You can’t talk about photography without talking about light. It’s color, directionality, intensity, and quality. Once again, it’s all about the light.

And frequently, you need to deal with getting enough of it. High ISO, wide-open apertures, and slow shutter speeds are all about trying to get enough light to that tiny sensor inside your camera. But sometimes, you can have too much. Or at least the wrong quality.

If you have ever looked at a beautiful portrait and wondered how the photographer made that happen, it was the light. The light was diffused, directed, misdirected, bounced, blocked, and restricted…

You know those philosophical discussions that pop up on Twitter (I know, right?) now and then? Something like, what advice would you give your younger self? There’s usually some pretty good stuff, but it’s a moot point, barring time travel.

Or is it?

The reality is, there are plenty of your older selves around to get advice from right now.

Like me.

I’ve been shuffling around this rock for 65 years now, and hopefully, I’ve learned a thing or two. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.

And there are many things I could tell my younger self(that’s you) about what to do…

In my last edition available here, I discussed getting started with Nimbus Note, including many of the features of the fantastic editor available to you. But any note-taking app can create plain text notes, even Evernote. Nimbus Note allows you to do so much more. And that sets it above the competition.

Today, we will dive deeper into two of the most powerful and flexible features of Nimbus Note, Tables and Embeds.

As I discussed in the last article when you create a new note, you are presented a guide like the one below. It’s easy to ignore this and…

As I’ve discussed before, a lot of photography is being in the right place at the right time.

And some of that is luck, but you shouldn’t rely on luck.

As far as the right time, that’s usually pretty easy. All that takes is knowledge. Either knowing when the light is at its best or knowing when a particular event will occur and being in the right location to capture it. At least as far as the light is concerned, that’s just basic knowledge. An hour after sunrise or an hour before sunset. Those are the correct times.

Period.

You…

Are you trying to learn how to do anything?

A new language? A musical instrument? Alpaca Farming?

It doesn’t matter what you are trying to learn; it’s a process. Everyone knows that. You don’t decide to learn Spanish in the morning, then at the end of the day, check that off your list.

It’s a process. You decide to learn something. Then you begin learning it, and you continue learning until when or if you master it. Or give up and slink away. But that’s not you, is it? Hell no! You are my people, and my people want to…

How often have you said to yourself, “That person is stressing me out?”

Well, I’ve got news for you. It’s not them; it’s you.

Think about it for a minute.

It may have been triggered by something they said or did. It may not have. But either way, it began in your head.

It began with one negative thought.

And then, you dwelled on that thought for a moment too long. That thought went unchecked. You didn’t control it.

Then more thoughts piled on top of it.

And within a matter of a few minutes, you were stressed out.

The…

In the introductory chapter of this new series, I dove into my introduction to and history with the stock photography industry. As promised, this month, I will get more into agency-specific information. In some ways, this has changed a lot in the 15 years I have been doing this, and in others, not at all. I said I would also cover my processes, but I think the two subjects deserve their own chapter.

I’m not going to repeat the history I discussed in Chapter 1, but I will get into more of the agencies I started with back then and…

In past weeks I have written about what to do when you are out taking photographs. I have also described some of my processes when I get back to the digital darkroom. And I have touched on the idea that you need to be thinking about processing when you take the shot.

This week, I am going to touch on all three.

One of my challenges over the years is to keep an open mind when I am out walking around. I tend to get caught up thinking about a particular type of image and forget about all the other…