Starting with Filters

In GEAR, The Craft, Workflow & Technical Issues by David17 Comments

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

In Creativity and Inspiration, The Craft, The Life Creative by David28 Comments

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

In The Craft, Vision Is Better by David13 Comments

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. …

Impressions & Abstracts

In Craft & Vision, Creativity and Inspiration, e-books, The Craft, The Life Creative by David23 Comments

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 The Craft, Thoughts & Theory, Vision Is Better by David21 Comments

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

In Influences, Pep Talks, Rants and Sermons, The Craft by David12 Comments

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 Books, Images, Influences, The Craft by David47 Comments

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 …

New Podcast Coming

In Craft & Vision, Photographically Speaking, The Craft by David9 Comments

A couple years ago I did a podcast with Peachpit called Within The Frame. I did 20 episodes and still get weekly requests to do more. Until now I just didn’t feel the love I want to have for a project in order to sit down and do it. Now I have the love, and the time. So we’re launching …