Introducing My Latest On-Line Video Class: Sammonisms – Speed-Learning Advice for Making Awesome Photographs

It’s here! My all-time favorite photo tips in one on-line video class: Sammonisms – Speed Learning Advice for Making Awesome Photographs. It’s my latest, and 20th, KelbyOne class. Click here to learn.

This class features my 52 “Sammonisms” illustrated with some of my favorite photographs from my travels around the world and throughout the United States. You can watch the class on your home computer or mobile device. I’ve also included a PDF that you can download for quick reference when photographing in the field.

Sammonisms are short sayings that, like quotes, convey a photographic idea quickly and easily. Basically, my Sammonisms are quotes and photo adages that I have adopted and modified to share with my photo workshop and seminar participants – with the goal of helping them make better images. Now I am happy to share them with you!
    

It will take you less than an hour to watch the class, but the lessons will last a lifetime.

My Sammonisms work for digital SLR, mirrorless and even Smartphone photographers.


What’s more, this class is like a mini-travelogue, taking the reader to Antarctica, Mongolia, Italy, France, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, China, Papua New Guinea, Iceland and Alaska – as well as locations throughout the United States, including New Mexico, Arizona, Death Valley, Mt. Rainier and the Slot Canyons.

I actually did not come up with the term, Sammonisms. Two of my workshop participants, Mike Ince and Laurie Apfel, wrote down my tips from a workshop and presented them to me at the end of the workshop. Thanks Mike and Laurie!

As I always say, I hope you learn a lot and I hope you have a lot of fun with this class!

All my KelbyOne classes are listed here.

Stay safe,
Rick

Good Photo Therapy: Create Your Own 2021 Vision Calendar

You’ve heard of Vision Boards – a board on which you place photos and notes of your goals and dreams. Vision Boards are effective because they are a constant reminded of what’s possible.

Here’s a creative twist on a Vision Board – a Vision Calendar for photographers. Pick 12 locations you’d like to revisit in 2021 (and beyond) and choose your favorite photograph from that location – one for each month. Visualize you are photographing in that location (or in a similar location). How’s that for photo therapy!

Thanks to my friends at Printique (an Adorama company), creating a calendar has never been easier or more affordable. Easy thanks to the intuitive software design on the Printique web site. Affordable thanks to the discounts they are offering my friends and Photo Therapy Facebook Group members: 20% on a order (one-time order only).

Use this code to get your 20% discount: Calendar2021.

 Click here to start your Vision Board calendar . . . and of course any type of calendar.

New to creating calendars? Here are a few tips to get you started:
• Make sure the resolution of your photos meet the resolution requirements. The larger the file size, the better the image quality.
• Keep all your pictures in either the landscape or portrait mode.
• When resizing, make sure important parts of your image are not cropped out.
• Know that fancy fonts may look cool, but some are harder to read than others. Pick your font carefully.
• To keep a theme going, you can choose one color for a background and use it throughout your calendar.
• If you plan to sell a calendar, keep your audience in mind. Think about what kind of photo they would like to see for a month.
• Have fun creating your calendar. The process can be as much fun as seeing the printed result

Rick Sammon
Founder, Photo Therapy Facebook Group
Author of Photo Therapy Motivation and Wisdom – discovering the power of pictures. Info on this page.

Seven Photographic Wonders of the World – and You!

In the early 1990s, I developed an international project, The Seven Underwater Wonders of the World. Now, I working on a follow-up project: The Seven Photographic Wonders of the World.

Stay tuned to learn how YOU can be involved.

Rick

What Does Your Photography Mean to You?

"What does your photography mean to you?" Did you ever think about it? Seriously?

I have and I do, and it’s the first chapter in my book, Photo Therapy Motivation and Wisdom – discovering the power of pictures.

So I'm asking you, "What does YOUR photography mean to you?" Post a comment below here on my blog so all can see. More important, in verbalizing your thoughts, you might gain some insight in the importance of your photography.

Here are some of the comments from the chapter.

- An escape.
- A way of seeing more deeply.
- My social life.
- A way I write my history.
- Love and happiness.
- A happy accident.
- I have no choice. Freedom.
- Owning art.
- Back to my roots.
- Because of it I'm living today.
- Staying fresh.
- Art heals.
- I have to see with new eyes every day or else I'm nothing.
- I see better when I make art.
- Personal evolution.
- Living Legacy.
- Saved my life
- Let me be a kid again.

Again, I look forward to your comments. I always hear something new, and inspiring.

Explore the light,
Rick

Photo Therapy Facebook Group Info

Shortly after the pandemic started, I started the Photo Therapy Facebook Group - a private group where photographers could post their images and share their stories, which is good photo therapy.

Within about two months we had 2,000+ members, and we are growing day by day. The images are amazing, inspiring, and motivating.

We have awesome moderators: Alec Arons, Linda Marshall, Juan Pons, and Jim Griggs.

If you’d like to join the group, or if you are new to the group, here is some info that will help you get the most out of your membership.

Description:
- A place to get motivated and stay inspired.
- A place to share your thoughts and ideas on the power of pictures - and what your photography means to you.
- A place to grow as a photographer by understanding what your photography means to you.
- A place with no political posts!

To become a member, you must answer the Group questions and follow the Group rules. When inviting friends, please pass along that important info.

When you post an image, please be sure to add a Topic after you post your image. You need to be on your computer or iPad). Just click on edit and you will see Add a Topic as an option.

Adding a Topic will help other find similar images - and help us find your images for our Happy Hour/Review Sessions. Read on.

Each Thursday at 5 PM Eastern we have a one-hour Happy Hour/Photo Review session - LIVE on our Group page (and posted the next day on our YouTube channel). Each week we have a different Topic. The LIVE event is a wonderful place to comment on the images we review and to learn. Juan Pons and I are the reviewers, and Alec Arons is our moderator. Comments are posted on our Facebook Group page, not on our YouTube page.

And each Monday we have a Monday Meditation guided by Linda Marshall and produced by Alec Arons.

Each Wednesday we choose a member’s photo for our banner photo. We choose the photo based on subject matter - and how it will looked cropped. We have many wonderful images that would be ruined if we crop them . . . so please keep this in mind when you see the image.

I came up with the idea for the Photo Therapy Facebook Group after writing my book, Photo Therapy Motivation and Wisdom. This book, my 40th, has no photographs (unlike my other 39 books). I wrote the book because knowing why you take pictures, and understanding the psychology of photography, is the key to becoming a good photographer.

Take good care, and please stay safe!
Rick

P.S. So something good was born out of bad times. Something else came out of stressful times: my 41 book, Photo Quest - discovering your photographic and artistic voice, was released in May 2020, when thing were very bad in New York, where I live. This book, like Photo Therapy, has only words - not only my words, but words of wisdom from 33 of today’s top photographers. If you are searching for your “voice,” you have come to the right place.