The Best Holiday Gifts (Now, This Is Getting Personal!)

I hear people saying how stressed out they get over the holidays with what to buy, especially for people who are hard to shop for. What to get them? It's impossible! The problem is they're thinking like consumers, not someone looking for something personal. What thing should I be buying that will fulfill the gift...

Making a Senior Portrait in the Style of a Sports Illustrated Feature Photo Shoot

I make a handful of senior portraits for area high schoolers each year between my commercial and editorial photography schedule. But I still treat it like as if it were an editorial job. Something more than a typical senior portrait shoot. Like this one, this boy is a top skateboarder in the area and his...

I Don’t Make Baby Photos

My dad years ago said I was missing the boat when it comes to making money in photography. "Take baby photos," was his advice. I was working as a photojournalist and still, he said, "Stop trying to reinvent the wheel, go where the money flows: Babies!" (Which always made me think of Rodney Dangerfield in...

Some of My Seniors Aren’t 70+ (Some Are 17+)

I do a fair number of senior portraits (age 70+) for The Wise Photo Project, but I also make a good number of high school senior portraits (age 17-18), a completely different kind of photograph, but oh, so challenging and creative. So, here are some from a session this week. I get to meet so...

Making a Senior Portrait on Black and White 4×5, (Not That Kind of Senior Portrait!)

I love having a job as a working photographer that permits me to meet new people constantly.When I'm between assignments or client work, which usually is Mondays, I open my studio to local senior citizens age 70 and over to come in for a complimentary portrait.I get to work with whatever camera I want since...

The Finest for Your Family: Statement Artwork, Iconic Portraits on 8×10 Film

Legacy artworks--they’re not just for the U.S. President and First Lady. Most people would say that for portraits of their family, "Eh, digital is good enough." The thing is, YOU'RE not most people. Neither am I. We're the ones who seek the finest, the best--that's who we are. We care about quality. We can't accept...

Making a Series of Film Portraits on Your Terms

Made on black and white 4x5 film, this is the lead photograph from the shoot. I have a friend Clark whose Father collects classic cars and used to work for Kodak. I had never met his Dad, but told Clark that he sounds like someone I need to photograph. And so I did. I brought...

I Went to Disney World. No Photographers. No Cameras In Sight.

That thing at the top of this post, when printed on paper, used to be a cherished snapshot. A photographic memory. Not anymore. Now, it no longer exists. What's the first thing you think to pack when you go on a vacation to somewhere special? A camera of course. (Or if you're me, several!) Sure,...

My Satisfaction = Photographing Folks Where I Find Them

A photographer friend recently sent me a video link to a talk by a photographer named Adrian discussing photography and his expectation to fail, concluding disappointment was just a part of the process. In the notes of the video titled, The Curse of the Photographer, he wrote, "Photographers might be destined to permanently feel dissatisfied....

Grandma’s Gone With No Portraits To Remember Her By, Just Like in 1890.

I was talking to a woman at a yard sale last weekend and she said the reason she had so many photo frames for sale for 25-50 cents each, is because none of her children or grandchildren want the family photographs—she's moving to a smaller house and thought they'd want to have them. Wrong! She...