Documenting America’s Decline Circa 2022

Waking up to the NY Times headline, Supreme Court Ruling Overturns Roe v. Wade After Nearly 50 Years, I saw how a divided America is moving backwards by taking away women's rights and maybe losing the last vestiges of the dream of being the greatest. Because right now, we're not. Not even close. Come on....

200 Photos To Give Away

LaVern Johnson passed away. She was in her early 90s and was the town matriarch of Lyons Colorado. The town held a memorial service in a park that was named for her a few years ago. Since her passing, I had been posting photographs online of her that I made over the years because I...

Frank’s Photo Books Are a Great Idea and a Tremendous Way to Share Our Work

A photographer I follow who posts online, Frank Solle, offered to send me a copy of his latest book, Travels in Utah. It's a booklet you might say, it's only 32 pages, and I said yes, of course. I'm always interested in what other photographers are doing. His book came in the mail and I...

Taking a Leica M3 Everywhere for 30 Days

I switch out a lot between many cameras in different formats. I enjoy working with large format view cameras as well as the miniature format (as it was originally called)--35mm. And my favorite camera is my Rolleiflex. But for the next 30 days I'm carrying a Leica M3 with a 50mm rigid Summicron with me...

Starting a 2022 Large Format Portrait Project

I'm inspired by many portrait photographers. Five I can think of right off the top of my head would be Judith Joy Ross, Duane Michals, Lora Webb Nichols, Gregg Miller and the masterful August Sander. August Sander. Young Farmers. 1914 Ross, Nichols, Miller and Sander because they documented people in a way that shows them...

Art Photography Versus Documentary Photography–It’s Really Not a Competition!

I was reading on Twitter this tweet that got everyone's in the Twitterverse photography community feathers ruffled. (See what I did there.) Why do people have to tell others what to make and what is valid and what isn't? Like there's any truth to their opinion. There are multiple types of photography, from scientific to...

What Makes a Street Photo?

There are many street photographers nowadays. But what makes a street photo? It can't just be anyone walking along the street--I can see that out the window. To me, there has to be a story (or it gets the viewer to create one). If there's a story, it's a street photograph. If it has no...

My Phone is For Calls, Leave a Message

I heard a professional photographer recently talking about how great his new phone camera is and I thought, boy, I never want to have the computer techs at Apple or Google dictating what my photographs will look like. Have you ever looked at Instagram or Flickr and seen the photographs and how they all look...

The New Canvas, The Empty Frame, The Blank Page: GO!

Every time I sit down to write these photography essays I start with no idea what to write about. I have nothing but a blank page. (It's actually a blinking cursor at the top of this WordPress page, but you get the idea.) What to do? I don't know. If you don't know either, welcome...

Photographer Mentorship with Weekly Photo Assignments

Want to learn photography? You do it by making photographs. There is no other way, no shortcut, no special trick, no secret, no magic camera. Not even a Leica. You do the work. Want to make the work and have me evaluate it? So you can grow your vision in a significant way? Fine. Here's...