Better Living Through Photography

This program of lessons will teach you how to express yourself photographically, become a more effective photographer and live a more contented life as an artist.

Are you struggling with your photography? Not getting the accolades and the success that you think you deserve? Then maybe this is for you.

Finding our style. Developing our unique vision. Emerging from the sea of mediocrity.

These are all things that we, as artists, feel like we are required to achieve in order to realize our true self.

And yet, no matter how hard we try, most of the times those lofty goals elude us.

When this happens, we feel that our muse has abandoned us and we fall into a rut. We can't find the motivation to pick up the camera. Our work seems banal and bereft of originality, style or vision.

As Ira Glass once said:

"But it’s like there’s a gap, that for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good, OK? It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste — the thing that got you into the game — your taste is still killer, and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you."

The good news is it doesn’t have to be like that. There IS a better way. The good news is that you can change your life. One photograph at a time.

There are many books and websites that tell you everything about how to create great images. What I think is not so easy to find is information about how to adopt the right mindset. What is even more lacking is advice about getting seen and recognized that is not overly general.

I love looking at what the popular artists are doing and trying to analyze why they are successful. Over the years, I have begun to see some recurring patterns, things that effective photographers invariably do. The accent here is on effectiveness, which I define as the ability to create great work and to have it appreciated by as many people as possible.

I believe that once you have mastered the basics, which are not terribly hard after all, the next step along the path to becoming a more effective photographer entails adopting the right mindset more than anything else. This is where Better Living Through Photography comes in.

This is not your usual photography course. I am not going to teach you exposure, camera settings, lighting, composition or any other technical skills. Here, instead, are some of the topics we'll go through together: 

• Why we photograph
• Bridging the gap
• The myth of talent
• Practicing deliberately
• How to avoid getting lost
• Getting out in the world
• Achieving commercial success