James Staddon, Author at Lenspiration

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 »

Only 20 To Go! (And the Story Behind the October Cutout)

You wouldn’t happen to need a stock photo, would you? Like, maybe, any one of these? The reason I ask is because, if I can sell 150 photos on Adobe Stock before the end of the year, I can get a free one-year subscription to Lightroom. And since I don’t need it personally (because I use the entire Adobe Suite... Read More »

The Story Behind the Cutouts!

It’s easy to talk about the main photos in a calendar, but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about the cutouts before! The “cutouts” are a unique aspect of the Lenspiration calendars. The very first year I ever started to make them, I saw a calendar that had little cutouts on the bottom half. I thought it was very... Read More »

On Assignment: Many Different Photos

It’s the last photo assignment of 2021! A good time to step back and make sure all your photos from the year are well organized. And we have the perfect assignment for it: Many Different Photos! Like normal, I made a demonstration video for this assignment. But unlike normal, it’s a membership-exclusive demonstration... Read More »

When I Feel Like Being Negative

Ah, the perfect subject for a blog post the day after Thanksgiving! You can’t be happy and thankful and grateful and kind and sweet all the time, can you? I mean, eventually, it’s going to wear off, right? Well, yes, if you never develop your negatives! I don’t know too much about film photography. I’ve never been in... Read More »

2022 Calendar Giveaway!

“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).Over the past several... Read More »

The Need to Be Clean

The beach is such a fun place to play! Riding the waves, building sand castles, scrambling up sand dunes. But when the camera’s out, things are different. I don’t ride the waves. I don’t build sand castles. I don’t scramble on sand dunes. I wade ankle deep in the water. I photograph others building sand castles. I... Read More »

On Assignment: Raw Ingredients

When it comes to a real-life photo assignment, it doesn’t get much better than the one featured this month, Raw Ingredients! A small, family-owned business, looking for clean, bright, stock-like photos of just about anything! Lots of ingredients are used in Oil of Joy Apothecary’s myriad of products. Just pick an... Read More »