Try not to take pictures, which simply show what something looks like.

Taking good pictures is easy. Making very good pictures is difficult. Making great pictures is almost impossible.

— Constantine Manos

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7 Comments

  1. Photojournalism from Navarra, north of Spain. All diferent things i see in my work.
    Personal photo blog.

  2. I loved this feature. Some very good advice. =)

  3. Great piece from some incredible photographers!
    Thanks for sharing.

  4. “Also, try to do workshops with photographers whose work you admire, but first ask around to make sure they are good teachers as well as good photographers.” – Constantine Manos

    Excellent advice. I once took a workshop with Robert Maxwell and he wasn’t the best of teachers. He liked getting stoned and tried to get the girls in the workshop to shoot nudes.

  5. #4

    What if the stuff you want to shoot is too far from the mainstream. I mean honestly, where does one find the teachers that could help you shoot two female tennis players tearing each other to shreds playing an epic grudge match with light bulbs?

    I mean its a sort of Catch 22…on one hand you have to do stuff that catches their eye enough to have them let their guard down enough to really teach you the stuff that they have discovered over the years of trial-n-error…but by catching their eye…you’ve already allowed them into your walls of creativity. I don’t want to redo Anne Geddes, I want to push past her to the point where SHE thinks “why didn’t I think of that?”

  6. What helps me get free lance jobs as a photographer, and im sure a full time job if i really pushed for it, is untilizing a companies cd replication services. I had a friend create a digital portfolio for me, i massed produced it on cds and handed it out with my business cards. this has been my investment/expirement for the past 6 months. I gave the cds to about 50 people and had 27 call me up wanting my work. At 49 cents per cd the investment was worth it

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