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Larry Cohen’s Baltimore car crash image

I came across a photograph on Instagram today that got me thinking about how different people will see (and photograph) a similar scene in a very different way. The image was taken by Larry Cohen, and is a simple photograph of a remarkable event, but for all its simplicity, check out how well-composed the image is.

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May 31, 2019/No comment

Venice Beach Photowalk – Feb 9, 2019

Ah Venice, you never disappoint. We had some new faces on the walk and it's always interesting to head into a walk without knowing how many people are going to turn up. This LA walk was a slower pace than I'm used to and I think I was able to see more by taking my time.

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February 19, 2019/No comment

How to make my Instagram secret sauce

I've been answering this question quite a lot on Instagram lately and decided to write a how-to guide here to point people to. Here's the question: "When you post it is accompanied by another close up of your post over two tiles, how do you do that?" Well, Mick (and everybody else), here's the secret.

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January 26, 2019/No comment

David Alan Harvey is Blowing My Damned Mind (again)

I saw an ad on Instagram advertising a free hour-long lecture David Alan Harvey did for Chase Jarvis’ CreativeLive channel and I definitely couldn’t pass it up. At 14 minutes in he definitely raised my eyebrows. At 25 minutes in he straight blew my mind. At 29 minutes in he blew my mind yet again.

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January 13, 2019/No comment

Santa Barbara after the rain 01/12/2019

Santa Barbara just after a long night of heavy rains. Spectacular light. Partially diffused, with excellent clarity and visibility. After a week laid out with the flu I was dying to get out of the house and into world for a little while at least.

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January 12, 2019/No comment

Hanging with the Pelican – A study in “working” the shot

Stupid bird kept moving his head! There were a lot of variables to keep track of. There was heavy wind and the woman's hair was blowing all over the place. Also, the pelican was moving its head all over the place and when a pelican is looking sideways, you have a shot. When a pelican is looking away or directly at you its narrow head disappears into its neck and you lose your shot.

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February 25, 2018/No comment

The Ambulant Photographer 2017 Year in Review

2017 was a very busy year. Photography is not my main gig and I was heavily focused last year on growing certain aspects of my business to run themselves a bit more independently which should afford me some more free time to do things like run around the world making photographs.

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February 21, 2018/No comment

The Ambulant Photographer – Venice Beach, CA – June 2017

I love shooting in Santa Barbara. I truly do. And yet, there's not a whole lot going on here outside of retail shopping and watersports. I've reached the point where my close friends are starting to make fun of me over my every growing -- and very respectable -- library of California Brown Pelican images. They're great, but it does get old shooting in your backyard everyday. Once you've covered all of the landmarks and monuments you really do start to pine for something outside of the norm.

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June 11, 2017/No comment

A Stunning Contrast in Venice Beach, CA

As a steadfast and general rule, I do not shoot the homeless. While some people can pull this off very well, much of what I've seen is largely exploitative or just a cheap-and-easy shot. The only times I have gone *there* is when I see an opportunity to serve a larger narrative. This time was different.

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June 1, 2017/No comment

Prague Part I – Charles Bridge & River Vltava

This is the 9th post in a series chronicling my photography project through Spain, France, Poland, & Czech Republic. Prague. Oh man.. What can I possibly say about Prague. This was my second time in this incredible city. This first post will focus on the Charles Bridge and the River Vltava.

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February 20, 2017/No comment

Our One Day in Kraków

This is the 8th post in a series chronicling my photography project through Spain, France, Poland, & Czech Republic. I particularly fell in love with Kraków when I first visited the city in 2001, freshly engaged to Pausha and abroad for the first time in my life. Where the subject of Poland was concerned I was fascinated, and still am.

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February 9, 2017/No comment

11 Photography Lessons 2016 Taught Me

All in all 2016 was one hell of a year. As I do at the top of each year, I’m currently ruminating on what I’ve learned, where I’ve grown, and where my growth has maybe been stopped or slowed. I’m not a big fan of listicles, but I’ve got one here for you anyway. What started out as a list of 3 or 4 items that I have learned over the year quickly Tribbled into a list of 11 items. Let’s dig in.

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January 2, 2017/No comment

Auschwitz – Poland

This is the sixth post in a series chronicling my photography project through Spain, France, Poland, & Czech Republic. Oświęcim, Poland – A Trip into Auschwitz.

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December 7, 2016/2 Comments

Always Work Your Shot

“Working the Shot” is a pretty straightforward concept. It says that you you shouldn’t just run up to anything that catches your eye, photograph it and call it done. Instead, you should consider staying with whatever it was that caught your eye in the first place, and really explore that situation. Take multiple shots, move about the scene, explore a variety of angles and perspectives, allow something to unfold, and in short, fully document whatever it was that you observed and deemed worthy of committing to film, or memory card, or what have you.

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June 30, 2016/2 Comments

3 Different Stories in Under 5 Seconds

I've been thinking a lot about storytelling lately and how much influence my preconceived notions can have on me finding what I seek when I'm out working the street, or more importantly, what effect my expectations have on me failing to find what I seek.

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March 31, 2016/No comment

Fuji X-T1 First Impressions

I've had the Fuji X-T1 now for a few weeks and here's my first impression of working with this camera: Holy Shit -- Holy Shit -- Holy Shit! Okay, thanks for listening. I do realize that this isn't tremendously insightful (have I mentioned that I'm a really terrible product reviewer?) so I'll share my second impressions.

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January 29, 2015/No comment

10 Photography Rules I Learned in 2014

2014 Was a very strange year for me, both personally and for my photography. I learned some things along the way, and I’ve put aside ten of those things here to share with you. I’d love to know if any of these things resonate with you at all. Keep in mind, these are not 10 universal rules of photography. Not by any means. They are 10 rules for me. Ten things that I’ve learned through the course of pounding my head against the wall over and over again while chasing my own muse. What’s interesting to me is that none of these 10 rules is technical in any way. They’re all process stuff, the feely stuff. The artist stuff.

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January 25, 2015/2 Comments

The Little Camera that Changed My Mind – Fujifilm X-E2

While packing for a recent trip to NYC, I decided to leave my Full-Frame Canon 6D at home and bring instead only my Fujifilm X-E2 and a single "kit" lens, the excellent Fujinon 18-55mm f/2.8-4 medium zoom lens. I've been very apprehensive about investing in this system because until this trip I simply was not convinced that I could produce the same level of image quality from a smaller, "toyish" camera system.

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November 15, 2014/3 Comments