Blog Archive
I stumbled on a waterfall 11 years ago that I’ve never been able to get away from. In 2011, I visited Kent Falls State Park, Connecticut, for the first time. It was a cool, mid-October morning. With not a soul around, I enjoyed several hours by myself exploring and...
I love running Lenspiration! But running Lenspiration is also a lot of work. . . . A few weeks ago, things were piling up. On top of the the regular weekly tasks, I was dumping lots of time into the Lenspiration calendars. Time was ticking, and decisions had to be...
It might as well have been a dream. A stair case winds up into the sky.A ball of light dispels the pre-dawn darkness.My best friend stands by my side.Invisible currents carry autumn leaves through a sea of golden light.A photographer’s heaven!But it wasn’t a dream,...
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...
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...
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...
For last month’s photo assignment, 6 photographers submitted 44 photos. There were some fantastic photos among those 44, but there was one in particular that I really liked. This photo was submitted by Samuel West: When critiquing everyone’s photos on the Coaching...
With the next assignment coming up, I spent last Tuesday shooting and filming it with some friends out in eastern West Virginia. But shooting the assignment wasn’t the only thing we did! We played Clue and cracked riddles around the campfire and scrambled through...
A new photo assignment is launching next Friday! We’ll be shooting once again for Suzanne Shera of Lightlab Etc! I first met Suzanne at the CHAP convention in 2019 and we’ve been in touch ever since. She wrote a book, Lightlab, that teaches children around the ages...
My brother Michael works as a beekeeper at a giant apple orchard on an abandoned coal mine site in southern West Virginia. The abandoned coal mine site is giant too. Like, ginormous! Hundreds and hundreds of acres of empty West Virginia wilderness. The bee yards he...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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:...
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...
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...
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!...
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...
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...
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