I thought I was taking one more picture with my dad before heading home. Only later did I realize it would be our last photograph together, and how much that ordinary moment would mean to me.

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Sometimes my taste in photography changes before my own photographs catch up. I’ve been thinking about quieter images, the photographs I once passed by, and what those changing preferences might mean for the work I make next.

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Twenty minutes doesn’t sound like enough time to do much with a camera. At least, that’s usually how I’ve thought about it. When I imagine going out to photograph, I tend to think in larger blocks of time. A morning somewhere. An afternoon drive. A few hours when I can wander around, wait for the […]

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Every so often, someone mentions one of my photographs and catches me completely off guard. Not because I don’t remember the photograph, but because I didn’t know they had seen it. That happened recently. Someone told me they had enjoyed a photograph I used with an article. I thanked them, and then it hit me […]

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Suppose someone found one photograph of mine and knew nothing else about me. What would that single image tell them? Depending on which photograph they happened to see, they might think I was a landscape photographer. Pick another, and they might think wildlife is my main interest. Another could point them toward waterfalls, old buildings, […]

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This was my perspective earlier this week. I found myself on the crow’s nest floor with my feet up, trying to figure out what to do next. To explain how I ended up on that floor, I have to go back several months. That’s when I came down with that terrible cough most of you […]

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I recently attended a wedding as a guest, and afterward I had a chance to look through some of the photographs taken by the wedding photographer. One detail kept pulling my attention away from everything else. The bride’s dress didn’t look white. It had a tan cast, almost as if a light sepia tone had […]

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After all these years of photography, I know what will make me stop. A beautiful sunset can do it. So can wildlife, a waterfall, an old building, an interesting street, or a moment that suddenly comes together in front of me. Sometimes it’s the light more than the subject. I can be driving somewhere and […]

The post The Things I Keep Walking Past appeared first on Will Moneymaker Photography.

I keep thinking about getting away with my camera, but work and family responsibilities make it hard to give myself permission. Perhaps a few quiet days exploring waterfalls, small towns, and unfamiliar roads would offer more than photographs—a clearer mind, a rested heart, and a little breathing room.

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There is a strange point in learning photography when instruction begins to work against you. At first, advice is useful. You learn how aperture changes depth of field, how shutter speed affects motion, and how light shapes a subject. You begin to understand the camera instead of merely hoping it gives you something usable. Then […]

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Every now and then, I look back through old photographs and wonder why I kept certain ones. Not the obvious ones. Not the family photographs, birthdays, holidays, faces, or moments that clearly belong in the archive. Those explain themselves. I understand why they are there. I am thinking more about the quiet images. A road. […]

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Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but attention is not automatic. That is something I think about more and more when it comes to photography. We can make the photograph. We can print it, post it, frame it, share it, and send it out into the world. But none of that means […]

The post Earning the Viewer’s Eye appeared first on Will Moneymaker Photography.

I do not think a photograph has to be famous to change you. It does not even have to be understood by anyone else. Sometimes an image works on you privately. You see it once, and for some reason, it stays around in your mind. You may not know why at first. You may not […]

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The camera only records what is in front of it, but the photograph begins before that. It begins when something makes me stop. Sometimes it is a certain kind of light. Sometimes it is a face in a crowd. Sometimes it is a shadow falling across a wall, making an ordinary place look different for […]

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I have always loved old photographs. There is something about them that pulls me in. A faded print. A family face. A place that no longer looks the same. A street corner that has changed. A house that is gone. A person who was young then and old now, or maybe no longer here at […]

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