Remember the pinhole camera from video episode 8? Of all the many videos and posts here on prophotolife, “how to build a 35mm pinhole camera” provides one of the steadiest streams of search traffic. In the past couple months I’ve moved the camera from desk to desk, taken it home and brought it back to the studio and forgotten it in my truck for at least a week or so.
Well, it’s time the pinhole camera found a real home. At first I thought it might be funny to put …

Aspiring professional and enthusiast photographers work hard to find their own particular style, a visual look that sets them apart from the crowd. Your style is like your own personal signature and it may revolve around the use of a particular lens, color palette, camera or post-production technique. Or it may be the way you communicate with your subject and the responses you elicit and capture. It may be a combination of many of these things.
Do you have a style? If you’ve ever found yourself frustrated, unable to find …

If you live in the United States you are partial owner to some of the most important photographs in U.S. history. The Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information (FSA-OWI) funded a national documentary photo project during the Great Depression years (1935 - 1945). Now-legendary photographers like Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, Jack Delano, Dorothea Lange, Carl Mydans, Gordon Parks, John Vachon and Marion Post Walcott (among others) were hired by the U.S. government to document the country during this trying time. With the nation sorely in need of economic …

What do all successful photographers have in common? They’re problem solvers. When faced with a challenge they conjure up solutions, using experience and creative thought as a guide. Whether it’s a photojournalist seeking access to a story, a portrait photographer with a difficult client or a commercial shooter with a troublesome product, they all face challenges head on and deliver the goods.
Back in the hills we used to say “there’s more than one way to skin a cat”. That just means there’s more than one solution to a challenge. Today’s …

I’ve been receiving emails this weekend letting me know that some prophotolife videos are coming up on YouTube as “no longer available” for certain viewers. I haven’t pulled anything down. Anyone else having problems? A quick search revealed this post of potential fixes:
http://digg.com/tech_news/Fixing_the_video_is_no_longer_available_YouTube_glitch
I’m not sure what’s up, let me know if you have any insight.
Thanks,
Jim T.

One of my favorite websites is A Photo Editor, written by photo editor Rob Haggart. Rob’s business is to constantly review the work of photographers so he frequently highlights new and cool photography on the site. I really enjoyed his post linking to a site with samples shot from what seems like a hundred “crappy cameras”, comparing the effects from each. I could get lost in there.
Rob also reveals the ins and outs of the editorial photo business, passing on valuable info to photographers marketing their work. The …

I’d also be interested to hear how you got the effect in your Forgotten America photos… - Matthew Botos

This one’s for you, Matthew (and everyone else, of course). I’d like to talk about how the Forgotten America series was created by using this image as an example.
This is a scene in northwestern Ohio, right near the Indiana border, a timeless image photographed on the way to visit family. I like these kinds of timeless scenes and try to photograph what I can without cars or fashions that would …

How to get your work published
Many photographers aspire to have their images published in magazines and books. There’s a lot of competition for this type of work but with a plan and dedication you can make it a reality.

As a teenager I wanted to be a photographer for motorcycle magazines. By the age of thirty I had fulfilled that dream, shooting and writing for publications around the globe. Here are some of the keys I found to getting published.
You’ll need to find a market for your work
What are your interests …

thirty seven s…
volume 1 2006
By Jim Talkington

Book Preview

In 2006 I started a photo blog and decided to publish a photo a day. There was a definite purpose to this. No, it wasn’t so much to get my work seen by a bunch of people, it was so I would commit to creating new work. It was a way to force me to continually create. As a professional commercial photographer I continually photograph for clients. You might think the last thing I’d want to do …

Process your own black and white film
Today’s video is something really different, we’ll take a break from lighting this week and get back at it next Monday. It’s fun to change things up, it keeps things interesting and it seemed like this video could fill a need.

There are a few different reasons you might want to shoot with film. Maybe you prefer the feel of a vintage, mechanical SLR (EpicEdits has a great post on film vs. digital cameras) . And if you’re going to shoot the old-fashioned way, …