Here’s 2022! A New Year Means New Opportunities!

365 days to get out. The goal is to get out more days than ever. To get out everyday. What would we create if we went out everyday? And I say everyday, because I'm a street photographer and documentary photographer, but you could just as well build sets and work at home. But I mean...

Film Is Forever: Believe in Film!

I was listening to a film podcast and there were comments about how film might not exist in the future. That's impossible. Because even without the majors--Kodak, Fuji, Ilford--which I hope will last for quite a long time to come, there is still a way to make our own film. Like photographers made film since...

The Perfect Large Format Film Format: 5×7

I have been interested in finding a 5x7 camera for some time. Why, when I already have 4x5 cameras and even a pair of 8x10s. What do I need a new format for? Well, it's really quite simple. I saw Lewis Hines' exhibit of underage factory workers from the early 1900s at the Howard Greenberg...

What’s the Point of Street Photography? Our History and We Can’t Look Away

There is an uproar over this Paul Kessel award-winning street photograph. People are saying he's exploiting the woman who is the subject of his photograph. They say it's creepy he didn't get her permission. Didn't even tell her he was making the photograph. Didn't get her consent afterwards. He made it surreptitiously shooting from the...

The Best Compliment To a Photographer

A friend texted me the following comment after I sent her a gallery of photographs of her and her husband: These are all wonderful! We're so lucky that you are so talented and can create these amazing photos of us. Thank you. ♥ I texted back saying that I'm the lucky one--since she's also a...

The Professional Photographer Wears Multiple Hats

I was asked by a client recently if I could photograph an event and just deliver all the RAW photos for them to edit themselves. Being a professional, I had to explain why delivering "uncooked" images is a totally unprofessional and wrong way to work. That's essentially asking for you to start the work, but...

My Photo Bag Contains No Tip Jar

As a working freelance photographer, you never know where your next gig will come from. One day you're photographing an architecture photograph or a political conference, the next day the president of the U.S. Yesterday, I was hired to photograph a 50th birthday party with Polynesian fire dancers that will get printed to remember the...

The Difference Between Going Out to Make Photos and Simply Going Out to Live (and Finding Photos)!

There is one way to make photos that involves taking the camera down off the shelf, dusting off its (n)everyready case, peeling that leather wrap off and setting it aside, removing the lens cap, putting the camera in hand and heading out to make photographs at the birthday party, holiday celebration, or ___________ (your event...

Photography Doesn’t Work Anymore As A Way To Relive Moments (In the Short Term)

I have a dilemma. I went to friends' family gathering celebrating their grandson turning one. The big "one"! They are a beautiful family and I looked forward to going and of course brought a camera. That's always the big decision: Do I take a film camera, a Leica M5 with a 50mm f1.4 Summilux or...

Portrait Magnet: A Dandy Rolleiflex T Dressed to the Nines in its Gray Leather Suit

I carried with me a Rolleiflex, held high in my hand with my elbow bent to keep it at chest level. No strap. No case. Just the Rolleiflex. It's a model T, a later model that is a bit of a dandy of a camera, dressed to the nines in its fancy gray leather suit....