I shot color negative and slide film through my teens, all of which was mailed — with eager anticipation — to distant (out of state) labs, or dropped off at a pharmacy for processing. This was followed by four years of pure B&W shooting-developing-printing in college, because color was too daunting to develop and print myself.

Some years later (1990), after taking a color photography class at San Diego State University (California) with a great teacher — a practicing professional photographer — my understanding of color, and approach to using it in my work, changed completely. This teacher unraveled mysteries, revealed revelations, made sense of the nonsensical, and answered all my unasked questions (who knew to ask such things?) about color photography!

How? He got into the physics of light (source of all color), the nature of sunlight and Earth’s atmosphere, reflective vs. absorptive qualities of surfaces and materials, how to incorporate and compose with color more effectively in each photographic image. All this scientific, technical, and creative information was completely fascinating to me! To this day, I use the lessons learned in that one great class…

Years later, one particular lesson he taught me about color guides my mind’s eye whenever I look through a camera. Today, it’s a blend of what the teacher taught, what I learned from the class assignments and critiques, plus my own photography experiences since then. Here’s the simple, essential color lesson as I remember it, modified slightly (no doubt) in my mind over time, distilled down to 6-words of advice:

Do color photography for color’s sake.

— The Unknown Professor

As you may discern, this brief, simple statement has layers of depth and nuance. To me, it is quite provocative, opening my aesthetic and creativity to virtually endless possibilities! But, if I recall correctly, the professor elaborated further, bluntly stating, “If you’re not going to make good use of color in your photograph, you may as well shoot black-and-white!” Or something like that…

My Key Takeaways:

• Compose with and capture color, purposefully.
• Use color in all its diversity, intentionally.

My Digital Color Photography

A sampling of recent digital color work. Some photos in this slide show are “as-is” from the digital camera device, while others have been edited using Hipstamatic or other apps.

My instant Color Photography

A sampling of my instant color work using a variety of film formats including: SX-70, 600, pack-film, Instax Wide-Square-Mini, shot with various vintage and new cameras.

My Color film Photography

A sampling of my negative and slide (reversal) color work using a variety of film formats including: 35mm, 120, 110, & 126, shot with various vintage and new cameras.