Photographs Made! Not Shot, Not Captured, Not Taken Nor Snared

I make photographs. Sometimes that involves photographing news events, life on the street, and other times people posing for my lens for a portrait. But all those photographs are made. I make an effort to create an image the way I want to, using photographic and compositional techniques as well as my experience on how...

Working to Create a Portrait of F. Murray Abraham

I had been trying to get a portrait session scheduled with F. Murray Abraham when he came to Boulder for the film festival, but I couldn't get it set up. The festival couldn't accommodate me, the podcast host, The Hollywood Reporter, was and then wasn't communicative, and I was on my own to get a...

“Thanks For Choosing Us!”: Making Someone’s Day with a Portrait

Tim Gilbert I enjoy using a camera to meet people as I have written about numerous times. Yesterday was no different. A photographer friend of mine, Tim Gilbert, who is the mastermind behind Stearman Press and the SP-445 developing tank in which you can develop four sheets of 4x5 film, handed me a prototype of...

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...

Latest Portraits for The Wise Photo Project

Here are a couple of portraits for The Wise Photo Project. The couple's photograph was made with a Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 on Kodak Tmax film. I am always looking for those moments that reveal a little bit about the subject. The first gentleman's laugh certainly is one. These legacy portraits are created for people...

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...

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...

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...

Do People Still Make Family Portraits To Hang In Their Homes? Young People, Too?

So, as some of you know, I make museum-quality silver gelatin hand-printed family portrait photographs using real film in vintage wood cameras. It’s a specialty for sure and the photographs are not easy nor inexpensive to create.  A friend said to me that I’d be lucky to give a photograph away, that no one wants...

The Gift of Meeting People, The Gift of Photography

Like I said a couple posts ago, the more you go out, the more people you meet. This time I went out to McIntosh Lake with a roll of Ilford HP5 in a Rolleiflex 3.5F to see who I'd find. I always start on the promenade--that's what I call the sidewalk that wraps around the...