What makes a good photograph? Why do we point the camera in one direction instead of another when the subject matter might be very similar? Why does a photographer take so damn long to make a photograph? These and other such "compositional" questions will be discussed in this lecture on photographic composition.

There will be no rules of composition propagated here, but explorations and suggestions. A good nuts and bolts evening for improving your photographs. A question and answer period will conclude the evening.

PhotoPlus+ virtual lecture.

The fine art darkroom and the craft now possible in the digital realm is the evolution traced in this talk by photographer Stephen Johnson as he walks through his personal, emotional and technical journey pushing this digital revolution into being.

A combined exhibition of new prints from over 50 years of Space Photography joining the current Life Form Exhibition for a mind-blowing journey from the living world close-up to the depths of space.

An exploration of "With a New Eye" the digital photographic survey of selected American National Parks from 1994 through 2006. The project employs a BetterLight and modified Dicomed digital insert, a Sinar-X 4x5 camera, and the Macintosh PowerBook540c through MacBook Pro for completely portable digital photography of very high quality. The camera is capable of color, black and white, and infrared photographs of extremely high resolution and dynamic range (6000x8000 pixels, 140MB files with more than 11 stops of exposure latitude).

An exploration of the nuts and bolts of Steve’s and robert Dawson’s major photographic project on California’s Great Central Valley. From inspiration to complex execution, this talk is the practical and aesthetic melded into a two-hour treatise of an honest photographic look at going home. From working with grants agencies, to publishers, museums, to collaboration, this is a broad-based look at the art and influencing land preservation issues,

Based on the exhibition: The Great Central Valley.

An exploration of the nuts and bolts of Steve’s major photographic project on California’s endangered Mono Lake.. From inspiration to insurance, this talk is the practical and aesthetic melded into a two-hour treatise of falling in love with a place and actively working to help preserve it. From working with grants agencies, to Congress, museums, to contributing photographers, this is a broad-based look at the art and influencing land preservation issues.

Steve will discuss his exhibition of new prints from over 50 years of Space Photography is joining the current Life Form Exhibition for a mind-blowing journey from the living world close-up to the depths of space. The Space Exhibit evolved out of Steve’s longterm interest in the space program and views offered of the heavens and by spacecraft far away. The concentration on the exotic form of the living world of the Life Form work inspired this expressive look at the wonders of the very large and distant in this print exploration of photographs Steve had been gathering for years.

An exploration of the sensuality and strangeness of flora seen in abstract form and beauty. Re-imagining the meaning of close up photography, Stephen Johnson has spent the last few years working on a series of very detailed, deeply focused photographic studies of the raw sensual beauty of plant life.