Stephen Johnson Photography News
December 2021
Foggy Dusk. San Pedro Valley Park. Pacifica, CA, 2021..
For decades it has been my pleasure to offer gift certificates for those who know they want to give a special photography present to someone that enjoys my photography and teaching. I am happy to offer gift certificates again this year, available in various amounts or by arrangement for any specific product or service.
Upcoming Workshops and Prints:
January 22 - 25, 2022
Many Views: Twenty Print Set
a fine art boxed print set
Welcome to the December 2021 Edition of the Stephen Johnson Photography Newsletter.
My first airplane trip of the pandemic era allowed me to meet my six-month old twin Grandsons. Joy. I didn’t like the flying and the 7 hour mask, definitely felt claustrophobic and surrounded, but seeing these beautiful boys was worth it. The trip brought me to Washington DC for a few days where I spent some time at the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the Museum of the American Indian. I’ve also been playing with a new camera…
— Steve
This month's View From Here column features recent photography from my trip back east, some from my evening walks along the seaside cliffs, a few archive photos and some camera testing. As I mentioned last month, a few big framed original finished prints have become available. Our Virtual Classes are continuing with the Photographic Composition: Perception Not Rules on January 12, 2022 and field classes with my Death Valley in Winter workshop January 22-25, 2022.
Check out my new 20 print set Many Views: Twenty Photographs, emerging from 18 months of work during very challenging pandemic times is available for order.
Gift certificates are available for prints and classes.
I hope you find the column interesting and will consider sending me some comments. As these Newsletters can cover many subjects, let me know of topics you would like to see addressed.
Workshops are currently balanced between virtual classes and field workshops. All workshops currently scheduled are subject to necessary corona virus spread prevention logistics.
FEATURED PRINT December 2021
Forest with Trentepohlia. Moss Beach, CA 2021
I know this forest at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve well. One of my favorite photographs was made here in 1994. I am always drawn to the strange orange Trentepohlia algae encrusting many of the trees. I often bring students here and test new camera as well. It is a wonderful stroll.
We're offering an 11x14 inch print of the photograph for $195, matted to 16x20 inch board. This print at this price is offered through December 31. We'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by January 15.
NEW PHOTOGRAPH
Spreckles Lake. Golden Gate Park. San Francisco, CA 2021.
Fuji GFX100s
A 60 second exposure of Streetlights at Spreckles Lake in Golden Gate Park. San Francisco.
LATEST NEWS:
I continue to photograph with an ever greater reach into old haunting grounds adding new adventures they come to mind. I’m getting bolder about traveling, still with caution, mostly by car under my own control.
Gallery Appointments
The gallery is now open for masked/distance appointments. Please come visit us!. Write to inquire or call 650 355-7507 about a virus cautious appointment.
Blog Restarted and Growing: Subscribe
As I have mentioned in my last few Newsletters, I have renewed more frequent postings on my Blog derived from my Newsletters and Facebooks posts. I am gradually moving other blog forums now gone to this one central place. You can view or subscribe at: https://sjohnsonphoto.wordpress.com
Virtual Classes
During the virus, I have naturally shifted most of my education programs to online experiences. This is frustrating and rewarding. The new virtual experiences are certainly stretching out my geographical reach. I am very pleased by our new Virtual Classes Program.
My 2021-2022 Workshop Schedule continues to evolve to accommodate the virus precautions and very limited ability to gather indoors. Now that the vaccine is so available it is a prerequisite for any in-person class.
I remain committed to offering great courses whether in person or virtually. See what a great experience students have had on my Workshops by exploring Workshop Testimonials.
Stephen Johnson Photography Blog.
The 2022 Workshop Schedule is evolving, with the virtual seminar Photographic Composition: Perception Not Rules on January 12, 2022, a Virtual Critique on January 13, Death Valley in Winter, Yosemite in Winter and Golden Gate Park for 2022.
See what a great experience students have had on Steve's Workshops by exploring Workshop Testimonials.
Other Worldly is the name I’ve given to the two current exhibitions, 50 Years of Space Photography Exhibit and Life Form. Hopefully you can visit soon by appointment, socially distanced, masked and limited to two people. I hope to be able to open the galleries to general visitation in the not too distant future so you can see what is on display at Stephen Johnson Photography.
Upcoming Events & Workshops
Moon and Clouds. Pacifica, CA 2021.
THE VIEW FROM HERE
by Stephen Johnson
Wander and Wonder
Wandering in my mind through the last month takes me on some great journeys, small and ambitious. Wonder got redefined this last month with my first visit to my new twin Grandsons.
