Back in October 2010, I posted a review of Tamara Lackey's DVD “Inside Contemporary Children's Photography.”

Almost two years later, I have in front of me a book and DVD called “Capturing Life Through Better Photography.” While it too was published in 2010, I think it is appropriate that I am mentioning it now.

In the last two weeks, I have been approached by well-meaning parents who are frustrated by the challenges they face when photographing their children. And it was Tamara's book, “Capturing Life Through Better Photography,” that I recommend to them.

The book is concise. At less than 100-pages, it is a quick read. In fact, there are so many incredible examples that illustrates Tamara's points, that there is less reading and more seeing. As a budding photographer, I subscribe to this method of learning. We all need to do more seeing.

Tamara's other promise on the book is – “Simple tips & tricks to turn everyday snapshots into little works of art.” The basics, are for sure covered. Exposure, composition, timing, direction of light etc. But on page 43, she urges us to look at body language.

I know of no other book that makes this very important point. Body language, be it of a child or an adult says so much about their personality or their current circumstance. So, if you like nuggets like that, this book is for you.

The book is peppered with “Fun Facts” that draw the reader back in. Be they historical quotes or short scientific explanations (the one about why a balloon makes that popping sound was something new to me), Tamara's crisp and lucid writing will leave you reaching out for your camera to try and replicate what you see in her book.

The 90-minute DVD that is a part of this set is a MUST watch. Why? Well, if you somehow miss Tamara's high-energy and passion for teaching photography in the book, you'll definitely feel it watching the DVD. The 90 minutes zip by quickly. It's exquisitely produced. Tamara worked with Rex Ballard, the Director of Photography for ABC's Emmy award-winning Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, to create this DVD.

From my perspective I feel the DVD complements the book but not the other way around. So, think of the DVD as a real bonus.

If you buy the entire set through Amazon, you'll get what is called a “Quick Reference Guide.” I did not receive this so I don't know what is in it. But given the two other products that I have had the pleasure of reading, viewing and using, I bet the reference guide is just as good too.

Now, I do have to say that the book and DVD is directed towards those who have just bought or are thinking about buying a digital camera – a DSLR like the new Nikon D600 [affiliate].

Here is the link to the Deluxe kit where you get the book, the DVD and the quick reference guide for $59.99. There is so much information packed into each of these that I think parents or amateur photographers who want to start making images on a more solid footing will be remiss if they don't buy it. [I make absolutely nothing for promoting this set.]

Want to have access to more of Tamara Lackey's photography wisdom? Join us on October 3 when she will be our guest during our Swift Kick webinar. Sign up for that webinar alone or register for all of them in the series for only $25.

Today's featured photographer and guest blogger is Appleton, Wisconsin based Brett Stoddart. He shoots abandoned buildings. He shoots people. Sometimes he combines the two. He is a husband. A father. A traveler. An art and music lover. He says he has a wicked sense of humor, albeit an odd one. Check out his blog. Follow him on Twitter and or friend him on Facebook.

I have only been ticketed once.

I have only met a crackhead once.

I have only had an assault rifle pulled on me once.

Wish i could say the same about falling through rotten floors.

What would drive a person to put themselves into these situations? The answer is simple yet complex.

It is a love for capturing unique situations, locations, architectures, and going places most others would avoid at all costs.

My photographic passion involves exploring abandoned buildings. Modern parlance calls this urban exploration or urbex for short – though that is not a term I tend to throw around, mostly because urban encompasses only a small portion of what I capture.

These structures are the modern day equivalent of Greece's ancient ruins, or Europe's medieval ruins. While the rest of the world protects their treasures of days [eons even] gone by, we tend to reclaim, remediate or flat out knock down these treasures.

While most people would just see the decay and filth, I see beauty and uniqueness that only time and nature can create. These are my own little slices of ‘life after man'. I see first hand what happens when man no longer intervenes in nature's affairs and spaces are left to be reclaimed by their rightful owner.

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As a kid we thought nothing of going into old buildings that were no longer used. It was just another playground in the concrete jungle. We didn't know that there were risks and dangers. We were fearless. In college we would hang out in abandoned mines and think nothing of it. We were having fun and shrugged off the thought of danger.

Today I am a lot more cautious. The dangers are real; clear and present if sometimes unseen. Lead paint, asbestos and mold are among some of the ‘unseen' dangers. Some of the more apparent being rotten floors, unstable stairs and missing walls. All of these are equally dangerous in reality and one must protect themselves. Many of these buildings are 100 or more years old and have been subjected to the decaying forces of nature for 20 years or more.

I cannot pinpoint one singular event in my life that sparked my interest in exploring and photographing this subject matter. Rather, it was many small things that culminated and brought me to my present position. I was never without a camera and spent many hours on the road driving thru rural areas to and from work, never taking the same way twice, just to break up the boredom. Old farms and barns offered unique landscapes that I truly enjoyed.

