Stephen Johnson Photography News

July 2021

Upcoming Workshops and Print:

The long nightmare of the pandemic seems to be easing as vaccinations increase, but as they plateau and variants emerge, I am remaining cautious. However, I do now feel comfortable scheduling outdoor workshops starting in December with my Highway One Coastal Journey. Gallery visits by appointment with virus protocols in place. We are anxious to move on from this isolation and distance, my virtual classes, Photo Chats and appointment visits will all help.

  — Steve

This month's View From Here column explores some new photographs, print projects and film-copying stories. Our Virtual Classes are continuing to broaden with the Virtual Seminars offering Kinder Gentler HDR. August 18, 2021, a new Virtual Critique Session August 19 and the Black and White Vision and Printing virtual workshop August 21-22. The Masterful Fine Art Digital Printing: Virtual Workshop is offered again on September 2021.  A new 20 print set Many Views: Twenty Photographs, is being offered emerging from these last 18 months of work during very challenging times. 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 class and field workshops starting again late this year. All workshops currently scheduled are subject to necessary corona virus spread prevention logistics.

Pinnacles in the Mist. Pinnacles National Park. 2021.

Two image stitch with Canon R5 using the RF600mm F11 IS STM lens

Morning Mist on Cliffs. A three frame panoramic stitch with the Canon EOS R5 and their RF600mm lens. From a hike on May 17, 2021 with my good friends Ed and Angie Stone. We went hoping to see some California Condors, did see plenty of Turkey Vultures and the majestic rock towers of the park. We were greeted by unexpected cloud cover dancing a retreat along the ridge line causing a stunning transition from morning mist into open sunlight. There are so many images from that short 15 minutes of wonder that it was almost arbitrary which to work on first, but this line cliff tops and mist stood out.

We're offering an 11x11 inch print of the photograph for $195, matted to 16x20 inch board. This print at this price is offered through July 31. We'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by August 15.

California Quail Couple

Canon EOS R5, RF600mm lens.

Sometimes the most ordinary of circumstances can be magical. A rustle in a Redwood grabbed my attention as I walked out my door toward my car. It turned out to be an adult California Quail. I grabbed my R5 with the RF800mm still on it from whale watching. The bird was too close to focus, I switched to the RF600mm and listened for the bird in the tree. It turned out to be multiple adults and more than a dozen babies which paraded before our eyes, even posing on the fence before they hopped up the hillside into Golden Gate National Park.

As anti-virus caution continue to tell us to avoid unnecessary exposure to others, masks and social distancing remain a good idea as the variants emerge and our general gallery masked/distance appointment policies are now allowing some visitation. 

Gallery Appointments

The Covid-19 restrictions and now cautions that have kept the gallery mostly closed, do allow me to open for special limited viewing appointments. Write to inquire or call 650 355-7507 about an appointment.

The 2021-2022 Workshop Schedule is evolving, continuing with the HDR Kinder & Gentler virtual lecture August 18, 2021. I have now scheduled the first of my pandemic cautious field workshops, Highway One Coastal Journey in December, Death Valley in Winter and Yosemite in Winter for 2022.

See what a great experience students have had on Steve's Workshops by exploring Workshop Testimonials.   

Other Worldly is up in our galleries having joined the 50 Years of Space Photography Exhibit with the Life Form Exhibition. 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.

THE VIEW FROM HERE
by Stephen Johnson

Local and Memory Travels

Lately, that “out there” around here, has meant wrapping up the spring views of maturing falcons and herons, some Humpback Whales passing through, and spending time continuing my work in Golden Gate Park.

It has also meant working in the studio, on archives, digitizing projects and getting some long-term projects moved further along.

Natural Gestures

It is often those small, little, natural wonders that leave gentle but cumulative effects on us, cementing bonds to the Earth’s natural world. Almost every walk contains some element of just such wonders.

Inspirational Video

From YouTube: “Nature's beauty can be easily missed — but not through Louie Schwartzberg's lens. His stunning time-lapse photography, accompanied by powerful words from Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast, serves as a meditation on being grateful for every day. (Filmed at TEDxSF.)”

Photoshop Sky Select Feature: The Monument photograph above with the gray sky naturally falling high on the histogram in the camera capture. That challenge seemed a good little test for Photoshop’s Select Sky feature (not the newer Sky Replace). It was a quick way of having Photoshop make the initial selection for adding a Curves Adjustment Layer to the editing to bring the sky down to a slightly more realistic presence. Although it needed a little tweak with a Color Range sky addition along the tree line on the left, it worked pretty well. And yes, using Select/Color Range initially might have eliminated the need to add the left out sky to the selection, but it was nice to see the tool work as well as it did.

Snap Shots to Rock and Roll

The George Harrison slides were from his 1974 first and only tour of the US. The San Francisco shows were held at the Cow Palace on November 6-7, 1974. It was the same venue the Beatles played in 1964 and 1965.

I stumbled into the slides when looking for some family and friends images. Four of the many photos were mixed in with people photos from the same period. Somehow, the four had not even made it into the George Harrison 1974 folder in the negative and slide drawers. The friends photos search also pulled up some photos of me, photos I had long forgotten existed, which turned out to be waiting in line to see Paul McCartney two years later in 1976. That discovery led me back to the McCartney folder in my archive, which turned up some glassine enveloped bw negatives that never seemed to have been proofed. After sorting through them on a light table, I was able to reassemble the roll of film, mark the polyethelyne sleeve with a dot for sharp images and copy a few with my camera. The bw of Paul below never saw the light of day, until today’s copy, right through the polyethylene, circuitously retrieved.

These copies were made with my Canon R5, the Canon 100mm macro on my copy stand with 6500k a LED light bulb. The flip around screen on the R5 was very handy, and I discovered that when I was using HDR to encode a contrasty slide, the R5 live histogram gives me a preview of the encoded HDR dynamic range. It was a feature I had simply not previously noticed.

Lectures and Photo Chats

My lecture program continues on with the Virtual Seminar Kinder Gentler HDR. August 18, 2021 6pm to 7:30pm

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.

Virtual Experiences

I have now added Virtual Classes and Lectures to the schedule. 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.

Kinder Gentler HDR. Wednesday evening August 18, 2021 6-7:30pm

Masterful Fine Art Digital Printing: Virtual Workshop. Saturday and Sunday August 28-29, 2021. 9am to 5pm PST.

Virtual Mentoring/Consulting

Existing Online Tutorials

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.

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.

Workshops Coming Up

The next class is an additional offering of our Mastering Fine Art Digital Editing and Printing on August 28-29, 2021 and has gone virtual with after-class online sessions. All workshops listed are open for enrollment now but subject to virus driven changes. We are exploring more virtual classes.

Please consider joining us on one of our upcoming workshops. Enrollment is the key to continuing to offer these classes and keep the studio running. We hope to hear from you.

Don't forget to Check out our next workshops

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, 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. 

New Space Photography Products

Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog

Emailed or shipped with beautiful gift note card.