Emotional Resonance in Photography: Greta Carlstrom Transcends Identity

Willamette Valley Jeffrey Martz
Of all the eras and styles in the medium’s history, art historian and photographer Jeffrey Martz is most drawn to the 19th-century amateur pictorial photographers such as Lewis Carroll, Clementina (Lady Hawarden), and Julia Margaret Cameron.
“An amateur photographer was a clearly-defined category of maker in the 19th century, someone who pursued photography seriously but not professionally. They weren’t in a studio trying to please a client, and because of this, they were free to make the best possible pictures in whatever style they wished. They did their work literally for the Latin root of the word—amore—or love,” Jeffery explained.

For the Love of Photography: Jeffrey Martz on the Amateur Spirit

Willamette Valley Jeffrey Martz
Of all the eras and styles in the medium’s history, art historian and photographer Jeffrey Martz is most drawn to the 19th-century amateur pictorial photographers such as Lewis Carroll, Clementina (Lady Hawarden), and Julia Margaret Cameron.
“An amateur photographer was a clearly-defined category of maker in the 19th century, someone who pursued photography seriously but not professionally. They weren’t in a studio trying to please a client, and because of this, they were free to make the best possible pictures in whatever style they wished. They did their work literally for the Latin root of the word—amore—or love,” Jeffery explained.

TIF Kids Workshops Guide Students to Self Discovery

kids photography workshops
It’s been a busy summer at The Image Flow with two sessions of our Summer Photo Camp for Kids and the Angel Island Summer Photo Excursion. All of these kids photography workshops are geared toward middle school-aged shooters, one of my favorite ages to teach because they’re able to handle more challenging concepts and assignments and they learn so fast.
The goals of the workshops are simple: Teach kids how to use their camera on manual mode and how to do basic post-processing in Lightroom—I find that even my intermediate students benefit from the review and practice of using their cameras with the exercises I give them. In the Angel Island workshop, which is made up primarily of students that already have some photography experience, we do some work with Photoshop as well.

5 Tips for Taking Amazing Photographs at Night

Tips for night photography from expert shooter Hendrik Paul
Fine art photographer Hendrik Paul is best known for his surreal black and white landscapes of the Marin Headlands, but he also likes to venture out at night to take ethereal images in both urban and rural settings.
Here our most accomplished night shooter shares his tips for night photography, from the best equipment to use to the best time to shoot, so you can start taking beautiful photos at night!

Mary D’Agostino: Seeking Beauty in Nature’s Fleeting Moments

Grizzly with Salmon © Mary D'Agostino nature & landscape photographer
Emerging nature and landscape photographer Mary D’Agostino is as homegrown as much of her work. A busy executive by day, Mary used to spend her vacations painting wildlife, but in recent years, she has developed a passion for photography. She put herself through a “school of photography” taking workshops and classes at The Image Flow and started working one-on-one with Stuart. “I was doing projects and shooting a lot, and I would routinely bring my work in for critique from Stuart.”
Mary has also sought critiques from experts in the field of nature photography, which have been met with increasing success. “I’m fearless when it comes to finding people in the field of photography to evaluate my photographs,” she says.

From Studio Portraiture to Photography For Kids—The Image Flow’s Summer Workshop Line-Up Has Something for Everyone

Enjoy this new night photography workshop with Hendrik Paul this summer at The Image Flow. Photo © Hendrik Paul.
The Image Flow has long been known for its fantastic assortment of photography workshops, geared to all levels of photographers. This summer, The Image Flow is expanding its workshop offerings to include a whole host of workshops for photographers of all ages. From how to prepare for a major photographic excursion, to storytelling with images, TIF has a workshop for you.

Documentary Photographer Rudi Dundas on The Face of Water

Evelyn at the well, Lbaa Onyokia
This month, The Face of Water, a series of portraits by Rudi Dundas that tells the stories of people affected by the lack of clean drinking water, opens at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. On February 26, Rudi will give a lecture about the images at The Image Flow.

Gary Yost: West Peak: The Project, Part 2

Gary Yost, West Peak Project
Photographer and filmmaker Gary Yost writes about his project to document the history of the lost West Peak of Mt. Tamalpais.
Over the past two months I’ve been busy conducting initial tests of new motion-control equipment I’ve acquired for creating the time-lapse portion of the project. One of my frustrations with the two-foot slider I used in the Fire Lookout piece is that it wasn’t long enough to provide enough visual parallax cues to make larger scenes look three-dimensional. These parallax cues are essential to providing an immersive sense of the scene because when the camera is moving, closer objects will move across your visual field much more quickly than objects farther away. When shooting basic time-lapse sequences you can easily lock the camera down on a tripod and shoot a frame every few seconds. That’s easy to do, but to get parallax effects you need to mount the camera on a motorized slider that will move it a fraction of an inch after every shot. This technique was invented by Ron Fricke in the late 1970s for the groundbreaking film Koyannisqatsi, and then refined for his later masterpieces, Chronos, Baraka, and 2012’s Samsara.

Jeff Zaruba: Black and White Exploration Teacher

Golden gate park, Jeff Zaruba

 
This will be Jeff Zaruba’s second year teaching a class at The Flow. He likes to get into the “why” behind his students interest in photography, and help them understand their vision and curiosity. He finds working with the students incredibly rewarding as he helps them gain confidence and reach the next level of their artistic potential.