Photographer Kenneth Jarecke has written up an interesting article on how Internet culture is hindering the development of people who want to get better at photography:

There’s nothing wrong with not being any good at photography. Everybody started out bad and none of us does all aspects of it well. But it’s a crying shame to want to be good at it, to spend time and money trying to be good at it, and not getting any better.

This isn’t like teaching a child to read. Positive reinforcement is your enemy. Your Facebook friends, your Twitter followers… hate you. Instead of taking ten seconds to say. “This doesn’t work. You need to do better”. They readily push that “like” button, because it’s easy and they hope to get the same from you, but also because they’re cowards.

His advice? “Seek out great photography. Devour it, and be suspicious of any undue praise.”

Chances Are, You Suck (via A Photo Editor)

Image credit: 310/365: Photo-tastic Sunday… by Derek E-Jay

Kai of DigitalRev shares some tips — both serious and humorous — on the art of street photography.

(via ISO 1200)

Here’s a short and sweet video in which Chicago-based food photographer Stephen Hamilton shares some tips on how to take photographs of food using your smartphone. One tip is to use a white napkin as a makeshift reflector to fill in some of the shadows in the shot.

(via Doobybrain)

If you’re in the market for a new digital camera this year, buying it in January or February might get you the best deal. Lifehacker has published a comprehensive list of when to buy things based on when you’re most likely to see low prices:

January: After the big trade shows like CES come around in mid-January, you’ll see that older model cameras drop in price to prepare for the newly-announced ones.

February: Since the newest cameras will have just come out post-CES, you can grab last year’s models for less.

The Best Time to Buy Anything in 2012 [Lifehacker]

Image credit: February Already!?! by ohdarling

Steve 21 has an interesting trick for finding good available light: he places a marble in his hand to simulate what the light would look like on a human face:

Just hold a fist in front of you (like holding a telescope), tuck the marble just under your forefinger, and there you have it – the same lighting an eye would get.

And since you know you want the catchlights to be up at 1 to 2 o’clock, or up high at 12 o’clock, simply turn about until you see the catchlights you want.

The neat thing is that the curves and wrinkles of your hand show you the amount of contrast and backlight.

Black marbles: the latest must-have item in any beginning photographer’s camera bag.

A Trick to Finding Good Available Light [photo.net]

Image credits: Photographs by Steve 21

Here’s a crash course on how to work with models as a photographer. Photographer Mark Wallace discusses tips for before, during, and after the shoot, and also how to find a model for your project.

(via ISO 1200)

Beauty dishes are pricey, and so are dedicated cases for carrying them around. If you want a cheap and simple way to protect your dish, LA-based photographer Mariusz Jeglinski suggests buying a Christmas wreath bag for less than $10. The shape works nicely for dishes, and you can add some extra padding to the case if you want added protection.

(via Strobist)

Image credits: Photographs by Mariusz Jeglinski/Strobist and M. Nguyen

You probably already know that it’s not a good idea to include your expensive camera gear with check in luggage, but what if you have no choice? If you must, then putting your gear inside a hard-sided “spinner” suitcase with four wheels is your best bet. The Huffington Post has published an interesting interview with an anonymous baggage handler, who gives the following advice:

Hard-sided suitcases will get less damage, but also look for well-designed handles that are attached with rivets and some sort of protection around the wheels. Speaking of wheels, the best bags to get are the “spinners” with four wheels on the bottom. We like these because we don’t have to throw them when loading. We just roll them down the belly of the plane so your bag and its contents will suffer much less damage.

The handler reveals that bags are commonly subjected to all kinds of abuse due to the strict schedules the handlers must abide by.

Confessions of An Airline Baggage ‘Thrower’ (via Lifehacker)

Image credit: airplane by shyb

Ashley Ambirge of the middle finger project on pricing your services the right way on your website:

[...] there’s wiggle room. Most of the time, there’s wiggle room. And most of the time when people tell you they don’t have the money, they’re lying–they just don’t think it’s worth the money.

Your job is to show them that it is.

She also warns against being secretive about your fees. Research has found that if no price is listed on the website, most people click away assuming that the fees are too expensive for them.

List Your Prices (THE RIGHT WAY) (via APhotoEditor)

Image credit: Price tags by jamesks

As newspapers and magazines struggle to keep eyeballs from turning to the free world of the Web, more and more blogs are rising up to fill the niches once dominated by print. Despite the changing landscape, magazines are still able to command high advertising rates that blogs can’t match (yet). Wanting to find out whether magazines or blogs provided the best bang of each advertising buck, photographer Trey Ratcliff recently spent $26,000 placing ads in three major photography magazines, comparing the results to his online affiliate ad returns. His conclusion?

If I was consulting for one of these product companies that puts significant funds into magazine advertising, I would challenge them to try something new for six months: Try taking 50% of that money and put it into several hundred blogs, podcasts and review sites and measure the results. Cut the worst performers and find new ones.

Only one of the three magazines actually made Ratcliff money (the other two lost over ten thousand dollars) — the one that included an online ad rotation as part of the package.

Stop Advertising in Photo Magazines – Head West to the Web [Trey Ratcliff]

Thanks for sending in the tip, Troy!