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...

Film Sprockets, Baby, from a Yashica 44

I picked up this Yashica 44, an obvious "homage" to the Baby Rolleiflex, at an estate sale last weekend for a Jackson. Got it home, quick mod, then popped in a roll of HP5 in to see what it could do, and took a walk in my downtown. Interesting effect if you like sprockets in...

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...

No Control Over What Comes So Come What May

I was thinking about doing the work, what that means and looking back at the photographs I've done in the past and it's clear that I don't have any control over what I create. I work with creating photographs based on who I encounter and the situations that present themselves. I don't have the ability...

What Makes a Street Photo?

There are many street photographers nowadays. But what makes a street photo? It can't just be anyone walking along the street--I can see that out the window. To me, there has to be a story (or it gets the viewer to create one). If there's a story, it's a street photograph. If it has no...

What’s So Good About Art? To Create. To Make What Wasn’t There Before.

It's Saturday night and I'm watching people dance to a band at Bootstrap Brewing, the pub where I write my blog posts. I love writing here with a cold Lush Puppy IPA. Tonight, it's so much fun to see folks enjoying themselves dancing up a storm. I even photographed them and may use them in...

Show Your Work

When I was a kid in school, in math class once you got the math problem solved the teacher would say, "Show your work." If you were going to do the work, show it, show how you got there. I use that same phrase with photographers. "Show your work." What are you making it for...

Collecting Family, Friends & People I Meet

Sometimes people see me carrying a film camera wherever I go, sometimes a Leica or Nikon rangefinder, sometimes a Rolleiflex twin lens reflex, and ask me what do I photograph. I explain it's not what, it's who. Who do I photograph? Well, the answer to their question is everyone. My family, sure. Friends, yep. People...

“What’s Your Plan For Those Pictures?”

I was at two different places this weekend documenting their demise, their conclusion, businesses calling it quits, wrapping it up, coming to an end. The first was a 95-year-old bar called the Miners Tavern in Erie Colorado whose last night open was Saturday due to its inability to staff the restaurant without raising wages high...

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...