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David DuChemin's New Mentor Class The Compelling Frame

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David DuChemin recommends, “If you want sharper photographs, buy a new lens. If you want more compelling photographs, start here.” So do I. If you love David’s books (including Within The Frame and The Soul Of The Camera), like I do – his new online class The Compelling Frame is for you.

Haven’t been able to take one of his Mentor Series Workshops? The Compelling Frame is a great way to get started while you’re waiting.

“The Compelling Frame is a mentor class about making more compelling photographs by being more intentional about your compositions.” (David DuChemin) As with everything David does, it’s vision driven. There are no rules here. David deftly points out that the elements of composition and the forces they set in motion are nothing without purpose – and in your photographs that purpose is yours to choose. Put another way, without knowing what you want to do, you’re unlikely to know how to do it. David puts heart and soul into everything he does; that’s what makes him so great. And he encourages you to do the same because that’s what will make you great.

In the videos you spend less time watching David demonstrate and more time listening to him talk and ask you questions – about really important things. It’s like having a fireside chat with David; the fire is a monitor and the warmth you feel is David. The Compelling Frame is not just a series of videos to be watched passively, this is a class, and to get the most out of it you’ll want to do the exercises that accompany each lesson. It’s well thought out. This is the good work we all need to do. This includes looking carefully at other photographers images, looking carefully at your own, and making new ones. Do this work and you can’t help but make better photographs.

What do you get when you purchase The Compelling Frame? 19 Video Lessons, 31 Creative Exercises, 4 About The Image videos, 2 Craft & Creativity Videos, 2 eBooks, 3 Ask Me Anything Sessions, a one-year membership to Vision Driven a private Facebook community, and 10% off future MentorClasses.

The Compelling Frame is available for one week only – until Sep 20, 2017.

Preview The Compelling Frame here now.

Find out more about David DuChemin here.

17 Great Quotes By Photographer David DuChemin

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Enjoy this collection of quotes by photographer David DuChemin.

“The cliché comes not in what you shoot but in how you shoot it.”  – David DuChemin

“Learning to see is not about having open eyes; it’s about having an open mind.” – David DuChemin

“The more curious we are the more creative we become.” – David DuChemin

“Creativity is about two things; the way we think, and the way we turn those thoughts into reality.” – David DuChemin

“It is we show put the humanity, the vision, and the poetry into our photographs.” – David DuChemin

“When we look at our photographs and find not the slightest reflection of ourselves, it is a good sign that our images have lost their souls.” – David DuChemin

“The idea of authenticity carries such value because we know how difficult it is to be fully ourselves.” – David DuChemin

“Anyone can take a picture of poverty; it’s easy to focus on the dirt and hurt of the poor. It’s much harder—and much more needful—to pry under that dirt and reveal the beauty and dignity of people that, but for their birth into a place and circumstance different from our own, are just like ourselves. I want my images to tell the story of those people and to move us beyond pity to justice and mercy.”  – David DuChemin

“A representational photograph says, ‘This is what Vienna looked like.’ An interpretational photograph goes one better and says, ‘This is what Vienna was like. This is how I felt about it.”  – David DuChemin

“‘What is it about?’ is not the same as ‘What happened?’” – David DuChemin

“It’s the difference between your wife’s passport photograph and the portraits you took when you got engaged. Both may have been created with similar technology, but what stands in that great gulf between them are the passion you have for your wife, the knowledge you have of her personality, and your willingness to use your craft, time, and energy to express that. One says, “She looks like this.” The other says, “This is who she is to me. It’s how I feel about her. See how amazing she is.” – David DuChemin

“Perfection is overrate, and not to be confused with mastery.” – David DuChemin

“Photographers, like few other kinds of artists I can imagine, have an insanely personal relationship with their gear.”  – David DuChemin

“Knowing failure is part of our process, and leads to new ideas, stronger work, and more honest questions, liberates us to peer, a little less frightened, into the unknown.”  – David DuChemin

“You yourself are unique–you have ways of seeing your world that are unlike those of anyone else–so find ways to more faithfully express that, and your style will emerge.” – David DuChemin 

“The real failure is to rob this world of the contribution only you can make, and to fail to make work that truly gives you that ‘this is what I was created to do’ feeling that has no equal.” – David DuChemin

“I  will never reach the end of this journey. I’ll never arrive at a point where others have nothing to teach me.” – David DuChemin

Find out more about David DuChemin here.

Read David DuChemin’s Q&A here.

Read David DuChemin’s Favorite Quotes here.

Preview his new online course The Compelling Frame now.

Alumni Beal & Hartford Collaborate On Big Successes

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This summer, two of John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni, Kathy Beal  and April Hartford completed cornerstone projects in Santa Fe, and their success was enhanced by their support of each other.

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The second week in June, Kathy Beal debuted her new active wear line, “Embodywear Fashions – Fit For Your Inner Goddess”, on the runways of Santa Fe Fashion Week. Her assistant for the event – April Hartford. Kathy reflected “it was getting close to show time, and I’d been so focused on getting the

Kathy reflected “it was getting close to show time, and I’d been so focused on getting the new product in and the website launched, that I neglected to look for an assistant to help me out during the three-day show. So I sent a last minute text to April, and she replied almost immediately – absolutely, I’ll be there! Really, I couldn’t have pulled it off without her help.” One benefit for April – she got to be one of the first to try on Kathy’s new fashions! Here

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In mid-July, April Hartford was busy preparing for her opening “Transgender, One Person’s Journey” an exhibition of not only her incredible photographs portraying her journey, but some of the best educational materials available today for the transgender community. Shortly before her opening, she went to Kathy’s studio to put together a few outfits to wear during the exhibition and Embodywear Fashions quickly became a sponsor for April’s exhibit.

