Expert Advice

Great stories don’t always start with a camera. Sometimes they start with a family recipe, a conversation, a moment between classes, or simply paying attention to the people around you. For Kayla Rivers, storytelling is about finding those moments and giving them the space they deserve. As she builds her career across documentary filmmaking, content creation, and the entertainment industry, Kayla is interested in creating work that feels authentic, personal, and representative of the people behind the story. We caught up with Kayla to talk about finding her voice at Spelman, making meaningful work with the gear you already have, taking creative risks before you feel ready, and why listening may be one of a storyteller’s most important skills.

Your phone can sharpen a dark restaurant selfie, remove a stranger from the background, and make a sunset look like it was professionally lit. So why are people hunting down digital cameras from 2008 with tiny screens, slow zooms, and batteries that have seen better days?

Ever packed your camera, headed out the door, and realized your spare battery is still on the charger? Or pulled out your camera only to find a full memory card, no good way to carry your gear, and a shutter speed that’s too slow to handhold?

Water photography is equal parts planning, timing, and accepting that salt, sand, spray, and pressure don’t care how nice your camera is. The biggest or most expensive camera isn’t automatically the right choice. The better move is matching your gear to how you shoot, how deep you go, and how much gear you actually want to carry.

Film photography is back, but why aren’t more brands making new film cameras? That is the contradiction we keep bumping into: photographers are buying film cameras, shooting rolls, getting them developed, and fully immersing themselves in this medium… yet the industry has not responded with a flood of new 35mm film cameras. The Pentax 17 proved that a major brand can still build a new film camera in the 2020s, so the bigger question is sharper: if people clearly want film, why aren’t companies making film cameras at scale? 

Choosing between medium-format film and large-format film is really a choice between two different creative rhythms. Medium format gives you a bigger negative than 35mm while still feeling relatively portable and roll-friendly. Large format, especially 4×5 film, slows the process down and rewards careful composition, camera movements, and a more hands-on approach.

Camera specs have a funny way of turning photography into a numbers game. 24MP used to feel impressive, then came 36MP, 45MP, then 60MP, and now we’re casually shopping in a world where “high resolution” keeps getting higher. So… do you need 60MP?

Film photography has never been just about the final image. The appeal is in the entire process: choosing a stock, loading a roll, working within a fixed ISO, making an exposure, and waiting to see what you actually got. The resulting grain, color, contrast, and highlight response are part of that equation.

Fashion Week is not just a runway moment. It spills onto the streets outside venues, into hotel lobbies, restaurants, after-events, and all the places where personal style comes to life. For aspiring fashion photographers, it’s a great opportunity to practice street-style photography, work quickly, experiment with composition and light, gain real-world experience, and build a fashion photography portfolio. And you don’t need the newest or most expensive gear to get started.

Vintage lenses can give modern digital cameras a look that is hard to duplicate with newer glass: gentler contrast, characterful flare, tactile focus rings, and compact metal builds. The key is choosing the right lens mount adapter, setting up your camera for manual-focus lenses, and adopting a slower, more intentional shooting process. This guide walks through adapting vintage lenses on modern cameras with practical steps you can use before buying, mounting, and shooting.

Camera bodies get the attention: the newest sensor, the fastest tracking, the cleanest screen, the best-looking design. But lenses are a long-term commitment. They shape how your images look, how your kit feels in a bag, how you focus, and how easy it is to grow without replacing everything.

As fashion weeks approach, the visual noise starts to build before the first model steps onto the runway. There will be backstage clips, front-row portraits, street-style galleries, campaign teasers, and thousands of near-instant digital images competing for attention. In the middle of that flood, one creative choice still feels surprisingly powerful: fashion photography on film.