Ryan Jones quit his corporate job and instinctively knew he had to be come a photographer.

After working at the Fresno Bee as a freelancer and starting a commercial photography business on the west coast, Ryan decided to pull his roots up and move to New York City. He currently lives and works from Brooklyn, New York as both a street photographer and a wedding photographer. I urge you to check out his portfolio and website.

Ryan's work struck me as well-crafted and thoughtful. His photography can be labeled as off-beat or even a bit odd, but his portfolio is full of arresting images of daily life that place you in the scene as if you were actually witnessing it for yourself.

While some of his documentary style could be attributed to his attending the Foundation Workshops, it is Ryan's love for chaos on the streets and making sense of it all that informs his actions. His raw or organic approach to street photography lends itself well to also those commercial clients who seek him out for just that kind of work.

Ryan also curates a blog called An Unlikely Scene. He created it in 2013 and invites other street photographers to submit their work to be considered for inclusion.

A couple of weeks back, Ryan and I sat down to chat about his career and why street photography is so important to him. We discussed his blog An Unlikely Scene and one of his favorite street photographers, Richard Baker.

Some of Ryan's finest work:

Jen Rozenbaum is a celebrated New York City boudoir photographer. Thanks to ShootDotEdit, she will be presenting a free webinar on the Art of Posing Women, on April 29th, 2015.

A little bit more about Jen – “Jen embraces her femininity while allowing women to embrace their own. In just five years, Jen has found a burgeoning audience in the intimate photography market. She proves that you can own your world if you live fearlessly, think audaciously, and act spontaneously. Jen has been featured in such places such as Good Morning America, AOL, and Entrepreneur Magazine.”

Being one of the best in the business, I wanted to find out more about the resurgence of boudoir photography in the last 10 years and her role in making it so popular among women. So we sat down and talked about it and also about her forthcoming free webinar on ShootDotEdit.

If you have ever felt challenged to pose women, I recommend you stop by and check out this webinar. I bet you and I both will be taking notes from what Jen has to teach us about posing women and making them feel truly comfortable and feminine.

Register for the free webinar here.

Brooke Shaden is a fine art photographer based in Arizona. Her photographs are dream-like, ethereal and definitely complex in tone. I'll be the first to admit that each work of art has the capacity to draw you in and hold you hostage.

From her own website: “Brooke works to create new worlds within her photographic frame. By using painterly techniques as well as the square format, traditional photographic properties are replaced by otherworldly elements. Brooke's photography questions the definition of what it means to be alive.”

Brooke and I got a chance to speak recently, in advance of her presentation right here in Connecticut. She will be speaking about her work, at the behest of CTPPA. Find out more about that event here.

We spoke about her work, of course, but also her background. You'll find out how and why her degrees in film and English have helped her create artwork that is filled with intent and meaning. And, you'll hear about how she is a philanthropist, donating her time to a wonderful causes all over the world, including one in Calcutta, India. In fact, if you would like to donate camera gear or money, she is appealing to your generosity here.

A small sample of Brooke's incredible work. For more go here!

Want to keep up with Brooke, then bookmark her blog, Promoting Passion now.

UPDATE: Brooke Shaden is coming back to Connecticut! She will be here on November 21st and 22nd to lead a workshop called Storytelling & Compositing Intensive at the New Britain Museum of American Art. For more information about this opportunity to learn from Brooke, contact Heather Whitehouse at 860-229-0257, ext. 203 or whitehouseh@nbmaa.org.

I love meeting and getting to know kindred spirits in the photography business. When I photographed South Asian and multicultural weddings, I looked to a few people to inspire me. Knowing that I wasn't alone as a wedding photographer in a very specific niche was a God-send. I include Petronella among those who kept my spirits alive.

So, who is Petronella?

Petronella Lugemwa, is a multicultural wedding photographer based in New York. She has a wonderful and diverse background that includes a degree in chemical engineering and a MBA as well.

We talked about her beginnings in Uganda and her upbringing in Alabama before she clearly redefined an identity for herself as a multicultural wedding photographer. She says that she “specializes in helping multicultural and interracial couples celebrate their love in a modern way.”

