Blog Restarted and Growing: Subscribe

As I have mentioned in my last few Newsletters, I have renewed more frequent postings on my Blog derived from my Newsletters and Facebooks posts. I am gradually moving other blog forums now gone to this one central place. 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 very pleased by our new Virtual Classes Program.

My 2021-2022 Workshop Schedule continues to evolve to accommodate the virus precautions and very limited ability to gather indoors. 

Some plans are now being 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. 

Wonder comes in so many forms, dew on spiderwebs, the flit of a moth through the air, the buzz of an unseen hummingbird. The encounters are often momentary, sometimes just so far out of what I expect to see that I can be taken aback. And we should be. We should be amazed at the Earth around us.

Wild Animals Made Cute

We bring to our experience of photographs our experience in life. We also anthropomorphize our animal co-earthlings. It is hard not to see their behavior as like our own. Its easy to see cute in a creature encounter that could turn very negative. Adorable can still be a word that comes to mind, although they may be far smarter and aware than it might imply.

The dexterity and engaging face of this raccoon belies the common irritation of them living among us and thought of as pests. I've had my share of irritation at raccoons deep in the night, but the wonder of their hands/paws was remarkable to watch. This was one of a pair that invited themselves to the end of our lakeside picnic lunch. We quickly wrapped up our meal and enjoyed watching those two, and six others who joined them shortly after. It was impossible not to try photographing them, particularly as the original pair effortlessly climbed a tree. My Canon 800mm gave me a safe distance and a close look. Although we did not succumb to their desire for us to share our food, this one found other options.

During one of my recent Photo Chats, my friend Jeff Schewe asked “what’s wrong with cute animals pictures?” Nothing I guess.

Along the Coastal Cliffs

In sunshine or fog, I am deeply drawn to the sea and feel so lucky to have lived next to it for so long. In late October, I was pulled down to the seaside cliffs, even when barely able to see the water through the fog.

October 27, 2021. Pacifica, California.

The fog rests gently on these cliffs.

The sun’s movements toward the sea, now hidden behind the gray.

The surf still roars, perhaps muted a bit, the north and south, left and right, stereo sound still clear in complex variation.

Color is muted, light dimming, softening the surrounds. It does not make my troubles go away, nor give sudden purpose to being a little lost. The fog does fade reality back back a bit, softening, graying. Maybe, just in this moment, it makes things less intense. It’s hard to say why or how. It is gentling.

A brightening line forms on the horizon, the fog’s edge revealed to the west. Only a hint of orange at first, then turning to a distinct color.

My Flora and Form workshop brought us to Shelldance Orchid Gardens here in Pacifica for the class field trip. The visual stimulus there seems endless.

Every time I go the nursery I see new possibilities. Even though many memories of things I’ve tried, succeeded and failed at are still in my mind, the seduction of such varied exotic form still holds me.

Every class I teach there is a process of discovery.

It seems our minds live in a different time scale than most of what is around us. It takes many hours for water absorbed by a tree root to get to its leaves, days have cumulative effects rather then event-filled 24 hour periods. All of the earth experiences the rising and setting of the sun with all of its seasons and weather, but it maybe only us that hold these days as discreet, rather than a continuum.

We observe and record life in assembled moments made into days and memories. I often account for the value of my days by what I’ve accomplished. Photography has encouraged me to value time by what I’ve experienced, even as it slices life into unhuman microseconds. These split-second views are often interesting, even revealing, but not the substance of life. They can fragment life.

I sometimes feel that I’ve chosen landscape photography because of its timelessness. Landscape also holds the earth sacred and seems to skim over our fleeting lives.

It’s a perceptual quandary, we hold precious pictures of our loved ones and past portraits revealing how lives were led. But I still know these temporary and fragile bodies we live in are so short-term while an Oak can live hundreds of years, a Giant Sequoia thousands.

I suppose I’m often trying to photograph the source of our lives and its wonder, less the way we lived those lives. I am most interested in photography as a means of understanding the Earth.

We live in daylight, go indoors at night, shy away from fog. We often hide from the very weather and light that makes for interesting views, partially because they are different. The ordinary, can become extraordinary in compelling light. A photo adage comes to mind, “the more uncomfortable the photographer, the better the photographs.”

The Golden Gate Park work is pulling me into night work and fog.

Trees, Fitzgerald Reserve. 1994. 40x50 inch pigment inkjet print in 53x62 inch maple frame. Original price $5900. Make offer.

Alluvial Sweep. Haleakala National Park. 1996. From With a New Eye: The Digital National Parks Project. 27x34 inch pigment inkjet print in 39x47 inch frame. Original price $4200. Make offer.

Drying Staghorn Fern. 2013. From the Life Form Project. 27x34 inch pigment inkjet print in 39x47 inch frame. Original price $4200. Make offer.

I am proud to offer for sale a boxed set of original pigment prints from 2020 through May of 2021. A view of my photographic endeavors and fascinations just before and during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Twenty 14 inch prints in boxed set. Signed and sleeved. $4500.

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, by appointment (masked), or 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 Field 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.

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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