Marco Secchi

07/09/2026

Your camera's meter is not wrong. It is just average.

Point it at snow and the photo comes back grey. Point it at a face against a bright window and the face goes dark. Point it at a dark room and it looks strangely bright.

The meter measured the light correctly. It made a reasonable decision based on everything inside the frame. The problem is that a reasonable average is rarely the photograph you had in mind.

That is what exposure compensation actually does. It does not change how the scene is measured. It changes what the camera is aiming for.

The technical part is easy. Recognising the moment the camera needs to be told is the actual skill.

Lesson three of my eight-week series on exposure fundamentals is live now.

Why the camera’s meter can give you the wrong brightness, and how to correct it before taking the photograph

07/09/2026

My new dedicated page for small-group photography workshops is now live.

The workshops are currently available in Venice and Budapest, two very different cities that offer extraordinary opportunities to work with light, architecture, movement, and everyday life.

Small groups mean more time to look, experiment and discuss the photographs we are making. The aim is not simply to collect attractive views, but to create stronger, more deliberate images.

Full details:

https://www.msecchi.com/small-group-photography-workshops

Join Marco Secchi for small-group photography workshops in Venice, Budapest, Milan, and other destinations, with practical guidance in the field.

06/09/2026

Two weeks left of holiday.

Then Venice for a month. Twenty-five workshop days out of thirty. This is what a good season looks like.

October is already one of my busiest months in Venice.

If you are thinking about next year, book early. The good dates go first.

New next season: a small group workshop. Capped at a few people, not the usual one-to-one. Same eye, same attention, shared with others who care about the same light.

Details coming soon. Questions welcome now!

Check my website

06/09/2026

Your photograph is in focus. So why is it still soft?

I am starting a new series. Eight Mondays, eight short technical lessons, each built around one precise problem in photography. No fluff, five minutes each.

We begin with a mistake almost every photographer blames on autofocus. Missed focus, camera shake, and subject movement all look the same at first glance. They are not. Each has its own fix, and using the wrong one wastes your time and your shots.

This first lesson is free, no paywall.

Read it here:

The difference between missed focus, camera movement and subject movement, and the shutter speeds that prevent each one

05/09/2026

Lake Bled is one of those places where a good photograph seems to make itself. The island, the church, the castle, the mountains behind. Stand almost anywhere along the shore and you will come away with something pleasant.

That ease is worth being suspicious of.

In this month's piece for Through the Lens, I go through the nine viewpoints I keep coming back to at Bled, across different heights, distances, and seasons. Sunrise at the western boardwalk. The uphill walk to Ojstrica and Mala Osojnica. The quieter shore below Vila Bled. The view down from the castle. Crossing to the island and photographing outward instead of in.

The familiar view of Bled earned its fame honestly. The lake, the island, and the mountains really do belong together. But the interesting photograph usually starts after you have made that one.

Full guide is up on Through the Lens, link below.

My favourite positions around Slovenia’s most photographed lake, and how to make them your own

05/09/2026

Nagyrév begins with a crossing.

The Hungarian word rév means a ferry or river crossing, and the first surviving written mention of one here dates to 1311. In this frame, the machinery, cables and ramp occupy one bank of the Tisza, while the road continues on the opposite side.

I came to Nagyrév following its darker history, but places are never only the stories that made them notorious. They are also landscape, routine and the structures that quietly hold everyday life together.

The ferry offers another way into the village.
Not through legend, but through geography.

04/09/2026

The first thing Nagyrév gives you is silence.

The Tisza barely seems to move, the trees repeat themselves in the water, and the small boats wait along the bank.
Even the ferry is still.

It began as a simple notice, but for me it came to describe something more: the quiet isolation of this place, and part of what first made me curious about it.

Living so close, I was drawn to Nagyrév by its history and by Sabrina Zuccato’s book. Its tranquillity is what makes me want to return.

03/09/2026

Every photographer knows this moment. Something makes you stop. You lift the camera, make the frame, and it feels right in the instant.

Later, looking at the photograph, the reason you stopped is barely there.

This week on Through the Lens I write about why the first photograph is usually not the photograph, and what to do instead of walking away too soon. I am also introducing a new monthly assignment called LOOK AGAIN. Choose an ordinary place. Give it thirty minutes. See what changes.

Full lesson and assignment here:

Why the obvious frame is often only the beginning, and a practical exercise in staying, moving and making more deliberate decisions.

01/09/2026

The August Red Pen is now live.

This month I examine ten photographs, each offering a different lesson about structure, timing, gesture, light, scale or human behaviour.

The purpose is not to rank the photographs or declare them right or wrong. I look at what already works, what might be strengthened, and how small changes in position, framing, timing or processing could alter the result.

The edition also includes the announcement of a new monthly photography assignment, open to every reader and beginning next week.

Read the complete edition here:

Ten photographs, ten distinct ways of seeing, and a closer look at the choices that give each frame its structure, energy and voice.

01/09/2026

One of the most practical things I published this summer was also one of the easiest to miss.

I collected fifteen photography exercises into a downloadable field guide designed to help you notice more, make stronger decisions and bring home photographs that preserve the feeling of a journey, not simply the places you visited.

It works with a phone or any camera, and finishes with a ten-photograph sequencing challenge.

The complete guide is included for paid subscribers. If you overlooked it the first time, download it before your next trip, or use the exercises closer to home.

Your downloadable field guide is ready, with fifteen practical exercises to help you bring home photographs that still matter years later.