A Whole Lot of Pictures of A Whole Lot of People Doing A Whole Lot of Nothing

I was at an antique auction yesterday and there was a whole box of photo albums with snapshots all from one family from the 1920s to 1950s. I was, of course, interested in the lot, and hoped it wouldn't go for too high of a price. It didn't. It closed at $25, but without my...

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...

The More People Turn to Exclusively Using Their Phone for Cameras…

...the less people there are who look like real photographers out in the field. Hence, the more the real photographers stand out. (Yes, I am calling phone photographers not real photographers--to me they're not.) Not to take anything away from phone photographers--they're documenting their world for a moment's look. They're notetaking their life. That's not...

It’s a New Year, 2023, My 36th as a Photographer!

I consider myself extremely fortunate for I get to say I've been a professional commercial photographer and photojournalist my whole career starting at age 23 as a staff photographer at the Trenton Times, New Jersey's capitol newspaper. I majored in college in communications and expected to go into television and interned at WPVI, the local...

Making Work Constantly: An Insatiable Desire to Create

I run a meeting in Boulder once a month for photographers where we each show twenty photographs via a projector and screen at a pub. It's great fun and inspiring to see what people make. I make a point of only showing work that I've made in the last month, photoraphed since the last time...

Your Photography, Your Story

I think about what I make for street photographs, street portraits, and documentary photographs and how altogether they add up to my story. They tell you how I see, what I see, and the way I see it. It's a connection for you to my world, places I've been, and people I've met and seen....

“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...

Sometimes You Improvise

I was out in New Jersey photographing a Halloween parade when I noticed my Leica lens cap was missing. I thought I was holding it pressed against the lens with the palm of my hand but obviously not. Maybe it fell off in the bag or in the rental car. No dice. What to do?...

That Great Introducer: The Camera

I was in New York recently, a city that's one of my favorite places on earth, and went down to Greenwich Village and Washington Square Park. There's always a crowd there, plenty of energy. The people-watching is great fun and of course, it makes for excellent opportunities for photographs and is a great place to...

Two Ways to Eat a Slice of Pie

Digital photography is holding a slice of pumpkin pie plucked by hand from the pan and scarfing it down over the sink in seconds. It's delicious but it's gone quite quickly. It's a phone photo that's sent out for a glance and a swipe. That's what it's made for, not for long-studied looks. A quick...