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New Pacifica Land Trust Trails map

Next Workshop:

I've been doing a lot of printing lately, finishing additional copies of my soon to be available Life Form Portfolio and working on longer-term 2017 projects including more care invested in my archive and a new Pacifica Land Trust Trails map.

— Steve

This month's View From Here column features some new photographs of scenes I've been running into. We hope you find the column interesting and will consider sending us some comments.

Curling Waves in Blue Dusk. Pacifica. 2011.

9.5x14 Pigment Inkjet Print on Cotton paper
$195 each.

Beautiful evening of curling waves blowing back and rolling forward.

We're offering an 9.5x14 inch print of the photograph, matted to 20 inch wide board and ready to frame for $195, framed in silver for an additional $75, wood for $150. This print at this price is offered through May 31. We'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by June 15th.

NEW PHOTOGRAPH

Shell and Fern. Shelldance. 2017

I couldn't pass by the shell while strolling Shelldance one recent afternoon. The ferns seemed a perfect setting, and the color simply not needed.

Custom Workshop Scheduling: We have set up polls for recently requested workshops to see who might be interested and able to make some dates:

Image Editing
Fine Art Printing
Photography Critique Session

The Studio, Scholarships and Mentoring

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.

There are many ways of working with Steve, in person and virtually, such as our Virtual Online Consulting Program. For discounted time studying with Steve, keep in mind our Mentoring Program.

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.

Our Essays and Tutorials from the past couple of years can now be found on our Newsletter Archive and some on Google Blogger.

We hope you can come by the gallery and see the new Panoramic Prints we've added to the National Parks Gallery, and 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

Knockin' Around

I know I am interested in too many things, photographic and nothing to do with photography. Music, the cosmos, understanding our place among those stars and galaxies. It is that general curiosity that makes us well rounded humans. There is much to embrace and learn even if it were only confined to photography. Broad Interests makes for interesting human life, but it can make the breadth of overlapping photo interests and tasks large.

For most of us seduced by light and image making, the things we incidentally see become as important as any imagery we plan. Thus, even our photographic interests are broader than we might sum up, as visual seduction is everywhere.

Enjoying a sunset with a glass of wine on the front deck can instantly switch into a photo experience when a giant ray of light suddenly juts upward from the setting sun. Remarkable moments held in some fashion are worth the effort, even with no expectation of making a great photograph. We try, but most importantly to me, I get to witness.

Or a simple dog walk on a trail climbing the ridge behind our house up to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) where views of the mottled sky and my coastal town kept drawing my camera.

The GGNRA preserves many remnants of WWII observation and artillery emplacements. Walking up the Milagra Trail takes me past a few of these, and takes my mind back to what the world must have looked like after Pearl Harbor and the crisis facing the world. The old concrete bunkers carry the life of that time, even now, covered in graffiti, but still there.

These spirals have turned up south of the Mori Point section of GGNRA. I first noticed them from the air with my Phantom 4 drone. I don't yet want to know anything about how they got there. For now, a fantasy about some spiritual beings from another dimension laying out markers of wonder works for me. There seems no point in shattering illusions just yet.

They could be portals to some other place. But given the steepness of the eroding cliff side, the most likely journey would be a quick one down to the sea below.

Sometimes little moments of life reveal so much visual magic and tenderness that they can become important in their own right.

A broken wine glass and a dark post-election mood made the shattered line, stain of red and beautiful blue sky compelling. I've worked a bit on redoing it a little better. But the redos have not yet had something the original possessed, probably the spark of spontaneity.

I'm sure we all snap the shutter on incidental scenes we find, with no illusions as to them being great photographs. But they do build up in numbers over time, and the unusual, the quirky, and yes, sometimes the adorable is part of what makes photography so damn rich.

The Tunnels at Devil's Slide keep pulling me to photograph. They are architectural passages hinting at a portal into a 1950s vision of the future. They have now also become the real portal to the San Mateo County Coastline south of my home and studio in Pacifica.

The bridge connecting them to Highway One on the northside has been getting my attention since construction started in 2006.

Slides Found! 

About 25 35mm transparencies from 1975 had gone missing for about 15 years. As is typically the case, looking for something else, there they were. And not even a slide pages. My recent work with the Canon 5DSr for slide copying got instantly employed and they were all digitized within about an hour.

It was a difficult lighting situation for the photography that cold overcast day in March 1975. The sky was white, the stage back lit. and the lost slides were not the best from the day, but I am very grateful to have them back. 

The black and white negatives generally worked better. I offered a set of them with Bob Dylan and Joan Baez as featured prints in 2011. Of course, prints are still available, just at regular prices. The emcee for the day was Marlon Brando, Neil's band featured Rick Danko and Levon Helm of the Band. Bob Dylan was the surprise guest. BW proofs can be found here.

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.

2017 Pacifica Calendar

20 scenes in and around Pacifica, California where Stephen Johnson Photography is located. Full page trail map included. Printed on a color laser digital press.

11" x 17" $25.00