Category Archives: Inspiration

5 New Years Resolutions for Photographers in 2013

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New Years Photography Resolutions

Hokey Petes!! Its that time of year once again!!

With 2012 coming to its pleasant end, and the new year rapidly approaching, its time to sit back and ponder on our goals and visions for the upcoming rotations around the sun (which coincidentally translates to resolutions for the upcoming revolutions lolz).

Now, I know what your saying… “But Big Daddy Nick, goal setting is boring and daunting, and and…”. Au contraire mon ami!! Goals can be super fun when connected to something we love, ie. photography… or ice cream, boy do I love ice cream, but that typically goes against our other resolutions. So, whether your full on professional, amateur or a hobbyist, setting goals for your photography can take your craft, art or whatever you want to call it, to the next level in the coming 12 months and beyond!

To help you get started, Ive put together 5 areas that have helped me drastically improve my photography over the last year, which can be adopted into your goals for 2013.

1. Learn Your Gear

If you haven’t done so already, make it a point this year to take your camera off of the Auto and Program modes, and really take some time to learn how your camera works. To make the transition relatively easy, I suggest starting off in Aperture Priority Mode (Often marked as AV on your controls dial at the top of your cam), this allows you to control your depth of field (more on these topics to come in future months), while the camera still makes the rest of the decisions for you.

Learn about the different metering and focusing modes your camera sports; what each one does, and which is right for the photography you do.

Once you learn the manual controls, functions and dynamics of your camera, you will find yourself in a whole new world of creative expression. The goal here is to know your camera gear inside and out; what each button and function does, and master it to the point that you can make decisions and changes on the fly without even pulling the camera away from your face. So often we’re trying to upgrade to that next camera, that new lens, a different flash or whatever, before we even have the gear we’re currently working with figured out. Put off buying new gear, and master the stuff thats already in your hand.

2. Practice the Technicals

Similar to numero uno (Dang Son, were droppin some multi-lingual bombs today!!), take the time to learn the technical aspects of this wonderful art we call photography.

Do you know how to get a proper exposure, or even what exposure is? What part of the day has the best light for shooting? What does good light look like? What the heck was Nick talking about when he said Depth of Field?!?!

Once you get your camera down pat, its time to put it into practice and start focusing on the technical aspects of photo taking. Just knowing how to work our cameras, doesn’t promise us that our photos will be worth a darn. Learning things like exposure, composition and how to see light will help take our photos to that next level.

3. Shoot More

Its like Harrison Ford says in the latest Indiana Jones movie “If you want to be a good archeologist, you gotta get out of the library”. The only way to practice any of this is to get out there with camera in hand!

Watch out cause Im about to lay down some heavy philosophy right now… you ready for this?! Heres lifes formula for success: Go out, make mistakes, learn from your mistakes, wash, rinse, repeat!!

The only way to improve in this game is to be out there shooting, clicking that shutter, burnin them pixels! You’ve gotta be willing to FAIL (gasp.. the F word). Photography aint rocket science, but at the same time its no cake walk either. Theres a lot of trial and error, meaning it takes 1 part trial and 1 part error to get you to that next level. Embrace failure and keep on shooting.

Make it a habit to take your camera with you and shoot wherever you go. Now days this is simple, as most of us have phones in our pockets at all times that rival some of todays point and shoots. Be on the prowl for good light, interesting compositions and perspectives. Shoot color, light, gesture any chance you can. Shoot Shoot Shoot!

4. Shoot Less

Wha What!?!?!? Now your just being confusing!

Since the release of the digital age, theres a nasty term in photography called “Spray and Pray”. This refers to just shooting anything and everything in hopes that one of the shots will be a keeper. Now days pixels are free, and its easy to just run around clicking that shutter at everything that moves, capturing the same scene a hundred times, hoping to get a keeper or two. DONT BE THAT PHOTOGRAPHER!

Slow down and think about your shots before pulling that trigger! Its like legendary photog Jay Maisel has said “Look at what your looking at”, meaning actually observe whats in front of your lens. Take time to line your shot up, get the right perspective, wait for the decisive moment… theeeennnn hit the shutter. Learning to see The Shot is one of the most rewarding skills you can hone when it comes to your photography. Its what sets stunning photos apart from the rest.