What we know of the world is often described by photographs, and now video. I had never seen my grandsons, I have never been to Africa, but have some idea of what the experience might look like because of photographs. It is what I know of a place and sometimes people. Photographs often tell us most of what we imagine when we think of a place we’ve never been. We come to know what we think things look like from these remote images.
Photos convert reality, which at best is a semblance of who people are, and what places look like. The photographs often become my practical reality of people and places.
It may go without saying that actual reality is very different. Being there carries the obvious deep dimension of real human experience. But it also makes clear the huge distance between a photographic impression, however sincere and faithful, and such a tiny fraction of our reality.
I’ve spent a career trying to faithfully record the wonder that I see. As is obvious, I’ve always known the disparity of what I was sharing from the totality of the experience I was having. I found it very humbling and poignant just how huge that gap is recently, remembering my notions of things based on photos and some video, only a day before a real experience.
Even with the intent of being faithful, slices of light recorded in 2D with a camera is such a tiny aspect of the being there. Photography is amazing, but it is so limited in comparison to the reality we can take in with our breadth of human sensory experience. And of course, then there is the heart.
I know that my interest in picturing “reality” is only one of so many approaches to photography’s vast possibilities. I’ve always known, however amazing, photography is a mere impression of our human experience. Recent experiences reminded me of that disparity and at the same time of photography’s magic.
The Mall. Washington DC. 2021.
My First Pandemic Flight
With much trepidation, I took my first flight of the pandemic to the east coast to meet my new grandsons. Flying in and out of Washington DC also brought me back to the Capitol, which has now forever changed for me.
Area Closed. United States of America Capitol Building. Washington DC, 2021..
Washington DC
I love knocking around Washington DC. I’ve always been in awe of the promise of the United States, and it felt special to see the Capitol, the White House, the monuments, and of course the Air and Space Museum. The last few trips have been different. I’ve felt a pall in the city. I know why. With Trump in the White House I felt things were going enormously wrong.
But now, with the attack on the Capitol last January 6, an entirely different feeling was in place. I felt like all of this could crumble and become nightmarish. It was a different feeling than when I visited a while after 9/11. It felt then that this could all be destroyed from outside. Now it feels like we could destroy it from the inside, all of the dreams, the promises of justice, freedom, equality and hope. Hate has replaced hope and faith. I felt it in the air, in the barricades, in the empty Capitol steps. Things are very shaky. It was very hard to portray anything of the sort in photographs. I usually fail when I photograph with an agenda.
Washington DC matters to me. Our aspirations matter to me. Moving ever closer to the freedom and justice of our promise matters to me.
I’m not sure what role my photographs can play, but I am driven to make them.
Scaffolding on Monument. Washington DC. 2021.
Steve at the US Capitol East Side. Washington DC. 2021.
Recent Photographs
Houses and Trees over the Pacific. Pacifica, CA. 2021.
Experimenting with a new camera, the Fuji GFX 100s, has had me bouncing about, trying to get a sense of how it works in a variety of situations typical of my photographic interests. That has led me to San Francisco, local forests and this expansive coastline nearby.
New menus, sub-menus, conditional settings are all challenging, particularly when mixed in with features of real potential value.
As I learn more, I’ll have more to say about the camera and processes.
Spreckles Lake. Golden Gate Park. San Francisco, CA. 2021.
San Francisco Waterfront and Bay Bridge Approach. 2021.
The Archives Expand
Steve under his darkcloth, Creek floodplain Denali National Park. Alaska. 1996. Photograph by Darin Steinberg.
Steve with his BetterLight Scanning back/Sinar camera at Denali National Park. Alaska. 1996. Photograph by Darin Steinberg.
Darin Steinberg with his Rolleiflex camera. Kenai Fjords National Park. Alaska, 1995. Kodak DCS 460.
My career archives grew in early December when an old friend called and said he came across some negatives of me from some of our trips together.
Darin Steinberg was my assistant in the mid to late 1990s, helping on many trips connected to With a New Eye: The Digital National Park Project. Darin called recently saying he had found some negatives from our August/September 1995 trip to Alaska and to Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park.
We copied the 120mm Rolleiflex negatives with my Canon R5 and the Canon EF 100mm Macro lens.
Here I am in Denali National Park with the BetterLight improved Dicomed 4x5 digital insert in my Sinar 4x5 camera, I believe using the Goerz Red Dot 600mm lens.
Me and Darin Steinberg. Kenai Fjords National Park. Alaska, 1995. Kodak DCS 460.
Photograph from the bluffs above the likely location of Darin’s portrait of me above.
