Sand Bars. Pt. Reyes National Seashore. 2004.
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Stephen Johnson Photography News, Events & Info May 2006
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WELCOME!
Welcome to the May 2006 edition of the Stephen Johnson Photography Newsletter. As always, we hope you enjoy this edition.
Don't miss the Highway One Coast Workshop May 13-14 and the Fine Art Printing Hands-On workshop June 22-25, 2006 in our new hands-on lab.
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FEATURED PRINT OFFER
May 2006
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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 May 31. We'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by June 15th.
About the Program
Each month we offer a signed, original print, at a special price. This is a great opportunity to own a very affordable fine-art photograph. Orders are taken for a 30-day period, then printed and shipped within two weeks after the close. When it's over, it's over, these prints won't be available again at this price.
Featured Print Web page
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Our New State of the Art Hands-on Lab
I have assembled the equipment to teach printing and digital photography the way I think it ought to be done, with solid information, great facilities and careful feedback, proper lighting, time and thought.
We successfully premiered this new capability in March, used it again in April, and are looking forward to using it in a variety of workshops. We continue these offerings with our June 22-25 Fine-Art Digital Printing Hands-On Workshop.
TREAT YOURSELF
Most photographers are fascinated by both the art of photography and the technology used to produce that art.
One of the internal mysteries of the art of photography is: “How good could my photographs really be if there were virtually no money barriers to using the best photographic technology available?”
Most people never find out. Now you can.
By enrolling and participating in a Stephen Johnson Digital Workshop you gain access to one of the leading digital imaging teachers of our time. Concurrently, you will put into practice what you are taught in one of the best-equipped digital labs in the United States.
With state of the art digital imaging technologies and equipment from Apple, Adobe, Epson, Hahnemuhle and other leading suppliers / sponsors you will experience what it is like to create without barriers.
You will be able to answer the eternal question of how good your photographs can really be.
Treat yourself.
Enroll now and experience the best digital imaging teaching and the best digital lab available. Only then will you know how good your photographs can really be.
-former student Stephen Brown
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The lab is a thing of beauty. All state of the art equipment and software. Stephen has leveraged his standing to equip this with all
and best and has opened it to classes and the community. I have never seen a computer lab this well equipped.
-Will Emerson, student from the March Printing Workshop
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With our brand-new Mac G5 Lab
each station has its own:
- Power Mac G5 Dual 2.3
- 21 inch Eizo LCD display
- 13x19 Epson 2400/2200 printers
- Complete Adobe Creative Suite Premuim
- EyeOne Spectrophotometer for Printer Profiling
- X-Rite Monaco-Optix XR Monitor Calibrator
- Network Connection to large-format printers
- 5000K Print Viewing light
with Network Access to additional printers:
- Epson 9600, 9500, 10000
- HP 130, 8750, 9180
Facilities and Tools Available for specific classes:
- GretagMacbeth I/O and Spectroscan Spectrophotomenters
- GretagMacbeth ProfileMaker Pro
- X-Rite DPT-70 and Monoco Color
- Imacon Precision II film scanner
- Epson Perfection 4870 print/film scanner
- Linotype Circon 11x17 scanner
- Fletcher Pro 60 inch matt cutter
- Seal 72 inch Vacuum Press
- GTI 6500°K Viewing booth
- WireMac binding machine
Every station has its own dedicated Color Management and Profiling tools (no sharing). The Adobe Creative Suite is fully installed on every machine as well as GretagMacbeth Eye-One Match, ColorEyes monitor calibration, and the Colorbyte ImagePrint RIP. Every machine has enough RAM to really edit and print. 5000°K viewing lights available at all stations with viewing booths and print review areas also in the lab. Classes in this new lab are proving very rewarding.
Lab Technology Partners
Apple, Adobe, Eizo, Epson, X-Rite/Gretag, Hahnemühle, Colorbyte
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NEW! LAB RENTAL SERVICES
We are now offering rental time in our new lab on an hourly basis during our normal business hours.
Tuesday-Friday 10am to 5pm.
$25 per hour, plus a per print charge
Includes full access to calibrated monitors, fast G5 Macs, Epson pigment inkjet printers, 5000°k viewing lights and color profile creation hardware and software.
Appointments can be made by calling 650 355-7507.
Familiarity with Mac OSX and Photoshop CS2 recommended. Staff tutorials available for additional charge.
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A Great Opportunity!
- Fully equipped lab
- Make your own printer profiles
- Finally have access to the equipment you need
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WORKSHOP NEWS
* Upcoming Workshops
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This class gives you experience printing your files using the best tools and the best methodologies (and understanding them more thoroughly than you ever thought possible), but more importantly, critically evaluating your prints and figuring out what you need to do to coax them toward perfection.
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Fine-Art Digital Printing: A Hands-on Workshop
June 22-25, 2006
This 4 day workshop focuses exclusively on Fine-Art Digital Printing, primarily using Epson inkjet printers. Concentration will be on inkjet printing with color pigments and black/gray ink combinations on coated and rag papers. Learn from the digital pioneer how he obtains his impressive results during four days of lectures and printing in the studio.
We will cover workflow issues, color management, correcting color casts, adjustment layers, custom profile generation, editing and inspection. There being no magic bullet to making good prints, the workshop will also explore old fashioned testing, careful color judgments and interactive honing in on the best print possible.
Steve and his assistants will work with you to tune your printing into the vision you have of what it should be, always guiding you toward asking the most of the media. Each student will have their own 13x19 desktop printer, as well as network access to large-format printers. Paper will be supplied by Hahnemühle and Epson.
