Category — Fine Art Photography

Epson Stylus Pro 7900

Epson has officially unveiled the newest generation of their 24- and 44-inch pigment-based, inkjet printers: the Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900. [True confession: my inner-geek gets all tingly at times like this.]

My initial assessment is that the Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 offer a slate of great innovations that focus on three goals - finer print detail, faster print speed and expanded color gamut. Among the new technologies are: [Read more →]

The dates for the upcoming 2008/09 tour of the Epson Print Academy are now online. The 16-city tour starts in Atlanta on November 8. No specifics about pricing or curriculum have been released. Click here for the event calendar. I expect that more details will be released by the end of the month.

The last tour, held in 2006, offered two tracks at each venue –- one for amateurs and one for professionals. I attended the pro track in San Francisco and met Bruce Fraser, JP Caponigro, Greg Gorman, Jeff Schewe and Mac Holbert. I expect that the instructors on the new tour will be equally stellar.

I always look forward to the Epson Print Academy as a way to catch up the latest techniques. Even though I drive my Epson 3800 with a high-degree of confidence, I’m looking forward to attending the pro track in San Francisco next February. With the recent release of Lightroom 2 and the upcoming announcement of Photoshop CS4, I highly recommend the event regardless of your printer make and skill level.

Santa Fe Photographic Workshops has just posted their schedule for Spring 2009. This is the schedule only; individual course descriptions should be available by the end of September. I’ve taken a number of workshops at Santa Fe and have always had a great experience. If you are looking to take a workshop with guys like Joe McNally or Jay Maisel, register today. Their classes always fill up quickly. If you wait for the actual catalog to be published, your favorite course may be filled already. Santa Fe has a stable of great instructors that return every year to teach. They’ve also added a flock of new, yet equally great, names to their faculty (Michael Britt is a personal favorite as his High-Volume Digital Workflow seminars always speak to my inner-geek), To stay in touch with SFPW, subscribe to their e-newsletter and their blog.

New York-based, Pulitzer-winning, editorial shooter Vincent Laforet has written an epic piece on the state of editorial photography. Find it here on SportsShooter.com. I say “epic” both in terms of content and length. Anyone who earns a living with a camera (or wants to) should spend time reading Laforet’s observations and predictions. [Read more →]

If nature, landscape or wildlife photography is your love, check out the Photograph America Newsletter. Published for nearly 20 years, PAN is a 12-page newsletter with detailed travel info for photographers looking to capture a specific location or region at its best. Want to know how and when to head to Death Valley… click here. Thinking about catching the autumn color in New England… click here. Curious how to photograph alligators and migratory waterfowl down South… click here. New issues of PAN come out four times per year - either in print or PDF download. (The PDF version has photos in color.) The whole collection of PAN back-issues (more than 1,200+ pages total) is available on a CD or printed in a binder. Seven regional collections of back-issues are also available.

In the world of fine art photography, it’s often hard to figure out where the image capture ends and the printmaking begins. Many photographers begin visualizing the final print before their finger hits the shutter button. Others won’t begin to see the potential of their images until they’ve spent several hours in front of a computer monitor. The important point here is to understand that the process of creating a well-crafted, fine art photograph is a continuum and not a series of disconnected steps.

I attended The Fine Art of Digital Printing workshop in Santa Barbara last fall. So, I can personally attest to the fact that investing a week in FADP is an amazing way to catapult your printmaking skills forward. It’s a total immersion program — like Berlitz for photographers. [Read more →]

If you’re looking to take your Photoshop skills from the ordinary to the extraordinary, check out the interactive DVDs produced by Acme Educational. The brainchild of Vincent Versace, the Acme gang also includes John Paul Caponigro, Mac Holbert, and Lee Varis.

Do these names sound familiar? You may have attended their sessions at Photoshop World or read Versace’s Welcome to Oz, Caponigro’s classic Adobe Photoshop Master Class, Holbert’s insights in Nash Editions, or Varis’ innovative Skin. While I always enjoy spending time with a well-crafted book, I learn best when I’m seeing, hearing and doing - all at the same time. This is why Acme shines. [Read more →]