Monthly Archives: April 2009

I drove back from Portland yesterday. On the way down I had time to think about how to get the most out of critical comments. In my reports on the reviewing process, I made the point several times that there … Continue reading →

Consistency. My first reviewer looked at a picture of a barber shop in the Washington Heights district in Manhattan. It’s a multi-layered image, with a lot going on. She pointed at a bright blue video game in the middle of … Continue reading →

Five reviews today. Two completely positive, and three with suggestions for improvement. I don’t think it would be very entertaining to walk through all of them; you’ve gotten an idea of how they go from the earlier posts. The different … Continue reading →

Five official reviews today. The first one, with the curator for a Mid-Western museum, went incredibly well.  He called Nighthawks “a fresh approach,” and “some of the best of this kind of work he’s seen.” He also wanted to see … Continue reading →

Today was nowhere near as grueling as yesterday, but there was a lot to do. It started with three reviews back to back. The first one was with a pair of gallery owners with whom I had corresponded about five … Continue reading →

I’ve just finished the first day of reviews and I’m a bit overwhelmed. Four formal twenty-minute reviews. Three informal ones by official roving reviewers. Uncountable sharing of pictures with other photographers.  A presentation at lunchtime that took precedence over lunch. … Continue reading →

I’m in Portland, after an 800 mile drive yesterday. Between portfolio cases and brochures (probably way more than I will actually give away), I have an impressive pile of luggage. If I were flying, I would have had to ship … Continue reading →

This afternoon I grabbed an easel and both stacks—glossy and matte—of the Nighthawks pictures. I set up the easel in a room with lots of diffuse daylight and went through the photographs, comparing the two versions. The first thing I … Continue reading →

While I was printing the matte pictures, I edited the glossy versions. It didn’t take much. Mostly I added a little contrast-enhancing S-curve that strengthened the midtone separation at the expense of the shadows and the highlights. When printed on … Continue reading →

This morning, I opened the collection of Nighthawks images that are tweaked for matte printing and printed them out, one to a page, on a laser printer. I spread them all out on the bed and went through my stock … Continue reading →