Digital Workflow
This workflow uses a low-ISO setting and a flat digital profile to maximize sensor dynamic range and give you total manual control over your edits.
The Ethics of Seeing
This practice is built on the belief that photography is a way to stay tethered to the real world. Using a detached, topographic approach, the work records the landscape exactly as it is — without the distortion of sentiment or the distraction of escapism. Whether the subject is beautiful or uncomfortable, the goal remains the same: to provide an honest, standard-lens account of the places we inhabit. This is not art as a hiding place; it is art as a form of witnessing.
One Camera, One Lens
Photography starts before you even pick up a camera. When I'm shopping for cameras, photography is telling me that I want to take pictures. It is an impulse to frame what is sitting right in front of you. But the gear obsession is a distraction, and an ambient light meter may help your photography more than new gear. You slow down, measure the light falling on the pavement, and pay attention to what matters.
Virtual Movements
With enough resolution, we can crop in, move a frame around, and simulate a view camera’s movements in post — including rise, fall, and shift.
Makeshift Rangefinder
By most metrics, we’re lousy photographers, and that’s fine. 50mm might be the best focal length, and 35mm the best lens if we crop in a little.
5600ºK
If sunlight’s temperature sits between 5000ºK and 6500ºK, then 5600ºK is a good custom choice.
Taken Seriously
If a picture is good enough for a view camera, it’s potentially good enough for a series, seriously. I love getting lost under a focusing cloth.
Aspect Ratios
Focal lengths and aspect ratios correlate. A 50mm needs a narrower 4:5 to emphasize relationships between foregrounds and back grounds, and on the other side, a 28mm does better with a wider 3:2 because it emphasizes side-to-side relationships.
Layered
A 50mm lens is more front-to-back than side-to-side and compresses things together, perfect for layering foregrounds over backgrounds — more deadpan than a 35.
Complaining (a how to guide)
Live a great life. From wherever to whatever, I love taking pictures with my camera. It’s an obsession — a small footprint: prints, posts, and film resting inside a trusty binder.
Film Emulation
It’s fine to digitally emulate analog. A box of monochrome 8x10 sells for $250 — a $150 rise from a decade ago, and some 35mm rolls fetch $15. Analog was once the primary photographic method.
Wooden Tripod
I serviced the wooden tripod today. I repaired a loose hinge, polished the head plate, and applied mineral oil.
Experiment
Many people know that we have more to learn, and from the moment we realize that we’re not the center of everything, it gets better.
Clipped Corners
A ground glass will have missing corners so you can see if the lens is projecting from edge to edge. If you can see the lens, it’s giving full coverage.
f/8 and be there
F/8 is typically the most optimal aperture for everyday lenses.
A Home in the Monochrome
In every color image I take, I see a black-and-white photographer trying to escape. It’s black-and-white or bust. Mine are pictures of rust, dents, and dust.
Harsh Daylight
I’ve tried to photograph harsh light for years. Unlike film, digital has less latitude in bright light, which is why you must find techniques to elevate consistency.
35, 50
Wide and telephoto touch somewhere between 35 and 50, which means every lens over 50 is called a telephoto and every one below 35 is considered wide, making 35 the longest wide-angle and 50 the widest telephoto.
Auxiliary Viewfinders
Forget new lenses and camera specs. One of the most freeing things we can add to our photography is an auxiliary viewfinder because it removes precision.
35 is a lonesome focal length
A 35mm pushes backgrounds away and magnifies foregrounds.