Category Archives: Photography

Link Dump

How do good hotels stay always feel so fresh and clean?  Lots and lots of manpower. How the cast of friends banded together to leverage their per episode salaries into seven figures.  Great negotiating story.  Ctrl+F “breakout”. 7 Useless Money-Saving … Continue reading

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Why Your Food Doesn’t Look Like The Ad

Great marketing from McDonald’s, showing exactly how they get their food to look so good in photos: Instead of ignoring the question, avoiding it, or getting defensive (by say, comparing their products to other fast food chains’), McDonald’s opens up … Continue reading

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The Element of Surprise

A really insightful email from Teller, of Penn & Teller fame, where he responds to a struggling magician’s request for advice on how to develop his stage presence and style.  A couple things to note: first, Teller is a celebrity, … Continue reading

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Cultivate Failure

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm” – Winston Churchill Failure is part of all entrepreneurial processes.  Even if you’re wildly successful right out of the gate, even if you’re Facebook, … Continue reading

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How Do I Improve?

Someone wrote to me today asking how to improve their photography.  I wrote back a short reply, and realized it is in no way limited to photography: Hi S., Thanks very much! My advice to you would be to look … Continue reading

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Chase Permanent Wins, Then Throw Them Away

When I spend 100 hours working to create a photograph, I produce a finished product.  It’s tangible.  It’s also permanent: I get to look at it forever, anybody can see it, and I can even sell copies of it. All … Continue reading

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There Are No Shortcuts

If you searched for diet books right now on amazon, how many results do you think you’d get?  Diet books are pretty popular, remember.  Definitely more than a couple hundred, right?  I would have guessed a couple thousand.  I would … Continue reading

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Look Better and Get Better By Culling

It’s important to go back and review your old work.  Just a little time away from it and you can look at it with fresh eyes.  Enough time away from it and you can look at it with someone else’s … Continue reading

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How To Be Creative

Sebastian Marshall was kind enough to let me guest post about how to be creative over on his blog.  It’s a technique I’ve used successfully for many years, and I imagine many other luminaries and creatives have used this, or … Continue reading

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The World’s Most Valuable Skill

It’s not the ability to pick stocks or spot market trends.  It’s not the ability to sniff out which wells will produce oil or which methods will cure cancer.  It’s not the ability to mange people or leverage their talents … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Law, Negotiation, Photography, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Entrepreneurs: Learn From Artists; Artists From Entrepreneurs

A lot of artists have problems shipping work, myself included.  It’s scary.  An artist’s work is the most intimate reflection of his own taste, views, and values.  Putting work out into the world leaves an artist vulnerable to critique, criticism, … Continue reading

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Most of Your Work Sucks

In the ten or so years I’ve been shooting photos, I cannot tell you how many I’ve taken.  Not because the number is so staggeringly large (it’s probably under 100,000) but because I’ve deleted so many I have no way … Continue reading

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Understanding Exposure, pt. Practice

If you want to learn to take good photographs, you need to understand how cameras work.  See my super-simple explanation here: Understanding Exposure. If you want to actually take good photographs, you need to put that understanding into practice.  I’ve … Continue reading

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The Cult of Status Quo

Bill Simmons, who’s nicknamed The Sports Guy and writes a comical column for ESPN, shares a very insightful response to a reader’s email about why soccer will never become popular in the U.S.: “Sometimes when people become die-hard fans of … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Aesthetics, Art, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Photography, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fuck You. Pay Me.

Though there’s some stuff in here I don’t necessarily agree with, a worthy watch for any creative: 2011/03 Mike Monteiro | F*ck You. Pay Me. from San Francisco Creative Mornings on Vimeo.

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