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 […]
Mostly text comments by Danny Schweers as he explores writing, photography, and publishing.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Outdoor Night Photography
Night is seldom really dark, especially near urban centers that glow with street lights, traffic 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. Also, camera manufacturers have made stunning advances in recent years […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Second Chances Farm, Wilmington, Delaware
On Monday, July 20, 2020, some one hundred of us were treated to a tour of the vertical hydroponic farm rooms, a box lunch, and speeches. A recurring theme was the idea that, having served one’s sentence in jail or prison, one should be welcomed back to full citizenship, not branded for life as an […]
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