New reDefine Show Episodes from Kenny Kim and Brooke Shaden with Tamara Lackey Here's another two truly inspirational episodes of the reDefine Show, produced in conjunction with Adorama and featured on AdoramaTV. Destination Wedding and Travel Photography with Kenny Kim In this episode, I chat with world-renowned wedding photographer Kenny Kim, as he shares his gorgeous destination photography, a great lesson about overcoming crippling fear, and an absolutely fantastic tip f

Love, Fear & A Chance Encounter at Duke Children's Hospital I'd been holding my breath for the last five hours, struggling through what would end up being my daughter's 9-hour surgery at Duke Children's Hospital, when she sat down. Her name was Sue, and she asked if the seat next to me was taken. We were in the waiting room. I was positioned so that I could stare at the wall that separated me, in the waiting room, from the hallway that led to the operating room where my daugh

Photography Studio in Chapel Hill, NC for Tamara Lackey Photography Our new photography studio! I am VERY excited to share this update about our brand new studio space in Chapel Hill, which is finally coming together!! It took about seven months to design, draw, re-draw, and architect this new space out. A few months of working remotely, and quite a number of permits and inspections, but we are nearly there! We wanted a great combination of open flex workspace, a private ph

New reDefine Show episodes with Luke and David Edmonson & Andrew Funderburg I have so many exciting new episodes of the reDefine show to share with you. While I was at WPPI this year, I was able to sit down and record with a lot of very talented photographers and innovators since we were all in the same space. It made things hectic schedule-wise, but it was so worth it. And, as always, a big thank you to Adorama for all of your support! Luke and David Edmonson To start with,

Our first Beautiful Together US-based Project - Safe Showers for Homeless Youth Our brand new Beautiful Together project, also our first full project based in the United States, is focused on working to improve the quality of life for impoverished youth in America – specifically, homeless youth who have recently cycled out of foster care and are struggling to find a home, a job, and a community. We are thrilled to be partnering with RunningWorks, as they expand their extrao

Announcing the 2016 Tamara Lackey Three Day Portrait Photography Workshop in Chapel Hill, NC - October 4-6 I love teaching small group workshops for a whole bunch of good reasons, but honestly, the best one is the fact that I get to make friendships with the wonderful photographers who attend. We spend a very focused few days together as well as guaranteed one-on-one time with me and each participant, so by the end of the workshop, I truly feel close to them all. I only do a

The Big Deal 2016 Photography Bundle - The Posing Playbook... for Kids Who Don't Do Posing Have you been interested in purchasing The Posing Playbook… for Kids Who Don’t Do Posing? Well for the next few days, until July 4, the Playbook is available as part of The Big Deal 2016 Photography Bundle. For only $99, the Playbook joins presets, files, and training from some of the best photo educators out there. The information in the bundle will help to kickstart a new photography

Adorama Sunday Family Funday 2016 - June 5th on 18th Street in NYC This Sunday, I'll be returning to the Adorama Sunday Family Funday Street Fair! This is the sixth year for this festive celebration, as Adorama shuts down 18th Street and puts on quite the show. Like in previous years, I'll be doing a live shoot, as well as a presentation, at 1pm , joining all these other great presenters - and football stars! - for a great day of food, photography, and prize-winning (like

Effective Immediately - 50% of Lush Albums proceeds now to go directly to Beautiful Together! A very exciting shift for Lush Albums and Beautiful Together! As many of you know, we started our Beautiful Together non-profit to work to improve the quality of life for children waiting for families and those living in extreme poverty. One steady source of funds to support our projects have come from the sale of Lush Albums, our gorgeous fine art photo albums that have given 10% ba

Seven Days, Around the World Photos A week ago, I was nominated on Facebook to post a photo of the natural world for the next 7 days, which struck me as taking a mini Around the World photos trip for a week. My gut response to this was twofold: 1. I love photos of the natural world, I love to take them and I am inspired when I see them. 2. Ummm, that seems like a whole lot of extra work just now when we have so much going on in the studio (We are moving! Lots more to come on

