Pixiq

A new addition to the usual Weekend Perusing posts for Your Photo Tips will be a quick tip to ponder over the weekend.

Quick Tip

Often times, during a “creative slump”, I’ll find myself needing one of two things. Change. Play.

Change of scenery, change of habit, change of pace… these changes can throw our natural adult mechanisms of security or insecurity out of whack. And that’s a good thing when it comes to creating art and photography.

Playing music, playing games, playing with the kiddos… these playful times can bring out the inner child in all of us, which in turn removes those crowded feelings of reserve that can come up during photographic dry spells.

This weekend I’m in New Mexico in the beautiful and art filled town of Ruidoso. I’ll be taking the family to various galleries and enjoying the wonderful landscapes and making some contacts along the way (hopefully landing a show or two in the process). Change and play.

Your quick tip, should you choose to accept it, is to explore either change or play as an initiative to opening up your creative juices and boost your photography.

For Inspiration

Summer’s over and there are few opportunities to stop and smell the roses; or are there? Patty Hankins found a way.

I love night photography. Sadly, I don’t really practice it that much. That’ll have to change, especially after viewing these stunning images.

In the Photoblogosphere

If you’ve been thinking about one of those fancy new DSLR’s that shoots video (admittedly I do want one) but you’re really not sure of the real benefit of video, then you may want to read this counter to video on DSLR’s before you spend that hard earned cash.

Frederick Van has another post on Merkley. You don’t know who Merkley is? You should. He’s Flickr famous and a testament to vision and intuition over technical equipment. You could learn alot from a guy like Merkley.

November is Prostate awareness month. Also known as Movember. People grow moustaches because some crazy Aussies started a movement (if memory serves me correctly).

In Photo Business

Professional photographers aren’t really known for helping other local professional photographers do… well, anything. Sad as it may sound, it’s often times very true. Here’s a great idea; Help Photographers, Help Yourself. Karma will kick you back some, I promise.

In Tech News

Yahoo! is in trouble. This is actually worrisome for me and many of you who count on Flickr to engage in social networking and sharing photographic works. Maybe we should start our own forum here at Your Photo Tips, you know, in case Yahoo! sinks and takes Flickr down with it. Just thinking outloud…

In Your Photo Tips News

The photo contest for November is underway with a theme of “Thanksgiving”. Sadly, the prize is only available to United States residents because of crazy international contest laws. Don’t forget to use the tag “yptthanksgiving” for your entries, and if you need more details you can find them here.

Did you get your copy of Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography for the Photography Book Club? Mine is in the mail and I can’t wait to read it. We’ll have the review near the end of the month so you have some time left. If you’re not interested in this book, let your voice be heard by casting a vote for the book to be reviewed next month. The poll is in the sidebar to the right.

Images from our readers. Enjoy!