I Don’t Make Baby Photos

My dad years ago said I was missing the boat when it comes to making money in photography. "Take baby photos," was his advice. I was working as a photojournalist and still, he said, "Stop trying to reinvent the wheel, go where the money flows: Babies!" (Which always made me think of Rodney Dangerfield in...

I’m a Wide Guy (Photographically Speaking)

Which are you, more wide or more telephoto? I know photographers who tend to lean one way or the other. I'm a wide guy. Definitely. I was looking at a book by Lee Friedlander, where he photographed a book's worth of photos out his car window all made with a Hasselblad SWC, the super wide...

Roy Stryker is Back After A Summer Vacation

The Roy Stryker documentary photography project was on a summer hiatus, but it's back starting this week. The photo project, named for the man who hired the documentary photographers after the Great Depression to show America to Americans, was started in 2016, and we now have over 450 posts by multiple photographers from across the...

Glass Plate Photography: Glimpse Into the Past, A Snapshot For the Ages

I went to a local garage sale and there were glass negatives for sale, a whole box for $3. For the price of a coffee, I got a collection of 4x5 glass slides that each probably cost the subject a considerable amount of their weekly paycheck to make. Which makes me ask two questions: 1)...

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...

Sisters Portraits: 8×10, Rolleiflex and the In-Betweens

I had a portrait shoot this week with a pair of sisters, ages 15 and 16. I told them to wear fancy formal dresses and meet me at the lake in my town. Their mom drove them over and the two girls had a look of embarrassment and annoyance at being dressed like that when...

Learn Film Photography: I’ll Bring You a Camera!

So, there has been a lot of interest this summer from folks taking lessons to learn film photography. You know those old SLRs (single lens reflex) cameras like the Canon AE-1 or Pentax K1000 your parents had or maybe you had. I've had students study with me one-on-one with 35mm, 120 and even a 4x5...

The (Quite Worthwhile) Cost of Film Photography

If a roll of film goes up by a dollar, it's still worth it. Yes, I saw the news--Ilford announced a 15% price hike starting August 15. That's the state of the international economy, a world full of supply shortages and the cost of making the best film on the planet. We need to support...

Do People Still Make Family Portraits To Hang In Their Homes? Young People, Too?

So, as some of you know, I make museum-quality silver gelatin hand-printed family portrait photographs using real film in vintage wood cameras. It’s a specialty for sure and the photographs are not easy nor inexpensive to create.  A friend said to me that I’d be lucky to give a photograph away, that no one wants...

Watching and Documenting the Lives of Others AKA Joining the Circus

I've been fortunate to be able to be a working photographer all my life. From the moment I left college, I immediately got work as a photojournalist, then a staff photographer position at a large daily newspaper, and then have worked as a freelance commercial, advertising, and editorial photographer, totaling 35 years in photography. During...