If you visit any large city and photograph tall buildings, you quickly understand the problem of perspective. Unless you are about half a mile away (just try that in New York) you have to shoot up and use a wide angle lens to fit it all in. The inevitable result is a building that looks like it's falling backwards. And if you're shooting 2 buildings side by side, it looks like they are going to hug.

When I was a young man, I remembered every movie I’d ever seen. Places I’d been. Restaurants enjoyed. People met. My photos were mostly a creative exercise, like a journal full of detail and consideration rather than documents of time and place. I lived in the fantasy that my photos were incidental to the journey.

My dad passed away in that time before audio and video tape made home re-cordings a commonplace family heirloom. As far as I know there’s nothing of him in motion, even in silent 8mm home movie footage. And as much as I treasure the photos I have to remember him by, I’ve come to appreciate the power of motion and sound to spark special memories. I see it with my clients all the time.

What professional photographers don’t tell you is how bad they really are. Even the best of them fail most of the time. Which is to say that the images they show are only a fraction of the images they create. The rest? Just digital debris. So success, ironically, is largely a matter of hiding their mistakes.

It used to be, with film, that there were only two kinds of photos. The Keepers and the Discards. Either a picture was worthy of printing or it wasn’t. The iPhone changed all that. Here’s how to manage your Photos Library and keep it under control.

When people reach out for help with their pictures, the conversation always starts with their number. The takeaway is that there is no right or wrong number for the images in your Photos LIbrary. If you are overwhelmed by the state of your collection, it’s not the overall number that’s causing the frustration but is more likely the result. Adjusting your point of view about photo management and understanding what all the numbers mean will deliver a happier outcome.

For me, summer is like a movie. Memorial Day hooks you with the promise of long, fun-filled days in the sun and reuniting with friends. Plots and subplots play out week by week with activities, travel, and reunions.

If ever there was a year to celebrate Independence Day, this is it.

And if ever there was the perfect reason for using Live Photo, it’s to capture the experience of a fireworks display.

Want a sure-fire/first class/award-winning Mom experience for Mother’s Day? For you or for the Moms in your life?

Here’s what you do.

Back in the day, before Garmin suctioned GPS pods to every windshield, getting directions to obscure locations was often an exercise in oral history, not unlike The Moth but far less entertaining.