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...

Portrait Stories on 8×10 Film by the Muse’s Design

Sometimes I just feel like the writer taking dictation from the muse. As a portrait photographer making portraits of people I meet in public, I think of all the people I've photographed, and how little control I have over who I meet, who I approach, who says yes, who says no, who becomes a part...

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....

200 Photos To Give Away

LaVern Johnson passed away. She was in her early 90s and was the town matriarch of Lyons Colorado. The town held a memorial service in a park that was named for her a few years ago. Since her passing, I had been posting photographs online of her that I made over the years because I...

Taking a Leica M3 Everywhere for 30 Days

I switch out a lot between many cameras in different formats. I enjoy working with large format view cameras as well as the miniature format (as it was originally called)--35mm. And my favorite camera is my Rolleiflex. But for the next 30 days I'm carrying a Leica M3 with a 50mm rigid Summicron with me...

Here Comes Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day: April 24th!

I pulled my Leonardo Pinhole Camera out to complete an assignment for The Photo Game and did a quick check to see how to best calculate exposure and saw that World Pinhole Photography Day is coming up the last Sunday of April, the 24th. Will you be ready? Will I? MaryLee saw this Leonardo Pinhole...

My Phone is For Calls, Leave a Message

I heard a professional photographer recently talking about how great his new phone camera is and I thought, boy, I never want to have the computer techs at Apple or Google dictating what my photographs will look like. Have you ever looked at Instagram or Flickr and seen the photographs and how they all look...

Photographer Mentorship with Weekly Photo Assignments

Want to learn photography? You do it by making photographs. There is no other way, no shortcut, no special trick, no secret, no magic camera. Not even a Leica. You do the work. Want to make the work and have me evaluate it? So you can grow your vision in a significant way? Fine. Here's...

Embracing Risks, Taking Chances & Possible Failure

What if you try something new, something you're not quite sure about how to do, so much so that it even makes you uncomfortable? Good! See, you could fail. Excellent! There's nothing great happening when we're sitting at home in our easy chair. There's no magic when we are working the familiar, the comfortable way...

Proficiency is Common. Authorship, Not So Much.

I'm sitting on a Saturday night at my favorite pub to write. I am listening to a cover band playing Van Morrison, J.J. Cale, the Rolling Stones, R.E.M., and Led Zeppelin. And the guitar player is killer good--he's playing the songs note for note. Perfect. Just like the record. To which I think, "But why?...