One of the interesting side effects that Ive noticed about shooting film is that it has slowed down my photography. Once while I was traveling in Mexico with a well-know travel writer he told me, “I’ve never seen anybody shoot as many pictures as you.” And I am somewhat embarrassed, to admit that the advent of digital photography turned me into first a “shoot and scoot” photographer into a “spray and pray” shooter. But no more.

I think there are basically two types of portrait photographers: The first likes to shoot with “available light” by which they really mean “every light that’s available.” The second group, I’m mostly on this team, prefer to use as few light sources as possible…

My friend Mark Toal often writes about his experiences making photographs with his iPhone. You can follow him on Instagram @marktoal and see for yourself. My friend Ralph Nelson, produced an impressive coffee table book called Botanica, using nothing but a couple of iPhones.

National Photography Day is celebrated on August 19, The day is an unofficial holiday that allows people to honor the art of photography and the photographer who works to create images across the world.

A monolight is a self-contained studio flash. Within a single, compact housing, the light contains a power source, modeling light,  flash tube and controls.