All of a sudden your pictures take on a surprisingly shocking professional look. I actually remember the moment it dawned on me that I could compose my pictures any way I wanted to—that is to say “creatively”. My subject didn’t have to be in the middle of the frame. Eureka! I was probably about fourteen. A local photographer was telling us about his job at a church youth group meeting. He had us each take a picture of the woman who played the piano for the choir and the next week he brought back a pile of photos and put….

If “Get Close to Your Subject” is the granddaddy of all photo tips, then “Find Great Light” is the most soulful of them all. I can tell most of you to get closer to your photo subjects, you can do it, and the results are immediate and amazing. But when I tell you to find great light, the floundering begins. Finding great light and using it to give your photographs impact is a lifelong project. Searching for and finding great light is what professional photographers spend much of their time doing. Yes, the subject has to be right, but if….

As someone who makes a living sharing the dos and don’ts of his craft, I always love it when someone points out the futility of it. W. Somerset Maugham has used his wry sense of humor to help us understand that we all need to find out own way. No one can tell you how to avoid the required mistakes that take you to the next level. He has decided to help us along with an example of beautiful word play. There are three rules for taking a great photograph, too.. On second thought, maybe it’s best if I just….

I call it the “what do you want us to do now?” moment. It’s the picture in the top left corner; people looking uncomfortable waiting to be photographed. I’m sure dentists get the same look. It says “I don’t want to be here.” It can happen under any photographic circumstance—it doesn’t have to be two people—but there’s a moment in portraiture when you need to be ready to tell people what to with their hands. You’ll both feel better if you take control. That’s really all they want, someone to be in control. The pictures you see above are really….

We have a little cardboard box in our laundry room with Alexander’s name on it. Whenever we find something interesting in the pockets of his dirty clothes we throw it in the box. We’ve been doing it for six months or so. It’s turned into the most beautiful, seven-year-old boy, treasure trove. It’s priceless. The contents of someone’s pockets or purse or backpack say so much about them. Among the lego people and the toy handcuffs are screws and nails and hooks and chains—my son is such a little builder. It’s difficult to imagine that he isn’t going to grow….