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Jim Graham – Next Step Alumni Group Exhibit

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John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group
For over 10 years I’ve been mentoring a select group of individuals. Their progress has been thrilling to watch. It’s been a true privilege to be a part of their growth. July 7 their first Group Exhibit will be unveiled at the Maine Media Workshops. (link)
Jim Graham has been a member for over 6 years. Here’s one important thing he learned and his work.
Alumni Insight

I first came to John Paul 8 years ago.  And from that workshop and my subsequent inclusion in the Next Step Group  I have been able to develop a voice that speaks through my work.  John might say that I always had one and that he only helped untie the strings that has bound it.  But, I’d argue differently.
My inclusion in this group helped in my ability to articulate a visual language.  An Artistic language.  For I do believe that when we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change, to hear and to see; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not ready. The challenge will not wait.
And it was not only John Paul who taught, but each member of that group as teacher.  Each offering their own individual gift to the other. Each part having their own unique attributes that bound us all together.  Not just a whole community but a visual chorus.
I’ve also been fortunate that others have valued my input about their work and that curiosity has given me the courage to begin to teach on my own.

Artist’s Statement
The work I choose to show in a gallery is typically made while traveling. I usually just photograph whatever interests me. Documenting where I am or what my surrounding environs are.  The resulting imagery inevitably ends up integrating my experience with the natural world. I seem to have an inner agenda, which is always seeking a harmony between the two, as well as a need to reconcile the inner, psychological world with the outer world of my everyday experiences. Each of my images has it’s own story.  I may not have known the story when I released the shutter.  But, the journey home and the time taken to suss out the images I have created, each stories unfolds.  They are perhaps an afterthought – a way to make sense of a fleeting moment or a memory.
In the naming of my images I try to give a bit of meaning to the moment I’ve tired to render.  I try to find a way to finish the image as a final piece and to bind the group as a whole. Each image has it’s own place and it’s own narrative.  While I have my own story for each, I hope that the viewer find his own stories within them.
See more of Jim Graham’s work here.
See the Next Step Exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops July 7 – 30.
Stay tuned for individual and group Next Step Blurb books.
Find out more about my workshops here.
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Workshop – Iceland – August 10-14, 2009

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My Focus On Nature Iceland workshop August 10-14, 2009… Glaciers, glacial lagoons, volcanoes, deserts, waterfalls, rocky coastlines, sea caves, northern lights. It’s an adventure unlike any other! Refine your photographic vision and skills while experiencing stunning otherworldly landscapes with unparalleled local knowledge.

What will Iceland be like? Find out about My Thoughts and The Map and The Organization.

Get to know the locals … Einar – Ragnar.– Gudmunter – Ellert

See images from each day … 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 7

The 10% discount ends in 10 days on June 30. Save $495. Register now!

Warning! This blog post collects 13 other posts. Get coffee! Or wine!

Workshop Review – Along the Waterline

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At the end of my field workshops we do rapid fire reviews of the work done that week. Everyone puts in at least 6 images. We don’t know who’s pictures we’re looking at. We call out star ratings fast getting a quick first impression. Then we state quickly and simply why the image works or doesn’t work and how it could be improved. You get honest feedback and many diverse perspectives in a minimum amount of time. At the end, we sometimes look at all the images of each individual grouped together; suddenly new connections are made; sometimes images work better in context with one another than standing alone. The process is really enjoyable and educational.
Here are a few of the standouts from the week.

Anne Davey, having identified unifying elements in an extend portfolio review before the workshop, knew with confidence she would always be obsessed with color. But she took a risk in exploring pure abstraction this week.

Jim Brewster, after years of professional work for others, reconnected with his authentic voice this week, “I took ME off the shelf.” Initially he was documenting situations without composing them. With a little prompting he put the two together.

Sam Krisch enjoyed exploring a guiding metaphor, in his case a Kafkaesque paranoia. It gave him a subjective sensibility to unite many diverse experiences.

William Barek continued his explorations in photo-impressionism.

Rob Sylvan found many ways of connecting to story and themes with words helpful to find new perspectives and a deeper sense of connection in his images.

Jeff Fox admitted he was obsessed with structure and was torn between abstraction and representation
Alumni can read his comments on my Facebook Alumni group here.
Learn more in my field workshops.
8/9-15 – Iceland … 10% discount ends June 20.
10/16-19 – Fall Foliage … 15% discount ends August 15.

