Blog Restarted and Growing: Subscribe

As I have mentioned in my last few Newsletters, I have renewed frequent postings on my Blog derived from my Newsletters and Facebooks posts. 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 certainly excited by our new Virtual Classes Program.

My emerging 2021 Workshop Schedule is being modified to accommodate the virus precautions and very limited ability to gather indoors. 

Some plans are being now made on the assumption that the vaccine is ever more available and will then become a prerequisite for the 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. 

I am not by training or deep experience a wildlife photographer. But I have had my moments with whales, hawks, herons and now falcons.

To no one’s surprise, good wildlife photography is hard. I remain impressed with those that get what seem to be consistently good results with birds mid-flight or any number of animals mid-gesture.

The wonder of spring does join with the camera for some compelling experiences. Even when a string of flying falcon photographs result in a flurry of blur, just the wonder of watching the flight is magical.

Peregrine Falcons

The Peregrine Falcon nest near my home on the seaside cliffs of Pacifica have drawn me deeply into the challenges of wildlife photography, and the pleasure of watching them.

The challenges of very rapid movement, autofocus controls and greater distance than ideal, proved daunting. I kept adding focal length, raising the ISO, learning more about focus tracking and eye detection, and even an out of view sighting device the EE-1 made by Olympus.

This gradual learning and information all helped. However, most all of the challenges remain focus, distance and movement. Practice helped. Luck is clearly a major contributor to success.

The Falcon babies are wonders of their own. Growing fast, still covered in down, flight feathers have already grown on the undersides. Wing stretches reveal how complex their flight structure already is. It is amazing to stand cliffside, watching them from afar, breeze and earth noises abounding, and still hear their chirping. Then, in another moment, to hear the cry of the adult as it pulls through the sky. I did not fully appreciate how much the sound of the experience contributed to being there.

The Perseverance Mars Rover continues to delight me with new views of our sister planet.

Most any of the panoramic photos released are stitched together from much smaller files made by re-aiming the cameras. I often come across raw files that have yet to be released as stitched images.

I was delighted to find these two, and despite the fact that there was color available, it seemed the tonality could make a beautiful black and white image. It did, and I had to make a print right on seeing its beauty.

I liked the print so much I’ve decided to offer 40 inch copies for sale as a beautiful landscape photography print on Hahnemühle PhotoRag Pearl paper.

Gerald Haslam

Saying goodbye in our hearts to a friend is very hard. I knew my friend Gerry Haslam was ill. We had talked about his cancer many times, and his remarkable longterm victories over it. I was very aware of the impact his loss would have on so many.

I came to know Gerry Haslam as the co-editor of a great compilation of literature from the Central Valley, California Heartland. As my friend and project partner Robert Dawson and I were in the midst of our big project on our homeland The Great Central Valley Project, and researching the subject, Gerry and Jim Houston’s Heartland book stood out as a unique inspiration.

Gerry became an academic advisor to our project, became a friend and volunteered to write the text for our book on the work. Years of collaboration and a 70,000 word manuscript resulted, making The Great Central Valley: California’s Heartland book that is among the proudest accomplishments of my life.

Gerry was a prolific author, scholar of western literature, professor of literature at Sonoma State University and a genuinely good and interesting fellow.

Gerry was a character. He grew up in rough Oildale, on the northside of Bakersfield, a schoolmate of Merle Hagged. He knew valley fights, independence, and the hard scrabble world of his native valley. He would write about such characters with the understanding of not only knowing them. but in part being one of them, both amused, in empathy and bemused. Gerry was much more than his upbringing, and more than his college education and professorship. He was husband to a wonderful woman Janice and father to five children and many grandchildren. He was a beer drinking humanitarian, a product of my valley homeland, and like me, someone who left the valley behind but always thought of those home roots.

Most profoundly Gerry was my friend, and I will always feel his loss.

Gerry was 84 years old when his long battle with cancer was lost.

Bakersfield Californian Rememberence

Brian Barger

Brian Barger showed up in one of my Maine Media Workshop classes in 2009 and had been a friend ever since.

Brian was a journalist, a husband, father and son of enormous heart and depth. We bonded almost instantly over his journalistic career, but became friends as fellow lovers of the photographic image and great desire for our country to live up to its best aspirations.

As a journalist, Brian did groundbreaking work exposing the Iran/Contra affair in his work with the Associated Press, CBS and for the Washington Post. Some of Brian’s work can still be seen on HBO Max.

We spent most of our friendship in and around Washington DC where Brian lived, but he came to multiple workshops and visited here as well. I would often stay with him when I was in DC. He helped me with many lectures there and we knocked around town a fair amount including a great day at the US Botanical Garden in 2013.

Brian had a great smile, big heart and was a genuinely good friend whose loss has left another hole in my heart mended by the warmth of my love for him and the privilege it was to be his friend. We lost Brian at 68 years old to cancer in February 2021.

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 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.

Next Virtual Workshop

Next Virtual Seminar

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.

Workshop Testimonials

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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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