Ave Pildas had a long career as a commercial photographer while at the same time taking to the streets of Hollywood in the 1970s to photograph the vibrant community. Today Ave shares his unconventional entrance into the photography, how following an idea can pay off and why Ave prefers telling a story of multiple frames rather than 1. Really honored to have this Chat and I know you’re going to love it.
BPP 289: Craig Strong - Push through fear to find whats important
Craig Strong is the founder of Lens Baby lens systems for photographers. Lens Baby was born out of the curiosity and lack of options Craig had when he was a full time wedding photographer. He started with a homemade lens created out of parts from a hardware store and today help photographers enhance their creativity with more than 15 years. Today Craig talks about the secrets of capturing great images and how you have to step out side your comfort zone to achieve something really great.
Photo by Magda Stolte
Photo by Magda Stolte
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Ann Mangum: Family Beach Sessions - Community Spotlight
Ann Mangum is a long time member of the Beginner Photography Podcast Community and Pensacola Beach Family Photographer. Today we Ann shares how she got started in beach portraits, how she stays creative when theres a mountain of client work to tackle, and seeing the power of family photography first hand.
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Full Episode Transcription:
Disclaimer: The transcript was transcribed electronically by Temi.com and may contain errors that do not reflect accurately what the speaker said. Because of this, please do not quote this automated transcript, it is only intended as a reference.
BPP 288: Henrique Murta - Combining Passions
Henrique Murta took his love for Geology and Photography and combined them into beautiful fine art drone landscape images. Today Henrique shares how combining these two passions allow him to deepen his art form, why the Drone allows him to think different in terms of access and composition, and simple tricks you can use when using your drone to photography the world around you.
Resources:
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BPP 287: Photography Habits to Adopt
Habits are who we are, who we want to be. They help us to become better versions of ourselves. They can help us achieve more can even be used to help us become better photographers. In this episode I’ll break down 5 habits you can adopt in 2022 to grow your skills as a photographer.
Carry a camera with you everywhere
Review your work
When in doubt, just shoot through it
Save your inspiration
Call yourself a photographer
Resources:
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BPP 286: Valerie Jardin - Purposeful Limitation
Valerie Jardin is a Street photographer, educator, fuji x photographer, Host of the Hit the Streets podcast. She returns to the podcast today and we are talking about how limiting yourself with purpose can help you to see the world clearer and create better images. In this interview Valerie shares the importance of listning to your passion, why theres no such thing as bad light, and my personal favorite she equates photography to cake. Lots to learn today!
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BPP 285: Jason Matias - Don't Ignore the Business of Being an Artist
Jason Matias is a fine art photographer from the pacific northwest who has a slightly wild and terrifying entry into photography and has over the years created some incredible works with a powerful message. Today Jason shares why fine art will always be relevant, the lies landscape photographers tell themselves , and Jason even helps ease us into the world of NFTs as a fine art photographer for what the world of the future could look like.
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Matt Austin: Give Me The Emotion of When a Goal is Scored - Community Spotlight
Today Im chatting with our pal Matt Austin. Over the past almost 2 years Matt has shared images from his photo journey in the Beginner Photography Podcast Facebook community and we have seen him grow from those early photos to where he is today, working with professional and semi professional sports teams. Today I really want to get to the heart of where that drive comes from.
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Full Episode Transcription:
Disclaimer: The transcript was transcribed electronically by Temi.com and may contain errors that do not reflect accurately what the speaker said. Because of this, please do not quote this automated transcript, it is only intended as a reference.
BPP 284: Melanie Issaka - For The Love of Image Making
Melanie Issaka is a UK based fine art photographer who as you can tell is trying out some pretty fun and interesting things in photography and creating equally interesting work. In this episode Melanie shares the importance of personal projects, why trying new tools can help you tell a better story, and why having constraints can lead to better images.
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BPP 283: The Key to Great Photos in 2022
2022 is going to be the year you start your new photography hobby, or you are going to dive deeper into this beautiful world of photography and start capturing compelling moments with an intentional eye. No matter where you are, there is always room for improvement and in 2022 the way you are going to get better at photography is simply shoot more.
Its simple, the more photos you take, the better you get. So start capturing photos now!
Resources:
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BPP 282: Best Photo Lessons Of The Year - Pt 2
2021 brought us many fantastic interviews with world class photographers. Today we reflect on the lessons learned from the year behind us. The stand out themes of this episode is “Building Yourself” and “The Next Level”
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BPP 281: Best Photography Lessons of The Year! Pt 1
2021 brought us many fantastic interviews with world class photographers. Today we reflect on the lessons learned from the year behind us. The stand out themes of this episode is “Getting Started” and “Finding your Photographic Voice”
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BPP 280: Community Spotlight Biggest Lessons of the Year - Pt 2
In 2021 I started interviewing members of the Beginner Photography Podcast community to hear from them about their perspective of photography while so relatively new to the art. Some less than 6 months into their journey while some were on their way booking weddings and portraits.
In this episode I take some of my favorite moments from these community spotlight interviews and assemble them into this jam packed episode. I hope you have a pen and pad ready to take notes!
If you enjoyed this episode, please let the guests know! They are all apart of the Beginner Photography Podcast community on Facebook and would love to hear from you!
Who you’ll hear from in this episode
Erika Greco
Shane Wilkie
Elizabeth DeVoe
John Kenny
Magda Stolte
Louis Stevenson
Resources:
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BPP 279: Community Spotlight Biggest Lessons of the Year - Pt 1
In 2021 I started interviewing members of the Beginner Photography Podcast community to hear from them about their perspective of photography while so relatively new to the art. Some less than 6 months into their journey while some were on their way booking weddings and portraits.
In this episode I take some of my favorite moments from these community spotlight interviews and assemble them into this jam packed episode. I hope you have a pen and pad ready to take notes!
