Richard Avedon: "I have to hold on to all those things most people throw away in the garbage can... be in touch with my fragility..."

Tips on importance of backgrounds, panning, using available light -- all obvious but well stated with good examples.

Below is an entry from the Zoriah Photojournalism blog. I wish i had known this technique back a few weeks ago when I was visiting New Orleans with Chris Briscoe (www. chrisbriscoe.com) and got caught in torrential rains while trying to shoot Uncle Lionel's funeral procession. We had no bags to cover our cameras which were almost water logged. The...