Thought I’ll go off from my usual postings today and try something new. :) Anyway, I learn and read quite a bit from these sites, and thought I’ll share them around. So here is my top 12 (not in any order).
12 – Neil van Niekerk
I found this site yesterday. OMG. If only I found it out sooner. I think most wedding photographers would face the same problem as I do – trying to light a couple, or a group with 1) one speedlight or two, 2) minimal setup and 3) flexibility. You should have seen the lightbulbs that went off in my head after coming across his page. Not only does he tell you what he does, there’s behind the scene pictures as well to show what it was like. Cool!
11 – DP Review (Digital Photography Review)
I’m sure there are plenty of other websites out there, but for me, DPR is the definitive guide to all camera hardware and software (well, I go there for the hardware mostly). The reviews are extensive, with detailed explanations of what each camera feature does, detailed camera comparison, and lastly, a good conclusion page with pros and cons. There’s roughly 10 pages for each camera review – so much that I go straight to the end page and start from the back. It’ll be tough finding a site close to this.
10 – Jasmine Star
Funny and educational, the wedding photographer that booked 3 weddings in her first year and then 40 odd the second. As far as I know, that hasn’t happened to me yet, but maybe I haven’t learnt enough (watch and learn, baby). Along with her husband, they’re based in Orange County but travelled quite a bit. She’s been on creativeLIVE twice and is about to do a third video – I blogged about her first video here and here. Recently she’s also started posting up quick tips on video, called ‘Shooting Star‘, and that, I think, is probably one of the few things I look forward to.
9 – Jose Villa
Fine art wedding photographer Jose Villa has been featured in many top wedding magazines and recently named one of the top 10 wedding photographers by PDN. What more can I say. There aren’t many words, but if an image is a thousand words, then I guess there’s 200 billion words there for you to process. His work, IMO, is nothing short of amazing, and he’s one of the few whose shots I’d recognize nearly instantly.
8 – Elizabeth Messina
Another fine art wedding photographer who’s won lots of awards, her work is also recognizable, nothing short of amazing, and evocative. If I had the cash, I wasn’t married, and I had my way, it would be Jose Villa and Elizabeteh Messina as my photographers. The only problem would then be whose picture would I feature on my living room wall.
7 – Junebug Weddings
Junebug’s a blog about weddings, and when I’m in need of inspiration, I look here. Sometimes, when you see too much of a photographer’s work you kinda want to see something else (each photographer obviously shoots his or her way, and that’s their style). Junebug has a varied amount of photographers from all over world, so I get to see a little bit of each, and if I’m curious/inspired, I visit their blog too!
6 – Louis Pang
I can’t help but feel some proud when a Malaysian breaks into the international scene. Coming from a almost unheard of part in east Malaysia, he’s had to work for it and he’s reaped what he has sown. List of achievements here, but from his writing, he’s still humble about his achievements and madly in love with his wife. Amazing.
5 – creativeLIVE
Founded by Chase Jarvis (who of course, created the Best Camera iPhone app too), cL is a great resource for any photographer keen on learning from the masters of industry. Best of all, it’s FREE if you tune in live.
4 – Lynda
Lynda’s purely a training-by-video website, and besides photography, they also offer IT courses. I watched Chris Orwig’s videos (here and here) recently and I’ve got to say that not only was the video quality and production top notch, Chris was educational and inspiring.
3 – Kelby Training
Also another training-by-video website, Kelby focuses on photography and design. Yes, I’ve watched a few too, and I’ve learnt quite a lot from just watching Joe McNally, Cliff Mautner, David Ziser and Moose Peterson. If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m an avid video consumer.
2 – Digital Photography School
DPS is a photography community website. A huge community actually. So if you’ve ever had something to ask or just want to share your experiences, this is the place. They’ve also published some ebooks recently, from starting out to going pro.
1 – Pixelated Image
David duChemin’s motto is ‘Gear is Good. Vision is Better’. I can suscribe to that, although I’m not immune to the temptation of gear accumulation. He’s also the man behind the Craft & Vision website, and the recently online C&V Community site. Unlike me, he can put thought into words and craft those words into a well-read blog, a couple of books and quite a few ebooks. I’ve bought quite a few and found them all interesting, some of which I’ve absorbed into my own psyche.
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