THE VIEW FROM HERE
by Stephen Johnson

We've been on the road the past few weeks, in Maine teaching in both Acadia National Park and at the Maine Media Workshops for a week-long digital printing course. There was a wide range of weather, from torrential rain, to fog, oven-like heat and just plain beautiful sunny yet cool days. The light kept changing throughout the trip.

Traveling became cumbersome as flights were delayed or cancelled, some of the clouds we flew above and through along the way explained some of the flight delays. That journey became a fascinating fly through an aerial wonderland.

Flying Through the Cloud World

Moving through these clouds is a fantasia, another realm of existence, ephemeral and light, weightless by ordinary measure, a landscape of rise and fall, water and heat, static power of enormous voltage, all parading under us in a slow crawl across America. It is impressive, unreal, dynamic in form, cotton balls to abstract fog banks. The parade goes on and on. I'm clueless to scale, measuring the near and far mostly by relative movement.

There is a real world below, it comes and goes in glimpses of geometry, vague and blue, small and only gesture like, insubstantial.

Another bank rolls in, obscuring everything but a band of blue above. Not blue at all of course, but scattered photons holding back the black and cold of space.

This cloud world, so alien from our life below, so complex, in such deep violation of the rules of gravity and substance. The towers churning with energy, building up to a release of such intense heat it will melt sand to glass, set forests afire, and possibly burst a giant sequoia cone to life.

Unearthly plateaus and peaks, valleys and sudden fatal canyons. A complexity unfathomable, but common, familiar to the point of being almost unnoticed, but seen from above, screamingly unbelievable.

As we fly through a bank, we get tossed around like a toy, the forms themselves not being understood for the winds within, even with the obvious up-flaring and billowing.

I've photographed clouds for years, naturally. As an image maker, clouds are irresistible when flying so much. It is hard to know how many gigabytes of cloud photographs there may be in the files, but every trip is different, every glance later at the thumbnail collections insufficient to see the detail I made the photograph to hold.

It is a bit of a dilemma, as I am constantly reminded, I can expose many more photographs that I can ever deal with, or fully appreciate. That can pose a barrier to making yet more images, but the seduction of the remarkable remains a motivation I cannot resist, nor do I want to.

Sunsets are hard too.

But perhaps, that is what I have so enjoyed moving around this planet with my camera, the seduction of the remarkable.

Flora and Form Workshop Coming Up

Check out the Flora and Form  Workshop Sept 12-14, 2013 at Shelldance Orchid Gardens. Any and all cameras welcome.

Shelldance Nursery. 2013.

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A Week at Maine Media Workshops

Back for another few summer classes in Maine, having become a traditional part of my summers. This year I taught a weekend workshop in Acadia National Park, and the Maine version of my Fine Art Printing course, Printing Photographic Beauty. The students did well in both classes, coming up with some very beautiful work. It was a warm and supportive group, a real treat to teach.

Class Photos. Printing Photographic Beauty. Maine Media Workshops. 2013. Photos by Kari Wehrs.

I usually give an artist's lecture during the week, and this year the Workshops did a video of the talk. I talked about the origins of some new work and put together a slide show from some selections. I usually don't show such new work, but it seemed like the thing to to do, take the risk, and felt good in the end.

We'll post it when we get the editing done.

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Consulting Programs and Speaking Events

Virtual Education: Our Virtual Consulting and Mentoring Program is working well. Readers of this Newsletter can still get a discount by mentioning this reference when you enroll.

Our One on One Program links you up with Steve at his bay area studio, or when he is on the road near you. Keep an eye on when Steve will be near your town.

Catch Steve Live: Steve will be speaking here and there over the next year, such as Amherst and Boston, MA in July, near Portland, OR and New York City in October.

• Pacifica: At the Gallery

Come by and talk with Steve about his ongoing Exhibitions of work on display.

• NECCC Photo Conference July 2013. Amherst, MA

• Evening Talk on Steve's Exquisite Earth work at EP Levine Photo Store. Waltham, MA. Free Admission, Tuesday evening July 17, 6pm.
  

• Tualatin River Photographic Society
  Sherwood, OR, near Portland Oregon
  Saturday October 5. 7pm

• NewYork City. PhotoPlus Expo 2013 seminar "12 Steps to Improve Your Digital Photography" Friday, October 24th from 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Tidbits

Northern California Field Workshops Coming Up

The Golden Gate: September 7-8, 2013

A two day digital photography workshop exploring San Francisco's Golden Gate. We'll spend time in the Presidio with its tremendous views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point with its spectacular views of the bridge, the Marin Headlands with Point Bonita Lighthouse, views along and San Francisco's ocean headlands of Land's End and the Sutro Baths near the restored Cliff House and its historic Camera Obscura.