Ideas Are The (Elusive) Gold That Needs Mining

Harvey Stein is a documentary portrait photographer having photographed the people of Coney Island for over 50 years. He's published, he's known and his work is collected. In the photographer world, he's a made man. He may not be a household name with Tom Cruise-like fame, but he's known among his peers, the best kind...

The More People Turn to Exclusively Using Their Phone for Cameras…

...the less people there are who look like real photographers out in the field. Hence, the more the real photographers stand out. (Yes, I am calling phone photographers not real photographers--to me they're not.) Not to take anything away from phone photographers--they're documenting their world for a moment's look. They're notetaking their life. That's not...

Working On Possibilities: “You Get an A!”

I'm reading a book I like very much titled (But first, a little aside: Why do people put "entitled" when it's 'titled'? It's not 'entitled' to anything! Okay, back to the book 'titled'): The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. He's the conductor of the Boston...

Goals and Projects + Deadlines = Work

I know photographers who work without deadlines. Writers and artists, too. None of them make work consistently because nothing is due. It's just a wish: "I'd really like to create a great _____. I want to be the best ever at _____." Do you really? You know how the successful ones, those who are recognized...

The World Is Better Off Because You Are In It

I believe that we don't always know what others are going through, the struggles they face while they look at us with a smile. To that end, some people are looking to end their life and are considering suicide. If that's you, I have an offer for you: Let me introduce you to photography and...

It’s a New Year, 2023, My 36th as a Photographer!

I consider myself extremely fortunate for I get to say I've been a professional commercial photographer and photojournalist my whole career starting at age 23 as a staff photographer at the Trenton Times, New Jersey's capitol newspaper. I majored in college in communications and expected to go into television and interned at WPVI, the local...

A 2023 Prediction: The Further AI Goes…

...the more value there will be for traditional photographers, especially those using film and creating photographs as a craft. Just like there's a movement toward film photography among young people, those same young people are the ones advertisers want to reach and those young consumers don't want fake images, doctored pictures, or AI-generated unreality. They...

Are You Happy with your Work?

The reason to make photographs is simple: For yourself. In whatever way that manifests itself. For me it's making documentary photographs and telling people stories. Putting together gallery shows of my work. The goal of a series of photographic monographs. Some people are technology fans and they like to buy and test out cameras and...

The Value of the Documentary Photograph

As you know, I have a camera everywhere I go and Christmas Eve with friends was no exception. They always have a houseful of family and friends and you can count on there being a sing-along of holiday carols. I made the choice of a Pentax MX with a fast 28mm f2 lens knowing that...

Photography Hasn’t Changed

Cameras may have become better at creating an accurate exposure and making a sharp image, but that has nothing to do with photographic vision. If you say. “Anybody can take a picture,” what you’re really saying is, “I can’t see the difference.” Hopefully you're not the art buyer. Kenneth Wajda Fun fact: SLRs, point and...