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 […]
Mostly text comments by Danny Schweers as he explores writing, photography, and publishing.
Photo Classes and Workshops, Wilmington, Delaware
I teach photography lessons in Wilmington, Delaware, primarily at the Delaware Art Museum but also privately. COVID-19 UPDATE: Fully-vaccinated, I am once again teaching in-person classes at the Delaware Art Museum and privately. I also offer Zoom classes via video and in-person tutorials. Contact me to learn more! For details and to register for classes […]
Black-Eyed Susan Room Divider
My latest project is a room divider with fifteen 8×10 photos of black-eyed susans. What do you think? Click on the photo and you can see it larger. The hardwood divider itself is made of three panels, each 68-inches tall and 11-inches wide. The photos are 8×10-inches, printed on Hahnemühle Fineart Baryta Satin 310gms archival […]
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 […]
Airline Disasters
I confess! Lately I relax by watching episodes of “Airline Disasters” on the Smithsonian Channel. What I enjoy most about this television series is the recurring idea of redemption. Every episode ends on a positive note. Talented and diligent safety inspectors analyze every accident. Often the cause of the accident is mysterious, but our dauntless investigators hunt down […]
Student Photos 2021
Below are thumbnail images of photographs taken by my students in 2021, starting with images taken at two “Rule of Thirds” classes in composition at Mt. Cuba Center, Delaware. Click on any thumbnail to see it larger in a slide show. In the slide show, you can use your keyboard arrow keys to move forward […]
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 […]
My Episodic History As A Writer
An acquaintance recently invited me to join a writing group, a very organized group, with agendas and roles. I like the sound of it! New members are asked to share their writing backgrounds. Here is mine. Photo Prayers Every week since 2007 (well, most weeks), I write a prayer and pair it with a photograph. […]
He admitted to himself it had him.
“William Weigland took a hurried look at the sketch map, decided to chance it, and swung left off Route 22 on a narrow macadam road. He drove a few hundred yards and pulled the Buick to the side of the road. He stared at the map and admitted to himself that it had him.” […]
Open Gates: Photo Prayers by Danny Schweers on Exhibit in Delaware
Photographs and Text by Danny Schweers in Wilmington, Delaware in 2020. Scroll down to see images from the show. This exhibit opened on March 6, 2020, at the Buzz Ware Village Center in the Village of Arden, Delaware. Three days later the building was shuttered due to the COVID-19 — ironic for an exhibit called […]
Seven Comments on Change
As part of its exhibit “Sea Change”, the Washington Printmakers Gallery in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. asked me to say something about change. Click here to see my “Seven Comments on Change” — words and photos taken from my Photo Prayer project over the past ten years. The photo is me as a […]
Book of Days Murder of Michael Cahill
The Fox-TV show, America’s Most Wanted, first aired the Book of Days Murder segment in 2007. The television crew came to Arden to interview me and then flew to Texas and California to interview other photographers about the unsolved murder of Mike Cahill that took place in 1979 in Austin, Texas, a murder tied to […]
Ray Seigfried, Delaware State Representative, District 7
Ray Seigfried deserves your vote in the Democratic Primary on Tuesday, September 15, 2020. I have worked with Ray Seigfried for many years. For eight years, he was elected to and chaired the Community Planning Committee here in the Village of Arden, Delaware. I also served on that committee and saw first-hand how diligent Ray […]
Ideas and Enthusiasm
Why do ideas, so brilliant when they first inspire us, appear deadly dull when we return to them? Ideas of things to do are like fireworks when they first come to mind. As each one appears, I can hardly wait to pursue it. I quickly jot it down, looking forward to taking it up when […]
Recommended: Second Chances Farm, Wilmington, Delaware
Chief Financial Officer Jon Brilliant wants to create for-profit solutions to non-profit problems. He is a partner at Second Chances Farm in Wilmington, Delaware because it offers people leaving prison a real job with, shall we say, growth potential. On Monday, July 20, 2020, some one hundred of us were treated to a tour of […]
Recommended: Planet Walker by John Francis
Easily dismissed as a hippie new-age environmentalist nut case, this memoir by John Francis gives us the inside view of an extraordinary man who spent 22 years walking and bicycling, rowing and sailing, without ever riding in a motorized vehicle. Seventeen of those years, he went without speaking. He tied these two decisions to a […]
Steaming Asparagus
The steam escaping from the boiling pot makes a lively percussion, a beat not quite regular, not quite random, a mixture of mechanical and natural. The sound dies after I turn off the fire. The asparagus, by the way, were delicious. Click here to watch more riveting videos on the Danny Schweers YouTube Channel.
What do we need? What should we pray for?
Soon to die of an assassin’s bullet, Louisiana Governor Huey Long’s last words were, “God, don’t let me die. I have so much to do.” Foolishly, he thought more time was the answer. It is not. If we were given ten extra years of health, or twenty, it would not be enough to get everything […]
Delmarva Peninsula
Delaware is the lowest of the 50 states; that is, its average elevation — 60 feet — is lower than any other state. Florida’s average elevation is 40 feet higher! Forget mountain majesty. South of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, Delaware and the rest of the Delmarva Peninsula has marshes and tidal rivers, big skies […]
Smoke and Fire near West Grove, Pennsylvania
It is a real pleasure to drive the back roads of Chester County, Pennsylvania. On Sunday, February 23, 2020, I came across what I thought was someone burning brush. I stopped just off the road to photograph the smoke moving through the leafless trees of winter. Another photographer stopped. Like me, he was out shooting […]
Torn Love Stitched in Your Daily Photograph
My image — Torn Love Stitched — was featured on Tuesday, February 4, 2020 in the Your Daily Photograph email blast from the Duncan Miller Gallery in Santa Monica, California. This is my third image to be featured. The last two sold immediately! To see the Your Daily Photograph post of 4 February, 2020, visit: […]
“Florida” Selected for Rehoboth Art League Exhibit
I am delighted that “Florida” — an ominous photograph with contrarian text — has been selected for the 5th Annual Regional Juried Photography Exhibition at the Rehoboth Art League (RAL), 12 Dodds Lane in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Opening reception, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Friday, January 31, 2020. Juror’s Talk by Gabrielle Tillenburg, Saturday, February […]
Portrait Photography Workshop, Delaware Art Museum, January, 2020
This was Iris McKenney’s first time to model for photographers and 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 a slow-motion slide show dance. Students were encouraged […]
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