How I Learned Photography

And really, how I still learn photography.

My wife Kerry gets Vogue magazine to keep up with the latest tips and techniques for women’s fashion, and sometimes she even manages to get to it before I do. Last Christmas some friends of ours bought me subscriptions to several women’s magazines, not because I look good in pumps, but because that’s one of the ways I learn about photography.

There are some of the most gifted and talented photographers in the world who shoot images for the top fashion magazines. They will spend all day and thousands of dollars (sometimes tens of thousands) to get images that sell an idea to women.

It’s the idea of glamour, sexiness or romance that sells the clothes and when you see an image of a beautiful woman wearing a Prada bag on her shoulder, the message is that if you buy Prada, you’ll be glamorous just like her. They are selling a feeling.

As a wedding and portrait photographer, I do much the same thing, only the clients I photograph are real and so are the moments they are photographed in. You can take the same techniques and make an image that’s real and also beautiful and make it even more meaningful for your clients.

It’s the best five dollars I can think of to purchase a fashion magazine, find images that you think are compelling and go and make them your own.