Despite the chill and frostbitten fingers, winter is one of my favorite times to bring out the camera. Everything glistens and sparkles, not just the Christmas lights on the tree or the cozy fire; the landscape completely changes. There is a magic to snow. A coziness that you can feel in your bones. Crafting a visual story starts with just that - setting the scene, taking in the atmosphere, or literally the landscape. As visual storytellers, it’s not just about capturing what’s happening in front of us, say a fresh batch of cookies, but telling the entire scene as a whole. How can the viewer feel the cold? How can they see the sparkle in the trees? How can they feel that urge to bundle up under a wooly blanket next to a roaring fire? It is much in the details as it is about the environment and the feelings.

It’s hard to believe the holidays are just around the corner! So I’ve rounded up some of my favorite gift ideas for your photographer or visual storyteller in your life; or perhaps yourself too! It can be tricky to know what to buy for budding photographers because you may not know the techy bits or latest gear, but there are so many lovely options out there that have nothing to do with photography gear. These are just a few to name, but maybe they will get you thinking out of the box for gift ideas! Cheers to the beginning of the festive season — Happy December!

A brand? What do you mean? I’m a photographer?! I asked my mentor. When I first started my photography career, I dipped and dabbled in many things, from food to family portraits to landscapes. It’s natural for our taste to evolve over time, and picking up little bits and pieces as we go along is all part of the process of making your work uniquely yours. One thing, however, I didn’t understand was that it was much more about taking a pretty photo and more about creating a brand. Have you ever noticed how some food and lifestyle photographers work all just seem to blend together? You can clearly tell who they learned from. This one looks theirs, and theirs looks like hers…it’s not often to see something fresh and unique. Think the same stack of brownies, white background, marble counter, with a little glass of milk on the side? You know the styles I’m talking about.

She booked that? Why doesn’t my work look like hers? Why can’t I work them? Ugh she is always working with the best brands? His photography is so much better than mine. Why can’t my photos look like hers?

We’ve all been there. Many times, I’m sure. It’s completely normal and almost unavoidable if we are human. The dreaded pitfall of comparing ourselves to others. As humans, we naturally compare ourselves to others because our primal brain is trying to keep us safe, protect us, guard our resources, and fit in. So in order to do that, our brain looks for ways to safeguard our wellbeing, retain homeostasis, and belong to a specific community. Comparing ourselves to others isn’t inherently bad because it can help us grow and evolve.

If you are just beginning your photography journey, it can be easy to get discouraged by a lack of engagement, bookings, and inquiries. You are talented, after all, with so much to offer, so why is it so hard to actually get booked? When we get into this mental rut, our creativity can fall right down there, too. Our once vivacious and enthusiastic creative energy can quickly turn stagnate. I have been there many times, and it’s completely normal to feel like you’re in a rut. It’s just one of those stones in our path, and yet all it takes is to keep putting one foot in front of the other and look toward where we are going. If you are in a dry spell, be it a creative, client, or financial one, often the best thing to do is to let the camera collect dust on your desk but to give yourself an assignment.

In Vermont, November is one of my least favorite months. It can be challenging for many to adjust to the duller, colder weather. Growing up on the farm, I dreaded absolutely dreaded; I tell you! the gloom and doom of November. The doldrums. It’s an awkward period between the vibrant fire of the forest that was the foliage and the arrival of the first real snow. Just snow already, I’d say silently to the sky! Anything but freezing rain! The trees are lackluster, skeletons of their former selves, bracing the blustery wind with the impending snow on the way.

Being resourceful was one of the most valuable takeaways of growing up on a farm. Don’t waste anything! All of the scraps we saved for the chickens or the peels were to be turned into a stock or knobby ugly apples into apple sauce. So when I receive quite literally bagfuls of ugly, witch-like fingers and gnarly parsnips in my farm harvest box each week, I can’t bear to throw them out! Parsnips aren’t something I normally crave, but given the cooler days, I have had a seasonal craving for something cozy. A risotto was just the dish for these knobby and stringy parsnips that have taken over my fridge.

Driven by her love of nature and natural light, Australian photographer, Lean Timms captures authentic and slow moments of life through her interior, travel, and food photography. She shoots for various travel magazines, editorials, and lifestyle brands. As an explorer at heart, her work takes her across the world, documenting new places and teaching her renowned photography workshops. Her work beautifully captures life moments that evoke a sense of time, place, and with a dash of spontaneity. I am particularly drawn to her travel photography with her minimalist, yet intimate approach of capturing the essence of a place.

Black and white photography was the first impression I had of the art itself. My mom had a makeshift darkroom in our barn, The Shop, as we called it, it was both her floral workroom and where we stored the horses’ tack, saddles, bridles and such. She blacked out the windows, and I remember thinking she was doing experiments in there or something because there were all of these trays and solutions and red lights. It was a very odd sight for a 7-year-old. “Can I come in now?” I’d say in a huff if she locked us out because, as you can imagine, three eager little busy bodies always coming and coming isn’t the best scenario for a dark room.