Hills, Trees and Snow, Teklanika. Denali National Park. Alaska. 9:34am 9/2/95. BettlerLight Scanning Back (6000x7520 pixels) from With a New Eye: The Digital National Parks Project.
Recently at Stephen Johnson Photography
Sunset Painted Clouds over Sea. Pacifica, CA 2021. .
The sea draws me to its edges constantly. I love going out to our local seaside cliffs to watch the sun set and the surf roll. Over and over again I feel wonder at how the scene evolves and my heart feels at home.
Sanderlings in Flight. Princeton Harbor. near Half Moon Bay, CA 2021.
Collector Framed Prints Available
Trees, Fitzgerald Reserve. 1994.
Trees, Fitzgerald Reserve. 1994. 40x50 inch pigment inkjet print in 53x62 inch maple frame. Original price $5900. Make offer.
Framed Prints Available
Steve with 50 inch Fitzgerald Reserve print in his Gallery. 2018.
A collector is downsizing and is trading in a few very large framed prints for smaller versions. This means I suddenly have an inventory of a few very custom prints available for sale. The prints are all framed in beautiful solid maple with a sturdy back brace constructed by San Francisco Art Framing Services.
Alluvial Sweep. Haleakala National Park.. 1996
Alluvial Sweep. Haleakala National Park. 1996. From With a New Eye: The Digital National Parks Project. 27x34 inch pigment inkjet print in 39x47 inch frame. Original price $4200. Make offer.
Drying Staghorn Fern. 2013. From the Life Form Project.
Drying Staghorn Fern. 2013. From the Life Form Project. 27x34 inch pigment inkjet print in 39x47 inch frame. Original price $4200. Make offer.
I am proud to offer for sale a boxed set of original pigment prints from 2020 through May of 2021. A view of my photographic endeavors and fascinations just before and during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Twenty 14 inch prints in boxed set. Signed and sleeved. $4500.
Virtual Educational Experiences
Steve in his Life Form Gallery. April 2021.
Virtual Classes and Lectures have now become a regular part of my workshop program. Critiques are now virtual. In fact, as you might imagine, most all teaching is virtual at the moment. To flush that out, here is a list of the virtual educational opportunities we are offering.
Virtual Classes and Lectures. A series of new online live classes on various topics with limited space and Q&A sessions.
Photographic Composition: Perception Not Rules. January 12, 2022. 6pm-8pm PST.
Photo Chats
I’ve been doing weekly virtual Photo Chats with groups of photo friends to keep everyone encouraged to keep working, share and problem solve. I’ve now built a webpage on the chats. Let me know if you would like to join us.
Come Visit the Exhibitions (masked visits by appointment)
Check out my 50 years of Space Photography Exhibition joining with my Life Form Exhibition as Other Worldly for a mind-blowing journey from the living world close-up to the depths of space.
Although the gallery is not open to regular visits with the corona virus regulations, limited visitation can be arranged by appointment.
Come see the shows when you can. Space and awesome life! A dive into cosmic extremes.
The 50 Years of Space Photography Gallery with the five extra Apollo 11 prints.
In front of the Apollo 14 Panoramic, 3rd. Graders from Ocean Shore School in Pacifica visiting the Space Exhibit. 2019. Photo by Sheila Gamble.
Class Visits
Post-virus, when school is back in classroom, we will again welcome teachers bringing their classes by, kids and college students. The kid’s reactions have been inspiring to me, both for the space exhibition and Life Form.
Links to custom reproductions Steve has created because of his love of the work, with the skills to make beautiful copies, and to let more people enjoy these beautiful photographs and maps.
Life Form Exhibition
Life Form opened in the Main Gallery at Stephen Johnson Photography in July 2018. The show has been extended into 2021. We have had many visitors come by the gallery since the opening. Many have then joined workshops and certainly helped build community. Please come see the show, by appointment (masked), or after the virus. Pass the word.
Seeking Good Venues for Life Form
We are seeking good venues to show the Life Form Series. The series is now available for museum and gallery exhibition.
Life Form Announcement. 2018
Don't forget to Check out our next workshops
Next Field Workshop
Next Virtual Seminar
The Studio, Scholarships, Mentoring and Tutorials
As part of our ongoing commitment to photographic education, there is one student scholarship spot in many of our classes. Please pass the word along.
For discounted time studying with Steve, keep in mind our Mentoring Program.
With all of our busy schedules and limited budgets, destination workshops or classes become a challenge, but many of you still have questions you need answered, or feedback on some new work. We want to remind you of our Virtual Online Consulting Program. This service allows all of you out there around the globe to consult online live with Steve on technical, aesthetic and workflow issues using Skype and your webcam.
