At every workshop and convention you attend there’s a “decisive moment” when it’s over. It’s that moment when you start to inventory what you’ve learned, the people you met, the concepts you want to experiment with, etc. You’re overwhelmed with the possibilities and at the same time chomping at the bit to get started.
I’m writing a [...]

At every convention there’s always one program that becomes a favorite and last night was one of mine. “Open Forum” started by accident at last year’s Summer School when a couple of attendees, new photographers, asked if a few of the instructors could hang out for a little while and just talk. Within twenty minutes we had [...]

This post from good buddy Matthew Jordan Smith just ran last week on his blog, but I know there are too many of you who didn’t see it. While it’s photography 101, so many of you take short cuts and it often shows in your work, either in the end results or the time it [...]

Over the last few months I’ve run a number of great videos leading up to Summer School.  In fact, I’ve found great videos on just about everybody, with the exception of Jules Bianchi and her sister Joy Bianchi Brown and Roberto Valenzuela, but both of them did a couple of terrific guest posts. Jules and [...]

There’s so much great material on the Internet and I’m blown away by how many people don’t pay attention to what’s out there. This interview posted just a few months ago was done by Marc Silber. Besides showing so many of Matthew’s outstanding images, Marc’s questions really bring out what Matthew is all about.
A session [...]

With Summer School coming up in a few weeks, whether you’re joining us or not, I thought it would be great to share some portrait components of various techniques and images, this time from Matthew Jordan Smith.  Most of you don’t shoot the way Matthew does, but I know you want a certain look to [...]

Most of us tend to hate our own portraits and I’m certainly no exception. However, a few weeks ago I posted a portrait Elena Hernandez did of me while we were all at WPPI. It’s one of my favorites, because of Elena’s philosophy of wanting every portrait to tell a story. Just in case you [...]

Thanks to great input from so many past attendees at Skip’s Summer School, this year we added a full day with a hands-on theme.  My good buddy, Matthew Jordan Smith, is one of the instructors on Tuesday, August 2.   This three minute clip from Profoto, also a sponsor of Summer School, demonstrates one of the qualities [...]

Okay, it’s a loaded question, but in this case it’s happening because Akron Children’s Hospital is about to open an Expressive Therapy Center and the most recent donation from the Akron Photo Series (APS) is going directly to help them!  (scroll down on the link and see if you recognize anybody!) Expressive Therapy is all [...]

There’s been a lot of excitement at RETV this week with the two scholarships they’re giving away for Summer School, (Hit their fan page and put in “I want to go to Skip’s Summer School” for a chance to win one of two scholarships.)  So,  it seems like a great time to share with you some of the [...]