James Staddon, Author at Lenspiration

On Assignment: Studying the Word

Deadline’s coming up. Not finding time to photograph. Can’t find the right people to photograph. Find someone to photograph! It doesn’t work out to do the photoshoot. Deadline still looming! Ever felt this way before? I certainly have. Here’s what happened photographing this month’s new photo assignment, Studying the... Read More »

Stories from Southern Texas

Donald awakened me out of my deep slumber. It was just before 5am on Saturday morning. The second day of our crazy birding adventure had begun! Long before it was light, we were on location at Estero Llano Grande State Park in the extreme southern tip of Texas looking for birds we had never seen before. It was dark,... Read More »

The Morning My Lens Disappeared

It’s never a good day for a lens to show up missing. But especially not today! For my brother’s birthday, we planned a “quick” trip to southern Texas—like about-as-far-south-as-you-can-go Texas!—for an epic birding excursion. Donald loves bird watching, Dad loves to drive, I love photography, and David loves epic... Read More »

On Assignment: Designing a Verse Pic

It’s not often that I’ll record myself doing an assignment from beginning to ending, but I thought it would be good to do it for the assignment, Inspirational Verse Pics. It’s a unique assignment in that you can go take pictures of whatever you want. The challenge is in what happens after you take the photo…. There... Read More »

A Reminder to Keep Things Backed Up

It’s been a loooong time since my Lightroom catalog has corrupted. But for some reason, soon after upgrading to Lightroom 10, it did! Maybe it had something to do with a bug in the update? Regardless of what caused it, the fact of the matter is . . . it corrupted. So I’m glad I had a backup, and that that backup was... Read More »

The Benefits of Working with a Team

It was quite the honor when someone on the music faculty of the New England Baptist College (a friend of mine named Matt) asked if I could conduct a photo shoot for a marketing project they were working on. Having not much experience in the area of commercial photography, I want to learn more about it so was eager to... Read More »

On Assignment: Family Having Devotions

Seriously, another “portrait-related” assignment?! Yup! And as normal, I was feeling quite nervous again about figuring out how to shoot it. 🙂 It’s just so hard to find people willing to have their pictures taken for website headers and stuff online! To make it worse, I was away from home. It’s convention season! I... Read More »

How to Save a Little Money When Filling Up On Gas

Convention season has officially begun!David and I left for TTD Nashville last Tuesday, camping about half way at Whitetop Mountain.The cloud inversion in the morning was spectacular!The next several days were fun taking pictures and learning how to shoot in manual with the Photography Team.The best part is at the... Read More »

Strawberry Pie Editing

In last week’s Photo Coaching webinar, we discussed a good photography quote by Gina Milicia: “Beware of turning your images into Twizzlers.” Twizzlers are generally strawberry flavored. They’re supposed to taste like strawberries. But it sure takes a lot of ingredients to make them taste that way! Now take a real... Read More »

On A Hunt for Something Beautiful

Shooting for this month’s assignment could be easy, or it could be difficult. Depends on what you decide to shoot after reading the assignment details. I decided to shoot for something difficult! Chances were low that I’d find what I was looking for, but how would I know if the odds were not in my favor if I didn’t... Read More »

Something New for You!

Notice anything different around here?We’ve been working busily behind the scenes to update the entire Lenspiration website! If we did our jobs right, it shouldn’t seem completely different to you, but we wanted to make sure things were easier for you to find and enjoy.Here are a few of my favorite parts of the... Read More »

To What Degree Do I Want This?

Was looking around for pictures that illustrated the lyrics of the hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be, the other day. It’s quite a convicting song when, as I read it, I ask myself, “to what degree do I truly want to pray these words?”Take My Life And Let It Beby Frances R HavergalTake my life and let it beConsecrated,... Read More »

Testing A Lightroom Auto-Keywording Plugin

I ran across a free auto-keywording plugin for Lightroom the other day! It’s called Wordroom, and this is my first time testing it to see how it well it works! Here’s the first picture I tried, a church nestled in the valley during the first snowstorm of the season. Last winter, there was only one snowfall that was... Read More »

On Assignment: “Eagerly Opening A Gift”

It’s fun the things I find myself getting into when I have no choice but to shoot the next assignment! Filmed in some places I’ve never filmed before, here’s what happened in my attempt to shoot this month’s Shoot to Serve Photo Assignment, a child Eagerly Opening A Gift! For the first time ever, I don’t have any... Read More »

Can You Guess?

I ran across a fun little catchphrase the other day: “Don’t make your photos your best-kept secret.” It’s always nice when you can get your photos off the hard drive and used for something. And if that something happens to be of eternal value too, it’s extra nice! A friend of mine is an incredible pianist. She... Read More »

Do You Know What “Peaceful” Looks Like?

Hey everyone, want to see some photos that are practically guaranteed to make you feel peaceful? What about some photos that are sure to make you cringe or go bouncing off the walls?! I had so much fun conducting this survey this month! I asked a random assortment of folks to indicate whether or not they would... Read More »

Shoutout to Royal Camera Repair

If it hasn’t happened to you yet, get ready for it. Equipment gets old. Accidents happen. Moth and rust corrupts. When your photography equipment breaks, have you thought about where you will go to get it fixed? If you’re like me, your lens might be too old to be repaired by Canon. And who wants to pay Canon repair... Read More »

Observing Some Results of This Amazing Survey!

Last week, I launched a survey showcasing 38 different photos, asking “Which of these photos would you describe as peaceful?” And the results have been fascinating! For some of the photos, 100% of the feedback was “Yes”, such-and-such photo could be described as peaceful. And for other photos, the response was... Read More »

On Assignment: A Peaceful Scene

This was a tough photo shoot to bring you along on! Taking a video at night is quite a challenge. And that hillside! It is literally a field of thorns. But come now! Let me take you behind the scenes, and show you how that epic, pre-dawn trek unfolded! The app PhotoPills puts the beginning of Blue Hour at when Civil... Read More »

Christmas Gift Ideas for Photographers!

I got a fun email over the weekend. It was from a mother. She was looking for Christmas gift ideas for her daughter. “Any accessories that you think would be beneficial for a budding leisure photographer?” I thought that was a fun question. So I replied with some ideas, and thought this whole concept would make a... Read More »