Blog Posts

Capture the spirit of times when something new unsettles the existing status quo in art. Many artists, at various points in history, have stood where we as photographers are now—feeling the pressure from new, emerging technologies and wondering about our place in the...

Celebrating 14 years of HoustonPhotowalks. In this blog post, we reflect on our amazing members, our positive community impact, and the shared passion for photography that unites us. Here’s to our members who make this journey special and to capturing the world together for many more years to come.

Planning to visit Seismique to get some cool graduation portraits, family pictures, or selfies?  Be aware of their undisclosed fees, especially if you bring a large group.  HoustonPhotowalks never wants to burn a bridge or make it so we can't visit a location again in...

Take Your Photo and Video Editing Game to the Next Level with These Windows-Only Apps As digital creatives, it's sometimes easy to dismiss Windows-only software applications.  We've been told for years that Mac is where it's at.  At the same time, many of us are...

We have a winner! Every year as part of keeping things fun even when it's too hot outside to photowalk, we do a "Fix Joe's Busted Images" contest, where I toss out a few of my photographs and challenge members to edit them. And anything goes. No Holds Barred. Over the...

XPOZER.COM is a new and safe way to hang large gallery prints.  As photographers, we’re always on the hunt for our next favorite shot.  With Xpozer's reusable frame, you can swap out images as often as you want!  The frames are very light, and the hanger attaches at a...

Prime Day is June 21 & 22, 2021 Each year, HoustonPhotowalks digs through the Amazon Prime Day Deals and finds photography-related gems. I will be looking for things of interest that fall in these categories: computers, electronics, travel, and camera and posting...

It's time to sign up! Hello Folks! HoustonPhotowalks and BrambleBerry Tours is teaming up with another discount for a Safari Tour in Northern Serengeti!. The folks at BrambleBerry are offering HoustonPhotowalks members a sweet $1,000 discount, but we are limited to...

Final Chance for a Discount! Here's a great last-minute Christmas gift idea! Sign up before January 5th to receive a $300 discount! BrambleBerry tours is offering a $300 Holiday discount for this once-in-a-lifetime trip!SIGN UP today so you can join this amazing 7...

Up to 40% off on the BEST pocket 360 cameras! You guys have seen me at photowalks taking group pictures and event videos with either my Insta360 Nano attached to my iPhone, or my updated Insta360 ONE X. They are super slick, very small, and can make full 360 degree...

Black Friday Week: Free Extra Day! Sign up before November 30th to receive a $600 discount *AND* a free extra day of tours! BrambleBerry tours is offering an additional day of photography during our Serengeti tour for $250. This includes another night stay,...

Photography, Electronics and Photography-travel Related Amazon Deals Today is Amazon Prime Day, the internet's global garage sale of "stuff" that our favorite online retailer wants us to buy. To help you find interesting items to consider, I'll be posting items I find...

Boris FX, a company that builds software for the entertainment industry has recently released a version of its software aimed at Photographers. Its a bit pricy, $9.00/mo or $99/year, but for those wanting to add more zing to their images, or need to do complicated...

HoustonPhotowalks manages events and RSVPs through the Meetup.com platform.  This means that members have the ability to submit complaints to Meetup.com about groups or the group organizer (or both).  A recent complaint was submitted about how HoustonPhotowalks...

Last week we had a fun zoom webinar with Jonathan in Barcelona.  He's a street photographer and photography tour guide that's using is lockdown time to teach phone photography techniques.  You can check out his classes on AirBnB, the price is extremely reasonable and...

As we continue to communicate virtually rather than in-person, some members are still a little confused about emails and notifications.  Our only way to communicate with members is via meetup's online email system, so organizers have to rely on members to allow...

Today, Canon officially announced the new EOS R5 and EOS R6 Mirrorless cameras, and they are already available for preorder. Canon EOS R5 Body ($3,899) Adorama or Amazon Canon EOS R5 + RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM ($4,999) Adorama or Amazon Canon EOS R6 Body ($2,499)...

The good folks at Anthropics Software have supported HoustonPhotowalks with discounts and giveaways several times over the years. I'm really excited to announce that for the next month, until August 2nd, 2020, they are offering HoustonPhotowalks.com another great...

It looks like Zoom and GoToMeeting events are going to be around a while for many of us. And more than one person has asked me about my zoom backgrounds. First off, I suggest using your own photography. I mean, we are a photography club. 🙂 But at the same time, some...

HoustonPhotowalks rely quite heavily on email notifications to make sure you have the best possible experience when you attend our events. To help you not miss important notices, we’ve created this handy How-To, to help make sure you don’t miss anything important.

One of our long time sponsors, Skylum (formally MacPhun) is running a special for their partner websites. You can find their ad on our Member Perks web page, and our discount is usually $10 or $20 (depending on what you buy). But for today (Tuesday, June 16th, 2020),...

