Learn to take better photos! - Lenspiration Blog

How In The World Did We End Up Here?!

It might as well have been a dream. A stair case winds up into the sky.A ball of light dispels the pre-dawn darkness.My best friend stands by my side.Invisible currents carry autumn leaves through a sea of golden light.A photographer’s heaven!But it wasn’t a dream, of course. Instead of sleeping in, we were out... Read More »

Revealing the Best (and the Worst) from the Calendar Candidate Survey!

Back in September, via the blog post Which Are Your Favorite Photos?, you voted on which photos should go into the 2023 Lenspiration calendar! Well, your votes have been tallied, and the 12 have been chosen! Now, let me show you how I arrived at the 12 . . . When you submitted your response to the survey, all your... Read More »

On Assignment: Communion Bread & Cup

With no grape juice in the refrigerator, can you guess what I used as a substitute? I had a lot of fun with this month’s real-life photo assignment, Communion Bread and Cup! This assignment is a great opportunity to get some practice in still-life photography! The first still-life shots I took were simple items... Read More »

Top 10 Student Photos From the Latest Photo Assignment!

While Julianna and I were settling into our home in West Virginia, the Lenspiration photographers were busy at work photographing the September photo assignment! The assignment? Photographer at a computer. The publisher? Lenspiration! We needed good photographer photos for future training material. Why not have the... Read More »

My Obsession With Old Schoolhouses

Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to rate and comment on the photo candidates for the Lenspiration 2023 calendar! I have a fun system for processing the info you provided to choose the 12 winning photos and will plan to share that with you some time soon! But for today, I thought I’d highlight something that... Read More »

Which Are Your Favorite Photos?

I’ve been printing calendars with landscape photos since 2009 . . . and now it’s almost 2023! How would you like to have a say in which photos get put into the 2023 Lenspiration Calendar?! Each year’s calendar can only have 12 pictures in it. After sorting through last year’s landscape photos, I came away with 26... Read More »

The Wedding That Stretched Me To My Limits!

I knew I had given it my best! And yet, I wondered as I sunk into bed, exhausted at the tail end of the wedding day, why did I feel like I had failed? James & Julianna had gifted me the honor and responsibility of leading the photography for their wedding. Hours and hours over the past weeks and months had been... Read More »

On Assignment: Photographer at a Computer

Well folks, it’s time to shoot another assignment! This time, we’re shooting for Lenspiration (see the details here)! While James was out of the office for the past couple weeks I pulled together the details and went out to shoot it myself. Andd….here’s how that went! Even though James will be returning to the office... Read More »

The Story of My Photography Journey

Hi everyone! I’m Lydia Bennett, assistant here at Lenspiration. This past weekend, James Staddon, founder and owner of Lenspiration, became my brother-in-law! While he and Julianna are on their honeymoon and I keep things running behind-the-scenes, I thought I’d share a story with you. One that has some aspects you... Read More »

Where Can I Find Amazing Things to Photograph?

If you follow Lenspiration for long, you’ll find out that I’m a firm believer in the fact that you can get amazing pictures anywhere. Literally! The purple flower above was taken in inner-city Tijuana, Mexico. Epic? Not necessarily. Amazing? Well, I think so! Wherever you happen to be, make the most of... Read More »

An On-The-Fly Sunrise

When my brother Donald and I went to Arizona last month, we went to a lot of places and did a lot of things. And just like normal life always is, we didn’t have the photographers dream schedule of always being at the perfect place at the perfect time for perfect landscape photos. That’s just not how normal life... Read More »

On Assignment: Training the Next Generation

If you have been doing any of the recent monthly photo assignments, this new one will be quite easy. It’s not too different than some of the recent assignments we’ve done, but with my schedule being packed with so many end-of-convention-season things, I found it quite challenging to find the right situation with... Read More »

No Later than 9:00am!

The Lamplighter Summer Guild had just ended! Despite going to bed around midnight, I was up early and heading to the airport. From Mt. Morris, New York, to the airport in Pittsburgh was about 4.5 hours. It was important that I get there no later than 2:00pm so I could park the car, meet up with my brother Donald, and... Read More »

Backpacking: Full-Frame or Crop Sensor?

I had been planning a backpacking trip with my friend Tim and brother David for months! Now it was time to pack up my camera gear. What should I bring? Photography was not the main purpose of our trip into Dolly Sods. But I was not about to go on a two night excursion in pristine West Virginia wilderness without a... Read More »

On Assignment: Personal Quiet Time

Summertime is such a great time for taking pictures! The warm weather. The lush foliage (depending on where you live ). The abundance of backyard wildlife. The late sunsets. The family vacations. There are so many things to take pictures of! As we enjoy taking pictures of the things we love, let’s take some time to... Read More »

Experience the Reality of God!

Ever heard of Journey to the Heart? Well, if you want to get a clue on what the next photo assignment will be, go to their website (www.lifesrealjourney.com) and start guessing what kind of photos they might be asking for! I had the opportunity to go on several Journey to the Heart retreats as a young person, and I... Read More »

Only 30 Minutes to Spare

Scheduled excursion commencement: Tuesday, 4:00pm. Scheduled excursion conclusion: the following Sunday, 9:00pm. And something planned for every single hour in between! Drive to Winchester. Sleep. Drive to rendezvous location in Pennsylvania. Drive back to Winchester. Drive to Richmond. Sleep. Set up for HEAV... Read More »

On Assignment: Sharing the Gospel

When I found out that this next assignment was about “Sharing the Gospel”, a lot of different ideas for what to shoot started coming to mind! A tract sitting with a tip on a table in a restaurant. A closeup of a Bible on the knee of someone in a living room with a group of friends. A person handing a tract so someone... Read More »

How to Use Your Camera to Share the Gospel

With the current assignment wrapping up this weekend, it means a new assignment will be launching next week! Want to know what it is? Well, you’ll have to wait. But what I can tell you is that we’ll be shooting for Creation Today again! I appreciate the ministry of Creation Today because of their emphasis on... Read More »

What Happened on August 19

Julianna and I have a date set for our wedding, now! It will be August 19, 2022. It will be an important date in our minds forever! But, has it always been? No. I’ve walked around on many an August 19 oblivious to the fact that it would ever be an important date to me. So, it made me wonder! What have I been doing on... Read More »