Leanne Hansen: Slow Down and Look at the Light

Leanne Hansen Language of Light
On the cusp between student and teacher, Leanne Hansen discusses her career before photography, the importance of light, and finding her best images close to home.
“To make successful photographs, we need to understand all of the possibilities and variations for light.” Her new workshop The Language of Light for Photographers offers photographers the opportunity to explore and experiment with the different types, shapes, and colors of light.

OMG! Summer Photography for Youth Turns Out Amazing Results

Youth Photography workshop OMG workshop-10 sm
The Image Flow has been buzzing with kids this summer, and we couldn’t be more impressed or proud of the work they’ve turned in! Our most recent workshop, OMG! Summer Photography for Youth, saw our very own Constance Chu lead a group of extremely talented kids ages 11 – 14 around Mill Valley while they looked for light, shadows, and shapes while learning how to maximize their cameras’ manual settings.

6 Questions with Precision Digital Negatives Developer Mark Nelson

Time Portal platinum/palladium precision digital negatives Mark Nelson
Mark Nelson, photographer and developer of the patented Precision Digital Negatives process, says you always have to be on the lookout for an opportunity. Mark gave up a successful career in the mental health industry to pursue photography, and while he has a loyal following of galleries and collectors, he is known for a system for generating the best digital negatives for alternative processes.

Retouching the Life & Times of America’s Postcard King

Mike Roberts Wish You Were Here America's Postcard King
In Wish You Were Here, author Bob Roberts details the life and work of his father Mike Roberts, which spanned more than 50 years. A self-taught pioneer in the development of color photography and printing, Mike was a 20th-century icon known as America’s Postcard King.
Lightroom expert and in-house retouching specialist Taralynn Lawton worked three years to retouch 70 of Mike’s historic color and black and white images.
“There was one piece that we had from the cover of a Disneyland magazine. It was really a disaster and she patched up the color and the image so that you have no idea,” says Bob.

5 Bay Area Spots Just Waiting for You To Come Photograph

Catherine Karnow San Francisco photography
Catherine Karnow has shot in far-flung places around the globe, but she loves shooting at home in San Francisco and Marin. She says one of the reasons she lives in Mill Valley is because of how photogenic the Bay Area is. She gave The Image Flow the inside scoop on her five favorite places to for stay-cation shooting.

Growing Up In the Digital Age, Zac Mosher Loves to Shoot Film

film photography Zac Mosher processes his black and white images at The Image Flow
Zac Mosher, a 14-year-old student at Mill Valley Middle School, has been spending several hours per week in the darkroom at The Image Flow for the past six months processing and printing his black and white images.
“I actually started shooting film after I started with digital, but I wasn’t super into photography at the time,” he says. Later, he discovered his mom’s old cameras while going through a storage unit with his parents. “I thought they were really cool. So I got the cameras and went out and got some film. That’s what really sparked my interest.”

Our Cuban Family: Seven Unforgettable Days & Nights in Havana

Ardi Arni sunrise Cuba photography workshop
Stuart Schwartz and Jock McDonald led a group of American photographers to Cuba for a week of shooting. The week started in Miami. Stuart Schwartz and Jock McDonald met their six workshop participants in a hotel the night before the flight to Cuba. The group spanned more than five decades in age and as many shooting styles.
“My chief concern was, are these people going to get along?” says Stuart. “It was a big cross-section of participants, but it was a harmonious group of people, they were a family. It was a family trip.”

5 Questions About Where to Find a Photographic Story & How to Tell It

Visual storytelling series by Susanna Frohman. Angela Layba is a U.S. military veteran who is being trained in organic farming at Slide Ranch in Northern California. Her internship was funded by a partnership between the Farmer Veteran Coalition and the San Francisco Foundation. Photo © Susanna Frohman.
It’s no secret that we live in a culture saturated with photographs. These days, any body with a phone is a photographer, and shooting pictures all the time. We look at images day in and day out, but what we don’t often see are photographs carefully considered and shot in way that really tells a story. Instructors Susanna Frohman and Kathleen Hennessy discuss how to tell a visually compelling story about a subject in your own backyard.