What is the difference between a professional and an amateur? I can honestly tell you it has nothing to do with the quality of work. My friend and photographer Bill Gekas proves this theory. He is not a professional photographer, and his quality of work is simply amazing.

I wanted to share his work with you to show that you don't need fancy equipment, a fancy studio, or even to label yourself as a professional to produce amazing work....the only thing you truly need is knowledge. Your brain is much more powerful than any camera, strobe or softbox! Be resourceful, think it through and get out and shoot...right after you read this article though..

PEARS

I don't think I truly knew the power of photography until the filming of the first season of Unknown Photographer Show. With the help of the homeless family and Mike Ridinger my eyes where opened to the true power of photography. We as photographers have a responsibility to not only take photographs, but to open people's eyes to the importance of photography. We may talk all day long about settings, cameras, posing, composition...but in the end it comes down to the image and what that image means.

My friend and commercial photographer Jesse Alan Paul is doing just that, proving how important photography really is. His project called HOPE FOR HAILEY shows you how. Check it out, be part of it and spread the word...

When Creativity Is All You Have

NUDITY WARNING! DO NOT PROCEED IF NUDITY OFFENDS YOU!

I am always intrigued by photographers who develop their own style of photography. My friend Abe Robinson from Blind 7 studios has created what he calls Dark Glamour. I have to admit, the shots are out of the norm, but they intrigue me. I'm not sure if I would shoot something like this, but the attention to detail is pretty amazing. They definitely cause an emotion when viewing and that is what photography is about.

The emotion is the most important part of a "successful" shot. I always say, if I show someone an image and the first thing they say is how sharp it is, I delete it immediately. Getting your message to your viewer is what every photographer's goal should be with their images.

DARK GLAMOUR

As many of you know by now, I'm addicted to Google Hangouts. If you haven't tried it, you're missing out! One of the coolest things about the hangouts is that I get to meet and chat with some pretty cool people. One of these people just happens to be Joshua D. Curtis. He's a photographer based out of Austin, Texas and he told me about his [1324] project and I thought I thought it would be a great idea to share it with you. In photography one of the hardest things is to stay motivated. I've said it before, having a personal project is vital to not only your creativity, but your sanity in this photography industry.

Joshua's [1324] project is awesome. The reason I loved it so much is because it forces you to not only get off your booty, but it also helps you interact with strangers. Anytime you polish your social skills along with your photography is a win win situation. Many times we forget that when it comes to getting jobs there are two reasons they hire you, the first is your work and the second is you! With this [1324] project Joshua is polishing both!

I hope you enjoy the video, keep on reading to see the pictures and for Joshua's contact and social media links so you can keep following him through his adventures.

Before I begin this review about the DVD I want to clear some stuff up. I am all about the FREE education. I am all about sharing every bit of knowledge that I have with the rest of the world, but I also believe that there are exceptions. This DVD is $300.00 which is a pretty big chunk of change compared to free. So for me to put something up on my website with this big a price tag is for a reason.

I still remember the first time I ever heard of Peter Hurley! I was at WPPI in Las Vegas and I ran into Lee Morris and Patrick Hall from the fstoppers.com. They told me about a DVD they where making about headshots. At first I really wasn't that interested. After all, I'm not in the headshot business. I honestly always thought they where boring! I listened to Lee and Patrick explain the talents of Peter Hurley and I was interested. They explained how he had the ability to literally "Photoshop" the client right in front of the mirror. How Peter's ability to manipulate, or better yet, to tell the client how to manipulate their face to acquire the perfect result while in front of the camera.

I was intrigued. I've always used posing techniques to get the best out of a subjects body but in all honesty, I never though the face could be posed. Don't get me wrong, I know there are very common tricks to make someone's better features shine and hide the others, but not extremely transform them! Even though I'm not a headshot photographer, I still wanted to see it after that explanation.

I put the DVD in the back of my mind and every time I ran into Lee or Patrick I would ask about it. They kept delaying and delaying saying that it wasn't perfect yet.

'My eyes are an ocean in which my dreams are reflected'

I ran into Jacob James while browsing through Google+. I've always been inspired by people who knew exactly what they wanted to do from a young age. My passion for photography didn't develop until I was 24. Even then I didn't really see the importance of it until much later. Jacob left me in awe for a couple of reasons. The first and foremost is he's a great photographer, especially being so young. Secondly, he already understands the importance of photography and is doing things with it to change peoples lives. Last but certainly not least, he knows how to stay inspired. So I thought I would share an article he wrote for you guys and gals called:

Young Advice