If you enjoyed this episode, please let the guests know! They are all apart of the Beginner Photography Podcast community on Facebook and would love to hear from you!
Who you’ll hear from in this episode
Jim Sinicki
Sandra Garzon
Sean Kim
Kimberly Irish
Quincy Worthington
Resources:
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BPP 278: No Social Media November
Social media has crept its way into my life more than I would like to admit which is affecting my growth as a photographer. I performed this experiement to remove myself from social media for the month to see if I could surround myself in creative inspiration and bump start something new. The plan did not work as intended but I learned a few important things about the creative process that today I will share with you.
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BPP 277: Creativity is Not Created Equal
We all define what creativity is a bit different from one another, and despite that we all want it. We all want to be more creative. In this episode I break down how to define creativity for yourself so you can start creating your best work.
Step 1: Define your Taste
We start a creative pursuit because we all believe we have good taste, but when we start on that creative pursuit, our good taste tells us we are bad. Define what we can can and cant critique about our work.
Step 2: Cultivate your Taste
Chose what you allow to influence your creative flow. Choose 10 photographers, list out why you like their work, then come up with 5 rules you can follow when creating photographs.
Step 3: Evolve your Taste
In the same way Kodak lost control of the photography industry for not evolving their business, your taste needs to develop as you become more skilled as a photographer
Resources:
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Elizabeth DeVoe - The Photographer IS the Preset : Community Spotlight
Elizabeth DeVoe is a relatively new member of the Beginner Photography Podcast Community, just having picked up a camera 3 short months ago. Today we chat about what makes here excited about photography, why shes put painting on the side, and how she sees the photographers role in capturing the world.
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Full Episode Transcription:
Disclaimer: The transcript was transcribed electronically by Temi.com and may contain errors that do not reflect accurately what the speaker said. Because of this, please do not quote this automated transcript, it is only intended as a reference.
BPP 276: Old School Photography Methods: Get in the ZONE
We live in an ever changing world where information and education is being updated all the time. While we have made a major shift from film to digital photography there are still many “Old School” techniques that are not only relevant to today but incredibly powerful and when mastered will skyrocket you ability to capture compelling images. This week we are talking about two such old school methods, The Zone System, and Zone Focusing.
The Zone System
The Zone system is an approach to better seeing and understanding light by breaking them down into just 11 shades, or zones. From pitch black to pure white and every tone in between. When used correctly you will achieve better exposure and have a stronger ability to point your viewers eye in the direction you want them to look.
Zone Focusing
Zone focusing is a technique where using your understanding of depth of field you can bypass your cameras autofocus and still achieve tack sharp images.
Resources:
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BPP 275: Photography and your Health
Im renaming November to MEvember and focusing on my health. Since photography is a large part of my life I wanted to examine how it contributes to my health. Today I want to share with you the 4 ways that photography is incredibly beneficial to your health and well being and how photography can take care of you.
Memory
Have you ever noticed how you have strong memories of taking photos more so than the event itself? Science may have an answer as to why! Reviewing our photographs builds new path ways from our hippocampus to more visual memory parts of our brain.
Creative
Have you ever wished you were a born creative? According to science, creativity really can be strengthened like a muscle when practiced regularly. The key, the more you do, the more experience you have, the more experience you have, the more you can tweak that experience to apply to the current situation at hand.
Physical
I routinely get 20k steps in at a wedding. While photography is not the most physically demanding job it’s far more demanding than a desk job or video game hobby. Physical exercise also helps in the creative aspect. When you move your body, get your blood flowing to the brain, reduces inflammation, and lowers stress hormones which can help create more connections between brain cells and brain areas.
Feels good to give to others
We all know that when we give to others, the mesolimbic pathway lights up increasing activity in the prefrontal cortex and activating the subgenual area which is also associated with higher levels of social belonging.
Resources:
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BPP 274: Introduce Fun into Your Photography
The fun-o-meter in photography can be quite the rollercoaster. When you buy your first camera, its up high, when you take your first photo with the new camera, its down low, when you pre visualize your shots, its up high, when you look at the photo its low again. Learning your camera settings is important and once you do, if you dont push yourself to keep learning your progress will stall and thats no fun. This week I share 5 ways to introduce more fun with your photography.
1: No Social Media
Social media can be a great source of inspiration if youre looking for it but more often than not its where we see other photographers work and feel like we dont measure up. Getting off social media for a few weeks will help open up the creative side of your brain.
2: Remove all Controls
Use a GoPro or just your phones camera to go out and shoot but dont look through the screen. Look at the world with your eyes and try to place the camera where it needs to be to capture it. This exercise becomes stronger as it forces you to audit your own photos from a critical perspective.
3: Destroy your Photos
As photographers we tend to treat our photos like gold. To really break out of a rut we need to accept that our photos always have room for improvement and not to take them too seriously. I like to shoot in black and white and color on my photos using the ProCreate iPad app. This also helps me to see hidden compositions of color within the frame what I might not have seen naturally.
4: Print your Photos
Printing your photos can make a huge impact on how you shoot. From being able to hold your art in your hand to seeing that shooting at ISO 1600 wasn’t as bad as you thought, to reinforcing the fact that you are fully capable of taking photos that you love. Printing photos is magical.
5: Create a Styled Shoot
A styled shoot does not have to be a big production. Come up with a photo in your head and then make it happen. It could be a photo of your dog wearing a funny cheese hat thats then photoshopped in front of the Eiffel Tower. Focus on nailing just 1 photo, and the rest will fall into place!
Fun Photography Exercise: 100 Photos in 15 minutes.
What you shoot and how you shoot it is up to you. Just dont take the same photo twice. See the world different to capture something unique then post your favorite photo in the BPP Facebook Group.