Latest Articles

Mac mini M6 or M5 Pro? A Practical Guide for Photographers

By Robert Rodriguez Jr
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Apple recently released two new Mac minis, and you may be trying to decide which one is better, and whether you should upgrade at all. One is the M6, the newest generation of Apple’s standard chip. The other is the M5 Pro, the professional version of last year’s chip. So which one is better for Lightroom and…

Intro to Strong Composition: A Free Course

By Robert Rodriguez Jr
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I’m happy to announce I’ve released a free email course on composition called Intro to Strong Composition. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, which grew out of a composition book I’ve been working on for a few years now (and hope to release soon). For me, composition is the most important part…

The Case for Committing

By Robert Rodriguez Jr
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Have you ever had an image that seemed to work equally well in color and in black and white? During our last Academy session on black and white photography, a member asked a question that stayed with me long after we ended: if an image looks strong both ways, does it really have to be…

Why I Don’t Make the Picture (90% of the Time)

By Robert Rodriguez Jr
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There’s a spot on the Hudson River about two miles from my home that I’ve visited hundreds of times over the years. I’ve photographed it, painted it, canoed and kayaked past it with my kids, and walked my dog there more times than I can remember. If any landscape in my life qualifies as overly…

Learning to See Is a Skill, the Slower Kind

By Robert Rodriguez Jr
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When students tell me they’re stuck, it usually comes out in one of two ways. The first sounds like an apology: I still don’t understand what the Blacks slider actually does, I can never remember which way the paper feeds, my Lightroom workflow is a mess. The second way is more implied than said: I…