Find out how Petronella, a usually introverted woman chose to photograph and celebrate diverse cultures. She talks about being asked to photograph her first wedding in Mexico and quickly immersing herself in other people's lives. Lean in and listen to Petronella's energy and enthusiasm for multicultural weddings. Do you hear it too?

Learn how a two-day conference called Making Things Happen turned things around for this young, vivacious documentary wedding photographer. We also talk about how she worked through the exercises in the Sexy Business Workshop that helped her overcome her fears – such as how she thought people perceived her name.

And, here are more incredible images from other multicultural weddings Petronella Lugemwa has documented for couples around the world:

Scott Robert Lim is quite the talker. But he walks the walk too. He is an internationally recognized photographer who has spent over 15 years photographing weddings. He is also a mentor to many photographers around the world.

Lim's CreativeLive courses are always very popular because he never holds back on teaching. In fact, he told me that these days he sees himself more of a teacher than anything else. So, it didn't come as a surprise that he was teaching through a free webinar again. This time the topic is something close to Lim's heart – tips to booking a $10k wedding.

We spoke recently in advance of the free ShootDotEdit webinar about the state of the industry and what wedding photographers need to have in place before seeking high-end clients.

“>Register today to learn more of Scott Robert Lim's secrets to booking your first $10k wedding!

Have these vignettes with industry leaders been helpful to you? If so, please share the link to this post of the video and subscribe to TiffinboxTV.

Matthew Jordan Smith's repertoire as a commercial and fashion photographer is well known around the world. Yet, he chose to work on a personal project that took him to all 50 states.

The project involved visiting with 100 families across the USA. He photographed children outdoors, holding up signs with their ambitions and ideas to lead their country. It's a project that took him 3 years to complete. After pouring his own resources into the project to start photographing children in America, Smith ran a successful Kickstarter campaign. He now has published a book that is every bit inspiring as his own journey through these united states.

I managed to corner Matthew to a quick Skype interview. Give it a listen. You can buy the book here.

You'll find below a slideshow with about 15 of Matthew's images from the book, Future American President.

Are you pursuing a personal project like Matthew Jordan Smith? Do you want to be featured here on Tiffinbox? Contact me right away!

Melissa Jill, a Phoenix, Arizona based wedding photographer knows all about being busy. But she also knows what it means to be efficient. Melissa Jill Photography – that's her and her small group of associate photographers – photographs a little over 40 weddings a year. Multiply that number by an average of 2000 digital images to process and you know that's a staggering amount of time in front of the computer.

Melissa, however, outsources her initial edits to ShootDotEdit and leans on her own wedding album design company, Align, to deliver the final layouts. We sat down to talk about what is involved in making album design efficient and ultimately, profitable.

Melissa is so good at what she does and her systems and processes down that she was invited to be a part of ShootDotEdit‘s new webinar series called Recharge. If wedding album design is a major pain in the you know where for you, sign up now for this free webinar today. You can always get the recording if you can't make it to the live event tomorrow 10 am to 11 am PST.

Learn industry tested profitable wedding album design tips and sales techniques from Melissa Jill that will ultimately help your clients get what they really desire. This is a free webinar that is not to be missed. As I said in the video above, if only I had known about Melissa even just a few years ago, it would have saved hours of frustration and dread.

This webinar, like the others on the ShootDotEdit website, is a winner and will be time well spent.

Bill Holland is a wedding photographer in Colorado and blogger at The Art of Delight.

“The Art of Delight helps small businesses design with purpose delightful experiences for their customers. This enables these businesses to not only differentiate themselves in an increasingly heterogeneous marketplace, but concentrate on creating and shipping their art–in whatever form that takes.”

Give this interview a listen if making your customers happy is one of your primary goals! Bill Holland suggests some simple tips to make your client interactions a win-win.

The Art of Delight is a blog and a consultancy. If you are struggling with creating positive customer experiences, give Bill Holland a call. He has a remarkable knack for setting things right for you and your business.

