Inspiration

Learning to See Again

Crash! I tentatively turn my body in the direction of the sound already aware of its cause. There, a few feet away in the rocks, lay one of my cameras, its lens akimbo.

The Art of Coincidence: Street Photos of Special Accidental Moments

Photography has been with me for as long as I can remember. In my childhood, my father had an old Zorki camera, the Russian Leica II clone, and he had a habit of developing films from our trips in the darkroom. That place with unfamiliar smells and substances had a unique charm for me.

Photographic Lessons I Learned During COVID-19

2020 was not an easy year. The COVID-19 infested, politically-charged year drove us all a little mad. I started isolating in the first week of March -- I had a cold and really didn’t know what it was, so my family and I all stayed away from our respective jobs.

My Last Mocha: An 8×10 Polaroid Passion Project

Brzz, bzzzrrr. The rollers on the vintage Polaroid developer start to suck in the 8×10 Polaroid. Dan Bosman, a Mars Cafe barista of 14 years, and I are chatting just like we always do.

Regarding Photographs: Reading Photos III

In the previous essay on reading photos, I looked at how things we know, mental baggage we have accumulated besides just memories, affect what we see in a photograph. Things like cultural background, political beliefs, movies we’ve seen, or books we’ve read.

Shooting Daguerreotypes of California Redwoods

This trip has been waiting in the wings ever since I made my first successful daguerreotype in the redwoods two years ago. I actually planned on going as early as August this year, but one project after another kept getting in the way, and for months I kept pushing it back by a couple of weeks.

Using Infrared to Reinvent Local Scenes

This year, as photographers, we've been challenged to look at more ordinary subjects closer to home in pursuit of continuing our photography. 2020 has pushed us to find creative potential in the more everyday and mundane, perhaps duping us in the process that these subjects are in fact worthy of our attention.

Petroglyph Daguerreotypes on Daguerre’s Birthday

Toward the end of November, I went back to one of my favorite places in the desert. A spot out in the middle of nowhere, with the nearest significant human population well over an hour drive away.

2020 Helped Us Rediscover the True Value of Photography

When I look back on 2020 in 5 or 10 years, I don't think I'll remember it as the year when a pandemic brought the photo industry to an economic standstill. I don't think I'll remember the CIPA numbers, or the R5 overheating debacle, or any of the virtual product launches. I'll remember 2020 as a year that helped us rediscovered the importance of photography.

7 Composition Techniques Seen in The Queen’s Gambit

Now and then, it just so happens that I find a show or movie that visually amazes me. I was blown away by the colors of Grand Hotel Budapest and by the cinematography of Birdman. The hit Netflix series The Queen's Gambit is one of those surprises that I have discovered recently.

Photographing Northern Harriers Flying Over the Grasslands at Dusk

I've always found northern harriers to be a raptor species that stood out from most others. Their hunting method provides ample opportunity for creative photography as they glide over gorgeous marshes and grasslands searching for food. On this particular evening, I visited a new grassland in the middle of New Jersey that I had not visited previously to see if I could capture some photos of these beautiful birds.

Regarding Photographs: Reading Photos I

This is the third essay in this series, and it begins a smaller sequence of notes running over the ways we as viewers make sense of pictures. We spend, I think, too much time thinking about what happens before and during the making of a picture, but not enough on what happens when someone actually looks at it. For most of us, for most pictures, surely this is the most interesting time?

Overcoming My Harshest Critic: Self Sufficient to a Fault

We were several weeks into the lockdown. My optimistic attitude told me that it was the perfect time to write a book. Commercial shoots canceled, personal engagements canceled, nothing but time at home for the foreseeable future. How hard could it be?

When Bokeh Isn’t Best: Appreciating a Deeper Depth of Field

Recently, the more I study my photographs, the more I feel that bokeh is cheating me out of a more substantial image. I really like photographs with a lot of visual complexity -- well presented, not chaotic, but a clear arrangement of multiple elements.

My Unnatural Interest in Cracks

I can’t remember the first crack I photographed. But I remember the huge crack in the plaster on the outside of my apartment building in San Rafael after college.

Shutterstock Picks Its Top 10 Photos of 2020

Shutterstock Editorial has just revealed the photographs that documented the historical moments that dominated 2020, a very different year from any other. The year started normally with red-carpet shows like Oscars and then veered off dramatically to pandemic and protests and is winding up with hope as news of vaccines emerges.

5 Books that Will Help You Conquer Creative Block

It happens to the best of us... and in 2020 it happens all the time: creative block. Whether it's a lack of inspiration, a lack of motivation, a lack of free time, or some combination of all three, we've all hit that wall where it feels like every one of our ideas is stale, everyone else is better or more prolific than us, and there's no real reason to keep trying.

Regarding Photographs: On Consent

In the previous essay, I made an argument that photographs (and things that are like photographs) metaphorically transport us into the scene of the photo. We react, body and mind, a little bit as if we were actually present.

Three Approaches to Travel Photography

There are many genres of photography, which I believe is what makes photography such a unique hobby or profession. The camera simply becomes a tool that facilitates a personal interaction with the wide range of variables in our culture.

My Journey in Photographing Nudes

This photo is Untitled (1977) by photographer Jerry Uelsmann -- it was my key inspiration. It took one curvy shaded line to make the rock alive and sexy. This was on the wall in my living room when I was 14 and I looked at it for countless hours.

Photo Titles Are More Than Just Names

Between 2010 and 2013, I toured the world for the first time. After living in Australia and Asia, I returned home but always felt like my urge to visit and live in foreign places was still not fully satisfied.

Regarding Photographs: What Does a Photograph DO Anyways?

So, you make photographs? Or take them, or something like that? I’m going to guess here that you probably hope people will like them, or see something in them that’s interesting. You’re interested in how people see photographs, how people make sense of photos. Me too.

Restoring an 85-Year-Old Leica Camera

Maximilian Heinrich of Analog Insights recently inherited an 85-year-old Leica camera and handed it off to his friend Jules for repair and restoration. This 15-minute video is about the camera's journey from nearly being passed on to a camera store to being brought back to form.

Moments Burned into the Mind and Negative

“MOVE OUT OF THE F**KING WAY!” is exactly what I remember the officer shouting at me as I made this photograph. The expression on his ruddy face, the jovial protestor with his thumbs up, all barrelling towards me as I burned the exposure onto the 13th frame of a roll of HP5+.