DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

Search

Submit A Story

Don Giannatti

How to enjoy your family vacation AND get great photos

by 1 Comment

The summer season is well and truly upon us, and many photographers will be heading off on vacation with their pride and joy. Many will be bringing their families as well as their cameras. And that’s where friction can creep in. You might be going to Paris, France, for example. In your mind, you’re already planning the sunrise photoshoot at Le Tour Eiffel or the beautiful cobbled streets of Montmartre.

But Junior wants to go to Disneyland, and the wife has her eye on Louis Vuitton on the Champs-Élysée. But there is a way to keep everyone happy and get great photographs. In this video, Don Giannatti gives some great advice on reducing the stress of vacation photography.

18 Ways to Stand Out in the Crowded Field of Professional Photography

by Add Comment

There are more photographers than ever before. And while I don’t believe that’s necessarily bad, it does create a lot of marketing “noise.” Our mission must be to raise ourselves above that noise so that we become more of a solo instrument, with the din of all the ‘others’ serving as our backup band.

We are constantly getting slammed with information and instructions to “put more out there”, share more images on Instagram, start a TikTok account, post more… more more more more.

Why I believe it is ok to shoot for free

by Add Comment

A photographer who has been a “pro” for going on five years now (part-time, of course, because he has a government job) loudly and rudely called me out for telling a new, non-published photographer to get the gig (unpaid) and knock it out of the park. This sort of gig rarely comes with compensation, and I will explain a bit below.

“… encouraging working for free is like condoning slavery…”

Slavery?

Step up or Step aside

by 4 Comments

DIYP friend, photographer Don Giannatti, has just published a new book – What I’ve Learned So Far: Four Decades in Photography. He kindly shared a chapter with DIYP readers, and you can read it below. But wait! You can also download the book for free on Amazon for the next two days. In the meantime, enjoy the excerpt Don has shared with you below.

Five easy things you can do now to make better photos

by Add Comment

We are all familiar with the common ones of making sure focus is correct, rule of thirds, tangents, and great gear. However, there are a few ways of looking at the image while we are shooting that can help us see what we are creating with more clarity and deliberateness.

And while exposure is often discussed, what is not discussed is “placing” the exposure and the ability of the photographer to have control over where the values should be.

Seven common assumptions we make about professional photographers

by 6 Comments

If you’re trying to make a career as a photographer, you know that the road to success is not straight. There can be many photographers more successful than you, and comparing yourself to them can sometimes make you feel frustrated. Don Giannatti shares seven common assumptions we make about professional photographers, but also about our own work. These assumptions can make us see ourselves as we’re not good enough. Because of this, Giannatti explains why we should stop assuming and change our mindset, so we can achieve success of our own.

Impatient Patience…Keeping The Momentum While Learning the Ropes

by Add Comment

You know how you think about things around the edges, trying to formulate the thoughts into some kind of pattern that makes sense and can be challenged and won from various angles? You do?

Cool, then I’m not nuts. I do that all the time.

Recently I have been thinking about what I see as a disconnect between the level of competence beginning photographers have and their expectations.

We all know that the divide exists, but so often it is approached from a negative or insulting way… “Newbies! Killing the industry!” And that doesn’t work for me.

Not at all.

I am more concerned about people losing their dreams than the ‘health of the industry’. I really am.

10,000 hours will not make you a good photographer

by 13 Comments

When Malcolm Gladwell wrote his book, “Outliers“,  he had a chapter devoted to the “10,000 hours” rule that intimated that it took 10,000 hours of practice to become good at something.

I think this single criterion has been mild to totally debunked already, and he has said that most who quote that are doing so out of the real context of it, but he was clearly making a statement regarding the absolute importance of practicing one’s skill.

What was fundamentally lacking in the oft-quoted “10,000 hours to achieve mastery” was the unforgiving truth that if you practice something incorrectly for 10,000 hours you will be a master at doing it incorrectly.

A three step method for improving like a boss

by 2 Comments

Clark Terry was one of the world’s best jazz trumpet players and educators (I guess he could DO as well as TEACH… who knew). He is also well known for stating the artists creative cycle in three short words: Imitate, Assimilate, Innovate. He was speaking toward musicians, but I am a strong believer that it is also applicable for photographers, designers, illustrators, dragster drivers, authors, animal trainers.

In short – it is simply how creative people learn to do what they do.

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts