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I’m on an Urban Walkabout… with an iPhone
May 04, 2025 - So just what is an “Urban Walkabout” and what does it have to do with images and creativity? I’m glad you asked. I refer...
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Welcome To ::THE LAB::
February 02, 2025 - Welcome to::THE LAB:: which is a sort of “new gallery” of creative, experimental works (some in progress) that I am post...
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Nitro ~ The New Sheriff In Town
November 02, 2024 - There is a new sheriff in town and its name is Nitro from Gentlemen Coders, the software developer behind RAW Power I wr...
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Do You Abstract ~ Part Deux? : On the Art of Abstraction in Photography
October 27, 2024 - Believe it or not, all photography is an abstraction. This beautiful quote above by photographer Ernst Haas graces the “...
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Do You Abstract?
October 13, 2024 - We all begin with a SOOC image. Everyone of us does. What is a SOOC image? It’s a Straight Out Of Camera image. One that...
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How And Why I See The Way I Do ~ Part Deux
February 03, 2024 - Between being exposed (yes, that’s a pun 😉) to the work of Jerry Uelsmann at an early stage in my photography, and then...
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How And Why I See The Way I Do
January 18, 2024 - This image titled, “I’ve Just Seen A Face Series ~ Metropolis (Tape residue on metal)” I was only able to notice and the...
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Nothing To Teach, And No One To Teach It To.
January 15, 2024 - The title of this post is attributed to Alan Watts who was an American philosopher and teacher of Zen Buddhism in the We...
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RAW On Screen ~ Ready For Your Closeup?
December 16, 2023 - It all started with a question, as many things do. A fairly innocent question: What is the difference between two comput...
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RAWPower: There’s A New Sheriff In Town ~ Almost
December 07, 2023 - A funny thing happened on the way to RAW photo editing: I met Gentlemen Coders. Well, not exactly and not in person, Gen...
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The Art Of Sensibility
November 21, 2023 - Sometime back I wrote a post about how photographers should not spend time searching for a “style” to set themselves apa...
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This Is Not A Face
November 05, 2023 - “Ceci n’est pas un visage”
But it could be. With the utmost respect for René Magritte and his iconic image of surreal...
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Do You Have A.I. Phobia?
August 10, 2023 - Fear is a powerful thing, and it has a useful purpose in our survival. That said, it can best be utilized as a guide, an...
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A.I.? D.I.Y.!
July 15, 2023 - When it comes to creating (*generating) images using Artificial Intelligence tools, I ask students (really any photograp...
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A.I. and Ethics
July 11, 2023 - Are there any moral or ethical considerations to be calculated when using Artificial Intelligence to “create” Art (or is...
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A.I. and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”
June 29, 2023 - So what is all the uproar about Artificial Intelligence and the creation of images/artwork? I have a few thoughts 💭… No...
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I’m A Skipper
May 03, 2023 - I am a “Skipper”. No, not the boat kind, I skip software versions, and hardware upgrades on a regular basis (but not eve...
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How I Did It :: Used Film Post 1
November 06, 2022 - This is the first in a series of 11 blogposts in the “Used Film” series describing the thought processes, creative decis...
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How I Did It :: Used Film Post 2
November 06, 2022 - This image, called “Blue Ram” was created from a 4x5 Polaroid Type-55 single sheet of Black and White film. With Type-55...
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How I Did It :: Used Film Post 3
November 06, 2022 - If you are following this Used Film series in order, you’ll recognize the technique I used to get this second ram’s skul...
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How I Did It :: Used Film Part 4
November 06, 2022 - This image titled, “Feather, Stone, and Light” was inspired by the title track from the collaborative album of the same...
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How I Did It :: Used Film Part 5
November 06, 2022 - Ah, now this image I feel was truly inspired! What is it? Technically it was created as a background only for a watch ad...
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How I Did It :: Used Film Part 6
November 06, 2022 - This image was originally created for an editorial cover illustrating the human senses. This one turns up the notch on c...