I had always been attracted to textures, lines and colors and these old structures had them all. From there I was starting to notice more and more houses, farms, buildings, factories, etc., that were wide open and empty. Curiosity piqued, I ventured up and into them camera in hand. The interiors held more colors, more lines and more textures along with small little crusty details; peeling paint and wallpaper, forgotten furniture, electrical sockets and switches, clothing, etc.

I started out documenting these locations through a photojournalistic approach, taking it all in and showing everything. Eventually I transitioned into creating fine art from the ruins. Over the years my style has evolved and has been heavily influenced by a bevy of talented photographers before me, most notably my close and dear friend, Dave Jackson.

How exactly I find these locations is a question I am asked over and over again.

The answer: getting out and driving. Taking the ‘road less traveled'. Often new highways have cut off access to older areas, thus hastening the decline. It is important to take your time and look. If you are speeding down a country road at 80 miles per hour, you will miss most of what you pass. Winter is a good time for scouting, as everything is less concealed and it is more obvious when a place is no longer cared for.

Another big aspect is networking with other photographers and explorers – we trade locations like young kids trade baseball cards. And of course the Internet is a great resource tool if you know how and where to look!

Now I travel far and wide to see and shoot unique locations across the country. My first priority when planning any trip is finding abandonment to shoot. One could call it an obsession. I just call it a love of photography, and a slight case of eccentricity.

Shooting these types of locations has afforded me a greater appreciation of the technical and compositional aspects of photography. I have learned over the years to see the light as it plays across a scene. I never artificially light my scenes, rather I rely on the natural light. Everything is hand held as I prefer the grittiness that a higher iso gives me.

I was shooting abandonment for many years before I ever pointed my camera at a human subject. The last few years I have ventured into shooting portraits. I love combining the beauty of a fashion shoot with a dirty and decayed location. To me it is the perfect juxtaposition.

I will never stop shooting abandoned buildings, no matter where my photographic journey takes me. It has become that much a part of who I am as a photographer.

Do you photograph abandoned buildings? Does the urban landscape inspire you to create images? Share your thoughts below!

Angela Pointon loves creative people. She studied photography, but had a love affair with business and marketing in graduate school. She decided to combine all of it together when she started Steel Toe Images. She inspires photographers and other creative people to kick major butt through her consulting sessions, blog, emails, workshops and her first book (coming soon), called “A Swift Kick In The Pants: Business Smarts For Us Creative Types.” Angela resides just outside Philadelphia. She lives with her amazing architect husband and their two small boys. All of them are vegetarian (yay!), and they rock out to fantastically awesome music from time-to-time (especially on Friday nights).

If your photography business is like most, there is seasonality to it. Meaning, when it rains it pours and when it’s dry it’s a desert.

I know many of you are in your busy season now. Clients are calling, you’re spazzing, you need sleep, you’ve got too much to do.

The great news is: you can bring sanity to every season – busy or slow. How?

You need to create three lists.

I don’t care if your lists are on a blackboard, a scratch pad or in a fancy color-coded excel file… but they have to be written down. This is important. Lists DON’T WORK if they’re in your head. As brilliantly creative as you are, you cannot keep an organized, separated set of three lists in that pretty little head of yours.

So once you figure out where you’re gonna store these lists, you need to create them. The good news is it’s super quick to do.

Listen up.

List #1: What I have to accomplish this week.

Every Monday morning you’re going to spend 15 minutes creating a list of what you HAVE to do that week. You’re going to write approximate time lengths next to each task so that you know how many hours of work you have ahead of you for that week. Add the hours up and make sure it isn’t going to kill you. If it is, see what makes sense to push to next week (or get some help… or a cloning machine).

List #2: What I have to accomplish today.

Each and every morning of the week you’re going to spend 5 minutes creating your list of what you HAVE to accomplish that day. In creating this daily list, you’re taking tasks off of your weekly list and you’re putting them on your to-do list for the day. Your weekly list is becoming shorter day-by-day. How delightful!

List #3: What I have to accomplish when I’m slow.

As you’re driving, in the shower, walking the aisles of the grocery store or talking to friends, you’re always coming up with “wouldn’t it be cool if” ideas of pure fabulousness. Don’t let these sparks of brilliance become dim and never see the light of day. Instead, put them on your “slow time” list so that you can refer to them as business is becoming slower. You can proactively plan to tackle these awesome ideas (using List #1 and List #2 in the same ways) when you have some spare time. Never again will you be waiting for the phone to ring, getting worried and depressed. Instead, you’ll be rocking out by creating something awesome that you thought of to improve your business, your brand, your photos, your service or whatever!

Now look at you! What an awesomely organized and well-managed person you’ve become. All with three simple little lists.

