Whatever you do to satisfy yourself will fulfill those in the world who are like you. What takes form within you will be felt outside of yourself. But if you try to satisfy someone else, you will serve neither that person nor yourself. Thus you will never know any peace. —Alfred Stieglitz Almost every time... Continue Reading →
The Standard of Taste
To look at a work of art in order to see how well certain rules are observed and canons conformed to impoverishes perception. But to strive to note the ways in which certain conditions are fulfilled, such as the organic means by which the media is made to express and carry definite parts, or how... Continue Reading →
Nature Photography Classes – Speaker Series
It is my great pleasure to join some of my talented colleagues and friends as a speakers in Nature Photography Classes' Fall Speaker Series, hosted by Nic Stover. I've had the opportunity to meet Nic in Death Valley last year and was impressed with his vision for the series. For a low price ($10 per speaker)... Continue Reading →
Meditation Before the Arrival of Autumn
Now, I believe in life, and I believe in the joy of human existence, but these things cannot be experienced except as we also face the despair, also face the anxiety that every human being has to face if he lives with any creativity at all. —Rollo May Cyril Connolly wrote, “The creative moment of... Continue Reading →
Experience First
Dear reader, I can use your help. I have never been a good promoter of my work, but I've always believed that by making the highest quality of photographs and writings I can, I could (can) count on sufficient sales to make ends meet. Becoming a celebrity has never been my goal and is not... Continue Reading →
Note to Self on the Matter of Hope
So many people are busy worrying about the future of art or society, they have no time to preserve what is. Utopia is in the moment. Not in some future time, some other place, but in the here and now, or else it is nowhere. —Alfred Stieglitz From my camp on the edge of a... Continue Reading →
Announcing: New Workshop, New Book, Next Steps
Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. —Lucius Annaeus Seneca I am pleased to announce two upcoming offerings and to share with... Continue Reading →
Deep Work
Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times—although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary... Continue Reading →
On Artistic Usefulness
A happy life must be one in which there is activity. If it is also to be a useful life, the activity ought to be as far as possible creative . . . But creative activity requires imagination and originality, which are apt to be subversive of the status quo. —Bertrand Russell In scientific literature,... Continue Reading →
Forgetting the Roses
It is unfortunate, to say the least, that the tremendous capacity photography has for revealing new things in new ways should be overlooked or ignored by the majority of its exponents—but such is the case. —Edward Weston Henri Matisse, known for his expressive use of color, was one of the most creative and prolific artists... Continue Reading →