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!
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...
On Assignment: Interesting Textures
Ready for the next assignment?! It shouldn't be hard to find Interesting Textures anywhere you go, even in places you've never explored before!As you just saw, I took lots of texture pictures. I thought I had done a pretty good job. However, it wasn’t until after I...
How This Next Assignment Came To Be
I’ve always been a fascinated observer of the “Creation vs Evolution” debate. Of course, I believe the Bible is true, but to see ways in which it can be scientifically proven has always been a fun thing for me. Growing up, we would watch Kent Hovind’s Creation...
If I Was Young Enough . . .
Have you heard about HSLDA’s 2021 Photo Contest?! The deadline of August 1 leaves you with only 16 days to submit! I’m too old to submit my photos. But if you are between the ages of 7 and 19, now’s the time to start clicking! The themes to be shooing for are:...
A Place Worth Going Back To
I was headed from Ashville, NC, to Culpeper, VA. A stretch of very picturesque countryside. I wanted to do some landscape photography along the way, so the question was, "What places should I explore?" This was back in 2011. I was just getting into landscape...
On Assignment: The Bright Outdoors!
If the assignment is to photograph The Bright Outdoors, then it means the best time to shoot is while the sun is shining, I’d say. But what happens if the sun isn’t going to be shining for very long? Then it’s time to take on an extra challenge!I’m really surprised...
How I Worked This Scene
While taking pictures of the sunset the other night, I distinctly remember working this specific scene. It was the best view in the area for that time of day. I walked around to a couple different spots, but kept coming back to this one break in the trees because...
Camping Stories
I get excited when there are lots of big events lined up on the calendar, one after the other, at different places all over the country. It means that, between each event, I get to go camping all over the country! The end of FPEA kinda marked the beginning of a...
Crazy What Can Happen In a Week!
After traveling around doing conventions for a couple years, you’d think I’d be a pretty experienced traveling photographer by now. But there’s always so many new things to learn! For the particular excursion I’m on right now, I decided to post 1 pic a day on...
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...
One Wedding, Two Perspectives
A side-by-side showcasing of the perspectives of two photographers, as seen in their photos from a special wedding day.
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...
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...
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 this featured assignment that just launched, Inspirational Verse Pics. It’s a unique assignment in that you can go take pictures of...
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....
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...
Get each article as soon as it goes live!
Recommended Ebook