Special Guests – Greg Barnett & Patti Russotti

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Having special guests always adds extra positive energy into an already dynamic mix. Special guests Greg Barnett and Patti Russotti, both long-time high-level educators at RIT with vast experiences in the medium and it’s digital evolution, participated in my recent field workshop Along the Waterline. Their presence and the receptivity of the students encouraged me to ramp up the curriculum to an even more advanced level conceptually. We moved progressively varying our modes of inquiry, to identifying ways of looking, focussing on themes, and identifying ways to make the finally images more psychologically loaded. Each day built upon the previous one. At the end, everyone had increased their skillset, learned a lot of different ways of looking, and deepened their authentic voice. It’s great to see everyone progress together, all in different ways. It was really stimulating for everyone involved. In many ways, both small and large, it will change my teaching for the better.
Greg and Patti mind at the end of the week here.
“Over the last few days while working with John Paul, I’ve had somewhat of a breakthrough …”
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Layering Noise

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Here’s an excerpt from my column in the current issue of Digital Photo Pro.
“When adding noise to digital files, keep noise separate from the image so you can control both independently of one another. This way you’ve got extraordinary control and flexibility. When noise is placed on its own layer you can eliminate or change it at any time in the future, reduce its opacity, localize it, desaturate it, target it into specific channels, move it, scale it, blur it and much more …”
Read more in the current issue of Digital Photo Pro.
Learn out more in my digital printing workshops.

Using Star Ratings

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It’s important to think about how you use star Ratings (in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom). Not everyone uses them the same way. However you decide to use them, you should use them consistently. Otherwise, when you browse multiple folders, you’ll have to interpret the same symbols differently in different contexts. That gets confusing fast!
I like the 5 star rating system. It helps make useful distinctions with only a touch more granularity than 3 levels of distinction – typically high, medium and low. It doesn’t get as granular at 10 levels of distinction, so you can cut to the chase fast. It’s used in other venues like restaurants and hotels so it’s familiar. Still, I don’t find using 1 and 2 star ratings useful for ranking the quality of images; I have no use for images that are below average. The images use are either good – 3, better – 4, or excellent – 5. So, I use 1 and 2 stars for something else. I use 1 star to identify a good idea in a substandard exposure or composition; I’ll try and use the idea later with better material. I use 2 stars to identify images that are good for composites; the exposures are fine but the composition is unfinished.
How do you use star ratings?
Comment here.
We discuss this and many other subjects in my field workshops.
Learn more about composition in my field workshops.
Upcoming dates include …
8/9-15 – Iceland … 10% discount ends June 20.

10/16-19 – Fall Foliage … 15% discount ends August 15.

Composition – New Column on Luminous Landscape

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“How do you define something? One classic strategy is to let the dictionary define it for you. The Oxford English Dictionary defines composition in the following ways …
… the act of combining; forming relationships (between things); synthesis; reasoning from the universal to the particular; combining arithmetical factors, ratios, forces, elements to produce a compound; chemical combination; combining words and sentences to produce a literary work; combining sounds to produce a musical work; settling differences or an agreement; arrangement; constitution of mind and/or body or both; a creation shared by individual parts; union; aggregate; mixture; structure; design …
This paraphrases a more than one page definition. Reproducing the full version would be tedious. But I recommend you take a glance at the full definition to get a sense of how wide ranging the many definitions contained in this one entry are, which are used by many disciplines yet still related.
For the visual artist we could settle on a working definition, a simple statement that could be useful. Composition is the act of combining graphic elements to create a visual structure or it’s the product generated by this act. That suffices. That’s useful. But, while it’s useful to settle this, it would also be useful not to settle this issue definitively. The tension set up by continuing to consider all of the ambiguities, contradictions, connections, and unanswered questions will lead to some marvelous insights. For this very reason, I recommend you settle on your own working definition. And then continue to refine it. Because, rather than settling it definitively, by continuing to work with the question you’ll benefit even more …”
“You can see the fundamental structures present and visual dynamics at work in your images by reducing the wealth of information found in photographs. You can use Photoshop to do this in countless ways. Here are a few …”
Read more on Luminous Landscape. Click here.
Learn more about composition in my field workshops.
6/12-15 – Along the Waterline
8/9-15 – Iceland
10/16-19 – Fall Foliage