For many reasons, looking back has occupied much of the past month. So the newsletter naturally looks back to recent work, but then stumbles into older photographs where some nice discoveries were made and good memories rekindled.
                                                                        — Steve

This month's View From Here column features musings over photographs from the last year or so with a few instructional pieces. We hope you find the column interesting and will consider sending us some comments.

Wave and Clouds. 2005.

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

I was a little surprised to see how long ago this photograph was made and with which camera. Photographs sometime stay with you in the back of your mind, then when they pop up a nice print often begs to be made. In this case, a 14 inch print, then a 20 inch print were made before I looked up the date and camera. The 14 mp Kodak Pro14n held up quite well. I was impressed.

Note: In 2005, I was still allowing the native camera file names (in this case C9SP0029, which is repeated from other times) to be used in my archives. Since 2007, I would have named the photograph… 

20051113_pebblebeach_0056.DCR 

…using the date, place name and sequence of photographs made at Pebble Beach that day. An ongoing question I now have to answer, is whether to go into the archives and rename files with this more useful protocol given that the original file names have been used in various ways since then.

Tutorial on Photo Downloading.

We're offering a 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 $100, wood for $250. This print at this price is offered through October 31. We'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by November 15.

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.

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 Google Blogger.

We hope you can come by the gallery and see the original prints in the new Life Form 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

In the Studio, Not on the Road

Every year when Canon's EOL Contract renewal comes around, Canon asks us to submit photographs for them to consider including in their marketing efforts. This always prompts me to look back since the last request to see what I've been up to. Days naturally have a way of filling up the mind with the recent, and I am sometimes surprised by the last year or so of images.

As I explore, occasionally I find the spectacular. The more I wander, the more I see. But much more often I see a far more subtle world, where slowing down and bringing craft to what I see produces a far quieter view of this earth. I like that idea, and the portrait of the earth that emerges.

Where my work might fit into the pantheon of "significant" photographs has to be ignored when I photograph. I need to be present where I am, not bringing other aspirations. Not that I am fully present anywhere or anytime, my mind is always churning. But the best of what I do is when I am to concentrate on the scene before me, feeling the seduction of its beauty.

The act of trying to craft a photograph is certainly about light, but it is also about design, sensitivity to seeing, listening, tasting the air and feeling the breeze. It is about caring about the life in view and the earth giving that life. At its best, the act of photographing is an act of passion.

Mostly without drama, my most precious photographic experiences are about the slow walk on the earth, my heart taking in the quiet wonder, hearing my breathing. Sometimes I can feel my heartbeat, and feel so deeply grateful to be on this blue oasis of water and life.

I photograph to dwell in that rush of emotions. And for so many other reasons––the sheer pleasure of seeing.

The magnificence of a twisted tree, the grace of another's branched arms, the velvet of the spongy moss. All of these qualities move me. Make me love.

Imagining a black and white or color image is very different. Why does a black and white photograph seem more formal to me? It may seem more studied, and sometimes is. Stripped of casual color, we do seem to be saying, "here, look, the form and design matter." I suppose that is why I have always loved both color and black and white, one a direct celebration of natural form, the other more an act of silver design and abstraction.

The grace of a morning walk just after a rain, an unknown woods, early low light, solitude, quiet––as photographers, we relish these experiences. Our cameras might be the excuse, nudging us on, but engaging in the world is the real motivation and the real reward. I feel good about being alive most profoundly when immersed in the natural world.

A quiet natural scene might only occasionally rise to the profound, but the experiences are often profound, imbuing my life with a sense of the sacred. I seek these experiences, and hope to create photographs along the way that reach to share those appreciations.

The life I get to see along the way continues to delight and overwhelm me with its complexity and integrity. This glorious world of flora that literally helps give us life often dominates my work. My subject matter is mostly flora and geology with the blessed light from the sun. The recent Life Form work has obviously been inspired by such fasciations.

Occasionally I get to witness animals with an intimacy I also crave. I've often said that wildlife photography is hard, requiring patience, skill and luck. I don't generally think of myself as being very good at it. Occasionally luck triumphs and I even get time to call on study rather than rapid-shutter response. Mostly it is quick reaction.

In going back looking for pictures of my great friend Sandy in the weeks after her passing away, I found so much other work that seems worth exploring having nothing to do with my search. The agenda of the moment, time pressures and some myopia cause so much work to be unexamined. It is both a shame and a treasure to rediscover.

I react to what I see. We all do. I've always tried to embrace the breadth of what I see, not be bound by style or current projects. I pop into a mode of current work easily, but I am often most satisfied by the unexpected out of character. Sometimes those photographs take more time to appreciate, are often missed initially.

As I've often said, living near the sea feels sacred. If it were only for the beautiful light, it would be precious. Although the photographs are often reductive of the magic, I cannot, and should not resist trying to hold the wonderful interplay of light and sea that I get to witness.

Deeply loving the desert is part of the drive to offer the Death Valley in Winter workshop most years. I love inculcating an appreciation of desert in my participants. I love their delight in discovering a whole new world of possibility.

Next Studio Workshop

Next Field Workshop

Equipment for Sale

Canon Lens for sale. EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM

The EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM is a lightweight, compact L Series telephoto zoom lens with Image Stabilizer. The optical Image Stabilization in the EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM lens provides up to an incredible four stops of shake correction-a first for Canon IS lenses. The use of fluorite UD lens elements provides excellent optical performance in terms of resolution and contrast. These features, together with its water-and dust-proof construction, provide both the performance and portability to meet user demands.

EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM. $600. I am selling this pristine 1 year old lens as I have replaced it with the new version II.

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

• $50

• 74 pages

• 11x17 wire-bound book

• Pacifica Trail Map

• 32 years in Pacifica

• 10 years of calendars

• $75

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.