Lenspiration Blog
Welcome! Wherever you are on your photography journey, learn to take better photos through the photography tips and stories you'll find in the following free articles. By learning from the experience of others, you can also start taking pictures that you're excited to share with others!
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...
More Stories Behind the Cutouts
If you’ve never paid much attention to the cutouts in the Lenspiration calendars, you’ve probably never thought about how similar or different they are from the main photo. Some of the cutouts are from surprisingly different places! But before I delve too much into...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Flat Lay Background Surface Ideas
Tuesday’s coaching webinar wrapped up the Shoot to Serve photo assignment for the month of October. Family Conferences wanted a picture for a Thanksgiving-themed social media post and had some photo ideas they liked, so we were all challenged to replicate those...
Ever Heard of the Word “Cull” Before?
Have you ever heard of the word “cull” before? Know what it means? It’s a word that comes up during Photography Teams all the time. The students go out and take a ton of pictures. In this digital age, we always take more photos than we need, right? So we need to...
The Hike Down From Seneca Rocks
From the top of Seneca Rocks, the views are picturesque, the danger real, and the experience of climbing around positively thrilling (see The Hike Up To Seneca Rocks). But the hike down was also picturesque, dangerous, and thrilling in it’s own way. Picturesque?...
The Hike Up To Seneca Rocks
Oh the sheer fun of taking a camera on a hike with no real purpose other than to just photograph whatever strikes my fancy! Such a whimsical experience is not so common a happenstance for me any more these days. There always seems to be some sort of grown-up...
On Assignment: Happy Thanksgiving!
“It’s barely the beginning of October, and you want me to start thinking about Thanksgiving?!” Well, welcome to the world of graphic design, publishing, and commercial photography! For those of us who like to do most of our photography in the outdoors, I guess this...
Covering a Family Event
The camera on my cell phone is usually sufficient for capturing memories for most family evets. However, for my grandfather’s funeral, I brought my DSLR because this was more than just a random get-together. It was an event I wanted to remember forever. For the...
Making the Right Edit
It was a gloriously foggy day! I love foggy days. Especially when I’m driving down curvy backgrounds. It makes them so photogenic!Coming up to the top of a ridge, I was happy to see a safe little place to pull off. The road came up one side of the mountain, and...
Have You Ever Had Your House Burn Down?
I hope you haven’t. Can you imagine how incredibly horrifying that experience would be? Even if nobody was hurt, it’s one of the most awful things I can imagine. And imagine if all your camera equipment was inside. It’s all gone up in smoke. Completely ruined. No...
On Assignment: Awesome Reflection
Have you ever gone to the same location multiple times in the same day, simply to observe what the place looked like at those different times of day? You would think that I, of all people, would have done this many, many times since I love landscape photography....
Silly and Somber Pictures of Houses
A friend of mine is working on a book reprinting project. Right now, he’s working on recreating the cover. Problem is, he doesn’t have the original book cover image, and what he does have is too low quality for the printer to accept. So, he asked me about it....
Which Photos Are Your Favorite?
How would you like to have a say in which photos get put in the annual Lenspiration Calendar?! A calendar can only have 12 pictures in it. After sorting through hundreds of photos and spending endless hours in meticulous editing, I’ve finally narrowed things down...
The Golden Hour I Was Looking For
Just driving up the driveway, I knew it was going to be a great place for a Photography Field Day! The day before a workshop is very important. It’s when all the decisions have to be made about where we’ll be going and what we’ll be doing when. And so preparations...
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New month - new photo assignment! And this one is pretty sweet. 🙂 Our goal is to take beautiful photos that reflect the truths of Psalm 119:103, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
Get all the details at the link in bio!
Another behind the scenes shot....thanks to @real_lukas_n Though I usually use a tripod for landscape photography, there was no time in this situation where it was literally raining. When I saw the distant mountains after pulling in for only a short time at this open-to-the-public farm, I knew there was a shot somewhere. This vast field of flooded strawberry plants was the foreground I was looking for, offering perfect leading lines to the triangular peak framed by the sweeping mist.
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Family-friendly photography training: www.lenspiration.com
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#farm #landscapephotographer #shootingintherain #rainyday #behindtheshot
New blog post! The last bit of light after sunset doesn`t take long to disappear. Sparkling stars were peering through the pinyon pine boughs above us. We were in the deep shadows of dusk as we picked our way down the rock strewn trail back to the parking lot. Read more at link in bio.
#lenspiration #homeschoolphotography #homeschool #christianphotographer #photographyeducator #photoinspiration #photography #photoblogger
Behind the shot photo.... When it`s rainy, and you`re not on lights`s time table, there`s time to chat with friends while you`re out in the field! 🤩 Thanks @real_lukas_n for the second photo! --
Family-friendly photography training: www.lenspiration.com
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#outdoorphoto #lowkey #mystery #photographyfriends #explorenc
Happy Memorial Day! Let us honor their sacrifice by using our freedoms not to do as we please, but to live as we ought. #freedom #integrity #selfcontrol #memorialday #Godblessamerica
New blog post! Rain poured down in torrential waves as we made our way through the Smoky Mountains. We had gotten up insanely early—long before dawn—to make the most of our time photographing at the high-elevation overlooks before the storm. But now the rain was coming down so hard that even the most dedicated among us didn’t feel like stepping out of the car for a photo. Until we rounded a bend and saw... Read more at link in bio.
#lenspiration #homeschoolphotography #homeschool #christianphotographer #photographyeducator #photoinspiration #photography #photoblogger
Join me for some LIVE photo coaching on Tuesday, May 26 as we look at "Glowing Scenery" photos. . . Register at link in bio!
Foreground element, framing, leading lines, human element, vibrant color.... Definitely one of my favorite shots from EXPLORE Springtime in the Smokies.
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Family-friendly photography training: www.lenspiration.com
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#photographycomposition #photoworkshop #composition #landscapephotography #springtime @greatsmokynps @blueridgenps
Before/after....look at the difference! A little editing is just what it needed to make it pop (IMO). What do you think?
"For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills." Deuteronomy 8:7-9 Every time I photograph a waterfall I should thank the Lord for letting me live in such a blessed land.
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Family-friendly photography training: www.lenspiration.com
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#waterfall #verseoftheday #landscapephoto #thankful #godsblessing
New blog post! The photographer who makes decisions based on comfort won’t get out in the field, even in a place like the Smokies—and therefore won’t come home with any photos. Read more at link in bio.
#lenspiration #homeschoolphotography #homeschool #christianphotographer #photographyeducator #photoinspiration #photography #photoblogger
The photo assignment for May is live! Take beautiful, landscape photos that have a warm, glowing sense to them. Photos could include warm sunlight glowing at the end of a path, over water, over a stream, in a field, or over a mountain. Details at link in bio.
New blog post! Read more at link in bio.
#lenspiration #homeschoolphotography #homeschool #christianphotographer #photographyeducator #photoinspiration #photography #photoblogger
Someone got a photo of me taking the group photo at Family Conference last week! @familyconfs @alertacademy #familyconference #eventphotography #groupphoto #eventphotographer #adventurous
A quick stop in Paris for a selfie! 😄 #paristexas #travel #selfietime #texas
So much fun to photograph a family conference as an actual family! (Thank you Rebekah for the photo!)
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Family-friendly photography training: www.lenspiration.com
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#family #behindthescenes #together #teamwork #wvphotographer
On the lookout for puddles on a rainy first day of Conference!
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Family-friendly place to learn photography! www.lenspiration.com
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#rainyday #homeschool #conference #familylife #puddlejumping
Join me for some LIVE photo coaching on Tuesday, April 28! Register at link in bio.
