After almost 5 years of doing photography as a business, I have made many MANY mistakes. It’s ok to make mistakes because there is always something to learn. But it’s never fun making those mistakes.

I’m asked all of the time, “how do you know when you are ready to start taking on clients?”.

This seemed like a no brainier to me, my answer would probably be, when people start asking you to do their photos. That’s when I started doing it. 

As a photographer, you have probably been asked to work for free before. This is a bit strange and beyond insulting, to say the least. After all, you wouldn’t go to the cashier at Walmart with a big screen TV and ask if you can just have it for free now, would you?

As I’m sure you know, I take a very artistic approach with my photos. I also consider myself to be more of an artist than a photographer.

I have a lot of other interests that have helped contribute to my abilities as a photographer. These interests include cinematography, film making, music, CGI, drawing, and even woodworking to name a few.

I have several cameras and lots of different lenses, and I bring multiple setups with me on my sessions so I’ll have back up. But when I get to my location, I almost always only have one camera and one lens on me.

I’m asked all of the time what my main set up is, and that is what this article is about. Because this setup is about 95% the same on every session.

Should you color calibrate your computer monitors for editing photos? Short and quick answer, a resounding YES!

If you’ve been following me for a while now you probably know that I am partly colorblind which is a HUGE disadvantage for a photographer!

If you have been following me you are no doubt sick of all of the snake images I’ve been posting and writing about as of late. 

As exciting as it all was and even landing me in the news (KY3, KAIT8), it’s time to focus back on the magical world of photography.

We all have that (when I found a snake in my house) story, but this one takes it to a whole other level and will make your skin crawl!

15 minutes before I leave work to come home I get a frantic call from my wife Natasha with high pitched screaming on the other end!

Are you ever afraid to interact or even correspond with the competition out of fear that they would somehow steal your ideas or clients? Do you get super offended when someone critics your work, especially when you didn't ask for it? 

Have you ever been on a photo shoot where you pull your camera and lens out of the camera bag and it instantly fogs over? 

I have, and it’s a bit scary if you don’t know what to do because it can take a very long time to go back to normal and you don’t want to have your clients standing around waiting for your lenses to clear up.

One of the things that drew me into photography was the artistic side of things. I loved how you could tell a story in a single image.

When I started doing photography as a business I quickly realized that there are two types of photos, the Portrait, and the story. Each one is perceived completely different.

Should You Shoot in JPG or RAW? This was very confusing for me when I started out. I had no idea what the difference was except that one took a HUGE amount of disk space.

I eventually figured it all out and made the switch to RAW, but it wasn’t easy. 

Now I get asked this question a lot. So here is my answer to the question, should I shoot in JPG or RAW?

When I got into photography I never really give this much thought. 

It was years before I even purchased my first photography prop. 

I’m very subconscious about everything that ends up in the frame of my images, everything must have a purpose.

So here is my take on photography props.

As a photographer I’m always wanting to try new things so I can expand my knowledge and understanding of photography in as many ways that I can.

One of those things on my list was architecture photography, or real estate photography.

I finally got the chance to mark that one of my list. I will have to say though, this was completely different than what I'm used to.

IT”S SPRING!!! Time to pull out the camera and look for Spring blossoms and flowers!

This article may be a bit on the short side, but I wanted to leave a few tips for taking Spring photos.

So you’ve been dabbling in photography for a while now and you’ve been getting a lot of compliments on your work. You decide that you are ready to start taking on clients.

But where do you start? 

This article will help you to start picking up clients and get you started on your photography business adventure!

One of my least favorite things to do is take group photos, specifically at weddings! 

It can be extremely chaotic, especially when there are a lot of kids.

But, it is one of those things that you will find yourself needing to do eventually as a photographer. So here is how I take large group shots.

I’ve always wanted to try my hand at restoring and colorizing old photos. It’s almost magic to me when I see someone do this. 

I like to challenge myself to try things I’ve never tried before. That’s how we learn. 

Just for fun, I restored and colorized a couple of old family photos. Here is the process I took.

On top of mastering your craft, you must also strengthen your people skills. It doesn't matter how good of a photographer you are if you are not good with people.

I had to learn this and continue to learn it as I go a long.

Here are a few tips for how I interact with my subjects during a photo shoot.

Part of what really made my images stand out in the beginning, is when I started using professional camera lenses.

But also starting out I didn’t have any money to invest in expensive lenses. There was just no way for me to afford them starting out, and that is the case for a lot of beginner photographers.

But I found a way to get my hands on some really nice professional camera lenses for super cheap! Here’s how I did it.