Free Webinar Nov 22 – The Wonderful Things Printing Can Do For You & Your Images

Join me for a free webinar

Tuesday Nov 22 at 1 EST

Here’s a link to the replay!

The Wonderful Things Printing Can Do For You & Your Images

What can prints do for you and your images? Let me count the ways!

Learn what to look for in good prints and how to make yours great.

Find out about the many ways you can use prints to improve your art and its success.

Get my free The Digital Printing Quick Start Guide now.

Hosted by Calibrite in the B&H Event Space.

Click the link below to join the webinar.
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82967781997?pwd=N3BhVWpoWkIwY2ljUndKWWRwWHlqZz09
Passcode: 887027

What You Need To Know To Master Black & White Photography

.
In this video, I share my unique insights into what’s special about black-and-white images. I show ways to visualize black-and-white possibilities and showcase 5 classic black-and-white styles. Along the way, I discuss the vital steps of making black-and-white images; color management, color conversions, tonal adjustment, and printing.
.

My Colorful But Not So Colorful Photographic Upbringing

Caponigros_425
Enjoy this new interview where I discuss my photographic upbringing with Jill Waterman on B&H’s Explora blog.

“When it comes to photographic dynasties, the name Caponigro holds a privileged position at the top of the list. The father/son duo of Paul and John Paul Caponigro are masters of their respective crafts, spanning many years and a broad reach, from the muted tonalities and classical elegance of Paul’s large-format landscapes to John Paul’s complex, ethereal digital composites.

In 2016, B&H Photo hosted father and son as invited speakers at the B&H OPTIC Conference, where they both presented their work to great acclaim. Offstage, they also chatted about art, nature, and spirit with the Explora podcast team. After recently drawing inspiration from this archived content, we decided to take a deeper dive into the family history and respective working methods of these legendary artists in celebration of Father’s Day.
We caught up with John Paul Caponigro in a conversation over Zoom, and we present excerpts from our chat below, with their 2016 OPTIC presentations and podcast audio interspersed with the text.”
Your father makes large-format photographs of landscape and nature. Outside of his artistic practice, did he or your mother make family snapshots when you were growing up?
When I was young, photography seemed to be a serious thing. It seemed like there were very few snapshots, but there were a few and both of my parents seem to find more as the years go by.
I think my mom had an Olympus 35mm with roll film. I don’t even remember whether Dad had film rolls or not at that time. He did later when I started doing some things. But, when I was younger, it didn’t occur to me to ask why Mom would send her film to the drugstore and get these little 3 x 5″ prints. I was just watching what they were doing.
Do you have any early memories of your father teaching you about art or photography?
There are many stories. One time, Dad started talking about the color of the black-and-white prints he was making. “What color?” I asked. He then showed me how papers and developers and toners offered different subtle colorations, and how that changed the spatial dynamics within them, and our emotional responses to them. After that, I never thought of black-and-white or gray as colorless. You could even say they’re my favorite colors.
But, when you think of my father, just remember, there is no routine. He had certain papers and developers that he would favor. But he was very much interested in how each one had special characteristics, and wanted to become familiar with that, almost like becoming familiar with the tone of an instrument, matching the image with the characteristics of the paper / developer combination. He printed like his mother cooked, to taste. I remember getting the first pizza lesson from my grandmother. And she says, “Now you take a handful of salt,” and I’m like, “Nona, your hand is this big, and my hand is this big. So, give me your hand.” And I poured the salt from her hand into the measuring cup, and said, “OK, I’m going to write that down.”
So, it’s much more of a print-to-taste kind of thing. He just wasn’t so technical. But it’s hard to say that, because he did his homework. My dad really stripped-down Ansel Adams’s zone system into something that was very practical and approachable. He had done all of that, and then at a certain point, he liberated himself. You know, the technical can become an obsession. It can be what drives the show. And, he’s enough of an artist to want to let the emotion, and then the perception, drive the process.
You met many important photographers and artists as a youth, who were friends of your father’s. Are there any memorable stories you can share from these encounters?
My father used to tease Ansel Adams that he had a cloud stick in his bag. So being a kid of 6 or 7, I went looking for it. I was young enough to believe in magic, and I was really disappointed to find out it was just a joke. Decades later I got my own cloud stick—Adobe Photoshop.
I was too young to take one of Ansel’s workshops, but I certainly watched him on opening nights, and evenings at dinner, and so many other times. As a kid, Ansel and Eliot Porter were two of my heroes because they were so involved with environmental organizations. But, also the fact that Ansel had this whole workshop program in the middle of Yosemite Valley, it was really quite magical. And then he would invite other artists to come in; he had created his own community. There aren’t that many workshop programs out there like that, still today. It might have been the only one at that point. It was pretty neat to see that whole thing.
My relationship with Eliot Porter came out of my mom designing most of his books after a certain point. He lived right down the road, in Tesuque, New Mexico. He was tremendously influential to me in so many ways. He had such a keen, scientific mind, and this endless curiosity, this restlessness, this activeness socially, or at least environmentally. He was just a super guy.
You’ll find much more on B&H including two videos and a podcast.

