WELCOME!

Welcome to the July 2005 edition of the Stephen Johnson Photography Newsletter. As always, we hope you enjoy this edition.

Don't miss the San Francisco Digitally workshop on July 30-31, the Southwest Journey in August and the just announced Yosemite in Autumn workshop October 14-16.

FEATURED PRINT OFFER
July 2005

Double Arch, Arches National Park. 1995. 11x14 Pigment Print on Rag paper One of my favorite photographs from Arches remains the image of Double Arch in bright sun. I often used this photograph to demonstrate the dynamic range of the BetterLight system and the promise of digital photography to render the world more like our eyes see it. We're offering an 11x14 inch print, matted to 16x20 and ready to frame for $195, framed for an additional $75. This print at this price is offered through July 31. We'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by August 15th. Featured Print Web page

WORKSHOP NEWS * Upcoming Workshops

NEW--One-Day Seminars RAW Image Capture Processing July 8, 2005 $250 (just completed and very successful, let us know if we should offer it again) Stephen Johnson Studios & Gallery Pacifica, California. As a long time advocate of full sensor data capture since the mid-1990's, it has been my pleasure to work with Thomas Knoll and Adobe on the evolution of the Photoshop Camera RAW plug-in. We will spend the day exploring the principles behind raw capture, the plug-in itself, image editing techniques and data preservation strategies, as well as delving into what still needs to be done in Photoshop proper. To Register Beauty in Photography: Inspiration and Composition Sept. 15, 2005 $250 Stephen Johnson Studios & Gallery Pacifica, California. Photographic composition, inspiration and aesthetics will be explored in this one-day seminar. Examples of Steve's influences and inspirations will be discussed, as well as practical structural considerations in putting photographic images together. Nuts and bolts plus romance will define the day. To Register

San Francisco Digitally July 30-31, 2005 In and around San Francisco for the workshop and 15 miles south at Stephen Johnson Photography Studios in Pacifica for the pre-meeting and critique.

Color Management Seminar with Bruce Fraser Friday July 15, 2005. 9am to 5pm. $250 email: info@sjphoto.com From Bruce: In this full-day seminar, we'll go all the way back to the basics. We'll start by looking at the fundamentals of human vision, and the models of human vision on which all our current color management is based. I promise that we'll keep it equation-free, so don't be scared off if you're math-challenged. The goal is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the models, because that understanding goes a long way towards explaining what color management can and, equally important, cannot do. Next, we'll examine the relationship between ICC profiles and the devices whose behavior they try to represent. A device profile is simply a snapshot in time of the way the device behaved when the measurements on which the profile is based were taken. Process control is the part of color management that the color management vendors never talk about, so we'll look at best practices for profiling to ensure that the device behaves the way the profile claims. Finally, we'll switch from theory to practice, and examine Photoshop's color management features in detail. We'll delve into the mysteries of RGB working spaces, and look at how careful soft-proofing can save paper, time, and frustration. Along the way, questions will be encouraged, and to the best of my ability, answered.

Southwest Journey through 7 National Parks A Digital Photography Field Workshop August 10--19, 2005

Join us on a ten-day trek through the visual wonderlands of southern Utah and northern Arizona. We'll visit Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Monument Valley and end up at Canyon de Chelly National Monument. The trip is designed to be a complete immersion in landscape photography and its digital evolution with the pioneer in digital landscape photography.

Yosemite Valley in Autumn October 14-16, 2005 The fall colors of Yosemite offer photographers a wide variety of hue and texture. As the weather cools, the valley begins to change, subtle and beautiful colors start to emerge. People begin to disappear, bright greens turn to browns, yellows, blacks and golds. The valley smells fresher, the air clears and invites the walking we will be doing during this workshop. We'll spend three activity packed days in the valley, sometimes rising before dawn and lingering for the last moment of twilight. The trip is designed to be an in-depth landscape photography workshop in the context of this digital age. We will discuss technical and aesthetic issues, tapping into your emotional response to this landscape, working toward images that are uniquely your own.

