Steve Bedell

When I’m looking at ways to do a specific task my brain often reverts to Occam’s razor. (Occam was a logician and Franciscan friar in the 14th century.) The way I interpret it, is that if there are many ways to do something the easiest and most direct method is usually correct. It’s the KIS principle and keeping it simple works best for me. Like most people, especially those of us who are self employed, there aren’t enough hours in the day, so I’m extremely concerned about workflow and just how much time each project is going to take. If I have a task, like organizing and editing my work, that I can do one way that takes an hour and another that takes 30 minutes, I’ll take the 30 minute option every time. With all that said, I’ll explain how I handle a portrait session, from the original shoot to ordering the final images. It may or may not fit your way of doing things, but just keep my buddy Occam in mind and remember there’s more to life than sitting in front of a computer.

I'd like to preface this article by telling you that I have been involved in this industry as a professional photographer for over 30 years. Outside of the fact that I feel really old now, I think it's important, because as a participant and observer of the portrait and wedding photographic world since the mid-1970s, I've seen many changes and milestones in the...

First, let me state that I currently shoot the majority of my wedding photos with a Bronica SQ-Ai medium format 6x6 camera. I use Kodak Portra 400VC 220 film (I like the extra snap in the contrast). It's fast enough for 90 percent of the...

Fun and retouching aren’t usually words found in the same sentence.