(I)Black and White Photography: Capella Tower and B/W Adjustment Layer Tricks

Today’s image is from a recently completed commercial shoot of the Capella Tower, downtown Minneapolis, MN.  The management claims its the tallest skyscraper in Minneapolis by 1 foot, towering over the IDS building.
After completing my work in color for the client, I decided to play around with the image in black and white.  Its MUCH [...]

(V) Tutorial: Studio Portrait 5 Light Setup

In my previous post I introduced you to this studio portrait, using 5 strobe lights.  In this post I’ve developed a tutorial on the actual shoot with Terry, the model.  This is the first part of a two part tutorial.  In part two, I go through my post-process on this image in Photoshop.

Creating the Image: [...]

Studio Portrait: 5 Light Setup

Last week I was in Knoxville, TN assisting my good friend, Bryan Allen, with his studio and location lighting workshop.  As part of that workshop he asked me to demonstrate a lighting technique I use occasionally in my studio portrait work.
This is Terry, one of the models participating in the workshop and he kindly stood [...]

(V) (I) Landscape Photography Tutorial: Duluth Harbor Black and White

Hi Gang, today’s post is an image and video tutorial of a photo I captured on Oct. 2, 2009 in Duluth Harbor.  Some may recall the storm that passed through there and I showed up on the back side of it, when things had calmed just a little.  The structure in this image is the [...]

Eric Curry: Really Cool Photography or Painting?

A good friend and photography, Chet Ellingson, turned me on to this guy…Eric Curry and his series of photographic paintings titled American Pride and Passion.  There is something about the look, the craft, the intensity of post production, the taking of images and turning them into paintings that really turns me on.   And make no [...]

Portrait Photography: 85mm (Canon f/1.8)

Hi Gang,
Today’s post is about a new portrait lens I’m using.  Its also about lighting.
The lens I’m using in these images is an 85mm f/1.8 (Nikon also makes this lens, but the reviews aren’t as strong as they are for the Canon).   Its amazingly sharp, gives GREAT control over depth of field, its fast (f/1.8) [...]

Landscape Photography: Another from the Lost Files

Its really fun to go back through the terrabites of harddrive, search raw images for something you missed.  Found one I’d forgotten about and decided to post it.
This image is timely.  I recently publish some of my tutorial content on Mark Johnson’s Photoshop website.  It was the tutorial on split ND filters.  Today’s image is [...]

Landscape Photography: Concepts Create Opportunities

Hi Gang,
Today’s image is a re-post from quite a long time ago.  Its also one of my personal favorites for many reasons.
I want to use today’s image to talk about concepts in photography and using visual design elements to work with those concepts.  I don’t always go out and shoot with clear concepts in mind.  [...]

Landscape Photography: Iconic Windmill

Hi Gang,
This the second of three images I made on my one day in the Flint Hills of Kansas.  This post is written primarily for the landscape photographers who follow my blog, but anyone interested in the creative process might get something from this post.  There were three key lessons I was reminded of in [...]

Lensbaby Composer: Treeman Venice Beach

I’m nearing the end of the journey on Venice Beach.  I have a few images left to share, but this week’s series is fairly profound.  Today you’ll meet Treeman, and I’ll say more about him in a moment.  Then I’ll move on to Nathan and my personal all-time favorite portrait.  At the end of the [...]