This page is a list of resources that can help you in your photography journey. Education is a big part of photography but sometimes you need other things too, but don’t know where to begin. All products or services shown here are ones that I either use personally or have tested and recommend. I hope you find it useful. If there is something you’re looking for that’s not on the list, use the contact form to shoot me an email and perhaps I can add it to the page.
Note: This page contains affiliate links. If a product is purchased through a link on this page, I earn a small commission. There is no extra cost to you.
Mastering Lenses by Andrew S Gibson
Mastering Lenses: A Photographer’s Guide to Creating Beautiful Photos With Any Lens is written for everybody who wants to learn how to use their lenses to create better photos.
Lens choice is one of the most important aesthetic decisions that we make as photographers. We all need to learn to how to get the best out of the lenses that we already own.
Mastering Lightroom Book 1: The Library Module by Andrew S Gibson
Mastering Lightroom: Book One – The Library Module shows you how to use the Library Module to import, organize and search your images. This important task lays the foundation for the work you do in Lightroom. Mastering the Library module ultimately saves you time, which you can spend either in the Develop module or with your camera. Either way, you end up with more hours to be creative.
Essentials of Street Photography by James Maher
Few people know all of the tips, tricks and techniques to be able to consistently take meaningful, beautiful, and technically stunning street shots. No matter your skill level, there will be something important for you to learn in this book.
Essentials of Street Photography is not only about teaching you how to technically approach the street photography, how to edit your work, how to overcome your fears, or how to get sharp, close-up candid shots without getting punched, although it will teach you these things, it’s about teaching you how to conceptually approach your work so that it has something to say.
Beginner Photography Course
4 Weeks to Better Photography – If you’re a beginner photographer who wants to learn how to take better photos but doesn’t want to get hung up on the technical details, then this is likely the right course for you.
Lighting Patterns
Watch a free video lesson from our Portrait Fundamentals course and learn about using natural light and flash to create flattering lighting patterns for your subject.
One Hour Photography FAQ lesson
Settle in while Darlene and Bruce discuss frequently asked questions about portrait photography in another complimentary lesson from our portrait lighting course.
Resources based on skill level
Would you consider yourself a beginner photographer or more intermediate?
Note: This page contains affiliate links. If a product is purchased through a link on this page, I earn a small commission. There is no extra cost to you.
Backup Your Photos
Backblaze online back up solution
You NEED to have an off site backup solution in place. Backblaze offers an affordable way to do it in a simple and easy way. For $5/month (or $50 annually) you can set it to backup your computer, and even external hard drives and all your working files.
It has saved my butt a few times when my laptop bit the dust and I needed to make a presentation. Five minutes later I have downloaded the needed files from Backblaze to a borrowed computer and was back in business.
Note: this is not an archiving solution it only keeps currently active files on connected hard drives. You need another system for long term storage.
For the price, it’s a no brainer – just get it and set it up.
Create a Book
Turn photo memories into a beautiful book
In today’s highly digitized world we rarely print photographs any more. One great way of getting your images off the computer and into your home is by making a photo book. I use Blurb.com for all my own photo book projects including a book I made of my journey to Peru (which was used to raise funds to send to the kids there), my husband’s uncles, and even a memorial for our cats who have passed on.
There are a lot of photo book makers on the market but I’ve found Blurb to be of higher quality and their customer service is top notch. Any time I’ve had any issues they’ve been quick to respond and resolve them to my satisfaction including redoing a book for me.
If you use Lightroom you can even design your book right inside there and click send it LR sizes and uploads all the images right to Blurb.com for you – it couldn’t be easier. Or you can use their book design software or do it online.
Build an Online Portfolio
Smugmug
Smugmug offers an exceptional platform for hosting your image galleries and albums. Free and subscription options are available. Great way to showcase your best images and share them with friends and family.