Hey, everyone. Ziggy here again. I wanted to talk about a project I’m currently writing and producing in my spare time; a photography podcast! It currently has the very tentative name, “The Shutter Button Podcast: We’re Already Halfway There,” and at its core, I’ll be using it to talk about a ton of subjects that can be daunting for both beginners and hobbyists, alike.

Each episode, I plan to talk about a very specific subject for about 5-10 minutes with the goal of providing listeners with a set of steps they can follow to practice and integrate that new information into their toolkit. For example, one of the first episodes is about project planning and some of the key factors that should help break it down into simpler, more digestible terms. I discuss how to plan and manage a budget for both time and money, as well as scouting for shooting locations and even giving some tips on how to brainstorm and keep track of project ideas.

My current goal is to finish the writing for the first four episodes, as well as the outlining for the following four, for a total of eight episodes that I’ll be releasing either once per week or twice per month. The release schedule is still being worked on, but I’m planning on making the podcast available on all of the major platforms, as well as right here on my blog!

With all of that being said, I still have a lot of work to do, but I’m excited and looking forward to the remainder of this initial writing period and moving into the recording/production steps.

As always, thanks for all of the support and I hope to see you all again real soon. See you next week!

- Zig

Hey everyone! This is my first time engaging an audience with this kind of tool and I thought that there would be no better place to write my first post than on my very own website! First, I should introduce myself since my assumption is that you're reading this to learn more about me and my photography.

My name is James Zygmont, I'm 22 years old (as of writing this post), and I'm a regional photographer in Fairfield, Connecticut. I haven't always been a photographer, but within the last several years, I've discovered that there is nothing that does a better job of getting my creativity flowing than a camera, a backpack, and a city full of stories.

My goal for this blog is to explore, in writing, my experiences and processes in my everyday shooting so that you, as a reader, are able to find something interesting or valuable that might help you when you're out with your own camera!

Right now, I'm experimenting and trying to discover the techniques and subjects that interest me the most. At this very moment, I would say that the kind of photography that excites my artistic side the most, is macro photography. Mainly, for the abstract story-telling capabilities that macro photography has to offer. Every photograph tells a story, but with macro photography, I'm able to tell the everyday stories that go unnoticed all around us! It's so much fun to point my lens at the world and twist, turn, pinch, pull, and jumble it around.

It's a great way to discover a different side of the things that surround you in your day-to-day life. Here's a small example that you can try yourself; put your pointer fingers and thumbs together in the shape of a rectangle (just like a movie director looking for her perfect shot). Then, pick an object in the room that you're in. Focus only on that one object and move your makeshift viewfinder along each corner and surface and notice that, as the composition changes, so does the story you're telling about this particular object and its place in the room. The space around it changes, creating different perspectives of how this object blends in with its environment. Sometimes it gets entirely isolated, contrasting boldly against the rest of the walls and furniture, and other times, it just blends right in, as if it's just a piece set against a more imposing backdrop.

I love this about macro photography because it takes this practice to the very extreme. Instead of just narrowing your field of view, you also abstract a lot more detail for the viewer. You get the chance to erode parts of the room and replace them with your own message. Now, a large part of this, at least for me, is keeping a piece of that original object, or idea, intact. I do my best to avoid influencing the subject directly and instead opt to change MY perspective when I go out shooting macro scenes.

I think the biggest thing that helps me, however, is just taking lots and lots of photos with all kinds of exposures and angles. You need to give yourself the time to mess up and do a lot of trial-and-error. You have to move around and bend your arms in all sorts of ways to see what possibilities there are besides your default view. There might be something AMAZING if you just walk to the side by a foot or two. You might even ask some of the people around you to see what they see to gain yet another perspective! There are so many options when it comes to this style of shooting, it's absolutely great!

Last, but definitely not least, don't forget that you're doing this for yourself. Photograph subjects that YOU enjoy. Move around in ways that YOU feel the most comfortable. Engage with your surroundings in the way that YOU see best. I would like to encourage you to move around, but start out in any way that makes sense to you.

Phew! That was a lot of writing for my first post. I'm sure I could have narrowed it down to a much simpler "Hello" and been half as satisfied, but I'm sure I'll be writing a lot more in detail about my exact processes and inspirations. I hope I was able to give you a small glimpse of what gives me the energy to get out to the city and shoot for hours on end and I hope that you were able to get something valuable out of reading this.

I'd like to end this post with a question, as well as get some insight as to what some of you guys feel about this style of writing. What kind of experience do you have with macro photography? Are you a master of the mini? Or is this the first time you're reading about something like this? Leave a comment or feel free to email me directly.

Anyway, this is just the first of hopefully many posts so I want to also thank you for your support and I hope you have a great time shooting!

Best of luck,

James