For years we've been asking professional photographers a variation of the same question: what does it take to be a pro? We may ask, "What's the secret of your success?" (as if it were a secret); or, simply, "What is it that...
It was the longest mileage day in a multi-day bike tour of the California Wine Country and the Mendocino Coast and we had yet to ride a mile when the rain that had been threatening started to come down. At...
I have begun shooting digitally at home more and more, only because of the darned convenience of even a modest digital Ricoh camera. I have a moderately priced consumer megapixel camera that takes those matchbook sized wafer-thin Smart Media memory cards.
You know those bookstores where you walk in and right near the entrance there's a cafe with seating for maybe 40 people, and there's a menu that offers dozens of selections, many of which you can't pronounce, and there's a rack of...
I love gadgets. In fact, if it has blinking lights, beeping noises or a flashing LCD display, I usually can't live without it. Years ago when I was working with a dichroic enlarger I discovered the joys of the EM-10, and I haven't been without one since. If you use a continuous-light...
There is a very real difference still between professional scans and what the individual user can achieve even with the latest and best personal scanners. To a large extent this professional level of scanning remains the realm of drum scanners and their...
When it was first introduced the Hewlett-Packard Photo-Smart scanner was an unprecedented bargain for the photo enthusiast. It was capable of scanning prints up to 5x7" as well as film, and it was a compact, convenient to use design. Now after...
Someone once asked me, when looking at the three-picture montage in this article, "How long did it take you to create your `Flying High' image?" My reply, "21 years," brought a look of puzzlement to the person's...