I have been walking downtown Austin, Texas since 1970. You can click here to see some of my early photographs of the city, now in an archive at the Austin History Center. I lived in Austin for 30 years but, even after moving to Arden, Delaware in 2000, I continue to visit and photograph this […]
Ten Days in Paris, Spring, 2007
The one time I was there, I went looking for intimate images of Paris. The dates were April 26 through May 3, 2007. I wanted to photograph the people and places tourists would miss — the idiosyncratic and personal — photos distinctly my own yet also distinctly Parisian, not forgetting the inspiration of Henri Cartier-Bresson. […]
Light Painting with Camera and Flashlight
Illuminate the subject by hand — If you know how to shoot in Manual (M) Mode, you can use a flashlight to paint light onto our subjects. Cameras are on tripods for these exposures, which are often 20 seconds long. When done correctly, objects seem to emerge out of darkness, glowing. Light painting is a […]
Outdoor Night Photography
Night is seldom really dark, especially near urban centers that glow with street lights, vehicle headlights, porch lights, and security lights. These lights make the sky glow (and make seeing the stars difficult). This means we can often take photographs outdoors at night and have details in the shadows. Also, camera manufacturers have made stunning […]
Separate Subject From Background
You can take better photographs if you learn to separate subject from background. There are many, many ways of doing this. Here are a few rules, and there are exceptions to all of them. 1. Fascinating subject and boring background. 2. Subject is whole and background is cut off. 3. Subject is larger than […]
Explore Your Camera’s Manual Mode
Make images as light or dark as you want Many, perhaps most, professional photographers shoot in Manual Mode. Cameras in automatic and semi-automatic modes cannot guess what you want. If you want the image darker or lighter, or if you want to control the ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture all at once, then shoot in […]
Explore Your Camera’s Aperture Settings
Aperture offers some control of focus blur The third homework assignment I give students in my digital photography class at the Delaware Art Museum is to separate subject from background by using small aperture numbers; that is, apertures with little depth of field. The subject is in focus while the background is out of focus, […]
True Posterization Using Photoshop
I worked many years using a copy camera to produce 12×18-inch litho negatives. I especially liked the way that high-contrast medium transformed gradual tones into hard-edged images. I like woodcuts and linoleum cuts for the same reason, especially the work of Cynthia Back, one of my former colleagues at the Washington Printmakers Gallery. Click here […]
Control Motion Blur by Varying Shutter Speed
Changing the shutter speed on your camera allows you to control motion blur — Releasing the shutter lets light into the camera for a fixed amount of time. I encourage you to try various shutter speeds, especially at the extremes of your camera. For most cameras, that is 30 seconds for the longest time (slowest […]
Composition: Lines to Corners
The idea behind “Lines to Corners” is a simple one: frame scenes so that lines point to one or more corners. Sometimes what goes to corners is not lines but things in a line. Below are some images using “Lines to Corners”. Eric Kim has an interesting discussion of diagonals. He favors images with one […]
Twenty-Six Hours in New York City, January, 2023
My wife, perhaps at some cost, has accepted that I am a photographer. If we visit a city like New York, chances are good that I will be making photographs. It makes me a less than ideal companion. God bless her. Here is a sample of a 26-hour visit to New York City in January […]
Rule Of Thirds
When you compose an image using the Rule of Thirds, vertical elements in the viewfinder are placed one-third from the left or right edge of the frame, horizontal lines are placed one-third from the top or bottom, and sometimes both. If you do NOT have strong vertical or horizontal objects in the scene in front […]
Explore Your Camera’s ISO Settings
ISO: Varying Your Camera’s Sensitivity To Light, Varying Noise Increasing the ISO makes the camera’s sensor more sensitive to light. That means the camera can capture images in darker places or at faster shutter speeds or smaller apertures. But noise increases as ISO increases. That means quality decreases, sometimes to the point that photos […]
Fog in the City Center, Wilmington, Delaware
Fog makes things intimate. The close at hand is detailed while the distant becomes ghostly. Fog makes the visual behave like our memories. In memory, what is recent is detailed but fades as it moves into the distant past. One of the primary rules of composition is to separate subject from background. There are many […]
Student Photos from Delaware Art Museum
My students at the Delaware Art Museum have produced some wonderful images since I began teaching in 2010. Here I have limited myself to ten images from each of my classes, usually only one photo from each student. I wish I had images from my earliest classes. Click on any thumbnail image to see it […]
Photo Classes and Workshops, Wilmington, Delaware
I teach photography lessons in Wilmington, Delaware, primarily at the Delaware Art Museum but also privately. Private Lessons Subject matter is up to the student. Usually students just want to know how to operate their cameras, but some are interested in how to take better photos, how to keep track of all their photos, or […]
Focus
Sharp Detail or Beautiful Blur? Sometimes you want all the details sharp and revealing. Other times you want the background to be beautifully blurred, or everything blurred. What you get depends on your aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and the focal length of your lens. Aperture By changing the aperture (the f/stop), you can let less […]
July Images by Danny Schweers
Here are images I have never before shared on-line or exhibited in print form. All the images were taken in July, but the years vary and the days are mixed up. July 29, 2013, Arden, Delaware. “Have A Seat!” I am not sure what I was thinking, but it was not pleasant. This an the […]
Zion National Park, November, 2012
These 68 photographs of Zion National Park in Utah were made over a period of six days in November, 2012. The Zion landscape is often photographed, yet I hope you will find a few images here that are unexpected. Questions? Comments? Please click her to contact me. Click on any thumbnail below to see it […]
Portrait Photography, Delaware Art Museum
On January 11, 2020, Iris McKenney, an experienced artist’s model, posed for the first time for photographers. This was my first time working with a live model and students. Iris made it a delightful experience, putting the students (and me) at ease, striking one pose after another, not rapid-fire but measured, like she was in […]
Camera Variables
Photographic Variables on Cameras with Interchangeable Lenses This is a list I hand out first thing to my students at the Delaware Art Museum. Many variables are at the photographer’s command before a picture is taken. Here a list. Of course, many more changes can be made to an image in post-processing, after the image […]
Good SLR and Mirrorless Cameras
Looking for a good, inexpensive camera? Because I teach students in my photo class at the Delaware Art Museum to shoot in Shutter-Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual Mode, they need to easily set ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture. Typically, these are digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) or mirrorless cameras. Below are links to good cameras […]
Rice Spill
Don’t hold jars by the lid! If the lid is loose, the jar will fall. I speak from experience. When the loose lid slipped last week, almost a cup of rice scattered before I caught the jar. “Arrrgghh!” I cried as I stood there barefoot in the kitchen, grain all around my feet. “Stay right […]
Lines to Corners, Rule of Thirds, and the Letter “K”
A friend recently wrote: “I’ve been composing in my head a letter to you re the wall art at this hospital, you having mentioned that some photos of yours were chosen for display in a hospital. The ones on view in this hospital are ocean/beach scenes for the most part. Nothing obviously dramatic or particularly […]
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