Producing High-Quality Photo Essays is Now Paying Off

I stopped now and then to capture the magic of these perfectly round drops of water clinging onto razor-sharp blades of grass. A million raindrops were sparkling in the weak light dancing in the rain. As a travel writer and passionate photographer, it just made sense to me to use my own pictures to describe the journeys I embarked on. I couldn’t tell a story about sitting in a canoe on a brown river in Africa and use some staged stock photo next to it. I think I can count on one hand how many times I have used a stock photo for my Medium articles and I have published over 1000 essays in the past three years. I’m not a professional photographer. Not at all. I just love taking photographs and I have to admit that this platform has helped me to become a better photographer more than anything else. There are some outstanding photography publications with artists who have produced award-winning pictures. And these people share some great pieces of advice on how to improve your skills behind the camera. Sometimes there is just one thing they mention. Sometimes the entire article is about a certain skill set you can practice or a new technique you should try. And while the community of photographers on Medium was rather a small one, it has been growing steadily and received more and more attention. The traditional photo essay wasn’t the typical article curators were looking for when selecting a piece for distribution but with the latest updates on Medium, even this has changed. Selected nominators requested displaying and boosting more photo essays and I have to say, it is working. <a href="https://medium.com/in-living-color/producing-high-quality-photo-essays-is-now-paying-off-be3d043be3bb">Website</a>