The best places for photography aren’t thousands of miles away. You don’t need to travel to the ends of the earth to take powerful photos. What matters most is often just a few steps from your front door. Powerful images don’t come from exotic countries. They come from the streets you know by heart. The places that feel like home. You just have to learn to see them with fresh eyes.  

In the world of art, and especially photography, we often hear remarks like “If it doesn’t turn out, pass it off as art.” It might be funny, but if it’s meant seriously, it reveals a misunderstanding of how art is actually made. In our photography, why can’t we just “play the artist”? And why isn’t chance alone enough?

When I first got into photography, my camera backpack was full of prime lenses with the lowest possible f-numbers. Back then, everyone insisted that I needed fast lenses. Their reasons varied: better technical quality, faster focusing, and most importantly, beautiful bokeh or blurred backgrounds. How do I see it today? 

Creating art or just kitsch? What makes something art? When does a photographer become a fine-art photographer? And what exactly is this elusive, sometimes mythical genre? Does it always include nudes? Is fine-art photography still evolving? And what is fine-art photography exactly?

If you enjoy taking trips with friends, they probably know you’re into photography. They expect your photos to be better than their phone snapshots, even if you’re using your phone too. After all, you’re the photographer of the group. So, what can you do differently?

Good portrait, fashion, or glamor photography doesn’t have to be strange or shocking to catch the eye. A nude model fixing a tractor, a half-naked woman holding an old medium format camera, or a secretary on the phone with a plunging neckline and glasses. These are some cliché combinations often found in amateur portrait photography. How can you avoid them?

Many photographers see photography as a lifestyle. Every photographer got their start somewhere. Their skills develop over time and are still evolving. What stage are you in? In this article, we’ll walk you through the different stages and show you where you can go next.

For certain genres of photography, it's a good idea to have a very specific idea of what you want your photo to look like. Sometimes you need to focus on composition, other times on facial expressions, and even other times on the overall feeling of the photo. To get as close as possible to your idea, you can "sketch" the photograph. When is sketching your photo useful and how do you do it?

Everyone who presses the shutter button on a camera or phone is composing an image. It doesn’t matter what’s in the photo, a landscape, your family, or a pet, the composition must be done correctly.

Sigmund Freud believed we are all driven by sex. This could sum up a lot of things, including this article. But it's not so easy to generalize. Public space, ethics, kitsch, and a sense of responsibility to our models also come into consideration. So, where do we start?