Articles by: Hanna Brooks Olsen

[caption id="attachment_10270" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Billy Lee[/caption] Last year, commercial photographer Shayne Gray had one very big day — he quit his day job as a director and applied to be in the audience for Joey L's portraiture class. Since then, he's been working full-time for himself, and has collaborated with numerous talented directors, photographers, and models.

[caption id="attachment_13787" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image via Flickr[/caption] Hand-lettered, DIY wedding invitations and save-the-dates bring a beautiful, handmade touch to the wedding planning process, but if you haven't done a lot of fancy penmanship work before, the actual making of the cards and addressing of the envelopes can be kind of a daunting process. The best thing to do, of course, is to practice on something other than your $2-per-sheet paper before (if you're really a beginner, you might want to check out these instructions) you dive right in, and to make sure you have all of your names and addresses correct.

[caption id="attachment_7004" align="alignnone" width="640"] Photo: Rachel Voorhees via Flickr[/caption] Remember back when newsletters were pieces of paper that came in your actual mailbox? Of course you don't, that was practically forever ago.

Regardless of what kinds of photography you specialize in, if it involves people, it involves posing. And while the various styles and situations you might be shooting – boudoir, wedding, newborn, portaiture, seniors – all call for different varieties of poses and moods, there are some basic posing tips, best practices, and basic posing mistakes to be aware of.

[caption id="attachment_10837" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo via Flickr[/caption] Unlike almost every other industry, which mostly lags during the month of December, the craft business is its busiest right around the holiday season. As everyone flocks to Etsy to purchase their beautiful handmade gifts, the sellers are caught in a whirlwind of furious fulfillment.