Film: A Choice To Avoid an “AI-Too” Moment

Film camera sales are up. Everything from battered old Nikons to brand new Leicas. It's no secret clients want strong photos that don't look like every other photographer's work. They desire something a bit different. Most importantly right now, they want something they can be sure is authentic. They don't want to put their name...

Photographing The Beatles

Linda McCartney looked pretty stealth working in those Beatles Get Back sessions that were shown on Apple TV last year, wielding her Nikon probably loaded with Kodak Tri-X film. The beauty of black and white for documentary photographs--that's something that only can be done with a camera using film. Sure, today you could shoot on...

Choosing To Approach a Scene Differently

When I was a staff photographer at a daily NJ newspaper, I could measure the passing of the year if I was photographing a Black Friday story, an Easter festival or some other annually-occurring event. I'd pick up the assignment sheet and think, "Didn't I just photograph this? Has it really been a year?" Last...

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....

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...

Beauty and the Beast

One of these is a photographic tool used to create images with light, to make framed and matted photographic art to hang on walls and savor memories. The other is a computer with a lens that makes files. One gives you endless possibilities for creating photographic prints. The other has a desktop computer job waiting...

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...

I Could Make Do With One Camera

It might make my photographic life simpler. But which one? If I had to choose one, and only one, it'd be the Rolleiflex 3.5F. It does one thing well. It has a sharp lens and a large negative. Ilford HP5+ or Portra 400 for film. It's not 4x5 large. But it's a good size, 6x6cm,...

A Photographer’s View of Self

I was recently gifted a book of self-portraits, all made with Leica cameras called Leica Myself. It's comprised of a single self-portrait from dozens of Leica photographers from all around the world. Which got me thinking about self-portraits and what it is we do when we make pictures. Really all photos we make are self-portraits....