Amanda Reseburg is a wedding and portrait photographer from Beloit, WI. When she's not photographing for clients she's hanging out with her kids, shooting for fun and blogging incessantly. In the spirit of personal passions, Amanda started Kindred Spirits Hospice Photography in 2009. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter.

Starting a career in photography is a lot like dating.

In the beginning, the passion is ignited and you want to be with photography ALL. THE. TIME. Your camera is your constant companion and you will photograph anything that moves. You love photography. Photography loves you. It gives you butterflies. You will be together forever.

As you become more serious with photography, you begin to settle into a typical routine. Sure, you still love photography, but the passion has waned a bit. You have regular clients. Regular shoots. Regular poses. It’s all very comfortable. All very regular.

There may come a time when you become SO comfortable with your long-term love Photography that you start to hate the very sight of it. Everything your camera does starts to bug you and you just want some time to THINK … ok, maybe not … but, much like dating, if you don’t feed your relationship with photography … it will die. Those butterflies you felt in the beginning will go away, and what you’ll be left with is a JOB. Yes, I maintain that even at its most hectic I have the best job in the world. But, that doesn’t mean my passion for the craft couldn’t use a little pick-me-up.

Enter personal projects. Diving into personal work is a way to not only practice newly learned skills, but it’s the best way to really enjoy your craft again. With personal work, the rules fade away for the most part. You are shooting for yourself and yourself only. There are no clients to please and no deadlines to meet.

Last summer I started a personal project based on my love of turn-of-the-century children’s portraiture. I wanted to tap into what I call the natural “creepiness” of kids. It was a departure from what my portrait clients typically ask for, but it was FOR me, no one else. The project morphed into what people started calling “Creepy Kids.” It was met with mixed reviews. Some people LOVED the darker take on children’s portraits. Some people thought I had made the precious children look dead or evil. But, I was satisfied in the end that I had created something that I liked and in the process learned something new about my aesthetic.

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Tapping into a darker, moodier feel to my portraits changed my outlook on my regular client-based work. In that sense, stepping outside of my “9-to-5” to shoot just for me really changed my work as a whole. I could have continued shooting what easily sells, but I wonder how long I could continue to do that before I reached maximum burnout.

I challenge all working photographers to take time out to shoot for you. Reclaim your passion, embrace what others may find strange, and find those butterflies again.

Are you working on a personal project that you would like to share with other photographers? Tiffinbox welcomes your submission. Simply contact me if you are interested in guest blogging.

Andrew “Fundy” Funderburg, is no stranger to Tiffinbox. Read his previous contribution about his album designing program for wedding and portrait photographers. In full disclosure I have to tell you that he and I are collaborating on SociRoll, the social media marketing tool he discusses briefly in this guest blog post.

I’d like to start off by saying that I am at the top of the list of haters of social media tools being used to spam people. Do not use social media to spam your followers.

So, the question is, why would I invent a program for automating Social Media marketing. The answer is simply that I have more things to share with my friends and followers than I have time in the day to share.

Social Media is all about making connections with people. For me it is about making deep connections. I’m not the type of person always tweeting and posting a ton of personal information. Sure, I’ll hop on Facebook and Twitter during the weekend and talk about the movie I’m going to see or whether my kids won their basketball games. But, during the week, I post a few personal things–mostly information about photography and the business of photography.

We strive to collect and provide some of the best content in the wedding and portrait industry. Content that we create and share today is still valuable in one or two months. If we manually update everything on Facebook and Twitter, all of this old content is lost. We constantly have new followers and friends and these new people will be just as interested in our old content as our new content.

Since August of 2010, we’ve written 150+ blog posts. More than 100 of these blog posts are related to the business of wedding and portrait photography. There are articles on everything from how to price wedding albums to how to sell portrait packages and everything in between. I want to make sure that our followers see this info.

It would be physically impossible for me to make sure that each one of these blog posts is featured in a tweet once a day. I would lose track of what I shared yesterday, probably miss some things, duplicate some things, etc. The point here is that if I have SociRoll auto post one of my blog posts every day, or even twice a day, we won’t repeat sharing a blog post for 3 months. And then we take into account the fact that if something doesn’t show up in your Twitter in the last five minutes, we won’t see it. The chances of someone seeing repeated Tweets is very low.

Now, let’s take a professional photographer. Let’s say the average wedding photographer shoots 30 weddings and 40 portraits a year. That’s 70 blog posts a year. Then let’s say they have been in business for 3 years. That’s more than 200 blog posts. Sharing one of these (or even two of these) events on their Facebook fanpage every day will seriously add to their brand and their site traffic.

So, do we set it and forget it? No. We let SociRoll do the heavy lifting for us, and we work hard to respond to people, retweet our friends, add personal touches, etc. But we know that our content that we’ve worked extremely hard to create is being shared among our friends and followers. Here's how to get started with SociRoll.