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...

Frank’s Photo Books Are a Great Idea and a Tremendous Way to Share Our Work

A photographer I follow who posts online, Frank Solle, offered to send me a copy of his latest book, Travels in Utah. It's a booklet you might say, it's only 32 pages, and I said yes, of course. I'm always interested in what other photographers are doing. His book came in the mail and I...

The Photo Walk Went Mostly Digital

Last week's post about our Denver photo walk was a treat to write and bring you along to where we went, what we saw. I love how photography and words--storytelling--allowed me to bring you the stories of the day. Take you along, in a sense. But though I had film cameras with me, I know...

I Can’t Help But Want to Shoot a Ten Dollar Nikon

It was the end of an estate sale. No one had bought it for $20. It had a couple, maybe three rusty screws on the bottom. Batteries were dead, so of course, it didn't power on. No one knew if it worked. I offered $10, they said sure. Glad to sell it. Move it along....

Making It Means Photographing One Day at at Time

Well, I suppose I can call The Photo Game a success. We have 11 photographers in the group from around the world, including the U.S, England and Poland. Photographers are completing the weekly prompt and making work. We're eighteen weeks in and going strong. The participants send me notes saying thanks for doing this, putting...

Ah, The Good Old Days

Of course, I'm talking about today. What a time to be alive. What a wealth of opportunities for everything from learning to having new experiences. We are in a unique time with plenty of knowledge at our fingertips. Want to learn about f-stops, because they've been befuddling you, there's a resource online that will help....

A $2K Leica M2 or a $30 Nikon N80

The difference in price is perhaps $1970 (possibly much more!) That amount will buy 328 rolls of Ilford HP5 film. That's 11,808 exposures, frames of film or pictures. Each line represents one roll of film, picture your refrigerator full of film. |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| |||||||||| ||||||||||...

Building a Photographer Community: an Artists Salon, a Virtual 1920s Paris Cafe, the Modern-Day Algonquin Round Table for Photographers

I really enjoy writing about photography. I think as photographers, we have a lot to share and we should offer each other everything we know. There are no trade secrets, nothing one photographer knows that can't be told. I often say, "Share everything." We are not in direct competition but colleagues, all working together to...

Show Me What You Like, But Also What You Don’t Like

At many restaurants, after asking about how some menu item is and the waiter or waitress replied, "Really good," and then when I asked about a different dish and again they repeated the same answer--in fact multiple times for every item I asked about--I've said, "Tell me what's not good or that you don't recommend."...

Play Your Own Photo Game

I run The Photo Game with a weekly prompt, but you can do the same thing and you don't need me to do it. Come up with a word prompt and by the end of the week, make a photograph that fulfills the assignment, that is inspired by the prompt. Some of our past prompts...