“Let’s Watch Your Fireworks Video on Your Phone…”

...said no one ever. Same with the photos on your phone that you want to show someone, but first you have to scroll endlessly because you have no idea where it is and you just can't find it: "I know it's here somewhere, but maybe not back this far, or maybe just a bit more,...

Photography is Wonderful

There is one thing I am sure about, that photography is special, magical, wonderful. It allows us to keep loved ones with us forever. It stops time. It's a time travel machine. It's something that for most of humankind, didn't exist. (It's only 182 years old, this photographic medium. Before 1839, no one had ever...

Radiating Youth with a 70-Year-Old Rolleiflex

I've always enjoyed photographing people's stories, making street photos and portraits of people I meet of all ages. I have a project dedicated to creating legacy portraits of older faces, The Wise Photo Project, but that doesn't mean that is the only age I photograph. I recently was out with the Rolleiflex and a few...

When The Trend Is In Your Favor

I've been a photojournalist my whole photography career, starting as a staff photographer at a daily newspaper in New Jersey, The Times of Trenton, and have been working editorial assignments ever since. It's my favorite type of work, creating storytelling photographs for publication. So, to have inquiries from people about having photojournalist-style photographs made of...

You Don’t Have to Smile

I often tell that to my portrait subjects--no need to smile. I'd prefer they were being themselves rather than putting on the smile mask that we all learned to wear as a kid via "Say Cheese". There's nothing wrong with a genuine smile, but asking for it, or having them turn it on, I find...

The Wise Photo Project Expands

Big news. I've had several people contact me about creating portraits for The Wise Photo Project now that I've announced I've opened it up to photographers everywhere. And today I see that just that has happened. There were two photographs made and posted on our Facebook group page by photographer Mark Smith working in Aurora...

2005: The Year Photography Changed

It's interesting to me to see how things change. When I was in school we had text books and notebooks. Students today have Macbooks and iPads. We learned penmanship and how to write and diagram sentences. Do they even learn that now? When was the last time anyone had to write a letter by hand...

Part II – Rolleiflex Street Portraits in RiNo Area of Denver

The RiNo section of Denver is a hip new area full of brewpubs and eateries and lots of hipster types. That's not why I took my Rolleiflex there, but because the Denver Month of Photography is going on and I wanted to visit some of the galleries with current photography exhibits. After I parked the...

Kenneth Wajda’s Leica (Why it Matters to Me)

The other day I wrote about Ralph Gibson's Leica and why it matters to him, what shooting the Leica versus any other camera means to his way of working, and why once he started with the German brand, he never left. So, I was ruminating about my own workflow and how I use Leicas, but...

Adding a Chair to the Portrait Studio

For The Wise Photo Project, I've photographed people either standing or sitting on a red Victorian couch in my studio. So, when it became time to add a chair, I looked to Berenice Abbott for inspiration--she had a favorite chair that she posed people in and so, I went out looking for something similar, something...