There are a ridiculous amount of things to be thankful for daily. The trick, of course, is not in finding what you're thankful for; it's in actually recognizing how much we already have. That's one of the more powerful things about photography, as it is all about seeing what we have - and, more importantly, who we already are. Today I am quite thankful for those who trust me to photograph them, their families, and their children, creating a narrative of their history as indi

Tamara will be traveling to the Dominican Republic in February to participate in the What If Conference. The conference is an event for "artist-preneurs" which focuses on empowering creatives in business and in life. To find out more about the conference and to register to join Tamara in the Dominican Republic visit the What If website.

The What If Conference Tamara will be traveling to the Dominican Republic in February to participate in the What If Conference. The conference is an event for "artist-preneurs" which focuses on empowering creatives in business and in life. To find out more about the conference and to register to join Tamara in the Dominican Republic, visit the What If website.

Photographer's Ignite I recently had the great privilege/terror of speaking at Photographer's Ignite. Again. I did this for the first time in 2011, when I spoke on the tiny topic of The Meaning of Life (when I barely had my voice left after a week of teaching in Vegas) and then I did it a second time this past Spring, again in Las Vegas, when I weighed in on The Fascinating Truth About Lying. As much as I speak publicly with little issue, there is something about this forma

It is said we should not look back too often, so as to avoid sinking too much of our todays in the events of our yesterdays. I even read a very recent post that broke that down more specifically, surmising that a healthy view of life is only 5% looking back, 25% looking forward, and 70% living in the NOW. (You can read more of that philosophy here.) I love to read, research, and experiment on the topic of work/life balance, or lifestyle integration, quite regularly. Like,

I am here in New York City, delivering presentations at PDN's Photo Plus Expo and Photographer's Ignite, hosted by creativeLIVE. I walked into the cavernous Javits Center and found one of my portraits hanging giganta-size at the opening registration at the Photo Plus Expo. It truly was an honor to see it - and of course it's always fantastic to see work that was captured in a small black box showcased BIG. BIG Thanks to Artsy Couture, Adorama, and WHCC for supporting my pres

reDefine Show with Dane Sanders Dane Sanders, a portrait and wedding photographer, is our guest in this episode of reDefine. We discuss business consulting, publications, favorite camera gear, and advice on how to succeed by making great decisions, taking action, and Being "You". Dane Sanders enjoys speaking with professionals about how to transform their creativity into a business. In this episode, Dane shares details about speaking publicly at large events, his successes w

The request was to photograph their youngest child, the youngest of four, before his first haircut - before these striking, Botticelli curls went away. I was able to get quite a lot of portraits of this dapper young boy, and of the rest of their family, but just a quick preview for now... * The set up, lighting, and posing of this GQ photograph are all covered in our brand new Posing Playbook ... For Kids Who Don't Do Posing. Huge thanks so much to all those who have

Taking Care of Business Currently on creativeLIVE, there is a special edition rewatch of my Taking Care of Business course. You can check it out here. Feel free to check out all these other upcoming free business courses by Ramit Sethi, Tim Ferriss, Lewis Howes and Ryan Holiday - streaming live soon on creativeLIVE, as well. All details...

The Posing Playbook... for Kids Who Don't Do Posing I am quite excited, relieved, fulfilled, and all kinds of other positive words, to announce the very quite official launch of our new Posing Playbook ... for Kids Who Don't Do Posing. You can download your copy here! We have been developing this informative guide for the last six months, and it's certainly been a serious work in progress. It was nearly finished in July, when we referred to it while I was teaching at cr

reDefine Show with Bambi Cantrell Bambi Cantrell, photography legend, sits down with us in this episode of reDefine. We discuss her journey from point & shoot photographer’s assistant to one of the most decorated photographers in the industry. Sharing her trials, errors, and takeaways from a longstanding career in shooting and education, Bambi offers some excellent advice to anyone looking to improve their craft and business. There’s always an excuse for not making progress

Animoto and Tamara's New Series I had the chance to team up with the video creation company Animoto recently. I met up with them in New York, and we made a series of videos about ... well, making a series of videos. Like a box in a box. They are entitled The Busy Parents' Guide To Creating and Sharing Video , so they apply to pretty much every parent I know. I genuinely enjoyed chatting with Jason Hsiao, the founder of Animoto, about his new role as father to new twin girls

reDefine Show with Jessica Claire In this 2-part episode series of our biweekly program, reDefine Show, we sit down with internationally-renowned wedding photographer, Jessica Claire. Join in as Jessica shares how extreme hustle and some expense got her business off the ground in a heavily-saturated market and how she eventually developed her brand, Shootsac, a company that sells camera lens bags for professional photographers. She will also share her thoughts on constant c

I had a beautiful morning photographing this family of four, visiting the United States from Hanover, Germany. This was our second family photography session - the last one was actually four years ago, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, when they were merely a gorgeous family of three. This was a particularly fun shoot because I was trying my best to speak German, so I could direct the children - and I actually ended up mostly speaking a blend of Spanish, Ukrainian, and

Photoshop World: A First I'll be heading to Photoshop World in Las Vegas this week, at Mandalay Bay. This will actually be my first time attending, and I'm really looking forward to presenting several courses. Big thanks to Matt Kloskowski and Scott Kelby for the invite. If you're there, please come see me - I'll be presenting the following programs: Creating Better Portraits Through Better Interaction , Wednesday September 4th at 4pm, at The Kelby Training Expo The

Adorama Giveaway and The New Blog! I'm very excited to announce that this brand new spankin' blog is officially LIVE . We've been working on it for months, and I'm quite happy with the clean simplicity of the layout, the ease of access to the rest of the robust website, and the much, much easier means to post to it and keep it current. We plan to live on it a lot more often in the future. To that end, I'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and feedback, as we can al

Our Portrait Photographer's Workshop is coming up soon! We love this workshop and have heard truly fantastic feedback from it over the last couple years. This one will take place in Toronto, Canada September 17th and 18th - and we are quite looking forward to seeing everyone and really checking out the city. You can register here. The Portrait Photographer's Workshop includes a rather intense couple days of shooting, business, sales and marketing - and again with the sh

The Toronto Workshop for Portrait Photographers Our Toronto workshop is coming up soon! We love this workshop and have heard truly fantastic feedback from it over the last couple years. This one will take place in Toronto, Canada September 17th and 18th - and we are quite looking forward to seeing everyone and really checking out the city. You can register here for the Toronto workshop. The Portrait Photographer's Workshop includes a rather intense couple days of shoo

I just wrote this post for Photofocus, a popular photography blog that I write for often (can see past posts I've written here). I've had such fun following the Olympics this year, I thought I'd post this to my own blog, too. The Olympics: A spectacle of possibility, of what it takes to compete at the optimal worldwide level – the opportunity to pull in mind, body, spirit and technique for that one crucial moment you’re trained for your whole life. Heady, inspiring stuff.I’

Olympian Portraits I just wrote this post for Photofocus, a popular photography blog that I write for often (can see past posts I've written here). I've had such fun following the Olympics this year, I thought I'd post this to my own blog, too. The Olympics : A spectacle of possibility, of what it takes to compete at the optimal worldwide level – the opportunity to pull in mind, body, spirit and technique for that one crucial moment you’re trained for your whole life. Head