People ask me why I use Flickr all the time. Let’s answer the question proper. Pro Photographers: Has Flickr helped your career? If so, how?
Did you learn new techniques in the Strobist forum? Picked up some business tips in the Pro forums? Land jobs by publishing CC images?
What’s your flickr story?

“Eric, I love photography and I think I’m pretty good. How hard was it for you to get into professional photography? Your Going Pro series makes it sound easy!”

I’m not gonna lie. It’s tough. Before you can even think about a steady income, you have to build a solid book. Your portfolio is your primary [...]

Ten simple things to keep in mind the next time you pull out your camera.

Shoot what you love
Use light to communicate.
Capture or provoke emotions.
Tell a story.
Master technique.
Show old things in new ways.
Be true to your own style and your own voice.
Always seek to improve your craft.
Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Shoot to kill!

My mother used to tell me to get my head out of the clouds all the time. I was always cooking up crazy business ideas, or working on music, or drawing, and I always had an unfaltering faith that no matter what I chose to do with my life, I [...]

You should learn to use the word “no” as a tool to shape your portfolio and your future career. Take work that could be used in your portfolio to land your dream job, and turn down the work that doesn’t excite you. It helps keep your portfolio looking fresh, sharp, individual, and creative [...]

Local photography interest groups can be huge assets to beginning photographers. There’s a common stereotype that photographers are mostly solitary and don’t like to share their secrets. Average photographers are afraid that if they share their secrets, they’ll lose business to competition. Great photographers are secure enough to share what they know. [...]

I got an email yesterday that reminded me a lot of my confusion when I first started out. Before you’ve established a name for yourself, gaining access to events can be difficult. Organizers know that access is valuable to new photographers, and they will do everything in their power to exploit that. [...]

This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned since I dropped everything and started shooting full time about a year ago:
Learning who you are as a photographer, what you like to shoot, and how you like to shoot it, is the first and most important step you can take into the world of [...]

Lately I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to take professional looking photographs. While I’m always happy to answer individual questions, this particular question comes up every day, and the subject is fairly complex, so it’s easier to answer here on my blog. Here is an email I got yesterday:
Hopeful Amateur: [...]

So you’re interested in portrait photography, and you want to know what separates snapshots from art? Here are the things I consider vitally important:
Light

Light is the single most important aspect of photography!
STOP right now, and read that back again and again until it sinks in. After all, the essence of the photographic art [...]