Yesterday I had an amazing time teaching another Workflow class with the HoustonPhotowalks.com club.  In this class, we discussed security, file storage options, and backups.  I updated some key parts of the presentation for 2020, as well as updated the class...

Want to capture incredible photographs? Some of the best locations that can provide you with that prized shot are often located within remote parts of the world. Understandably, it can be very difficult to not only get to these places but haul all your equipment to...

I get weekly updates from various companies about "deals" for photographers. It's usually sales on new Photoshop Actions or Lightroom Presets, or a new gadget for your camera bag. Today, the folks at PhotoWhoa posted an interesting product that I wanted to pass along...

Hey folks!It's Amazon Prime Day, the day that Amazon checks it's shelves, wipes off some dust and sells at hourly-expiring discounts. While I'm going through the list, looking for stuff I need (want), I'm posting interesting things to share.If you also see something...

Security and Passwords are extremely important to the Photographer's Workflow How can you prevent being a victim?  Or worse yet, having your friends, family and photography followers victimized by emails that they think came from you?  Use hard to guess passwords and...

Hello Everyone! Thank you for coming out last weekend, I had a blast and I hope you did too. We had several winners in our door prizes, listed below. HUGE thanks to Betty for grabbing these images for us. In-person winners:Lee Filters Protective Field Pouch - Sabina...

10 Years of Fun, Photography and a Positive Impact Although "photography" is the subject we all have in common, it is the friendships and social aspect of HPW that binds us.   On May 18th, 2019, we will celebrate 10 years of photography, friendship, and fun with a...

Karen Butts Master of Photography Certified Professional Photographer https://www.naturalimagesbykaren.com PPA Five time MEDALIST - PPAWe are very honored to have Karen Butts of Natural Images By Karen Photography as our speaker. She will be doing a presentation based...

HPW Welcomes Insta360! Good News everyone, the makers of the Insta360 Nano, that little camera you guys see me using to take 360-degree images, has joined the Member Perks and Sponsorship program! You can now get the Insta360 Nano S, the upgraded version of what I...

Not going to lie.  I enjoy April 1st. For those that have a keen eye, you knew the moment that I said we were moving to Google Plus, that it was a joke.  And you probably know that we aren't really going to ride Metro Rail in our underwear.  At least, I really hope...

This is the nitty-gritty roadmap details on how Houston Photowalk (HPW) Organizers and Hosts plan events. Sit bag and dig in. This is what our volunteers do to make sure you have a great Photowalk! Why Does It Take So Many Words To Explain How Houston Photowalk Events...

The conversation of canceling a shoot due to the rain came up recently, and I always remind folks how much money production crews spend bringing in a fake-rain setup. So its pretty awesome when Mother Nature provides rain for free. Shooting in the rain can be a lot of...

Ok, I'll admit it ... Taking folks to places they would otherwise never visit, or even know about, is a huge kick for me. It is one of the biggest parts of running HoustonPhotowalks that I enjoy the most. Quite often, people attending these tours are provided a...

Comments on Photos, good or bad? Most people appreciate and maybe even crave feedback, especially positive. When it comes to photography, there are those who are very comfortable providing constructive, well-crafted critiques. These paragraphs of personal opinions are...

The iBooks App Many folks know that their iPhone and iPad can read books using the iBook App from the App Store. Its free and very simple to install. What many folks don't know is, it can be used to store things other than just ebooks. My iPad is full of PDFs I've...

In Part 1 of our photography class, “A Focus On Gear”, we discussed many different products and how to evaluate what will work best for your needs. As promised, here are a list of products and brands that I’ve used over the years, and some comments on each. A Good...

We shift files back and forth trying to find the best backup strategy. But the activity of moving files around only increases our chance of loosing important data. At one point or another, we've all lost a file forever. Maybe it wasn't a significant tragedy, or maybe...

Get the most out of your Facebook Image Posts (and keep from getting ignored) As a member and admin of several Facebook groups, I see a lot (a LOT) of posted images. This often includes unintentional pitfalls, missed opportunities and non-preferred behavior by members...

Checklists are lifesavers. Checking a list can make sure you don't arrive in Belize with a perfectly good camera and tripod -- but no tripod quick release plate. The 24Moves Photography Travel Packing List About once a year, I update my photography checklist just...

Backups are crazy important. No matter how "good" hardware gets, nothing is 100% reliable. So everyone should have two backup strategies -- a backup medium and an off-line backup (even if it is just a USB drive you keep in your desk at work!). Workflows and Backups...

Please note: This was originally published on our former website The "Three Reasons" We occasionally talk about the "Three Reasons" we photowalk. This page provides a bit of depth to the subject. In brief, the "Three Reasons" are Fun and Safety (we hang out together...