My Nikon D5 Review (or at least a first look!) I jokingly posted on facebook the other day that I needed to stop petting my Nikon D5 so that I could actually go out and shoot with it. But it really wasn't all a joke because this is truly a beautiful-looking camera, and it feels, from an ergonomic perspective, more comfortable to hold than even before. That being said, I have been having a LOT of fun shooting with it, too ; ) So, here is my Nikon D5 review, showcasing jus

An update on Beautiful Together & the Build An Orphan Feeding Kitchen Project In February, my husband, Steve, and I flew from Dubaito Ethiopia. Almost immediately upon landing in Africa, we learned of the urgent need for a kitchen in the new feeding center in Korah that Beautiful Together helps to support through our partner organization, Life To Live for Korah, a grassroots feeding program in the village. More specifics from our project page here: “Korah is one of the poores

Live Photo Critique with Nations Photo Lab - Friday, April 22nd at 12PM EST I will be joining up with Nations Photo Lab next Friday, April 22nd at 12PM EST for a live print critique, and we'll be inviting a few of you to join us on the live broadcast, and to get some of your work printed for free! : ) To submit your image for review, simply post your photo on this Facebook Post before Monday, April 18th. Be sure to register by clicking here - and please note, space is limit

Nikon School: Family Photos – Capturing the Moments on April 7, 2016 I recently visited the Nikon headquarters in Melville, NY for another fantastic Nikon Ambassadors Summit. I really enjoy being a part of such an extraordinarily talented group of creative individuals. We had fun hanging together and spent time learning all about some (exciting!) upcoming releases. And now I get to head back in a few days to host a special workshop as part of the esteemed Nikon School. I’ll

reDefine Episodes with Conceptual Artists Amanda Diaz & Sara Lando These next two reDefine Show episodes both feature different kinds of Conceptual Photography. The first with Amanda Diaz focuses on portrait photography, and the second with Sara Lando focuses on her more mixed-media approach. So what is Conceptual Art? I found this description helpful to explain the overall thinking behind the style: "A concept is an idea or thought, so the term conceptual art means literal

WPPI 2016 in Las Vegas & $500 Giveaway from Adorama This is my 12th WPPI. What?! Crazy. WPPI feels like a summer camp for photographers, coming back to the MGM in Las Vegas for this week of festivities. Even though I can technically only be there for five days, I definitely have more than a week's worth of events, speaking engagements, interviews, demos and more planned - so I'm just calling it a week. This post lists out the events that I'm a part of this week AND includes

Winter 2016 reDefine Show Episodes with Jesse Kalisher, Heather Evans Smith, and Sara Harris This new year has brought us some great new reDefine Show episodes! You can watch them below or on the AdoramaTV page. First, I spoke with friend and fellow Portrait Photographer Sara Harris Photography about how she has built a thriving destination portrait business, based in Virginia but also based in Colorado - and she shares some excellent, concrete tips about how to get started

Believe in fate. But lean forward, so fate can see you. ~ Quentin Crisp We left Ethiopia looking somewhat like these people, but we actually took this shot when we first arrived there. It was a sloppy, fun marker of just how excited we felt to be leaving customs as we headed straight to see our little boy again. We didn't take a photo when we were leaving Ethiopia because we were far too emotional, exhausted and bedraggled to even think of it. We left Africa feeling dee

Digital Photo Pro Magazine - Spotlight on Beautiful Together Recently, I was honored to be featured in the January-February 2016 issue of Digital Photo Pro Magazine, one of my favorite photography magazines that I pick up all the time when I'm at Barnes & Noble. (Like, all the time. I seriously just need to subscribe to it at this point). A big thank you to Tracey Clark who really wrote a beautiful piece after interviewing me. The focus of the article is on photography, y

Unreal to think that Jill is no longer here. We all have so many memories of her, and my most poignant one was actually a phone call - the long, beautiful conversation I had with her after Stuart died. She called to say she was sorry, that she was so sad, and that she was pretty surprised. She said that it didn't seem like someone who could fight that hard could actually pass away. Which is exactly what it felt like this morning, about her - it didn't seem like someone who