Our Essays and Tutorials from the past couple of years can now be found on our Newsletter Archive and some on my neglected Blog.
We hope you can come by the gallery after the virus and see the original prints in the new Life Form Gallery and its new Life Form Portfolio, the Exquisite Earth exhibition with its accompanying very special Exquisite Earth Portfolio 1. We invite you to join us on a workshop, rent lab space, or just say hello and let us know what you are up to photographically and what you might like to see us offer. We value your input.
Print Mentor Program
Many of my mentoring students have wanted help with their printing, often to make sure they can produce a specific print. Consequently, I am starting a Print Mentoring Program that sets up a 2 hour time slot and the production of a finished print, all with the tutorial video of how we did it together. Prints can be up to 16x20 and on either Hahnemühle Museum Etching or Photo Rag Pearl paper. Fee is $500. Email for more information and to set up times.
Free and For Sale
Free Stuff (a few items still left)
I have been printing out nice copies of the Constitution and Bill of Rights on rich cotton paper. You are welcome to a copy when you can come by the gallery.
Additionally, I rescued a few Beseler Enlargers, a 23c and 4x5, hoping to find good homes for them. Make an offer.
Equipment for Sale
Previously owned, but pristine, visually unused.
Canon Lenses
Canon EF 28mm f/2.8 IS USM lens $475
Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 IS Macro STM Lens $425
Canon RF 600mm f/11 IS STM Lens $625
Gift Certificates Available for Prints and Workshops!
New Space Photography Products
Apollo 11 Collectors Portfolio examples.
Apollo 11 Collectors Portfolio
A suite of photographs from Apollo 11 including twelve pigment inkjet prints on letter-sized paper selected, edited and printed by photographer Stephen Johnson, in a portfolio box. The set includes a Mission Summary book, original US Postal Stamp commemorating the Mission, the Mission patch and a schematic of the Lunar Module. $250
50 Years of Space Photography Exhibition Catalog
The Exhibtion catalog featuring photograhs from Planetary probes, the Hublle Space Telescope, Lunar explorations, the Apollo program and Space Shuttle/Space Station images. Includes an exploration of the imaging technologies emplyed by the spacecraft.
68 pages, 8.5x11 inches
Other Worldly Exhibition Catalog.
Apollo 11 Photography Book
A 96 page 8.5x11 inch collection of Apollo 11 photographs from launch to recovery including contact sheets for every surface Hasselblad photograph.
It’s the collection I wish I could have bought, so I made it.
-96 pages
-7 sections, Lunar Photo Equipment, Preparation, On the Way, Lunar Orbit, Tranquility Base, Heading Home, Relics
-Film Magazine proofs
Life Form Folio
The Life Form Folio
When we premiered the Life Form Exhibition, I wanted to have a collectible item and record of the show prior to the full book I plan. So, now available is the 36 page 11x17 wire bound book, 5 years of work from 2013 to 2018 exploring these magnificent lives.
Photographs from 2013-2018
36 pages
11x17 wire-bound book
$40
Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog
Page 41
page 13
The Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog
As I've been on a roll on fixing bodies of work into POD books, I decided before the Exquisite Earth show could come down for new upcoming show, I wanted to create a printed record. So, now available is the 56 page 11x17 wire bound book, 5 years of work from 2005 to 2010 traveling this wondrous planet.
Photographs from 2005-2010
56 pages
11x17 wire-bound book
$40
Pacifica Book
A collection of photographs in and around Pacifica California. Include a trail map.
74 pages
11x17 wire-bound book for full lay-flat opening and enjoyment
Pacifica Trail Map
32 years in Pacifica
10 years of calendars
$50
Page 7
Page 27
Pacifica Trail Map by Pease Maps special to the Pacifica Land Trust.
11" x 17" folded
$10 (free shipping) proceeds go the Pacifica Land Trust a non-profit 501c3.
Gift Certificates for Prints and Workshops!
Emailed or shipped with beautiful gift note card.
Life Form Note cards
5x7 inches (sold-out, on backorder)
$25
12 image Note card set with envelopes featuring photographs from Steve's new Life Form work.
Printed by Steve in his studio in very limited numbers on a color laser digital press
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After a few years of working intensely on my Urban Eden Golden Gate Park project, I am excited to offer a two-day photographic workshop in this complex and beautiful landscape. Now 150 years old, this park symbolizes parkland engineering and the earth itself taking its own course of life and fecundity. The park will be explored over two days with a blend of photographic opportunity, assistance, and my growing knowledge of its own back woods. This springtime weekday workshop will avoid some of the weekend crowds.