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...

I Can’t Help But Want to Shoot a Ten Dollar Nikon

It was the end of an estate sale. No one had bought it for $20. It had a couple, maybe three rusty screws on the bottom. Batteries were dead, so of course, it didn't power on. No one knew if it worked. I offered $10, they said sure. Glad to sell it. Move it along....

Photographers Out on Colfax for a Photo Walk

Photo walks are a curious thing. I love to get together with photographer friends. Heck, I started the Photographers Gather group for an every Tuesday night event to do just that. But the walk part, I've always been more of a solo shooter. I don't know how to make photographs with other photographers for the...

Making It Means Photographing One Day at at Time

Well, I suppose I can call The Photo Game a success. We have 11 photographers in the group from around the world, including the U.S, England and Poland. Photographers are completing the weekly prompt and making work. We're eighteen weeks in and going strong. The participants send me notes saying thanks for doing this, putting...

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...

The Life of a Dinosaur, AKA the Digital Image

If you make a photograph at a long exposure, is it really a photograph, or something more like a timeograph? Say it's a portrait of someone but you make it with an exposure of 15 seconds. Isn't that a time lapse rather than a moment in time frozen? 15 moments of a life? Photography is...

Film is For The Choice Few — Sorry Mr. Bardem

The Photo Game has been pushing all of its participants, myself included, to make work we normally would not. Photos of people by people who usually never make photographs with people in them, and still life photos by people who never usually make photographs of without people. So, it's inspiring our creativity. Our chance to...

What To Do With Old Cameras and Darkroom Gear?

I’m a professional photographer in Colorado and I often get asked where to take old cameras and darkroom equipment to get rid of them. Many people used to build darkrooms at home for printing their photographs. In the age of film photography, making negatives and printing photographs was king. But with digital and now phone...

Building a Photographer Community: an Artists Salon, a Virtual 1920s Paris Cafe, the Modern-Day Algonquin Round Table for Photographers

I really enjoy writing about photography. I think as photographers, we have a lot to share and we should offer each other everything we know. There are no trade secrets, nothing one photographer knows that can't be told. I often say, "Share everything." We are not in direct competition but colleagues, all working together to...

Saturday Photography & Street Portrait Workshops in Colorado in 2022

From time to time, I have photographers asking about scheduling street photography workshops, to make both candid street photographs as well as street portraits. I enjoy making both, and often shoot on both digital mediums as well as 35mm, medium format and large format film. 35mm film street portrait in Boulder. I also am one...