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!
On Assignment: Inspiring Manhood
At first, when I read the details for this assignment, I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed. How to capture “honesty”, “integrity”....”manhood”? But when I actually went out to photograph it, I found that although there were some challenges to work through, it...
The Reasoning Behind the 12 Intricate Cutouts
After carefully going over the results of the survey I sent out the other week, I have chosen the 12 photographs and overall theme for the Lenspiration 2025 Calendar! But choosing the 12 main images is only the beginning of the calendar creation process...
Revealing the Best (and Worst) Photos from the 2025 Calendar Survey!
The results are in! You took the time to provide your input on the 50 photos I was considering for the Lenspiration 2025 Calendar, and now it’s time to look at the results! One fun fact is that there were considerably more participants this year than last year. 36%...
Why I’m Looking for Your Input
One of my favorite tasks in the year is to gather new photos for the next Lenspiration calendar! But it might come as a surprise to you from which corner of my collection of photos those new candidates come from! This year I’m putting together Lenspiration’s 2025...
7 Steps to Choosing Calendar-Worthy Photographs
How often do you feel like all of your photos from the year are organized and edited by the time you reach the end of the year? If you’re like me, it’s practically never. I love taking photos! But when it comes to processing them? It takes time and discipline to do...
How Important is Location Scouting?
In the past, I’ve had mixed feelings about the benefits of scouting out a location before a portrait shoot. So many times I have put effort into checking out a location, thinking through the angles of light at a specific time of day, noting shadows, and jotting...
A Precarious Adventure In the Gorge
In my last blog post, I talked about our early morning excursion to Overlook #6 and the surprises that that morning had brought to us. Well, there were more surprises in store for us that day . . . and one precarious experience that was unlike any other in my...
An Underwhelming Sunrise
For a week, I had been wondering what the sunrise was going to be like on Saturday morning of that weekend! I had everything planned out perfectly. We would leave the house at 4:45am, meet up with several other photographers outside the park at 5:40am, hike in the...
Tips for Photographing an Event
The last homeschool convention we traveled to this year was in Atlanta. I’ve been going to the Southeast Homeschool Expo for about 4 years now, and have spoken on the topic of photography there every time. However, this year was a little different. I was asked...
On Assignment: . . .you’ll never guess!
For a while now, there’s been a particular object/concept that I’ve been wanting to photograph for a Shoot to Serve Photo Assignment. I’ve talked with many publishers who describe the type of photo they need . . . audio book, Christmas, fatherhood, balloons, etc....
Outward Beauty Isn’t Enough
In my last blog post, I talked about covered bridges. As nostalgic, iconic subjects worthy to be included in the Scouting Guide, they were just the perfect thing to blog about in light of the current assignment.So, when it came time to think about what to blog...
A North American Icon
In May, a wedding shoot took me to Pennsylvania. The couple I would be photographing wanted rustic charm in their wedding photos and, besides a weathered barn, what is more iconic and charming than an old covered bridge?! The particular covered bridge at which they...
On Assignment: Picturesque Places
Where is the most beautiful place you have ever been? Did you snap a high-quality photo or two while you were there? If so, you may already have some prime material for this month’s assignment! Or perhaps there’s a picturesque spot nearby you’ve always wanted to...
The Art of Zoo-tography
If you’ve been following the blog, you would know that I went to the zoo for the Fatherhood assignment awhile back. It was a great place to photograph that assignment! But how could I be at a zoo and take only pictures of people doing things? I wanted to make sure...
Experimenting With Lightroom’s New Denoise Feature
I totally didn’t feel like getting up that drizzly, spring morning in Texas. We had just come off a 5 day Photography Team at the Family Conference and I was very tired after having gone to bed after midnight almost every night for a week. But this was the one and...
Inspired in Richmond
I grew up as a homeschooler in Manassas, Virginia. It was in the 1990s, and I didn’t think twice about it. I would hear Dad talk about speaking on homeschool-related topics at City Council meetings. And there was a time or two that Dad went to Richmond. I think....
On Assignment: Listening to an Audiobook
Have you ever tried to portray, in a photograph, the idea of someone listening to something? I never had! So that made this assignment a unique one for me. To begin with, I had one idea for how to photograph someone “listening to an audiobook”, so I started with...
The April 8, 2024, Total Solar Eclipse
A solar eclipse is almost a once in a lifetime experience. Maybe more like a once-in-every-ten-or-twenty-or-thirty-years experience, but because they don’t happen every day, it is certainly a unique photography opportunity! The first time I ever tried photographing...
The Ugly Spot
It was dawn when I woke up.The early April air was crisp and cold as I climbed out of the Outback at our primitive campsite in central Arkansas. The air was filled with bird calls and sounds of the swamp. There wasn’t a single ripple on the inky black water that...
Unexpected Kentucky Landscape
I can still remember the feeling, driving down the “beaten path” on I24 through Kentucky on that cool, breezy afternoon. We were headed to Texas for the total solar eclipse and I was enjoying the scenery as we spun along in our Subaru. Julianna needed a place to...
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Some friends took us to a lake for a picnic dinner while in NC. Turned out to be a nice spot for sunset!
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Have you heard of "The Tail of the Dragon" on the TN and NC border? If not, look it up! Julianna and I drove it on our way to a wedding in Knoxville and it was crazy! I don`t remember driving something that curvey since descending out of Angeles National Forest on Gelndora Mountain Road in CA years ago.
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Last day to vote on which photos to use in the Lenspiration 2025 calendar! Survey here: https://forms.gle/FYCaUbWz1sZBQw1t8 (link is also in bio). Thank you for your help!
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Help me choose which photos to use in the Lenspiration 2025 calendar! Survey here: https://forms.gle/FYCaUbWz1sZBQw1t8 (link is also in bio). Thank you for your help!
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Been a while since I`ve posted! Here`s a favorite camping spot on our travels through Appalachia this summer.
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I think this is my favorite photo from the Photography Meetup the other week. It even has a good story behind it. 🙂 See blog post (link in bio).
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There`s nothing like going out with friends to photograph the glories of God`s creation together!
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Cell phone snapshot of the sunrise God gave us at the Tallulah Gorge photography meet up. Nothing epic, but material to work with! Looking forward to sorting through my photos from the workshop soon.
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Had such a blast with this great group of photographers exploring Tallulah Gorge on Saturday! We got the passes to go through the entire gorge....and wow what an adventure! Don`t think I could have made it out without my equipment getting soaked unless I had been with a group! Seriously strenuous. Best photography day in a while!
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Behind the scenes shots from the webinar last night!
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Was editing covered bridge photos the other day and liked this one with the strong leading lines a day vanishing point!
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Last night`s sunset was simply amazing!
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Share beautiful photo locations for a chance to win free access to the Lenspiration Scouting Guide!
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Decided lastminute to go out for sunrise. Wasn`t a colorful one, but golden hour was nice. Found a nice, unmarked outcropping with a nice view!
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First time really exploring with the Sienna today! Canaan Loop Rd. WV Didn`t get stuck anywhere and never bottomed out. Learning it`s capabilities. It does well for being a minivan!
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Went out for a walk this morning at Stonewall Resort State Park! "For this is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death." Psalm 48:14. Are you ready to be led to the death of your old nature? Death to self? "Verily, verily, I say unto you, `Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit.`"!
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"O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me"! Psalm 43:3a So grateful we can know what the truth is!
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Found an incredible fire tower that you could actually walk to the top of! Talk about nerve-racking, but the view was amazing! #gotowv
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