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!
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...
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...
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...
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!...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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!...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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Follow along with Lenspiration travels…
The last light of a vibrant spring day fades on a budding magnolia tree.
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I just love how soft and fuzzy the mountains look from the air! I had never noticed this until that surprise ride a couple weeks ago. See blog post on that.
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A beautiful sunset from the other day.... "Oh those West Virginia hills!" 🎶
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It`s amazing how beautiful "stick season" can be! This is an unnamed (probably seasonal) waterfall next to a forest road in Georgia photographed on an airport run to Atlanta. Beauty is everywhere for those who can see and capture it!
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Middle of the day is hard to shoot overlooks, so I opted for a low key exposure and moody edit of this break in the trees along a forest road in the Nantahala National Forest.
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Spent some time in a creek today 😄
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Early morning mountiain bicycling! Didn`t bring my camera for this one. 😄
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Had an incredible opportunity to photograph the mountains of North Carolina from the air this morning!
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I had never once thought to photograph a worm, until the other day I saw one crawling across rhe driveway!
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God is very generous to give us beautiful sunsets on a regular basis 🤩
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A large background element + a small foreground element + wide angle lens = interesting composition!
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A February sunrise in the State Park closest to where I live: Waters Smith Memorial State Park, West Virginia.
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While visiting my grandparents in northern West Virginia once years ago, I asked a neighbor if I could roam around on his farm with my camera. It was a great way to open new doors to new angles and perspectives in the area!
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Do you think this photo, taken in the farmland of north-central Florida, works as a centered composition, or not? Heart or let me know in the comments. Studying centered compositions and how to make them work.
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This photo reminds me of a photo taken by a student photographer from New Zealand who was featured in today`s blog post! See her work at www.lenspiration.com/blog
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An interesting perspective on the interior of the Kansas State Capitol Builsing Dome.
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A unique rock formation in Alabama Hills, California. Closest thing to an elephant I`ve seen in the wild; how could I not photograph it! 😄
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Never processed photos from this shoot from years ago while out on the West Coast. What obvious distraction prevents this from being a masterpiece?
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