somehow looking like a deliberate portrait. Every time I saw one I’d wonder, “How did they get that without the person posing?” I’d tried the walk-up-and-ask method before and loved it, but the results always had that slight stiffness of someone who knows a lens is pointed at them.

July 18, 2026

Video Tutorials

Run-and-Gun Documentary Shooting: Gear Choices and On-Location Product Photography Tips from Peter McKinnon

There’s a specific kind of shooting panic I know well. You’re on location, you have limited time, and you need footage or photos that feel cinematic without a full crew or a trunk full of gear. I’ve been there on travel assignments where I had one bag, one camera, and a client expecting polished results. The question is never really “what’s the best gear?” It’s “what’s the right gear for this job?

July 18, 2026

Video Tutorials

How Joel Grimes Lights, Shoots, and Composites Athletes (And What I Stole From His Workflow)

I used to think dramatic athlete portraits required a massive studio budget and a team of assistants. Then I watched enough Joel Grimes tutorials to realize the gap between “looks professional” and “looks like a million dollars” is mostly just intentional light placement and a few clever tricks in post. If you shoot portraits, fitness clients, or anyone you want to look genuinely powerful on camera, this workflow is worth understanding from the ground up.

July 18, 2026

Video Tutorials

Your TV Is a Free Professional Backdrop (Here's How to Actually Use It)

The Background Problem Nobody Talks About I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve stood in a perfectly decent location with a perfectly willing subject and completely fumbled the background. Too cluttered. Too flat. Wrong color. Wrong mood. Renting a studio isn’t always practical, and carrying a roll of backdrop paper through Seattle on a Sunday morning photo walk is exactly as awkward as it sounds. So when a client asked me for a set of product lifestyle shots on short notice last winter, I started looking around my apartment with fresh eyes.

July 18, 2026

Video Tutorials

The Excuses Keeping Your Portrait Work Stuck (And What to Do Instead)

The Moment I Stopped Blaming My Gear Last spring, I handed my phone to a stranger at a coffee shop and asked her to grab a quick shot of me at the table. She fumbled with it for a second, then handed it back apologetically. “I’m not a photographer,” she said. I smiled and told her neither was I, once. That exchange is part of why I started teaching, and it’s also why a recent Visual Education tutorial landed so hard when I watched it.

July 18, 2026

News

Stop Avoiding Overcast Days: Why Flat Light Is Perfect for Portrait Photography

Stop Avoiding Overcast Days: Why Flat Light Is Perfect for Portrait Photography I’ve watched countless photographers pack up their gear the moment clouds roll in, convinced that good light has vanished for the day. I used to do the same thing. But after years of working in various conditions, I’ve learned that this assumption is completely backward. The truth is that overcast skies offer some of the most forgiving and beautiful light available to portrait photographers.

July 18, 2026

Video Tutorials

Using Your Camera as a Compass: What Ian Howorth Taught Me About Photographing Places You Don't Fully Understand Yet

There’s a specific kind of restlessness I feel when I visit a new city and I can’t quite put my finger on what makes it itself. I’ve been in that situation more times than I can count, standing on a corner in some neighborhood I don’t know, camera in hand, unsure whether I’m seeing something worth capturing or just projecting my own expectations onto ordinary streets. It’s not a technical problem.

July 17, 2026

Video Tutorials

What Visiting a Canon Showroom Taught Me About Shooting With Intention

There’s a version of me from a few years ago who would have shown up to a once-in-a-lifetime shooting location with a dead battery and no backup plan. Actually, that’s not past tense. I did that exact thing on a trip to Iceland, standing in front of Skógafoss with a camera that had exactly four frames left before it gave up on me entirely. The location doesn’t matter if you’re not ready to shoot it.

July 17, 2026

Video Tutorials

How Tilt-Shift Lenses Change Perspective (And Why It's Not Just About Megapixels)

Every Sunday morning I take a photo walk around Seattle, and I keep running into the same frustration: I want a wide environmental feel around my subject, but I don’t want the distortion and spatial stretching that comes with slapping a 16mm lens on my camera. The subject looks like they’re standing on the moon, everything pushed apart, the background practically a postage stamp. For a long time I thought the only fix was to shoot at a longer focal length and just accept a tighter frame.

July 17, 2026

Video Tutorials

What Four Working Photographers Agree On When It Comes to Shooting People

Last month I was on a shoot with a friend who wanted some updated headshots, just casual stuff in her backyard, nothing fancy. I kept stopping myself mid-shot because I couldn’t figure out why the images felt stiff. The light was fine. The lens was fine. She looked great. Something about the direction I was giving her was falling flat, and I couldn’t name it in the moment. That nagging feeling is exactly why I sat down with episode 700 of The Grid, a long-running photography talk show by KelbyOne.

July 17, 2026

Video Tutorials

What a Million-Follower Photographer Taught Me About Growing Slowly and Shooting Smart

There’s a specific kind of frustration that hits when you’ve been posting consistently for months and your follower count barely moves. I’ve been there. I remember refreshing my Instagram insights after a trip to Olympic National Park, convinced that my best waterfall series would finally break through, and watching it flatline by Tuesday. What was I doing wrong? More often than not, the answer wasn’t the photos themselves. It was everything around them.

July 17, 2026

Video Tutorials

How to Buy Camera Gear Without Falling Into the Collector Trap

My most-liked Instagram photo was taken on a $200 phone. That one fact has shaped almost everything about how I think about gear since. Still, I’d be lying if I said I’ve never lost an afternoon to a camera spec comparison rabbit hole, convincing myself that a new body was the missing piece between me and better work. It wasn’t. It never is. What I actually needed was a clearer framework for making gear decisions — one that starts with the photography, not the product launch.

July 16, 2026