Stephen Johnson Photography News

April 2023

Upcoming Workshops:

This month's View From Here column talks about my new Water book, some wildflower explorations, and more of my sun meets sea work.

Open House May 6-7! The Pacifica Center for the Arts and my studio will be participating in the annual Silicon Valley Open Studios on May 6–7, 11am–5pm. Come by and join the arts scene at the Pacifica Center for the Arts. A preview exhibition with one of my prints runs through April 30 featuring a selection of artwork from Silicon Valley Open Studios at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View, CA.

My next class visits Golden Gate Park in a workshop May 18–19. The Masterful Fine-Art Printing hands-on workshop follows May 20–23.

— Steve

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

Evening Fog. Iceland. 2009.

My 2009 workshop to Icleand brought many wonderful scenes and beautiful light. This scene after sunset stayed with me over the years. The color was strange and interesting, but ultimately the black and white interpretation distilled my emotional reaction more effectively. This often happens in low light, where our low light sensitive rod retinal cells are allowing us to see, but sense luminance more than color. In a sense, the strange color we see with long exposures has less to do with our human visual experience than black and white photographs.

I’m offering a 14-inch-wide print of this photograph for $195, matted to 16x20. This print at this price is offered through April 30. I'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by May 15.

I’m also pleased to report my ongoing Donate to Ukrainian Relief Featured Print option has yielded funds to help victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In one case, my notice of completing the donation prompted the print buyer to donate additional funds.

Falls and Rainbow. El Capitan. Yosemite National Park, CA. 2013.

It was such a magic moment to see a rainbow cast across the largest exposed rock on Earth. This photograph stood out in my new water book as I was reviewing it, and seems like a good inclusion as this month’s archive photograph. It was remarkable to see at the time, and a pleasure to include in the Water book and share here.

The Water Book

A few years ago, my lifelong friend Donna Ottosen suggested I gather a collection of water photographs. I took her suggestion seriously, and put together a prototype print on demand book. I printed one copy just to have a look at it. As is typical, I had poured low-resolution, web-prepped photographs into an Adobe InDesign layout. That was fine for seeing what such a book might look like, but the proof I had printed was expectedly marred by soft, sometimes even pixelated photos. That’s where the project stopped. My wide-ranging pull of photographs into the project from more than forty years of photography meant full-resolution files had to be dug out of archives. It was a doable project, but clearly was going to be time consuming. And I have so many projects in my heart.

My friend Donna is in her 90s, and we both admit time is precious. In recent months it became important to me to double back and make a good-looking version of the project. I didn’t want to wait any longer to get Donna a copy, so I sent the funky prototype to her absolutely delightful reaction. I wasn’t sure when I would get back to finish the project. But that’s what I did, spending part of February and March of this year getting the book updated with full-resolution photo files. I resisted the temptation in this version to pull in new work and redesign it. I wanted it ready to go the next time my print on demand vendor MagCloud offered a sale. A sale came along, and although I did have to scramble a bit, I ordered a few with only a couple of minor corrections yet to make for subsequent copies.

I have now made those corrections and am proud to offer my new book Water: A Photographic Portrait, now available from MagCloud.

Water is life. Ironically, now it may also be key to almost limitless energy if we can find a way to cheaply separate its hydrogen from its oxygen.

Out and About

Here’s a couple of photographs from a quick trip out seeking wildflowers, which ended up in Yosemite with its grand cliffs.

Last Light Views

More contributions to my setting sun series.

Virtual Educational Experiences

Virtual Classes and Lectures have now become a regular part of my workshop program. Critiques are now virtual. Here are the virtual educational opportunities coming up.

• Digital Photo "Sharpening" Overview. Virtual Lecture. May 10, 2023

Virtual Classes and Lectures. A series of new online live classes on various topics with limited space and Q&A sessions.

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, creates 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 (masked visits by appointment)

Links to custom reproductions I’ve created because of my love of the images. I work to make beautiful copies, and to let more people enjoy these photographs and maps.

The Studio, Scholarships, Mentoring and Tutorials

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!

Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog

The Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog

As I've been on a roll on fixing bodies of work into print on demand 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-inch wire-bound book, featuring five years of work from 2005 to 2010 traveling this wondrous planet.

• Photographs from 2005–2010

• 56 pages

• 11x17-inch, wire-bound book

• $40

A collection of photographs in and around Pacifica, California. Includes a trail map.

• 74 pages

• 11x17-inch, wire-bound book for full lay-flat opening and enjoyment

• Pacifica Trail Map

• 32 years in Pacifica

• 10 years of calendars

• $50

Emailed or shipped with beautiful gift note card.