KENDALL CAMERA CLUB BLOG FEED

The Fujifilm XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR II is a significant lens for anyone shooting in the X system. It's a red badge lens, which means Fujifilm's highest standard, and the original version set a high bar that this new iteration has to clear.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Flash photography has a surprisingly short list of things that will quietly ruin your shots, and most beginners hit several of them before they even realize there's a problem. Knowing what those mistakes are before they cost you time, money, or a shoot you can't redo is worth more than most gear upgrades.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

AI is becoming part of the creative conversation, and photographers are right in the middle of it. In his latest class, Rick Sammon explores how to approach AI with the right mindset—one that’s focused on creativity, curiosity, and experimentation rather than hesitation. Rick walks through how tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney can be used to expand your ideas, refine concepts, and explore new directions you might not have considered before. But more importantly, he shows why photographers already have a natural advantage. Your understanding of light, composition, and visual storytelling gives you a strong foundation that translates directly into working with AI. This class isn’t about replacing what you already do. It’s about building on it. If you’ve been unsure where...

Shooting intimate water scenes in landscape photography is one of the most overlooked ways to build a compelling portfolio. You don't need dramatic mountain vistas or sweeping coastlines to create striking images.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

It is happening quietly. Working photographers, the kind who built audiences in the 30,000 to 200,000 follower range over five or ten years, are deleting their accounts, archiving their grids, or simply going silent. There are no farewell posts. No dramatic announcements. The accounts just stop updating, and a few months later they are gone.  If you have noticed it in your own feed, you are not imagining it. The exodus is real, it is accelerating, and the reasons are not the ones the platform's defenders want to talk about. [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

I hate the idea of credits. It's like feeding quarters into an arcade game (yeah, I'm old), never sure how many it'll take before you get a decent run. After years of working with generative AI, the credit system feels like an ongoing beta trial designed to monetize trial and error.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Craig Boehman)

The pressure to nail every frame is one of the most common things that stalls creative growth. A decades-old classroom experiment reveals exactly why that pressure works against you, and what actually produces better images over time.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Megapixel count is one of the most debated specs in photography, and the question of how few you can get away with for large prints is one that rarely gets a straight answer. Keith Cooper put that question to a real test using a camera from 2002 and actual prints made today, and the results are worth seeing.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Shooting film won't make you a better photographer. The real argument isn't about film versus digital; it's about where creative intention actually comes from.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

The 2026 Lightroom Conference kicks off online next week (May 4–6), and it’s going to be a good one. If you’ve ever wanted a few days where you can just focus on Lightroom, pick up some new tricks, and actually see how other photographers are editing their images, this is it. We’ve got a great group of instructors this year, and every session is built around stuff you can actually use. Not theory. Not filler. Just real workflows, real edits, and things you can try on your own photos right away. We kick things off with pre-con sessions on Monday, May 4, so you can jump in early and get rolling before the main sessions. One of my favorite parts of...

The Fujifilm X-T5 has been on the market for nearly four years, and the question of whether it still holds up is worth asking seriously. At 40 megapixels in an APS-C body priced well below full frame alternatives, it sits in an unusual spot.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Conferences are a common subject matter for many professional photographers and videographers, and I recently worked on one for a client and wanted to share how I prepared to cover it. Whether you're planning to cover a conference professionally or for fun, I hope my experience helps you prepare and execute coverage of one.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by David Murphy)

The Sony a7 V sits at $2,900 and bills itself as an enthusiast camera, but its feature set tells a different story. Whether you shoot stills, video, or both, what's inside this body has real implications for how far it can take your work.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Photography has a money problem. Not a "there is not enough of it" problem, although that is also true for many photographers. A deeper problem: the photography community has developed a set of cultural patterns around money that no other professional industry tolerates, and those patterns are actively suppressing income for everyone in the field.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Choosing photo editing software is harder than it used to be. With Lightroom Classic no longer the only serious option, five credible alternatives now compete for your workflow, each with real tradeoffs in power, speed, and learning curve.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Choosing a 35mm lens for a Sony camera used to mean paying a premium for the Sony FE 35mm f/1.4 GM or settling for something that fell short in one area or another. The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art changes that math in a meaningful way, and the second version of this lens is smaller, lighter, and improved across nearly every metric compared to its predecessor.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Getting invited onto a feature film set as a guest camera operator is not something that happens every day, and when it does, the gap between that world and smaller productions becomes impossible to ignore. The crew size, the budget pressure, the overtime math: it all adds up to something that operates on a completely different level than commercial shoots or YouTube content.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

I realize that articles about older cameras don't trend nearly as hard as shiny new toys. But my recent purchase of the Nikon Zf has paid off in more ways than I could have ever imagined.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Christopher Malcolm)

Choosing the right Sony camera is genuinely hard. The lineup spans everything from pocket-sized compacts to flagship sports bodies, and picking the wrong one means spending money on specs you'll never use or missing features you actually need.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Photography has a generous supply of conventional wisdom. Some of it is earned. Some of it is repeated so often that nobody questions whether it was ever true in the first place. And some of it is actively wrong, kept alive by a community that confuses encouragement with honesty.  [Read More] Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)