10 Tips to Crop Pictures the Right Way for your Blog or Magazine

10 Tips to Crop Pictures the Right Way for your Blog or Magazine

A well-chosen picture explains the content of your article for a blog, magazine, or newsletter at once. A photograph can show something in a single image that otherwise would need a lot of words.

Sometimes it is better to crop a photo to get the focus on the desired part. In this article, I give you 10 tips to crop pictures the right way.

Cropping is considered making changes to a picture. When you use photographs that somebody else made, make sure you have permission for these changes.

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Profitable Selling Pictures Online? Which Problems and Possibilities Exist?

Profitable Selling Pictures Online? Which Problems and Possibilities Exist?

One of the ideas in the article 20 Ideas on How to make money after retirement is to sell your digital pictures. Can you start selling pictures online just like that? What are the options you have? And equally important, what are possible problems you can encounter? I’ll elaborate on these in this article.

You don’t have to be a professional photographer nowadays to sell your pictures. However, it helps if you know what you are doing and maintain a quality standard in composition, use of colour and format.

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Photography is a Passion, Why is Taking Pictures Important?

Photography is a Passion, Why is Taking Pictures Important?

Taking pictures is narrowing your view in a good sense. Looking through the square hole makes you focus on the composition, colour and details of what you see. It’s all about making choices.

When I was 12 years old I got a camera from my granddad. It was an Agfa, that I know for sure. But I am not sure anymore whether it was a Click or a Clack.

All these years I was convinced it was a Clack-II, but googling pictures of it made me wonder. The image in my memory resembles more of the Click-II.

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7 Beautiful and Photogenic Places of Interest in Murcia, Spain

7 Beautiful and Photogenic Places of Interest in Murcia, Spain

On a first superficial look at the province of Murcia in Spain, you might judge this as a place of little significance. Some parts are even ugly and I sure have mixed feelings about the area where I live.

If you are able to see the beauty in ugly things, there are a lot of places of interest in Murcia. If I look with my photographic eye, I see the beauty of the blossoms and (almost) forget about the poison that is sprayed on them.

No way to forget the ugliness of the chemical industry in the neighbourhood of Cartagena but still I can enjoy the lines and colours of the machinery.

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What is Composition in Photography? 7 Tips to Improve your Images

What is Composition in Photography? 7 Tips to Improve your Images

During my education at two art academies in the Netherlands, I was trained to look at the composition of paintings and sculptures. That was a big advantage for me when I started taking pictures.

Painters often had a conception of composition that depended on their time. The Renaissance had a balanced, calm structure of the works. In the Baroque, the dynamic composition was usually applied. 

What is composition in photography? The usual rule of thumb is the rule of thirds. It’s a great rule to start with, but in this article, I will explain some other possibilities for composition you can use.

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How to Create Abstract Photos by Using the Hipstamatic App

How to Create Abstract Photos by Using the Hipstamatic App

Years ago I discovered the app Hipstamatic for my smartphone. It was love at first sight. I even have to admit I once bought another iPhone to have more pixels and speed.

As an artist, I love abstract art. Taking pictures with abstract results enhances that love and using the Hipstamatic app for those pictures doubles the fun.

In this article on how to create abstract photos, the focus is on the app Hipstamatic. In the meantime, I also explain how you can make your pictures more abstract without the app.

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Creative Playing on the Beach for Grown-ups

Creative Playing on the Beach for Grown-ups

Isn’t it a pity that we tend to forget how to play? What do you think about playing on the beach for grown-ups? I can assure you that it is fun! 

Years ago my former colleagues and I went to a beach house once a year to get creative inspiration. 

We were all creative souls and we gave ourselves assignments to develop our creative skills even further. There I discovered again what fun it is to play on the beach.

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30 Tips to Spend Free Time Finding Inspiration for Creative Projects

30 Tips to Spend Free Time Finding Inspiration for Creative Projects

At most of the exhibitions where I showed my work, I tried to be present to talk to the visitors. The most frequently asked question was: where do you find the inspiration for your subjects? To which my answer was that I had some tricks for that.

Developing inspiration is a conscious process. Or at least it could be. It also depends on our character what our favourite method is.

In this article, I give you 30 tips to spend your free time finding inspiration and spark your creativity. It is a random list of all kinds of things I occasionally do. Get inspired.

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Photo Festival Rencontres 2023 in Arles from a Viewer’s Perspective

Photo Festival Rencontres 2023 in Arles from a Viewer’s Perspective

In 2022 we were in Arles, France for the first time. We wanted to visit the new Museum of Modern Art LUMA.

Because we were there in June, we saw announcements for that year’s photo festival Rencontres, but unfortunately, we were too early. The festival is in July, August and September and already exists since 1970.

Luckily, in 2023 we were able to go in September. This time, we were too late for some locations, because they only exhibited in July and August, but there was so much to see that we didn’t mind that much.

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