Stephen Johnson Photography News

March 2024

Hello to my guests and subscribers. Thanks for visiting my March 2024 newsletter. .

This month's View From Here column discusses the ins and outs of my film digitizing process, a fellow photographers work, and shows some new and unearthed photographs.

Inspired by my recent copying efforts, I’m offering a free virtual seminar From Your Film to Camera Virtual Seminar about my process on March 20. Register to join.

My next workshop is the Digital Black and White Vision and Printing Class on April 20–21, 2024, with the Golden Gate Park Field Photography Class coming up May 16–17, 2024, and my next Masterful Fine Art Digital Photography Printing Class on June 1–4, 2024.

— Steve

As these newsletters can cover many subjects, let me know of topics you would like to see addressed.

Grasses. Paoha Island. Mono Lake, CA. 1979.

It was fascinating to go on my first visit to Paoha Island in the Eastern Sierra’s Mono Lake in 1979. I carried multiple cameras, including a 4x5 View Camera. On the south side of the island is Warm Springs Cove, where the remnants of the original warm spring baths from the 1920s line the south-facing cliffs. In front of those decaying concrete igloos of the baths is a wide band of grasses that have grown up as Mono Lake has shrunk due to water diversion to Los Angeles.

It was those grasses that drew me in and led to one of my favorite photographs of my career. I liked the composition and subject matter, but something magical happened in the darkroom when developing the print that made it very special to me. At the time I frequently used a two-bath print developer process with Kodak’s Selector Soft as an extended time first developer, and Kodak’s Dektol as a stronger-acting second developer. The magic came from a silvery upper mid-tone glow that emerged from this process which I immediately fell in love with. I made number of additional prints at the same time using the same method, knowing that this phenomena might never repeat itself. I was also careful to save the rest of the paper in the box.

I was never able to repeat the effect, but am so pleased that I now have a great scan of the print and can make pigment inkjet prints available.

I’m offering a 14-inch-wide print of this photograph for $300, matted to approximately 16”x20”. Larger prints can be ordered. This print at this price is offered through March 31. I'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by April 15. The image reverts to its normal price after that, $800 for an 11x14, $1500 for a 16x20.

Rainbow Over Surf Rising Into Storm. Pacifica, CA. 2024.

On a recent morning I noticed this big arc of color rising through the sky. I piled into the car and immediately headed down to the beach. It became clear it was actually a double rainbow, glowing complete one moment and fractured the next.

Later that same day, as I was leaving my studio, another rainbow was looming in the sky. It was a colorful day.

THE VIEW FROM HERE
by Stephen Johnson

My Negative Archive

Film copying has been my project of late. As I’ve mentioned in recent newsletters, finding the negatives from my Western Artifacts project became a task at the turn of the year. This not only turned up many of the photos I was looking for, but so many more. Once found and deemed of value, I then have to decide how to scan them. Instead of going back to by 4x5 Imacon Flextight Scanner, I headed down a more recently employed path of photographing the film on a copy stand with a light box and my camera. Of course, I had to decide which camera to copy these 120mm and 4x5 negatives with, the Canon R5 or my Fuji GFX 100s. I knew I could slow the effort down and go back to my Imacon Flextight Scanner, which hadn’t been powered up in quite some time.

As it turned out, the Flextight Scanner power supply had gone bad, and it took me a few days to realize I had an extra. The old G3 Mac computer controlling the scanner via SCSI cable is not terribly stable. One thing I should have known was to cut power to machines that are going to be idle for awhile, as they still have power going to them, which seems to age these AC/DC converters and power supplies.

I was pretty happy with the Canon R5 copies for 35mm film, but for 120mm film, the resolution wasn’t high enough. So I switched to the Fuji GFX 100s, but even with the 120 Macro lens, I have been struggling to see the film grain to get the grain sharp. The viewing system just doesn’t magnify enough to really see the grain, zooming in only one step.

The other challenge was that much of the work is color negatives, which has the big hurdle of converting the negative into positives, stripping away the orange mask, and getting the color about right. As I discussed last month, I mostly used Negative Lab Pro for this work.

The more I looked closely at the camera scans, I realized the copies were simply not as sharp and detailed as the film. Once I got the Imacon Flextight up and running, the comparisons were dramatically in favor of the Imacon. However, I had already made very handsome color prints from the camara scans, so I have to weigh the desire for the best scans I can get against the speed and ease of the camera copying. Most will probably be done in camera, with a few special ones scanned on the film scanner.

Point Lobos Workshop

A few views from my Point Lobos, Big Sur, and Carmel Workshop last weekend. My next offering of the class is September 14-16, 2024.

On the Cliffs

A few more photographs from my regular evening plunge into the end-of-day, star-meets-sea work.

Chris on the Cliffs

A few days ago, I ran into my friend Chris McCaw on the cliffs here in Pacifica with some of his hand-built cameras. Chris has been making long exposures, direct to photo paper with his large-format, hand-built cameras, for many years. His labor to create this work is admirable and inspiring.

These photographs are one of a kind reversals of the scene before the camera over a long period of time with actual solarization and sometimes smoke. The photographs carry a record of time and earth/sun movement that is truly remarkable. It is fascinating work.

Virtual Educational Experiences

Virtual Classes and Lectures

Virtual Classes and Lectures, online live classes on various topics with limited space and Q&A sessions, are now a regular part of my workshop program. Critiques are now virtual.

Upcoming Virtual Class, March 20

From Your Film to Camera. A free virtual seminar on copying/digitizing your film archives with your digital camera. March 20.

Virtual Mentoring/Consulting

Existing Online Tutorials

Photo Chats

I’ve been doing weekly virtual Photo Chats with groups of photo friends to keep everyone encouraged to keep working, creating a forum to 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

Life Form Exhibition

Life Form opened in the Main Gallery at Stephen Johnson Photography in July 2018. I’ve had many visitors come by the gallery since the opening. Many have then joined workshops and certainly helped build community. Come see the show by appointment.

Seeking Good Venues for Life Form

I’m seeking good venues to show the Life Form Series. The series is now available for museum and gallery exhibition.

The Studio, Scholarships, Mentoring and Tutorials

Scholarships

As part of my ongoing commitment to photographic education, there is one student scholarship spot in many of my classes. Please pass the word along.

For discounted time studying with me, keep in mind my Mentoring Program.

Virtual Consulting

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. I want to remind you of my Virtual Online Consulting Program. This service allows all of you out there around the globe to consult online live on technical, aesthetic and workflow issues.

Online Tutorials

My Essays and Tutorials from the past couple of years can now be found on my Newsletter Archive.

I hope you can come by the gallery 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. I invite you to join me on a workshop, rent lab space, or just say hello and let me know what you are up to photographically and what you might like to see me offer. I value your input.

Workshop Testimonials

Many of my mentoring students have wanted help with their printing, often to make sure they can produce a specific print. Consequently, my Print Mentoring Program 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. 

Gift Certificates Available for Prints and Workshops!

Water: A Photographic Portrait

My new book Water: A Photographic Portrait, now available to order.

• 88 pages of color and black and white photographs

• 11x17 inches

• Wire bound for completely flat enjoyment