Beauty in Photography: Inspiration and Composition
November 3, 2012 9am to 5pm
$195 (special early enrollment price $95)

Stephen Johnson Studios & Gallery
Pacifica, California.


Why do some images move us, and others leave us cold? What makes a good photograph? What makes us pick up the camera at a particular moment? How do we work toward understanding our momentary visual curiosities and turn them into strong photographs? Why do we point the camera in one direction instead of another when the subject matter might be very similar? Why does a photographer take so long to make a photograph?

Talking about Art is hard. There either doesn’t seem to be words to describe the motivations or reactions, or there are too many words obfuscating meaning. Learning contemporary language and references of modern art criticism may help some understand art history, but “art-speak” is rarely a tongue I hear used by artists themselves. Plain talk, real dreams and real passions are what drive us forward, sometimes irrationally, sometimes with a plan. Photography fits neatly into this long and confused history.

These and other such inspirational and compositional questions will be discussed in this seminar on photographic composition. Sources of inspiration will be explored, from photography to other art forms, ideas and people. There will be no rules of composition propagated here, but explorations and suggestions. A good nuts and bolts day for improving your photographs..

This seminar is designed to help you make stronger photographs by empowering your technique and vision.

As is always the case, Stephen's workshops are full of information and he works to create a relaxed atmosphere where questions are answered, inspiration is at the core, and people return for more.

Workshop Testimonials

Tutorials

More Tutorials, Technical discussions and Essays are linked from the Techniques Button on our Home page.

Techniques Page

Photography Workshops

Interested in learning more? Perhaps one of our digital photography classes would be of help? We take the imparting of information and the empowerment of our students quite seriously. The digital age has considerably enhanced our ability to teach, and we believe your ability to capture what you see. This program is designed to help you benefit from both of these advances. We hope you can join us on a workshop.

Next Workshops:

Photographers & Photoshop Series
Photoshop CS6 and Photographers
Sept. 29 to Oct. 2, 2012

Mono Lake and the Eastern Sierra
October 13-16, 2012

Pt. Lobos and Carmel
December 1-3, 2012

Death Valley in Winter (full moon)
January 24-27, 2013

For a full list of current workshops, click here.

Stephen Johnson

Current projects include With a New Eye, his groundbreaking and historic all digital national parks project, a new book Stephen Johnson On Digital Photography for O'Reilly, ongoing portfolio development and extensive lecturing

Stephen's pioneering work in digital photography, desktop color separations and digital imaging has included software and product development for clients such as Apple, Adobe, Eastman Kodak, Leaf, Ricoh and SuperMac. His work with Adobe includes the creation of the duotone curves shipped with their Photoshop software.

In 1999, Folio Magazine declared the publication of Johnson's digital photographs in Life Magazine to be one of the Top 15 Critical Events in magazine publishing in the twentieth century. As early as 1997 Apple Computer awarded Steve their "Profiling Excellence" Award at Print '97 in Chicago. Stephen Johnson was named as a 2003 inductee into the Photoshop Hall of Fame, recognized for his achievements in Art. Canon named Steve as one of their Explorers of Light in 2006. In 2007 X-Rtie named Stephen as a founding member of their exclusive Coloratti group of photographers and educators honored for their skills in color management.

Photographic clients have included the Ansel Adams Publishing Trust, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the Friends of Photography. Johnson's photographs have been widely published and collected internationally.

In 1997, Life Magazine described Stephen Johnson as an artist that "...applies science to nature and creates art." His images create "...an intimacy that brings subject and viewer close in ways conventional photographs cannot." 

The Photographer’s Gallery wrote in 1998: “Stephen Johnson's photography rides on the "bleeding edge" of photography's transition to a digital media. Schooled in the traditions of fine-art western landscape photography, Johnson has taken his understanding of traditional photographic processes and brought those skills to bear on the emerging technologies and aesthetics of digital photography. He has pushed technology companies to rise to the best of what imagemaking can be, and pushed his own vision of how we see and record light in the natural world. This has led him to conclude that the way we have traditionally captured images with silver-based photography has been a poor and distortive view of the real and rich world before our eyes. His photographs look almost "unphotographic" in their clarity and purity of color. He shows us a world we know, but rarely see on paper. His is a truly remarkable vision.”