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How I Did It :: Used Film Part 7
November 06, 2022 - Orchids are beautiful subjects to photograph whether in color or Black & White. For this one I chose to photograph it us...
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How I Did It :: Used Film Part 8
November 06, 2022 - This image, unique from the others in this series, comes from a 35mm Black & White infrared film negative re-photographe...
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How I did It :: Used Film Part 9
November 06, 2022 - So, you have to make a course to teach students about all the creative fine art possibilities of various Polaroid films.
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How I Did It :: Used Film Part 10
November 06, 2022 - So now we get to the place with Polaroid film where I spent the most time to master, the famous Polaroid Transfer techni...
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How I Did It :: Used Film Part 11
November 06, 2022 - This image I’ve titled “When Picasso Met Josephine” is the last in the Used Film series, and another example of using th...
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Aperture :: Iterations and Variations
May 16, 2021 - Picasso was asked, "When do you know a painting is 'finished'?," to which he is reported to have replied, "When it is si...
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Aperture :: And The Unsupported Image Format
April 05, 2021 - If you are an Aperture user (I know, we are a very small but dedicated and scrappy bunch), this is the one thing you hop...
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The Continued Case Against Software Subscriptions
April 03, 2021 - Grabbing a warm, steamy cup of Joe, I thought I would settle in and wax on with a few more thoughtful insights against s...
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Tools Too :: Photography Gear Matters ~ Or Does It?
January 31, 2021 - A few years ago I wrote a post called "Tools:: On Why Gear Really Does Matter" and I have wanted to do an update, or at...
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What I Want ~ Aperture '21
January 12, 2021 - This post is part fantasy, but more importantly a really close look at a beautifully designed program for RAW image, and...
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Photo Editing ~ The State of the Art
January 09, 2021 - As we stroll into 2021 I want to take a peek into the current state-of-the-art of photo editing software. What I won't b...
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Aperture, Noise and Film Grain:The Quest for a Filmic Portrait
December 20, 2020 - This final portrait edit was created entirely in Apple's Aperture software here at the end of 2020. Yes, I'm still runni...
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Black & White Done Right!
October 22, 2020 - Original image left and a B&W conversion in NITRO using my custom LUT
As an artist and photographer I'm not one to go b...
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It's 2020 and Adobe Is Finally Catching Up with Color Grading
October 08, 2020 - New Color Grading Tool in Adobe Lightroom
So, it's 2020 and Adobe has finally started catching up with the color grad...
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Is RAW Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder?
September 15, 2020 - Not all RAW converters are the same, that's not a new revelation. When I was photographing in the analog film days, all...
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Back To The Future ~ Taking The Zen Path
January 12, 2020 - A funny thing happened on the way to the future... I decided to go back. No, not back to 1985 but more like 2014. Since...
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To Upgrade, Or Not To Upgrade, That Is The Question
December 25, 2019 - We've all been there. We know the drill. If you are doing your post-processing of images with a program that you bought...
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"He Of The Darkroom Eyes" ~ On Mentors, Teachers, and Senseis
December 13, 2019 - "He Of The Darkroom Eyes” (Portrait of Jerry Uelsmann)
"You can do that?!" That was a revelatory question a young photo...
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Learning To Love Layers
April 30, 2014 - Ok, I love layers! I'm not talking about the Photoshop Layers feature, although that is great and how most of us think o...
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Tools :: On Why Gear Really Does Matter
April 25, 2014 - So you think gear doesn't matter? Or maybe you are on the side of those who are all about the supremacy of gear at the e...
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Paint The Fence :: Lessons I've Learned From Mr. Miyagi
April 18, 2014 - M r. Miyagi was a great teacher, albeit a fictitious one. If you are not familiar with this inspiring teacher of karate,...
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On Perfectionism And Craft
March 30, 2014 - "Do a good job, Trace, but not too good of a job." I was told that once, from a photographer I had worked with many year...
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On Teaching Photography, Teaching Life
March 14, 2014 - “We could teach photography as a way to make a living, and best of all, somehow to get students to experience for themse...
