Today we take for granted the beauty of an intentionally blurred, long-shutter speed image. There was a time, however, when, that was seen as nothing more than bad technique—Ernst Haas changed all that. He has inspired generations of photographers to break the mold—the mold inside you that is holding you back. What photo student hasn’t stood in front of a wall of peeling paint,trying to stretch the way they see the world? Subjects that seem obvious now, or even cliches, had to be let out of confinement. We have Ernst Haas to thank for opening those doors. Someone had….

The original 35 mm still cameras were actually designed around existing motion picture camera film. Old motion picture cameras—like the kind Edison had—used 35 mm film. Some German camera designers in the early 20th century—at the Leica company—came up with the brilliant idea of putting that standard-sized film into still cameras, thereby eliminating the need to manufacture yet another sized film. It was brilliant. Generations of still photographers—me included—grew up using 35mm film. There were many camera manufacturers competing in the market place, but they all used this one industry-standard size. Because the film was the same size, a picture….

  I wonder how many neck straps I’ve owned in my lifetime. I tried to do the math. Most cameras come with a neck strap, so that makes 60 or 70 right off the top. (I’ve been doing this a long time—I’ve owned a lot of cameras.) There’s everything from the simple, high quality leather strap that the Leicas came with, to the horrible, gaudy advertising banners that some of the manufacturers now pass off as neck straps. If you add in all of the straps I’ve bought because I didn’t like the one that came with the camera, I….

It’s called copy work, but I like to think of it as photographing a photograph. It’s more romantic, isn’t it? Knowing how to take a straightforward photograph of a picture is an exercise in photographic lighting. More specifically, it’s all about removing reflections. If you’re copying a glossy print— copy works greatest challenge— you ironically do need to reflect something in the surface of the picture, and that’s something is blackness. You need to do three things when you are photographing a photograph. Bath the print in the softest, most even light you can find. You don’t want harsh shadows….

Every once in a while there’s a big Bruhaha about the appearance of the Super Moon. The moon apparently closer to the earth than it’s been in the last thousand years or since last March depending on who you ask. It happens about every two years. I put Super Moons and Super Models in the same category. They’re both inventions of media hype. First of all, there’s no such thing as a Super Model—some are just better than others. And the moon can’t be super because there’s not another not-so-super one to compare it to—there’s only one moon. And I….