.

Optic 2018 | Myth, Magic, and Mojo | Keith Carter


“At B&H’s Optic 2018, photographer Keith Carter talks about myths, magic, and mojo. He believes that the best way to elevate your photography is to tell the truth as you know it through your photos, and he stresses that there are great lessons to be learned by revisiting history. We can learn a lot about how to shoot well – even in this digital age – by studying classic photos that pre-date digital photography.”
Find out more about Keith Carter here.
Read our conversation here.
Read quotes by Keith Carter here.
View 12 Great Photographs By Keith Carter here.
 

Landscape Masters – Michael Kenna and Paul & John Paul Caponigro

2GeneBook_425
“B&H’s OPTIC 2016 Imaging Conference provided numerous opportunities to talk with some of the most respected nature and landscape photographers working today, but the highlights of our two days at OPTIC had to be our chat with Michael Kenna, the event’s keynote presenter, and our conversation with Paul and John Paul Caponigro. It is unnecessary to summarize the work of these three photographers in any quick description but, suffice it to say, each is a master of his craft.
While their work is distinctive and unique, it was wonderful to hear of their common vision, approach—and yes, spirituality—and for this reason, we present their conversations together. With Kenna we spoke of process, why he sticks with medium format film photography and what motivates and inspires his work. With the Caponigros, we touched upon the spirit of art, how to communicate with nature and, with Father’s Day in mind, how to let a child discover his or her own path to artistic expression. Join us for these two inspirational conversations.” – John Harris and Alan Weitz
Michael Kenna (1:30 – 30:05)
Paul and John Paul Caponigro (31:00-57:10)
Listen to it here.
View our lecture at B&H’s OPTIC 2016 Conference here.
Read our conversation here.
View the ebook Two Generations here.
View the Two Generations exhibit catalog here.

The Essence Of Black & White Mastery – Video

 

In my presentation (sponsored by Canon) at B&H’s OPTIC 2016 Conference I share unique insights into black and white photography including – why black and white are colors, why you need color management, ways of seeing in black and white, how to prepare files for conversion to black and white, how to tone black and white images, 5 classic styles of black and white photography and more.

Read more in my Black & White lessons.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

OPTIC 2016 – B&H's Travel, Outdoor, and Wildlife Photography Conference

BH2genBW copy
OPTIC 2016 is four days of presentations, events, live demonstrations, portfolio reviews, gallery exhibitions, cocktail parties, sunset cruises and a Central Park photo expedition along with a giant two day long trade show. Please see each day for a complete schedule of the many activities that OPTIC offers that you can choose from, to customize your experience. The main stage on day one and day two will be live streamed. All lectures will be available to view at a later time, so you can relive OPTIC and not miss a single exciting presentation!”
I’ll be presenting two sessions …
1    Black & White Mastery – Sunday June 5 at 4:30
2    Two Generations Of Master Artists – Monday June 6 at 2 pm
In this second session, I’ll be sharing the stage with my father.
Find out more here!