Coming soon…Please stay tuned for information about the world premiere!

Workshop description: From its very beginnings photography has been dogged by the perception that it is a medium for capturing “reality.” Leaving aside philosophic speculation about the nature of reality, capturing reality has never actually been possible. Photography is in fact limited to the capture of emitted or reflected light, and cannot render physical objects as such. Photography is also constrained by optics, geometry, the laws of physics, and limitations in the capture mechanism and medium. No two-dimensional view on screen or hard-copy print can possibly capture the real world, except as a kind of visual translation or code that we’ve learned to make sense of.

Throughout the history of film photography, art photographers have struggled with this subordination to reality, often going to great lengths—Jerry Uelsmann and Man Ray come to mind—to transcend this stumbling block to imaginative image making.

When digital superseded film at the dawn of the 21st century, the tools of photographic transformation became infinitely more accessible and far less difficult to use.

As artists, one of our most important jobs and challenges is to release the creative imagination—both ours and that of our audience—by revealing the unseen and by showing the world around us in a new light. The incorrect conflation of photography as a mirror of reality can paradoxically be approached as a “feature rather than a bug” by enabling willing suspension of disbelief while creating entirely new imaginative worlds.

Photographers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but the chains that bind your imagination.

Bring your questions! The presentation will be followed by a Q&A

Our journey starts with creative vision, and the tools for implementing that vision such as camera, composition, exposure and (of course) post-production. In this webinar we’ll explore topics including:

• Getting started with vision
• From conception to actualization
• Exposure techniques
• Composition techniques
• Compositing in Photoshop
• When is enough enough, and when is too much not enough?
• Why creative compositing is not AI slop
• Adding the personal touch
• Art, realism, and photography

The pattern is only an approximate fractal since the pattern eventually ends when the flower size becomes really small. I’ll bet you didn’t know that the number of spirals found on the head of Romanesco broccoli is always a Fibonacci number.

I enjoyed writing a chapter about spirals and fractals in Composition & Photography (see pages 109-135) with plenty of tips on how to approach these fascinating shapes along with visual examples.

Click here for a detailed Itinerary, and here for the Reservation Form.

Overview: Gardens and gardening have been an important part of Japanese culture for more than one thousand years. In this exciting tour, noted photographer Harold Davis (author of Creative Garden Photography) and Japanese cultural ambassador Kana Hattori will lead us to explore the great gardens of Japan with our cameras. While this is primarily a photography tour, we will also learn about related Japanese horticultural traditions, including flower arranging (ikebana), growing bonsai, and visit the flower districts and plant nurseries that Japanese gardeners frequent.

Click here for a detailed Itinerary, and here for the Reservation Form.

Here are two new recent Dahlia images! They are very different.

The spectacular almost-dinner-plate white bloom (shown immediately below) is the first from a newly planted bulb. The image is pretty straightforward, on black, made with my 50mm f/1.4 Summilux. The flower was large enough to avoid any macro complications.

The other, monochrome image is a macro (below), made using a bellows and focusing rail. The lens was a 5.8cm f/2.0 Helios-44mm – early m39 ZTM lens with 13 aperture blades, s/n 0023609. This is a soviet-era lens that I ordered from a dealer in the Ukraine (write me if you’d like the details, as they seem to be a reliable source for unusual Russian optics).

Fitting it on to my modern M-bayonet involved two adapters: one thin insert to tweak the screw size upwards from 39mm to 44mm, then a screw-to-bayonet adapter.

The lens itself is pretty interesting. Obviously it doesn’t have the sharpness or resolution of a modern Leica lens, but it does give some wild subjective rendering, like this high micro-contrast image captured with my Monochrom M.

In this context, the term “projection” as it is used in the title of this blog story refers to what someone sees in an image. This is the basis for Rorschach tests: what is seen says more about the viewer than the subject. In other words, it is in the eye of the beholder.

I would also add that sometimes a dirty mind is indeed a great consolation; although, since flowers tend to be pretty upfront about their x-rated parts, the anthropomorphism shown by projecting human genitalia on this innocent flower is conceptually irrelevant and totally, needlessly prurient.

Some related posts: Eros; Sacred and Profane Love; Little Shop of Horrors (my original blog post about this image).

Click here for more Iris images!

I am delighted to report that the new Moab Slickrock Metallic Pro paper not only overcomes the flaws in the earlier version but on its own is a wonderful and compelling material for making high-end inkjet prints. It is highly recommended! Here are a few of the prints that I’ve made with Slickrock Metallic Pro.

First, it should be noted that there is an aspect to this paper that simply cannot be adequately captured in a single still image of a print. The paper is of course highly reflective, but this reflectivity renders in a photo as grey (see the borders on the prints that accompany this story). Typically, when viewing a print on this surface (or any metallic surface for that matter) you don’t see it as a single color because the surface changes as your position changes, and also depending upon the light. So no one single capture will ever do justice to the lustrous and almost magical surface of this material.

I really cannot say enough good things about this paper. Obviously, it is not a fit for all images, but this is true for any paper, and part of the craft and art of printmaking is marrying the image to the material it is printing on. That said, I have printed a wide variety of subjects on the paper. The colors run true, the paper is easy to handle and “plays” well with our Epson 9900. 

For monochrome prints, the blacks are lustrous. Overall, the dynamic range is extensive, and gradations are delicate and well rendered.

If you are into making your own prints I think you should give Slickrock Metallic Pro a try. It will likely become one of your go-to substrates. If you do try it, please let me know what you think by adding a comment to this story!

If you’d like to give it a try, you can buy your own Slickrock Metallic Pro paper by following this link!

Workshop description: To resolve these two semi-paradoxes, in this hands-on workshop, we will approach composition as an instance of open-ended two-dimensional design. Photographic exercises will start with simple shapes, such as lines and circles, and proceed through patterns and repetitions, and onwards to spirals, fractals, and abstractions. Field sessions will take advantage of the “target-rich” mid-coast Maine scenery. Classroom discussions will be intended to provoke thought about composition basics and continue to enable individual integration of the process of composition into each participant’s creative practice. Space is limited in this small, in-person workshop.

Opportunities: Great Gardens of Japan Photography Tour (November 2026); Composition & Photography (Maine, August 2026); Base Camp Library Event (through June 14, 2026, click here for discount code info).

Would we get through the Brandenburg Tor? Would Checkpoint Charlie have been a better choice for the crossing? Would the Stasi be waiting for us?

I turned to Bernie. “Don’t be concerned,” I said. “That’s all on a different timeline. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about.” Famous last words. Welcome to Biff’s world.

Original blog story with the image (2018); Inspiration: Bernie Gunther series.

• A 45–75+ minute photography class
• Q&A with the presenter
• Member-submitted image reviews, so you can see how the ideas apply to real photographs

• Buy 3 and save 20% with code BASECAMP20
• Buy 5 and save 30% with code BASECAMP30
• Buy 8 and save 35% with code BASECAMP35

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Base Camp Photo Club, and receive a fee for purchases.