Any company whose mission revolves around being inspired by the tangible and getting images off our devices and into our hands is a company run by people I want to hang out with. So I’ve been ordering prints from Artifact Uprising and am seriously impressed with them – their quality and their service are spectacular. And their blog is inspiring, …
Starting with Filters
Banff National Park, Canada, 2014. I used both a full and graduated ND for this. When I first started making photographs, optical filters (the ones you put on the front of the lens, as opposed to software filters) were common. You’d screw them to the front of the lens and it was all pretty simple. When I sold most of …
On Noise Reduction
Cavendish, Prince Edward Island We fear missing out, so we read it all, and listen to every voice we can, seldom aware that by doing so we’re missing so much more. This is not the post you think it might be. This is not about reducing the noise in your low-light, high-ISO, photographs. There’s software for that. This is about …
Bodies of Work
Another question from my recent Q&A on Facebook. Some of the questions needed more time and space to answer, this is one of those: How do develop from taking random images to working on projects? What makes a good project? When is it finished? First, I think it’s important to recognize that there are no rules on any of this. …
Personal Projects
Mongolia series. 2012. Hasselblad and some old film. There’s a lot of talk among photographers about personal projects. I assume, by this, we mean projects that are not for clients, though I’ve tried very hard to never do a project that is not in some way also personal. Life’s too short. For me the key word isn’t “personal” because that’s …
Composition & Questions
We often talk about composition as though its something that can be done right or done wrong. When you look at it in those terms photography is not about expression, but about following the rules. The best thing I ever learned on the photographic journey was this: there are no rules. None. Nope, not even the rule of thirds. No …
Impressions & Abstracts
Next week we’re releasing my next eBook – The Visual Imagination, a book about creative techniques and ideas that focuses mostly on impressionism and abstraction. Yesterday I was doing a pre-release podcast interviews, talking to Ibarionex Perello, the amazing voice and mind of The Candid Frame, and he asked me the one question I’m so fond of asking others. Why? …
In the Zone
In my last posts I talked about my reactions to working with both my Fuji XE-1 and Leica M, and I mentioned zone focusing. For those for whom the idea of zone focusing is new I wanted to explain it a little. It’s an old technique but it’s simple and reliable. My biggest concern with Leica, and the Fuji when …
On Luck & Trenches
There’s a terrific recording of an excerpt from an interview with photographer Robert Capa (1913-1954) making the rounds right now. In it he describes the making of one of his most iconic photographs (above) and the role of luck in its creation. Capa says he raised the camera as the soldiers were climbing out of the trench to storm the …
Studying Masters
In my Created Image video, one of the things I strongly advocate is studying the masters. I think finding those masters, the ones with whom you truly resonate, and finding them yourself, is part of the fun. I’m always hesitant to tell people to study this person or this person, because the list of photographers I myself don’t know, photographers …