Leanne Hansen: Slow Down and Look at the 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


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


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.
5 Things Not to Do When Taking Pictures of Your Kids


Our children’s childhoods are fleeting, but the images we take of them don’t have to be. In the age of digital photography, just about everyone has a camera around at any given moment, ready to capture the next adorable moment in their children’s lives. But the pictures don’t always turn out as well as they could.
How to Protect Your Images Online


Whether you’re uploading your pictures to the Internet for business or pleasure, here are a few tips for how to protect your images in this digital world.
Retouching the Life & Times of 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 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


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


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


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.
