This is a companion piece for my recent masterclass discussion on post-shoot workflow. It is primarily focused on still photography, but as a filmmaker/editor as well, I’ve generally optimized it for video, too. In the discussion, a number of photographers talked about workflow and it got semi-deep into process and…

Photographing in Romania — Traveling through the Carpathian Mountains of Romania — I’ve done it twice — removes time and replaces it with something far less mechanical or ordered. 12th century, 18th century, fact, fiction, war and peace — the mountains have absorbed it all here and as you wheel through in an old…

A More Dynamic Range — The main thing I like in a photograph is dynamic range. For this reason, I put myself on the wait list for the new Leica M11 and was at the store the day they called me to tell me it was in. It’s pricey, and I had to trade in…

Del Mar in the 70’s, Part 1 — Date: Summer, 1978 Tides: Low 6:26, High 1:20 Temp: Air 70, Water 68 Conditions: 5–6 Perfect As he straddled his bright pink surfboard, legs dangling into the water on either side, eyes fixed on the horizon, Jon had a split-second decision to make. A swell was forming, a big one…

It’s All About Growth Potential — One of the first questions I will ask any photographer looking for career advice is “what kind of photography do you want to get into?” And more often than not, the answer is some version of “I don’t want to limit myself.” I usually consider this a bit of a…

Creating a cinema style portrait means changing a whole lot about what you’ve learned about portraits. It’s not about beauty, golden hour, or even portrait mode or shallow depth of field. Cinema style portraits borrow heavily from the dramatic world of cinema, where it’s more about having a strong opinion…

Get Instant Pop And Beautiful Skin Tones With This Quick Photoshop Hack — For many years, I was primarily known as a black and white photographer, mostly because my color work just didn’t have the same kind of timeless quality to it. I don’t know how to describe my old color work other than it just seemed a little bland. Then I learned…

The alert popped up on my phone: severe fog warning in Venice Beach. I let it go for a day and then thought, if it’s still like this tomorrow I’ll get up early and go see how it looks down at the beach. It was, I went. There’s something symbiotic…