It has been about a week since I got back from Inspire Photo Retreats. The experience of being there, with 250 other photographers, is still reverberating through my brain. It was a relaxed and yet very informative conference. I highly recommend you go next year. Other than the fact that you and I will get to finally meet, you'll truly be inspired. I guarantee it. If you are following me on Facebook, you likely saw a few images from the event in Portland, Maine.

Getting to Inspire was a bit of an adventure. My friend, and fellow photographer, David Apuzzo, set out at about 10 am on Sunday. We had heard about a looming snowstorm that was going to pile in a foot or more of snow in Connecticut, Massachusetts and yes, all the way up to our destination, Portland, Maine.

Given that my wife had to go to work the next day, I insisted that she take the four-wheel drive, Subaru Forrester. I chose to take the Toyota Sienna, a minivan (with terrible tires, mind you), to Maine. The four hour trek was mostly uneventful until we hit Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We managed to evade swaths of snow. Dave excitedly pointed to the space in between packed clouds on his phone's weather app that we were threading through. It was exciting to race Mother Nature.

But when we got to Portsmouth, we got hit with snow coming at us sideways. The wipers on my cars which were functioning just fine started to give me some trouble. As the snow came down, I kept using the wipers and the wiper liquid to clear the front of the car. My visibility was diminishing and it became somewhat uncomfortable to drive. I noticed that while the passenger side of the windshield was getting cleared up quickly, the driver's side was not. Dave and I both assumed that we had run out of windshield wiper fluid. My wife had foreseen this issue and insisted that we carry a bottle of wiper fluid with us. And boy did that come in handy. The temperature in New Hampshire was down to 7 degrees Fahrenheit and my fingers were quickly going numb, but Dave helped me pour some of that wiper fluid in. In fact, Dave stepped up and bought two big jugs of it at the gas station.

But that didn't help one bit. The nozzle on the driver's side was either frozen or clogged up. What were we to do? We had at least another hour of driving ahead of us. Then it was Dave's brilliant idea that got us through. He suggested that I simply drive behind some of the other cars and big rig trucks. His rationale was the snow and spray flying off of the cars ahead of us would land on my windshield and all I would have to do would be to use my worn wiper blades.

Guess, what? It worked! Like. A. Charm. I probably owe Dave a beer or two just for that. (Do collect, Dave!)

Now, imagine you at the helm of your photography business. You can go at it alone or you can have a trusted advisor, like Dave was for me on the perilous trip. Which will get you there safer and faster? For my photography business in Connecticut, I lean on a few people to coach me.

I've already mentioned Jeff Jochum. If you aren't clear about what it is that you are meant to do, he will help you get there. It's not an easy process but his video coaching is top class in my opinion.

Steve Saporito is the other business coach, I listen to. He is based in Australia, but let that not stop you from listening to our recent conversation about what he does for photographers, why he believes his approach is the most natural and how his teaching can benefit you.

Steve and his business partner, Kelly Vanyai moderate a lively Facebook group (open to only those who have signed up for their courses) where if anyone has a question, all you need to do is to ask and either they or an eager bunch of peers will jump in to help you. I've found it very helpful so far and I am already seeing results. What I personally love about Steve and Kelly's approach is that there is nothing “salesy” about how they want us to work with our own clients. Just as much as Steve and Kelly are our trusted advisors, we in turn become our client's trusted advisors and help them make the very best image selections for their life.

On February 20th, 21st and 22nd, Steve and Kelly will be hosting an intimate workshop in New Haven, Connecticut, for a few select studios. Yes, I am going. Did you have to ask? Find out more about this unique opportunity in Connecticut to learn from them face-to-face here. They will also be at WPPI offering a similar workshop there.

Clearly I am not the only one reaching out and working with business coaches. Maggie and Jason Henriques just wrote a post. Go read it! Also, Jasen Arias also posted about working with Jeff Jochum and Steve Saporito here.

Of course, there are other business coaches and mentors helping photographers, but from my exhaustive search and perspective Jeff and Steve make up the one-two-punch that I needed to restructure my business. If you have any questions about them, feel free to post them below or ask me directly.