April shared, “Kathy has been instrumental in both feedback of my images and exhibition set up. One issue I face with such a personal story being laid out for all to see is a sense of protection. Wearing outfits designed by such a special friend helps ground me when at my studio. Though our work is so different, we come together through shared experiences and friends helping each other move past any obstacles or stumbling blocks in our paths.”

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Magic really does happen when artist’s get together!

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If you’re in Santa Fe, New Mexico …

Experience April’s exhibit thru October 7, 2017.

Transgender, One Person’s Journey

April Hartford Studio

539 Old Santa Fe Trail

Santa Fe, NM

Open for public viewing Tuesday’s, Friday’s, and Saturday’s from 1-6pm through October 7, 2017

April@aprilhartford.me

Tour the studio virtually here.

Follow April on Facebook.

Learn more about April Hartford here.

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Contact Kathy for a tour of her studio and an expert fitting for your own at Embodywear Fashions!

Kathy@kathybeal.com

Visit Embodywear Fashions by Kathy Beal.

View the runway show here.

Like Embodywear Fashions on Facebook.

Learn more about Kathy Beal here. 

Photographer Charles Sheeler – American Precisionist – Video

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“Charles Sheeler was a key figure in the American Precisionist Movement in the early 20th Century. He had careers as both a successful painter and as a photographer.” – Ted Forbes

Manhatta a short movie by Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand.
Explore 12 Great Photographs By Great Photographers
Explore The Essential Collection Of Quotes By Photographers.
Explore The Essential Collection Of Documentaries On Photographers.

13 Great Quotes By Photography Charles Sheeler

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Enjoy this collection of quotes by photographer Charles Sheeler.
“I have come to value photography more and more for those things which it alone can accomplish rather than to discredit it for the things which it alone can accomplish rather than to discredit it for the thing which can only be achieved through another medium.” – Charles Sheeler
“Photography is nature seen from the eyes outward, painting from the eyes inward. Photography records inalterably the single image, while painting records a plurality of images willfully directed by the artist.” – Charles Sheeler
“My interest in photography, paralleling that in painting, has been based on admiration for its possibility of accounting for the visual world with an exactitude not equaled by any other medium. The difference in the manner of arrival at their destination—the painting being a result of composite image and the photograph being a result of a single image—prevents these media from being competitive.” – Charles Sheeler
“I favor a picture which arrives at its destination without the evidence of a trying journey rather than one which shows the marks of battle.” – Charles Sheeler
“I just don’t want to see any more than is absolutely necessary of the materials, physical material that goes into a picture.” – Charles Steeler
“Every age manifests itself by some external evidence. In a period such as ours when only a comparatively few individuals seem to be given to religion, some form other than the Gothic cathedral must be found. Industry concerns the greatest numbers-it may be true, as has been said, that our factories are our substitute for religious expression.” – Charles Sheeler
 

“You don’t build the house first and then make a blueprint after wards.” – Charles Steeler

“When we look at the next thing in sequence to the first object that we have gazed at, there’s still an overtone carried over of what the retina has just previously recorded.” – Charles Steeler

“There’s a large element of symbolism in O’Keeffe’s work, as you can readily see, and none whatever in mine. It’s purely a visual thing, and what you see is what you intend to see and no overtones of symbolism.” – Charles Steeler

“Photography is only visual, thank God! The lens is an unpsychological piece of glass whether formulated by Zeiss or Bausch and Lomb or whomever.” – Charles Sheeler
“When one goes back to our early photography whose mechanics was extremely simple and from our modern point of view often crude, it’s easy to see that the present immense elaboration of means isn’t very important.” – Charles Sheeler

“I feel that when photography became in general use I felt that it eliminated the points of those paintings which were immediately preceding photography. I don’t know of anything they added. In fact, I think photography in the same vein added a lot more than those paintings.” – Charles Steeler

“Isn’t it amazing how photography has advanced without improving.” – Charles Sheeler

Explore 12 Great Photographs By Great Photographers
Explore The Essential Collection Of Quotes By Photographers.
Explore The Essential Collection Of Documentaries On Photographers.

The Best Books On Color Theory

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What is color theory? It’s a language and set of concepts that’s useful for describing and creating color relationships.

Color management helps you get consistent colors. Color adjustment helps you change colors. Color theory helps you choose colors.

I’ve studied color all of my life – and it’s always rewarding.

Here’s a roundup of the best books I’ve found on color theory.

Reid

Lori Reid’s The Color Box is a great place to start with color theory. It’s neither definitive nor deep but it does a great job of surveying many approaches to understanding color.

Albers

Josef Albers’s Theory and Interaction of Color is the definitive work for creating a hands-on understanding of essential optical effects.

Itten

Johannes Itten’s Art Of Color (an expansion of his The Elements Of Color) is clearer and wider-ranging than Albers’ similar book.

Birren

Faber Birren’s Creative Color discusses ways of creating effects (like iridescence and pearlescence) that few other resources touch on.

Wong

Wucius Wong’s Principles Of Color Design shows the links between color and other compositional devices.

Livingstone

Margaret Livingstone’s Vision And Art details the biology behind the effects artists create.

Find more recommended Color Reading here.

Learn more with these Color Theory here.

Learn more in my digital printing and digital photography workshops.