The Digital Story Photography Podcast

When a subject allows us to photograph them, they are putting their hearts in our hands. And the decisions that we, the photographer, make in those moments together bear great weight on the final outcome. Is our goal to solely please the subject? Do we have a responsibility to integrate our own artistic vision into the work? Or should we ignore the desires of others and portray what we believe to be honest? I grapple with these questions in today’s show.

When I first started teaching photography and writing books on the subject, the focus was how to tame your camera, make it see the world the way your eyes do. In other words, how to overcome the technical challenges of photography. That knowledge, plus my people skills, was also at the heart of my commercial work. But times have changed, and photographers have to find new ways to distinguish themselves from the pack. And that’s the focus of today’s show.

If you’ve read my latest Nimble Photographer Journal entry, you know that I was a bit underwhelmed with CES this year. And I found myself muttering these questions as I roamed the hallways of Mandalay Bay and the Las Vegas Convention Center. So I thought you might find them interesting.

Have you ever had a friend tell you, "I just want to get something on the books. I like having things to look forward to."? It’s a very human emotion. In a lot of ways, I think it’s an expression of hope. And it’s a concept that applies well to our photography too, as I will discuss in today’s show.

The funny thing about life is that you can be rolling along just fine, then out of nowhere, everything is turned upside down. This week’s show features two such incidents that result in a happy ending, plus one case where a good situation was made even better, thanks to technology. I hope you enjoy the show.

I was sipping whiskey with a friend last night, and he said to me, "I'm so sick of scandals, politics, and power plays. I'm going to forget about all of that and focus on my family, craft, and self improvement in 2017." Afterwards, I was thinking, you know, that's not a bad idea. And so I've begun my attack on 2017.

They are no cookbooks for entrepreneurs. Our recipes for survival consist or an alchemic mixture of ideas, guesses, bandwidth, finances, and luck. Over a 12-month period, I typically have two bad ideas to every good one… and that’s a good year. So here’s how I fared in 2016.

Image editing is the other half of the creation process. We have one set of fleeting thoughts when we press the shutter button and record the composition. But later, on our computers, we have the opportunity to refine our vision. This week I talk about the latest developments in that second part of the equation, imaging software.

A special 1 hour podcast featuring some of the best conservation photographers in the world speaking in Washington D.C. during the WildSpeak Conference sponsored by the ILCP - http://thedigitalstory.com/2016/11/thoughts-from-7-conservation-photographers-tds-podcast-560.html

If you only think in terms of DSLR camera bodies and fast prime lenses, then yes, photographers are hard to buy for. But we have more facets than some give us credit for. And the buying guide that I’ve assembled for you focuses more on the artistic than the mechanical.

By the time you listen to this, I will be working in Washington D.C. at the WildSpeak Conference. I’ll be recording interviews and capturing still images. My big camera is the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II. What a beast ;-) The other three capture devices are considerably smaller, yet quite powerful. And one of them is the subject of today’s show. Plus, a listen-in to my teaching podcasting to National Geographic photographers.

We started working on the 2017 photo workshop season three months ago. Every year we bring in new events and blend them with those that are still popular with our audience. What we came up with for 2017 is truly exciting. And I'm going to provide you with a complete overview in today's show.

At first I was wondering, “Why were we in Iceland to test the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II?” After my first hour in the field, I had the answer: We had already shot in rain, cold, and sleet. Then we stood behind waterfalls, worked atop mountains to capture the Northern Lights in below-freezing temperatures, and had only two batteries to last us during the day’s agenda. That’s why we were in Iceland, and I’m going to tell you about how this camera survived in today’s show.

I’m recording this show on a crisp Sunday morning in the Eastern Sierra. We’re in Day 3 of our TDS Fall Photography Workshop, and while the participants are working on their current assignments, I’m slipping off to say hello to you. Here’s what’s been going on.

My first trip to Iceland was nearly a decade ago, when I was there on assignment with the “Lightroom 12” to capture imagery and test the beta version of Adobe’s fledgling image management application. We were there in the summer, and the days were 23 hours long. It was amazing. And now I’ll return again. This time for another assignment.