* Death Valley in Winter January 14-17, 2006 with the Magical Digital Bus Transformed from a searing 120 degree desert in summer to January's mild 60-70 degree weather, Death Valley is filled with intriguing landforms, delicate flora, strange mineral deposits and expansive views. Mile high Dante's View overlooks the patterned salt flats of Badwater and the Amargosa River below (the lowest point in the United States). Badwater's still water in turn mirrors the blue and white Panamint Mountains to the West. The lunar landscape of Ubehebe Crater's black volcanic fields rise from the rolling desert at the valley's north end with the steep gorge of Titus Canyon and Red Pass to the southeast.

Ireland’s Spectacular West Coast - 2006 June 24 – July 4, 2006 Seats limited to 12 students Join Stephen Johnson and Anthony Hobbs for an unforgettable journey along the rustic West Coast of Ireland. This workshop will include hotel stays in several towns along our route from County Clare towards Connemara and Achill Island. Along the way, participants will explore western Ireland's landscape with its lush greens, rocky islands and remote castles.  If you are interested in joining the reservation list for this workshop, please email us at info@sjphoto.com.  We are limiting this workshop to 12 students. Photography instruction, transportation, lodging and some meals included. Airfare to and from Shannon will be participant's responsibility. A $500 deposit will reserve your place in the class for 30 days. Please see Irish Workshop link above for details.

UPCOMING EVENTS with Stephen Johnson

Antarctica Workshop November 30 — December 11, 2005 My friend Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape has organized a Photography Workshop to Antarctica in December 2005. I will be teaching the workshop with Michael, John Paul Caponigro, Jeff Schewe, Seth Resnick and Chris Sanderson. We will have the entire boat for our 10 day trek to the Antarctic Peninsula. The workshop filled with Michael's pre-announcement to his own list and so is listed here for information purposes or in case you want to be added to the waiting list.

Stephen Johnson On Digital Photography
new publisher to be announced shortly

Passion and Commitment

People make art, not machines, certainly not software. However, photography is such a technical medium, that we often lapse into tech talk, even when in our heart we’re yearning for some comprehension of this drive, fear and incessant desire to “get it out.”

As a landscape photographer, I often wander the world in wonder at the scene before my eyes. It is a complex world, mixed with natural beauty, man-made kitsch, brutal laws of nature and human community and chaos. The landscape is my refuge, my journey into something more fundamental and essential than the troubles of the current age. Yet, even on the edge of a long lonely horizon, I cannot ignore human tragedy. Perhaps I even derive the energy to work for social change in that fundamentally human experience of being in natural surroundings. There is power there, there is beauty, there is hope.

Whether on top of a volcano, or in a lover’s embrace, for me art is an expression of those passions and ultimate humanness that takes me beyond the specific instance into an intuition about what it means to be human. Words don’t express it well, that is why we make art.

It is also why we feel such a passion for the medium. I want an emotional response to my work because the work is in fact an emotional response to what I saw. True, there are many mechanics in-between, but my work is an attempt to encapsulate what I saw into a photographic frame that both renders the scene before the camera, and carry with it the power of what I felt. It requires a peculiar combination of attention to form and structure, while letting the grace and wonder remain dominant. Whatever talent I may sometimes feel that I have, is tied up in that attempt and if I feel I’ve risen to that challenge.

Other reactions flow from the experience. I have to find ways of giving back. My commitment to conservation and the environment runs back 30 years. I have always felt the need to work for my convictions and at least attempt to influence change.

Much of my professional work as a photographer has been tied up in large-scale projects that are about preserving wild places or trying to further an understanding our relationship to the land. The projects are likely a manifestation of the instinct to “give back” and to not live my life just taking up space, but sincerely trying to make a difference while I’m here.

There is something running through these thoughts, that if clearly felt and understood, seems capable of helping to calm the human heart and “make more compassionate the life of the world.

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