Not to mention you will love yourself that much more when you don’t have a billion and a half of the same photo to edit and sort through at the end of the day.

5. Get out of your Comfort Zone

If you only take one thing from this post, let it be this! Id say one of my biggest gifts in life, has always been my willingness and excitement towards constantly pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I can attribute all the victories I’ve ever experienced to this simple idea.

Make it a goal in 2013 to push your photographic boundaries. Get out there and scare your self shitless over and over, and I guarantee you, at the end of the year you’ll look back in amazement at how far you’ve come.

Try a few of these things to help burst that initial comfort zone bubble

  • Go out and meet other photographers in your area, and ask them to shoot with you.
  • Reach out to a photographer you admire and ask them to critique your work.
  • Shoot people you don’t know (with your camera, ya psycho). Try doing a street portrait series, or even just some street photography if thats to big of a jump at first.
  • Submit photos to a photography competition.
  • Reach out to multiple photographers to do a personal collaboration.
  • Reach out and see if you can second shoot or assist for one of the top photogs in your town.
  • Shoot in MANUAL mode!! (Going back to number 1, I know it can be scary at first).
  • Try new photography styles, like flash photography, sports photography, landscape, concert, etc.
  • Shoot a couple rolls of film. You cant keep chimping at the back of the camera when theres no screen. This will force you to learn your settings and work in a fully manual mode.
  • Take a new photographer under your wing. They say one of the best ways to learn is to teach.

So there you have it!! 5 quick ideas to get you rolling into setting goals for the new year.

Now I want to hear your thoughts!! What goals have you set already? What were the biggest growing points of your photography in 2012? Share your comments below.

OH, and be sure to follow the Nick Exposed Facebook page!! (we’ve got some fun holiday giveaways for our facebook crowd coming up later this month. hint hint)

 

My Active Mind

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As I lay here in bed, my mind wont let me sleep
so much running between these two ears
Its incredible to think about where we are these days

What did we do before google?
Before youtube?
Before the internet in general?
How did we learn anything?

I feel like we have the world at our fingertips
and I also feel that’s a major part of what keeps me up at night
the idea of knowing I can learn anything
I can do anything

I ask one question and it leads to two more
which then multiplies even further
I have an incredible thirst for knowledge

I wonder if minds where this active years ago?
Did people feel as empowered as we feel these days

With so many resources at the touch of a button
Most of which are available on the devices we carry in our pockets
Excuses are especially invalid these days
There’s no reason for people not to be pursuing their passion and dreams

Its an excitingly possible world out there
Which ironically makes it even more impossible for me to fall asleep

Quotography Inspiration

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There is no trick to Quotography, but as I’m sure many of you can attest, there are some quotes that are easier to put into images than others. We have decided to tell you a little bit about our process in the hopes that you, our fellow collaborators, can get something out of it! Remember, our way of doing it is not “the right” way to go about it…it’s just a discussion to get your wheels turning and the creativity flowing.

The best way to do this, I think, will be with some examples.

“In the end, it’s not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away” – Shing Xiong

Shannon’s Thoughts:

The first thing I do with most quotes is look for the obvious, tangible items in it. In this case, I could try to do something with breath…maybe frosty breath on a cold morning…something along those lines. However, I don’t think that would really illustrate the message Shing Xiong is trying to convey. Instead, I would focus on the ‘moments’ portion of the quote.

‘Moments’ could be something with clocks or watches. Maybe a clock involved in an image of something I value. A watch on a couple holding hands or kissing?

However, to me, this quote is special enough that I would want to do better than a first obvious thought. If this were my quote, I would be inclined to do a photo involving other photos of special moments. Maybe a photo of polaroids spread out on a table? Or a photo of a scrapbook. Photos are my favorite way to remember important moments, so it would be an ideal way to both illustrate the quote while still communicating my personal values.

Nick’s Thoughts: Continue reading →

Calling all Creatives :: Collab Project time!

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BAM! Time for another collaboration photo project!

If you remember last months Luck of the Irish Collab, my good friend Shannon and I took the same concept each and attacked it with our cameras and creative thinking. It was interesting to see how two creatives thousands of miles apart would come to visualizing the same idea and concept. Well.. Shannon and I have been talking and its time to bring another collaboration to the surface, only this time were going to get anybody and everybody involved to add to the excitement and creativity!

