Photography Rights Grab: A Beggars Banquet–VisitLongmontColorado at the Feast

Most people you couldn't get to beg for anything. There's social shame in asking for something for nothing, trying to get something without paying its value to its owner. But when it comes to photography, there is for some odd reason no social stigma to begging and attempting to taking it all. (I think what...

“There’s Nothing Out Here.”

Every time I go out to the lake, I bring a Rolleiflex with one roll of 120 film loaded, ready to make 12 frames. I drive alongside the lake's south side and look for a place to park while looking to see what looks photogenic. And none of it does. No photos. Some people using...

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...

Achieving Tone and Mood with Black & White Film

There's something that I find I achieve when I use film over digital and that is I get to create tones and moods, even if everything in the frame isn't perfect. Even if there are some elements that are blurred or soft. But that's not the film's fault, it's the photographer's. The truth is, film...

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...

Artists: Beware of Corporate-Level Beggars

Q: To be a beggar, what's the stigma? To be a panhandler? To ask for a freebie? A handout? "Please, sir?" Is there any shame?A: If you're a businessperson asking creatives for freebies, the answer is, "No, none." You know me, I'm a professional photographer in Colorado. Photography is my life's work. If you look...

You Don’t Have to Smile

I often tell that to my portrait subjects--no need to smile. I'd prefer they were being themselves rather than putting on the smile mask that we all learned to wear as a kid via "Say Cheese". There's nothing wrong with a genuine smile, but asking for it, or having them turn it on, I find...

My Eternal Quest to Motivate Showing Up

I talk about this a lot. The idea that we can capture magic with our cameras, but we have to show up. Have to go out and find the photographs by getting out of our easy chair and out into the world, camera at the ready. I was lying awake a couple nights ago thinking...

The Wise Photo Project in Local News (Or How I’m Changing The World)

A story about The Wise Photo Project ran in today’s Longmont Leader, a local news source in Boulder County Colorado. As noted in the article, the project seeks other photographers, maybe you, to contribute to it. Support The Shows Want to support my shows? You can, just visit this link at Paypal, or go to...