Learn to take better photos! - Lenspiration Blog

Looking for Portraiture Resources?

It’s been a long time in the making. Ever since Lenspiration started, you could say. An article here, a blog post there, forum discussions everywhere in between. Each article, blog post, and forum topic meet the need of the moment. But what about weeks, or months, or even years later? We’ve found that if... Read More »

On Assignment: The Intricacy of God’s Creation

There are several ways you can do macro photography on a budget, but for this assignment (see details here!) I explored one way I had never tried before! It’s true that flipping the lens isn’t the sharpest way to create macro photos. For starters, macro photography has such an incredibly shallow depth of... Read More »

The Best Kind of Photography Job

It was very dark when I pulled into the driveway. But the headlights revealed quite a stately homestead. A gate led through an ivy-wrapped archway into a manicured back lawn where a shapely pool reflected the light reflecting off the clouds from downtown Dallas, 20 miles away. Dry oak leaves crunched under my feet as... Read More »

6 Observations from A Very Special Event

A special event just happened last week that made me appreciate portrait photographers a whole lot more. Their experience. Their patience. Their expertise. You see, instead of being the portrait photographer, this event found myself on the other side of the lens. I wasn’t the photographer. Instead, I was in the... Read More »

Going Deeper Than First Impression

Looking forward to the first homeschool convention of year next week! Never been to a THSC Convention before. They say it’s the “biggest and best homeschool convention in Texas.” I guess we’ll find out soon what it’s like! Thinking about heading to Texas got me thinking about the last time I was in Texas. Turns out... Read More »

How Much More Can I Learn?

For last month’s photo assignment, 6 photographers submitted 44 photos. There were some fantastic photos among those 44, but there was one in particular that I really liked. This photo was submitted by Samuel West: When critiquing everyone’s photos on the Coaching Webinar last week, I decided to use Samuel’s photo to... Read More »

On Assignment: Photos of American Patriotism!

I was so excited when Pennsylvania State Representative Andrew Lewis said we could do a photo assignment for him! This could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! And as such, not even a snowy day could keep me from shooting (or at least attempting to shoot!) some very specific, 4th-of-July-looking photos! When I got... Read More »

Revisiting a Photo Shoot From 2015

Any guesses as to which State this capitol building belongs to? I’ve only been to this State capitol building one time. Driven through the city many times, but only stopped in downtown once. And the reason I was there was to take some pictures for a client! He was running for a State office, and wanted some photos in... Read More »

An Example of a Published Photographer

Let me show you a photo that my Grandpa took back in, …actually, wait a minute… can you guess what year it was taken? This was a question I asked on the last coaching webinar. And I said whoever guessed closest to correct would be the featured Lenspiration Student Photographer of the month! When I... Read More »

Can You Fake Golden Hour?

I was going through my archives today, looking for example photos for some new training material. And I came across this simple, well-composed shot taken in pretty much the middle of the day. It’s a grand-looking photo because, yeah, it’s literally the Grand Canyon! But the lighting is just blah. So I thought, “I... Read More »

On Assignment: Family Moments Together

As I was preparing for this month’s assignment, Christian from Christian Family Reformation introduced me to this idea of a new kind of photography I hadn’t really tried doing professionally before: Family Photojournalism. Why not professionally, artistically, document the fun and happy moments you have together as a... Read More »

Which One Would You Hang On Your Wall?

With the next assignment coming up, I spent last Tuesday shooting and filming it with some friends out in eastern West Virginia. But shooting the assignment wasn’t the only thing we did! We played Clue and cracked riddles around the campfire and scrambled through swampy bogs on a hike in the rain! Despite the... Read More »

Exploring Balance

Since I’m not traveling much at this time of year, it’s a great time explore new territory in photography knowledge! Recently, I’ve been working on a new course on photography composition. And it’s been very interesting! This week I was hashing out particulars on balance. What does balance mean? How do you quantify... Read More »

What I Learned On My Latest Birding Excursion

It was fun photographing birds with some fellow photographers the other week. I liked the pictures I took so I thought maybe I should blog about it. Hideaway Countryside near Cheshire, Connecticut Download as free desktop background in next Latest from Lenspiration update (subscribe) So, what do I write about. Maybe... Read More »

On Assignment: Colors of the Bible

As promised last week, the new photo assignment is now launched! You have until Saturday, February 26 to photograph the three colors of the Bible that Suzanne is requesting. And you might want to start on it early. Who knows what unexpected things you might run into like I did! I was amazed how hard it was to get out... Read More »

Can You See Color?

A new photo assignment is launching next Friday! We’ll be shooting once again for Suzanne Shera of Lightlab Etc! I first met Suzanne at the CHAP convention in 2019 and we’ve been in touch ever since. She wrote a book, Lightlab, that teaches children around the ages of 8 to 12 about the nature of light and how Jesus... Read More »

Directing Attention to the Subject

My brother Michael works as a beekeeper at a giant apple orchard on an abandoned coal mine site in southern West Virginia. The abandoned coal mine site is giant too. Like, ginormous! Hundreds and hundreds of acres of empty West Virginia wilderness. The bee yards he maintains are scattered sporadically from one end of... Read More »

How I Edit: Apartment Fortress

The other day, I ran across an interesting photo in my archives. It was Easter Sunday, 2011. I was working in South Korea and had decided to visit a friend in the military stationed at the Osan Air Base. It was early afternoon, and we were taking the scenic route to the train station where I would pick up a ride back... Read More »

On Assignment: Wisemen Silhouettes

I had such a great time with this assignment! At first, I didn’t know how I was going to do it. I wasn’t even sure if I could do it! But approaching it one step at a time, and solving one problem at a time, I was neat to see how it all come together. This assignment, Wisemen Silhouettes, is going to be a challenge,... Read More »

Help Make Lenspiration Better in 2022!

2021 has been a great year! In January, we finished shooting for Calvary Baptist Church’s calendar they printed in Europe for 2022. Plans are in the works to get one shipped out to each photographer who’s photo was included in it! After months of planning and hard work, the new Lenspiration website launched in... Read More »