If your following either the Nick Exposed or the Seeing Spots Photography Facebook pages you have probably seen the sneak peeks we’ve been posting over the last couple weeks (If your not following our pages heres the hint to do so so you don’t miss out on all the cool shit we post!! Capiche?  ;) ). If you happened to miss our awesome sneak peak posts the topic of the collab is “Quotography”, taking famous.. and not so famous quotes and visualizing them in the form of a photo. Simple enough right? Continue reading →

It’s about that time

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Holy Cats!!! Its already mid April, can you believe it?!? Were only a third of the way into the year, and yet so much has happened already! To some this means many good things, I myself have enjoyed the process of growth from my daily project so far, as well as the growing community and excitement yet to come! However, “so much has happened” could be a sore subject for some people with some instances where we feel like we are already so far into the “New” year, yet so far away from our initial “resolutions”.

Yea remember those things? The “stuff” you said you were going to do or not do starting at the beginning of the year?! How’s it going?

First of all, Im calling you out but not calling you out at the same time. The truth is… LIFE happens! Sometimes things just tend to creep up on you and get in the way of whats important. My only goal for this post is to get you thinking about one of two things. How to get back on track if somehow you wondered off the initial path, and second how to stay on track if you’ve been successful so far at following through.

Some quick tips: Continue reading →

Guest Post : Kris Mathis : Until

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There’s Power In The Word UNTIL…

I have a question for you. How long should a baby try to walk before you tell them to give up trying? Think about that for a second. How long would you give a baby to learn to walk before you tell them enough is enough! Just give up trying!

Now some of the mothers out there are probably reading this and thinking to themselves, “Is this guy crazy!! I would never tell my baby to give up trying! He/she will keep trying to walk UNTIL they walk!” And I agree with you mothers. We should never tell our children to give up. But we should also never tell ourselves to give up either.

You see, there’s something special about that word ‘UNTIL.’ And this one word carries more power than we give it credit. We must remember the power of this word while on our journey towards our goals and dreams.

Promise yourself that you will keep going UNTIL you reach your goals and dreams! You must keep reading books UNTIL you develop your skills! You will keep listening UNTIL it makes sense! You will keep practicing UNTIL you’re good at it! You must keep going UNTIL you make it no matter how long it takes! You will go step-by-step and day-by-day UNTIL it happens for you!! Continue reading →

Time Flies

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WOW, I feel like its been forever since I’ve posted something. As I mentioned earlier last week the past week and a half have been consumed with various work related projects, mainly charity related with our upcoming Gala event in Chicago this week. Unfortunately with my schedule being the way it is, I haven’t been able to allot my self the time needed to process the photos I’ve been capturing. To give you a behind the scenes glance however I have right around a thousand photos waiting for me to sort and process, so be on the look out for the missed days photos to start showing up slowly but surely. To give everyone a heads up as well, this weekend I will be in Chicago helping run our fundraising event, and will have no access to my computer, however I do plan on capturing the great city of Chicago with my lens and will have plenty to share once I return :)

Now on to other exciting news!

First of all I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter celebrations! The family took a trip out to my Grandmas for the day, with which I spent most of the day mowing her yard for her haha. But it gave me some great time to think about the direction of the blog and all things related. I can’t stress enough how much I have enjoyed the growth of the community so far, and look forward to the excitement and growth that is to come!  Continue reading →

The Treasure Folder

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INSPIRATION

As creatives we often find ourselves reaching out in hopes of finding this wonderful word. Personally I love surrounding myself with as much inspiration as possible for every aspect of life. Above my desk I have a bulletin board and a white board filled with all sorts of inspiring pictures, quotes, articles and other randomness to remind myself to keep moving forward.

Just this week one of my absolute best friends, an EXTRAORDINARY photographer/artist/creative, and I shared our inspiration folders with each other. As she pointed out, it was like getting to look into each others minds and see the bits that make our creative section tic. I realized what we are inspired by says a lot about our direction in which we are heading both creatively and in general with the other inspirations we acquire. However, at the same time we often miss the many treasures that are within these powerful inspirations.