Author and Photographer Jamie Beck is a breath of fresh air and a visionary in the world of visual storytelling. Known for her natural, romantic, and expressive style in her self-portraits and still lifes, her work is inspired by her adopted home of Provence, France and the grand masters of art such as Cézanne, Van Gogh, Botticelli and others. Her best-selling book, An American in Provence, is a feast for the senses as much as it is about the art of photography. I can't wait for her new book, The Flowers of Provence., to be published on October 23. It was an honor to have her part of this series.

Sometimes the most intriguing shots are found in unexpected places. How many times have you "packed up your bags" and called it a day after checking off your essential shot list? I know I have before only to move quickly to the next thing! Creating a compelling visual story comes from not just the apparent scene unfolding in front of our eyes, but in the subtleties and the details. It's natural to be absorbed in the moment or solely focused on the subject and forget to look around us. Real magic happens when we step outside of our comfort zone of angles and look at our subject or the scene from a different perspective.

Composition is the underlying language that creates a compelling photograph, maybe we don’t understand it right away or maybe it’s obviously spelled out right in our face we can’t miss it. Think of it as a secret language we can use to communicate our story and highlight our subject. If it’s a larger scene or full table, there’s more room to play and mix things up. We can make it as obvious or subtle as we like!

Lighting is everything when it comes to crafting a compelling visual story. It’s the paint we use to compose our scene and subject. What I love about shooting with natural light is it’s many faces, and it never lies. It always, without fail, reveals to you what is there. If you are just beginning, natural light is your best friend. It’s abundant, ever-changing, and yet simultaneously unpredictable and predictable. Shooting and experimenting in different lighting situations is crucial to becoming confident behind the lens.

Autumn has a natural way of slowing down our daily rhythm. Cool, foggy mornings, letting us linger a little longer in our cozy bed before heading out the door. I rise very early at 5 a.m., and now I find myself wanting to stay just one more minute before getting up and doing my daily rituals and taking Winslow for a walk. It’s still dark, the birds aren’t even awake yet, and it’s quiet except for the rustling in the bushes from this one very friendly deer. Tea is one of those daily rituals; I drink several cups a day. I find it calming and reminds me to relax in the present moment.

Styling for food photography is subjective. The elements that make a compelling photograph, such as the rule of thirds, balance, and negative space, are indisputable in most instances. One of the common mistakes I see food and lifestyle photographers make is being too precious with the scene, recipe, or subject. As creatives, we naturally want to influence or control the scene as much as possible to create the desired look or feel we are after.

While it still feels like August, the mornings have been cooler, thankfully. It got me in the mood to do some baking and kitchen projects to usher in autumn. Or rather pining for it more like! But just give the island a few more months, I tell myself, and it will be full-on sock and flannel weather! I have been purchasing a large harvest box of beautiful local produce from a local upcountry farm to support them after their loss in the fires, and last week, I had an abundance of aromatic herbs. So many, in fact, for just myself, I had to preserve them somehow.

There is no doubt that color plays an integral part in visual storytelling. Color is life. Can you imagine what the world would be without color? A very dismal place indeed, one where I would certainly not want to live. Sometimes, I feel like a butterfly or honey bee instantly drawn to any brightly colored dahlia or basket of strawberries. Color can be so intoxicating, soothing, and invigorating. I remember in my color theory class in fashion design school; I was astonished by how serious the professor was about color. No laughs here. She was strict, observant, and wildly metaphysical in her theories.

There is a shift in the air. Summer’s lightness slowly waning like the blue moon. My body can feel it in the early morning. It’s ever so subtle here on Maui, but I can feel something changing, shifting with time. An internal shift of sorts too. Maybe it’s due to the recent tragedy on the island. But either way, it’s a knowing that change is on the way. Welcome September, a glorious month of harvest, preserving, a gentle turn towards the introspective months ahead. I had seasonal figs and blueberries on hand and thought hand pies would be the perfect bridge into the baking season using summer’s last hurrah of fresh fruit.

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” - Pablo Picasso

All big dreams start from a thought. All of your past work and future work has and will begin with inspirational thought. Many of those ideas have been tried and done many times before, but never in your way, through your eye, your lens. That’s what’s so beautiful about honing in on your craft and your story as a creative. Have you been to a photography workshop before or a styled shoot, and some people can capture the same scene, but the photos feel and are wildly different?

There are no words to describe the past few days on Maui. It's been extremely challenging in so many unforeseen ways for everyone. I've been glued to the news and stories that flood in every day, and it's taken such a toll on everyone emotionally. The psychological healing from the island's trauma hasn't even begun, yet each day feels like we are further down a darker hole. There are different waves of emotions, rolling in one after another in its wake. We all hold this island so dear to our hearts. As an empathetic and highly sensitive person, it's been so difficult not to drown in tragic news stories.