At the joint workshop with John Sexton, Ruth Bernhard gave the participants some advice — the same advice that she gave in the two previous workshops that I’d attended with her: Take photographs no more than 30 feet from your bed. It was not expressed as an exercise, but as a preferred way for an… [Read More]

While I was working on the last post, I went through my notes from many of the workshops that I’ve attended. I thought you might be interested in my notes from the workshop I did with Ruth Bernhard and John Sexton. I think many of the points they made are universal, important, and timeless. A… [Read More]

A few weeks ago, someone remarked in the negative about the shortage of CPA workshops centered on developing artistic abilities. (Note to self: maybe there should be a future blog post analyzing why the people who help the most complain the least, and the people who stand on the sidelines complain the most.) I noted… [Read More]

In my last post, I talked about some really bad lighting in a couple of movies from the 60s. Lighting has improved a lot since then, but there’s one place where, even today, almost nobody gets it right. Picture a scene. The hero and heroine are sitting by a window. He’s telling her some terrible… [Read More]

We photographers are consumed with lighting and light. It’s right up there with where to stand, where to point the camera, and when to release the shutter. In the last two days, I’ve watched two movies with unrealistic lighting – lighting so bad that it shatters the willing suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy a… [Read More]