Today I was thinking of a photo shoot I once did for a top manufacturer of motocross (motorcycle) clothing. They paid me to attend a race and photograph their star rider in racing action wearing brand new gear they were about to release. Rather than photograph the rider on a closed course, I was hired to photograph him in peak action during an actual event on the pro racing tour. A decent amount of money was being spent and the clothing manufacturer had an important catalog and ad lined up …

video episode 28
I’m often asked, “how do I calibrate my monitor”? What exactly is color management and what are the benefits? The implementation of a good color management system will help you get consistent results when viewing your photos on-screen and when printing them. While implementing color management isn’t critical for the hobbyist, it sure can be nice to make prints that look the image on your monitor.
I’ll be honest, color management was a difficult concept for me to grasp in the beginning. In this video I’d like to share …

Here it is, the new site design, I hope it works well for everyone! There are a lot of things I like about it and just a few things that I’d like to tweak further. It’s definitely a work in progress and I’ll continue to refine what I can.
It seems fairly easy to present new information on a blog, the most recent posts generally appear at the top of a front page. One of the things I hope to accomplish with this design is to make the categories and older …

The details are in last Friday’s around the net, but in case you missed it, I’ll be taking a rare break from the blog this week. A site revision is in the works, as are a couple of other projects. I’ll see you when we pick things back up on Monday, September 15, with a new design and a new video!
- Jim T.

This past week off from the studio has been great. On Monday I’ll be heading back with some new ideas and perspectives aided by the time away. “Sharpening the saw”, we call it, and it really works.
Just as this week has helped to prepare new ideas for the studio, next week I’ll be taking time off from prophotolife to do the same for this blog. So after this edition of around the net I’ll be taking a week off and will return with a new video post on Monday, September …

* I want to mention that this article has been revised after receiving a helpful comment from yz (check out the beautiful images on his photoblog). I appreciate the clarifications, we’re all here to learn…
In this day and age it’s possible to create quite beautiful photographs without fully understanding focus and depth of field. As long as your auto focus lens purrs when you hit the button and a little sensor lights up on the intended subject, you’re good to go.  But, really, that’s putting out a bare minimum of …

Most every Wednesday for the past few months we’ve discussed business topics here on prophotolife. How to start a business, negotiate with clients and how to find a niche have been popular subjects. As these topics are discussed it has allowed me to assess what my studio, Daylight Photo, is currently doing well and what we could be doing better.
As an established business my photo studio has undergone changes in the past few years, evolving with the times. On the recent Worldwide Photo Walk I admitted to being a bit …

*Let me preface this post with a reminder that Epic Edits Weblog is having their very cool $50 Film Camera Project, running through mid-September. Shooting film can be a great way to break your usual photo routine.
There seems to be some curiosity about shooting film among younger photographers and it’s reviving the medium (just when you thought the film vs. digital debate was dead, the bones get dug back up!). I enjoy shooting film but never, ever made a head-to-head comparison of film vs. digital on the same day …

This is the third and final video in the outdoor portrait series. We’ll take a little different approach this week, observing as a 15 minute family portrait shoot takes place. Rather than explaining technical details in this installment I thought it might be helpful to watch as I work with the subjects, getting to know them and helping them to be comfortable in front of the camera. After the jump below the video I’ll explain some of my thought process when photographing families and groups.
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Some further thoughts …