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More info here.

Beginners, enthusiasts and pros welcome.

Feel free to email me at news@ginamilicia.com if you have any questions.

“Fill your life with experiences, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show.”

Above: Image by Gina Milicia

I have some exciting news and I’m sharing it with you guys first!

I’m doing a 6-day intensive portrait and lighting workshop in my favourite place in the world – SICILY!

Spaces are limited to only 8 spots.

I’d love the opportunity to show you my beautiful Island.

More info here.

Beginner, enthusiasts and pros welcome.

Feel free to email me at news@ginamilicia.com if you have any questions.

Above: Image by Gina Milicia

“Inside of me, there are two dogs. One is mean and evil, and the other is good, and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.”― Sitting Bull

Imagine if you invited guests into your home and they spent the whole time reminding you about all the mistakes you’ve made in your life and telling you not to attempt a new challenge because it’s too tricky and you will probably fail.

I call these house guests “Worry” and “Fear” and the home they visit is my mind. They swagger in uninvited, put their feet up on my furniture, and eat all my Nutella.

I hate them, hate how small they make me feel, but at 3 am when my defences are down they sneak into my mind, wake me up and proceed to scare the caca out of me.

For many years I let Fear and Worry bully me into believing they were right and no matter how good my life was in that moment my future was going to suck.

“Worry is a misuse of the imagination.”

Fear and Worry are imaginary . . .

“I often feel like saying, when I hear the question ‘People aren’t ready,’ that it’s like telling a person who is trying to swim, ‘Don’t jump in that water until you learn how to swim.’ When actually you will never learn how to swim until you get in the water.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

National Geographic photographers explore the power of photography and explain why this life of image-making suits them so well.

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Lynsey AddarioWilliam Albert AllardJames BalogMarcus BleasdaleJodi CobbDavid DoubiletDavid GuttenfelderDavid Alan HarveyAaron HueyLynn JohnsonEd KashiTim LamanDavid LittschwagerGerd LudwigMichael NicholsPaul NicklenRandy OlsonJim RichardsonJoel SartoreStephanie SinclairBrian SkerryBrent StirtonAmy ToensingMichael Yamashita

Visit http://proof.nationalgeographic.com for more interviews from this series

Above: Image by Gina Milicia

A beautiful subject in an awesome location can be ruined by poor light. So when you’re organizing a shoot, looking for good light should be the first thing you do.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

There are three elements to a great portrait: light, subject and location.

Which is more important? Let me put it this way: if light, subject and location played paper, scissors, rock; light would always win.

Why? A beautiful subject in an awesome location can be ruined by poor light. So when you’re organizing a shoot, looking for good light should be the first thing you do.

The results you can achieve shooting in natural light can be incredible, but natural light is fickle. It will never look the same twice. To find yourself with a spectacular background and great light is incredibly rare so if you can recreate the beauty of natural light, you can create a beautiful photo anywhere.

Be prepared

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”–Benjamin Franklin

Before you aim your camera at anyone, you should be confident that your lighting and your settings are correct. You see, the longer your set-up and testing process takes the . . .

Above: Image by Gina Milicia. Fuji x100F.

“A lot of photographers think that if they buy a better camera they’ll be able to take better photographs. A better camera won’t do a thing for you if you don’t have anything in your head or in your heart.” ―Arnold Newman

Via time.com

Photographers pointed their cameras in every direction around the world to reveal these scenes — at times risking their own safety — and brought us along as virtual witnesses. Here, TIME’s photo editors present an unranked selection of the 100 best images of the year.

See all images here.

Warning: Some of the following images are graphic in nature and might be disturbing to some viewers.

Above: An abandoned home in the village of San Miguel Los Lotes, near the Guatemalan city of Escuintla, after a June volcanic eruption. Daniele Volpe.

Above: Image by Gina Milicia. Women in Red. South Africa 5D MK 4.“When people look at my pictures, I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.”―Robert FrankI love this quote by Robert Frank. It sums up the way I feel about photography. I want people to care about my images. I want them to feel something when they look at them.What’s the point of creating art that nobody cares about? Often we are so hung up with technique and megapixels and postproduction that we forget the real reason art exists in the first place.Great art is visual storytelling, and great storytelling evokes a reaction. I feel something when I look at an image.I can still remember the first time I saw the work of Rodin, Van Gogh, Mapplethorpe, Fan Ho, or Herb Ritts.I’ve read books where I fell in love with the characters and still think about them 20 years later.The type of work that I care about has nothing to do with technique, megapixel size or lens choice.A great image forces me to see differently, is honest, raw and authentic, it can be beautiful and ugly at . . .