Imagine being literally flooded with greenery. It’s so thick it even blocks the sun and only a ray or two sneaks through every so often. Everywhere you turn, there’s a new scent to discover, something rustles, and then there’s the howling of monkeys that carries over everything. From this beauty, unique hills emerge that upon closer inspection reveal mysterious monuments of lost civilizations. Does this sound like something out of a movie to you? The truth is this is the reality you can encounter in the jungles of Mexico and Guatemala.

Mexico has a varied reputation among travelers. On one hand, we picture monumental pyramids and a turquoise-blue coast. On the other hand, some travelers only picture drug cartels and immense poverty. This may make a photographer wonder if this country is at all worth visiting. My response is absolutely Yes. Let me elaborate on why I think so.

Why should you make a winter photo series? First of all, because it’s an excellent skill-building exercise. Winter provides the right conditions for creatively working with various motifs, composition, and above all, color. Plus, you don’t have to search hard to find elements in a solid white landscape to draw the series together. These photo-worthy elements pop up on their own in a bleak winter landscape. Last but not least, you can bring a friend or furry companion along and have lots of fun at the same time.

One growing trend of our age is the search for simplicity. It’s expressed in nearly everything—from our style of dress to what we eat to the buildings where we live. This minimalism also has its place in art. And art may have stood at its beginnings. Remember the pioneering Bauhaus school, which emphasized the use of basic colors and shapes, clean lines, and overall clarity across all styles. This school’s heritage lives on in many fields—including photography. 

Every photographer knows how important it is to master their camera, know the principles of composition, and understand light. Even so, it is criticism and acknowledging opposing opinions that truly help their photography develop. Feedback is what gets you out of your comfort zone and forces you to further develop your skills. It’s critical that you are able to not only accept constructive criticism, but also make it work to help you further your photography. 

Your photography has the potential to amuse, even if it wasn’t your original intention. In this article, we are discussing laughter that you provoke. Whether you are creating a photo series, taking photos for social media, or just sharing with family and friends, it never hurts to use a humorous moment to change things up a bit. As a result, you’ll be able to observe how the focused expression of your viewer is suddenly replaced with a smile, or if you’re lucky, with bouts of laughter. 

Taking good pictures at any price?  That’s a temptation photographers shouldn’t fall prey to.  Taking good photos is important, but so is taking into account the people you’re photographing, their dignity, and the customs of the given country or culture.  When disrespecting the basic rules of ethics, many photographers have even run into major problems. Learn to avoid them!

Few photographic genres are plagued by as many misunderstandings as documentary photography. We photographers have come to classify every shot that isn’t prearranged into this genre. It’s most often confused with reportage. And meanwhile the two are easy to tell apart! Reportage is usually a short-term record of some event. While documentary work is always long-term. Its results never arrive immediately, and building up a gripping series can even take years.

In reportage, it’s important to be in the right place at the right time, and also to press the trigger at the right moment. That’s definitely the foundation, but it’s just as important to know how to put together a gripping story from the photos you get. Like every other story, a reportage should pull the audience in, keep them in suspense, and bring them a certain denouement. Now let’s take a look at how to tell it through photos.

You know the drill: Vacations, weekend trips, and even ordinary walks in the woods... They all churn out photos, but there’s never time to process and ponder them. But then you suddenly run into situations where you’re stuck at home and you don’t know what to do with your time. How can you turn this lemon of a situation into lemonade?