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The Landscape of the California Coast
Highway One San Mateo: A Digital Photography Field Workshop
May 13-14, 2006
$650. Enrollment limited to 10 people
The coastline of San Mateo County is one of the most beautiful stretches of land and sea anywhere. From eroded, rocky shorelines, to cliffs, long beaches, redwood forests and small towns, this coast is complex and varied. We'll spend the day roaming the coast and mountain roads, stopping at state parks, county parks and checking out the lunch options along the way. Critiques wills be conducted back at our Pacifica studios.
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Arctic Photographic Expedition
CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF BAFFIN ISLAND
August 2-17, 2006
Seats limited to 30 students
Join Stephen Johnson, Bruce Fraser and Anthony Hobbs for an unforgettable journey in the arctic waters of Baffin Island.
In cooperation with Quark Expeditions, The Luminous Landscape is offering two remarkable photographic expeditions to the Arctic this summer. Each two-week course will be taught by two teams of exceptional photographic instructors, Stephen Johnson, Anthony Hobbs and Bruce Fraser for Expedition #1 (August 2-17), and Seth Resnick and Jeff Schewe for Expedition #2 (August 15-30).
Both of these two week-long expeditions take place this August in the Canadian Arctic, and both take place aboard a Finnish built polar-class Icebreaker, the KAPITAN KHLEBNIKOV. The Luminous Landscape has reserved 30 places on each of these voyages. We have obtained a very attractive discount from the expedition operator, Quark Expeditions, based on our reserving a large number of berths for our expedition workshop members. And we're passing those significant savings along to you.
The link above connects to the details on each of these voyages. This is a unique opportunity and is bound to sell out quickly, possibly within days.
If you want to experience the photographic trip of a lifetime in the company of some of the best photographic instructors in the world, these workshop / expeditions are an opportunity not to be missed.
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Zion National Park
September 2-4, 2006
Zion National Park with it's spectacular cliffs and wild rock formations will be the site for this 3 day field workshop. The trip is designed to be a complete immersion in landscape photography and its digital evolution with the pioneer in digital landscape photography. Participants are responsible for their own transportation and lodging.
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*Death Valley dates for 2007 posted: January 13-16, 2007
* Check out our workshop web page for information on all of our workshops, including both our field and studio workshops.
ONE-DAY DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SEMINARS
Digital Photography Workshops with Stephen Johnson
Stephen Johnson Studios & Gallery, Pacifica, California.
9am to 5pm. $250 each.
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*Beauty in Photography: Inspiration and Composition:
Saturday June 3, 2006
*Color Management Seminar with Bruce Fraser:
TBA
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UPCOMING EVENTS with Stephen Johnson
*Keynote: With a New Eye and the State of Digital Photography with Stephen Johnson
Lennart Nilsson Conference Imaging the Future , Copenhagen Denmark
May 18, 2006
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At The Maine Photographic Workshops this Summer
*The Digital Landscape July 2-8, 2006
*Fine Art Digital Printing July 9-15, 2006
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THE VIEW FROM HERE
Seeing, Feeling and Wandering
A fundamental part of the photographic impulse is to better know the world we live in. That is true of cultural exploration, it is certainly true of landscape photography. We can't help but view these new places we explore through the eyes of our culture and the underlying challenges facing economic and environmental futures. But photography remains a means of visual communication, and can have its own unique eye. Many of us strive for a visual independence from human language and culture when we photograph, others, perhaps more realistically, dive deeply in and make the photographs a natural consequence of their cultural view.
Sometimes we have to come to terms with places way beyond the normal human experience. When viewed straight-on these places seem almost completely untouched by language-based reference. It is in such places that I find my heart most easily connects to the planet: where words fall away and a sense of primordial emotional and visual instincts take over. That is when I am at my best as a photographer.
The more we see that we can easily explain, or can't help but explain, the less we see. Often, the visual wonder works strongest when we are puzzled, ill at ease and deeply intrigued, all at the same time. That is partly why we see cultural oddities more easily outside our own culture, it is also why landscape photographers traipse to the ends of the earth to experience their own unseen.
Dorothea Lange talked of getting lost in the world, my friend Dave Bohn has said that much of the value of photography is in the wandering. I understand those instincts, and although feel pulled to support land preservation efforts, I know that the fundamental reason has much more to do with getting lost in being a human wandering his home planet.
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For me, these past few months have reached deeper into those edges with very different experiences, going to both the Galápagos and Antarctica in 2005 (and now planning an Arctic trip and workshop in August) and finishing my latest book. The trips have pushed the edge of wonder, the book pushed much introspection on what was important to say.
It seems that there is so much to see and so much to say, and both involve deep struggles of understanding, questions of meaning and value, and at the same time both still fail to complete the impression.
The visual remains primary for me, and I think that is where I can exert the greatest skill at getting at this intense curiosity, but the photographs, however successful, still don't yet quite rise to what I am trying to comprehend.
The words can sometimes get at it, and must try, but always fail to feel it. They are concepts formed from a more limited experience than I intuit is present. Some might call it a sense of spirit, religion or god, more likely I would call it a sense of the sacred, with respect for the living as primary, but wanting to do no harm to less obviously animated components of this earth.
So I come back to imagemaking, and finding a way through life to do as much good, as little harm, and as much empowering as I can manage. More trips, more photographs, more time spent in trying to understand these notions and instincts, and asking more and more of the photography as life goes on.
The journey continues...
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