Lindsay Adler is a renowned portrait and fashion photographer based in New York City. It is quite likely that you have seen her teaching on CreativeLive or KelbyOne.

On July 1st, she will be conducting a free webinar thanks to ShootDotEdit. While she is a master as lighting, posing and photography, she also commands a great level of respect from her peers for her retouching, using Photoshop. Indeed, the free webinar she is teaching is called Photoshop Techniques for Photographers.

Lindsay and I managed to speak briefly about her background in the industry, why she is compelled to teach and of course about her upcoming webinar on Photoshop. Give this chat a listen now:

Be sure to buy and read Lindsay's books:

Creative 52: Weekly Projects to Invigorate Your Photography Portfolio
Shooting in Sh*tty Light: The Top Ten Worst Photography Lighting Situations and How to Conquer Them
Fashion Flair for Portrait and Wedding Photography
The Linked Photographers' Guide to Online Marketing and Social Media.

Reading and learning from her blog is time well spent. And, she has lots of wonderful resources to buy through her online store.

For a small sample of Lindsay's work, scroll down! Do you now see how amazing she is with Photoshop? Register today for her webinar.

And if you are looking for other opportunities to learn from industry leaders, skip on to ShootDotEdit‘s website and check out all the free educational webinars here.

RJ Kern is ranked as one of the top 50 wedding photographers in the US. But that's just one genre of photography that he rocks. He is a passionate artist who pursues personal projects at every opportunity.

“I've gone from a coffee shop show to two solo gallery shows and a group exhibition in less than a year … all after deciding to invest in my art long-term and not pour my money into an MFA (I applied, got rejected last year) and put it into my personal work.”

In this interview for Tiffinbox, we sat down to talk about what inspires him to do personal work. Lean in and listen closely to how RJ phrases his off-season work. I think you will find it interesting. It's not so much that it is something he can do or will do sometime in the future, but he HAS to do it right now!

Check out his personal work here. Learn more about his animal portraits here. His series of couples in love at Burning Man is something else. Lastly, learn from RJ about how to develop a photographic style.

Do you pursue personal projects? Would you think of photographing sheep and goats as a personal project? If you think the concept and the quality of the work is amazing as I do, click the comments box below and leave RJ a note. I am sure he would appreciate it.

The Back Story

My fourth-grader was going to play his violin and sing with his classmates. The stage was nearly set. Like eager parents in the second row, I craned my neck to see where Rohan was going to stand. The curtain had just been closed and a slideshow highlighting the music program at the school played in the screen looming above us.

As we waited for the video to end, I noticed that the chorus was being led in by the teachers, behind the curtain. Towards the bottom of the curtain, I could make out their feet shuffling back and forth in restless anticipation of the big reveal. This was the final concert of the fourth grade and it looked like every student was on stage!

My eyes shifted to the silhouetted figures of the music teachers. Their backs to us, they had their hands stretched out, as if they were waiting to be spirited away. It was graphically interesting. I also noticed the music stands and empty chairs in the foreground.

Background, check. Foreground check. All that was missing was my presence there with a camera. In fact, I had brought my camera along with me.

The Origins Of Failure

As I noticed all of these things in front of me, I was sitting down wondering whether I should go up and make that image I had in my mind quickly. “What would the other parents say or think,” I wondered. Was this my ego talking? Is sure was. Then my younger son insisted on sitting on my lap and that gave me an easy way out of the possibility of photographing what I saw in front of me. This is a text case of laziness. Lastly, as the video wound down, I just became fearful that I wouldn't get the photograph any way. Even as a trained and experienced photographer, there are these moments of sheer anxiety that can't be explained.

But there you have it. Three strikes on myself and I got myself out … I couldn't shake the idea that I had simply failed myself.

If you were to look at the image again, you'll notice that I was a mere three feet away from what could have been a truly wonderful image. But instead, I sat in my seat and refused to move. The cost of a lost moment? Priceless. So, yes, I am kicking myself hard for not committing to make this image when I had the chance.

Future Actions

Instead of beating myself about it, though, I have chosen to write and talk about this part of the creative process I imagine every one of you goes through as well.

So fess up, does this happen to you when you are out making photographs for yourself or for your clients?

Here are my recommendations for doing better next time:

1) If you are sitting down and you see something, spring to action towards the scene. The closer you get to what you want to photograph, the better. (Please use your better judgement however when it comes to photographing something dangerous).

2) Just as soon as your brain starts to fight and says, “NO” … use you inner voice and say “YES”. This sounds simplistic, but try it.

3) Do not be afraid of making a total fool of yourself. If you do and don't get the image, it's ok. There will be other opportunities to create what your vision is propelling you towards. The people around you do not have a camera, nor are they photographers. They simply do NOT see what you are seeing. What differentiates you from them is your capacity to construct these photographs as they evolve in front of you. It's a gift … go out there and receive it.

I am convinced that we often don't reach our goals because we let our unfounded fears and ego get in the way. Do you agree? Have you tried this before? How do you overcome your creative roadblocks? Comment below. Your ideas may not only help you, but also other artists (like me). So, please speak up!

Raise your virtual hand if you are a photographer who uses an Apple Macintosh computer – laptop's like MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or the desktop iMac or MacPro.

So, you feel my pain then don't you? You know, when you insert a memory card from your camera into the card reader and instead of just having access to your files through the Finder, you are abruptly confronted by Apple's new Photos application.

It launches, like an unsolicited pop-up advertisement on your favorite website. The reaction is to go and shut the program down. Quickly. How many times in a day do you want to keep doing that? Imagine coming back from a wedding or a long photo session and having multiple cards and having to deal with that pesky program opening again and again.

I was quite frustrated, but clearly I wasn't the only one feeling this pain. Gerik Parmele is a photographer and videographer based in Columbia, Missouri Tweeted out that he had found a hack to stop the Photos app from loading on his Macintosh computer.

So, if you are running your photography business on a Macintosh and you want to stay super efficient and cognizant of your use of time, follow Gerik's suggestion in this short video below:

Gerik suggests buying and using Keyboard Maestro for this hack to work ($36). If you can suggest an alternative method for stopping the Photos application from launching, please share your ideas below.

Credit and kudos go to Gerik Parmele for coming up with this work around. So, please follow him on Twitter and support his projects whenever possible.

If you enjoyed this little tip and found it helpful, please share the link to the post with your friends via social media or on your own blogs. If you would like to see more such time-saving tips, please comment below and let me know.