If your anything like I have been in the past, and have acquired a folder full of inspiring pictures (over 6,000 in my inspiration folders right now), it either just sits there collecting virtual dust or you look through it from time to time and get a stagnate inspiration more often than not, where your inspired but have no clue where to start to put any of it into action. Often at most we get an idea of a subject to shoot or create, yet our folders hold so much more than just these simple ideas. Continue reading →

Photographic Inspiration: Joe McNally

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Im pretty confident that a decent hand full of you will know of this Outstanding photographer. However I continuously run into conversations with other photogs where Joe’s name gets brought up and I get the equivalent of a blank stare back across our cyber conversation.

Joe McNally has been in the game with over 30 years under his batman-esque belt. Working for big name companies like Nikon, TIME, Fortune, New York Times, Men’s Journal, Sports Illustrated, an extraordinary 23 years with National Geographic, and a list that continues miles down the road. To say Joe know’s his stuff would be grossly understated! When you peruse through Joe’s work its undeniably obvious he is an absolute master of lighting and color, and truly wrote the book on using Small Flashes like the Nikon Speedlight series. With an outstanding personality that matches his extraordinary skill, its no wonder he’s one of the top trainers on sites like KelbyTraining.com .

Joe is also known for his work on raising money (2 million dollars to be exactish) for the relief effort after the tragic happenings of 9/11. He headed up a project called Faces of Ground Zero, using the world’s ONLY LIFE-SIZE Polaroid camera (Literally the size of a 2 stall garage). The project is considered by many to be one of the most important and influential art endeavors to evolve from the 9/11 tragedy.

Joe’s Blog is one I frequent often to get my fix of pure inspiration. At times it’s difficult to not want to set your camera down and call it quits in fear you would never reach his level of talent, knowledge and sheer Bad Assnessness…ness (Thats right I said it). But to paraphrase Joe’s Humble words, 30 years in the trenches will lead to similar awesomeness. So yea.. we’ve got that to look forward too. In the mean time take a cautious look at his work. I say proceed with extreme caution as there is a good chance your mind will either melt or explode… hey Im just sayin, Im looking out for your safety! Continue reading →

Guest Post: Betsy Crouch Part 2

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Creativity + Money = ??

I was walking down the street the other night pondering the relationship between creativity and money.  I walked past an art gallery and looking at the art displayed in the windows, and “poof!” there it was, a large green painting with big white dollar sign in the middle.  Huh, there it is, creativity and money.

What do we all want?  Inner contentedness, a sense of well-being, connection, and love.  Ultimately, we all want to thrive.

When you think of creativity and money, what comes to mind?

I think of disconnection.

I think of “starving artists.”

I think of the power we have to create abundance. Continue reading →

Guest Post : Kris Mathis Part 2

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Im excited to say our two previous Guest Bloggers have offered up some follow up posts this week for our audience here at Nick Exposed.

Today’s article was released in Kris Mathis’ newsletter earlier this morning. He was kind enough to offer it up as a guest post, in hopes of adding some extra value to start your week off. If you’ve been following the blog, you probably remember Kris’s first appearance with his article Young Boy Baffles Reporters, on the topic of overcoming limiting beliefs. If you enjoyed that article then your going to love this post about one of our most valuable resources.

The Present

Imagine if you had a bank that credited your account each morning with a large sum of money. But, it carried over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deleted whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out all of it, of course!

Each of us has such a bank. Its name is – Time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Continue reading →

Creative Innocence

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A couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with a close friend when the topic of personal creative expression came up. My friend, like many others, had found them self in a bit of a creative rut. A paralyzed state that most creatives, if not all, come across time and time again. I myself have found this to be a repeated pattern throughout my life. I would consider my self to have been a creative from birth in a wide variety of expressive forms. The moment I was allowed to have crayons in hand I was creating personal masterpieces on any “canvas” I could find, many surfaces of which were not to my parents liking. This continued in various forms until around the age of 12 or 13, when I made a mental shift.

It was at this age I started sharing my artwork with class mates and friends. I suddenly had a new status of popularity, with requests coming in for a drawing of this or a sketch that. At first I loved the attention my art was getting, as I had only ever received praise from my parents for my creative endeavors. My amusement quickly perished as requests continued to come in, feeling as if I now had a duty to impress and please my new fan base. It was at this point I became paralyzed within my own craft… I lost my passion and wasn’t finding it anytime soon. In fact it wasn’t for another 3+ years that I picked up sketching and designing again, in which the process seemed to start all over again. Continue reading →