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Torn Between Two Lovers
January 27, 2014 - I've always smiled at the thought of American Poet Robert Frost's epitaph, which reads, "I Had A Lover's Quarrel With Th...
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We Were Mod Once :: Last Of My iPhoneography Books
January 19, 2014 - Feeling nostalgic for things we grew up with is as natural to humans as breathing. We're simply wired for nostalgia. Som...
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On Resting Places
January 14, 2014 - Sometimes it seems like this techno-photo-centric world we are in is racing along at a break-neck speed. Newer cameras,...
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Reflections :: A 2013 Look Back And A Look Forward
December 18, 2013 - As this is the last post of the year, I can't help and do some reflecting on this past year, and looking forward to 2014...
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Are You "Seriesous"?
November 26, 2013 - Creating a new body of work can start with a whiff of inspiration from anywhere, and that inspiration can come to you at...
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"But It's Not A Portrait"
November 12, 2013 - I like to get photographers thinking differently about what a portrait is. On one hand, every image you make is a kind o...
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Got Film? Digital Photographers Now Have Choices
November 04, 2013 - To answer the question above, it can now be argued that "yes, indeed", digital photographers have film. Or rather "film...
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Forget About Finding A 'Style', Cultivate A 'Sensibility' Instead
October 31, 2013 - So what exactly is " style", and why are so many photographers looking for it? Put a group of photographers together: pr...
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iPhone Tintype For Creative Portraits Tutorial
October 03, 2013 - This tutorial on creating tintype textured backgrounds and overlays for creative portraits was inspired by a recent crea...
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Photoshop :: A Personal Declaration Of Independance
July 22, 2013 - With July seeming to be the month of great declarations of independence, (America's 4th of July, and France's Bastille D...
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"Excuse Me, Do You Know The Way To Paris?"
May 08, 2013 - Ah, Paris! City of Lights, City of Love, City of Culture, City of Photography. The history of photography, relatively sh...
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Navigating A Life Photographic
March 27, 2013 - Navigating a life photographic, finding your way from first love to a life-long relationship of creativity is one of the...
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Every Photograph You Create Is A Self-Portrait
March 18, 2013 - If we really think about it, every photograph we create is a self-portrait. Notice I use the word create. Every image in...
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What Is In Your Photographic Kitchen?
February 20, 2013 - What is in your photographic kitchen? What herbs, seasonings and flavours do you most use? Like cooking, photography is...
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If I Were An Artist
February 18, 2013 - "If I were an artist... " how many times have I heard that from friends, and students and just folks in everyday convers...
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Why creativeLIVE Matters
January 28, 2013 - What is creativeLIVE? In short, it is a worldwide, on-line classroom for free while live, and during re-broadcasts, for...
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Filters, Plug-ins, Or Software?
October 29, 2012 - "Use filters and plug-ins!" "Don't use filters or plug-ins!" It seems everyone in the photography industry has an opinio...
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Autumn's Focus
October 22, 2012 - This time of season, many of us turn reflective and look back over the year, contemplating accomplishments and thinking...
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In Photography, It's No Contest
October 11, 2012 - Do you enter your work in photography competitions? Do you answer " calls for entry " to prestigious venues and gallerie...
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Dead Photographers Society
July 05, 2012 - Taking inspiration, and ripping out a page from the Peter Weir film "Dead Poets Society ", this is a follow up to my pre...
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An Open Letter To A Young Photographer
June 27, 2012 - Photography is an art that captures all of us at some time in our life. Whether we are six or sixty when it happens is n...
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Zen And Creativity :: An Homage To A Mentor
May 31, 2012 - I recently created a small series of composited photographs, collectively called " The Bodhi Lands" that were originally...
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Ten Polaroids :: Creating Images With Malleable Materials
May 25, 2012 - The Navigation Legend:: Polaroid SX-70 Film
I've created a new, one-off series called Ten Polaroids to showcase work cr...
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10,000 Hours or 10,000 Photographs?
May 22, 2012 - Ever wonder what 10,000 hours really looks like? In terms of days, weeks, months, etc.? How about in terms of actual art...
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