Shelly Perry, from Portland, Oregon, left a decade-long career working with children in a social services capacity to pursue her life-long love of photography in 2003. Now an established professional, her images have been seen all over the globe on album covers, books, magazines, catalogues, websites, ad campaigns, and even on TV. Her work has also appeared in several local exhibits and gallery shows.
While she makes most of her photography income through stock, her real photography love is documentary and creative fine art. An excellent presenter, Shelly has joined numerous Great Escape workshops to share her experiences and help our readers to follow in her footsteps. Shelly’s specialty is people photography - what she calls documentary or lifestyle portraits.
Today: I can't imagine ever having a "regular job" again.
Best adventure: I have had so many epic moments, but these are a few standouts: swimming with the giant sea turtles in the Galapagos, walking the Great Wall of China, riding an elephant in Thailand (way better than riding a camel in Egypt), flying in a tiny piper plane over the wilds of Alaska, being at the Lantern Festival in Thailand, seeing the Shaman in Ecuador, meeting and making friends all over the world.
Favorite Photographer: Gregory Colbert
People don’t know: I’m scared of heights!
Stock agencies, magazines, and other photo buyers are often on the lookout for photos that have a “human element”—that is, photos that subtly feature people. The biggest reason why you want to include the human element in your photos is because it exponentially magnifies your sales potential. Whether your market is stock or editorial, buyers […]
Perspective can mean a lot of things, depending on the situation. It can be used to describe the way you think about things. Or for giving form and depth to a drawing on paper. For photographers, perspective is a handy tool you can use to enhance your shots and get better photographs. We all start […]
One of the most powerful photography techniques to learn is selective focus. It makes your photos look more intentional, more professional, and lends impact, directing the viewer’s eye. What is Selective Focus? Selective focus is basically what it sounds like. You select what portion of your image you want to be in focus, while blurring […]
Photography was there for me when I didn’t know what to do with my life. I was a social worker. I worked with severely emotionally-disturbed children, and my weeks were long and emotionally stressful. On one particular day, a young lady I’d been working with for months went into a rage punched me in the […]
Magical and mystical is one way to describe rolling through the Serengeti at sunrise looking out for those animals on an early morning hunt. The scenery in Tanzania is hard to describe, in part because you can drive for what feels like a few miles and the whole world changes. We were in three (maybe […]
Every time you’re planning a photo shoot, one of the very first questions to answer is “Where?” Unless you have a highly-functional studio at your disposal, you likely have some favorite locations where you like to shoot. But sometimes I like to explore new places. I love the synchronicity of finding unique locations and working […]
When the table flips… what do you do? That was my predicament back in 2002. First, let me back up a second. I found my interest and love of photography back in high school. I went to a magnet school in San Diego for graphic arts (where I studied photography). That’s when working in the […]
These days, we pretty much all have a great camera in our pockets. Whether it’s an iPhone, Android, Galaxy or other cell phone, they all come with better cameras than the original full-size digital camera I bought nearly 15 years ago. But, just because the cameras are good doesn’t mean you’ll end up with good […]
Let’s go back 15 years. The way we processed photos was to drive to the local one-hour photo lab and come back later to pick up our packet of prints to see what we got. There was very little that we actually had to do, other than take the picture. But the digital revolution has […]
You don’t need formal qualifications to be a photographer. However these three traits will help you go a long way…
