Watching and Documenting the Lives of Others AKA Joining the Circus

I've been fortunate to be able to be a working photographer all my life. From the moment I left college, I immediately got work as a photojournalist, then a staff photographer position at a large daily newspaper, and then have worked as a freelance commercial, advertising, and editorial photographer, totaling 35 years in photography. During...

Where is the Eggleston, the Shore, the Arbus of Today?

We used to have titans in the photography world. I'm thinking of William Eggleston. Robert Frank. Diane Arbus. Garry Winogrand. Stephen Shore. I think it was all because of John Szarkowski, the photography director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). He mounted shows featuring their work and they ended up with book deals and...

You Gotta Show Up and Do The Work (And Run to the Car for a Jacket When the Sun Goes Down)

Where you end up is anyone's guess, but if you don't go, you won't get anything for sure. Here's the story. I was getting happy hour drinks with friends on an outdoor patio in Boulder when the sun went down. Glad it did, as the temperature dropped, which made me run to my car for...

Embracing Risks, Taking Chances & Possible Failure

What if you try something new, something you're not quite sure about how to do, so much so that it even makes you uncomfortable? Good! See, you could fail. Excellent! There's nothing great happening when we're sitting at home in our easy chair. There's no magic when we are working the familiar, the comfortable way...

Achieving Tone and Mood with Black & White Film

There's something that I find I achieve when I use film over digital and that is I get to create tones and moods, even if everything in the frame isn't perfect. Even if there are some elements that are blurred or soft. But that's not the film's fault, it's the photographer's. The truth is, film...

A Goal to Create Boring Photos

There's an annual gathering of people to look at old family movies called Home Movie Day. Because what was boring no longer is. Well, it may be, but we're not watching just for the content but the setting. The cars, the buildings, the businesses in towns no longer there. There is much to be gained...

Oh, News Biz, How Ye Have Changed

When I was a photojournalist at a daily newspaper in New Jersey in the 1980s and 1990s, we had an editorial board and certainly a point of view politically--we were the conservative broadsheet in town compared to the tabloid-sized competitor with their "Page 7 Bikini Girl". There's an old newspaper line, "If it bleeds, it...

Why The Leica M11 Might Be the Best Career Move

I was thinking about this latest iteration of the Leica M, the M11 (not an affiliate link, just one to B&H) and that, despite how expensive it is at $9k, if you can afford it, it might be a wise move for your career. Or mine. See, Leica needs to support their photographers and they...

The Different Types of Photography (and Their Difficulty) And Why Street Photography Needs Serious Curation

STUDIO PORTRAITUREMaking portraits in the studio is difficult. You need a studio. Some lights. Knowledge on how to use them. And a subject sitting for you. A bit of human psychology to draw out the expression you want from them. All those things take experience and skill. Plus access to a studio and subject. NEWS...

Selfies are Easy. Real Life is Hard.

A friend recently showed me his cousin's family photo book, printed at Blurb or Shutterfly or one of those on-demand online photo printing services. It was nicely printed, and big, about 15x15", so it featured a lot of pictures. He asked if it was made up of photos from a pro, and I looked through...