Start of Fall Semester

The 2024 fall semester is underway! Here's a first day shot from my Concordia University classroom:

And a shot from my University of Minnesota classroom:

I taught in that very same classroom at the U of M from 2005 to 2011, and very little has changed! (Pretty much just the TV instead of projection screen, and the table right in front of the camera has been turned 90 degrees.) I'm back for maybe just the semester to help out with someone's maternity leave. I've been at the U of M College of Design (St. Paul campus) for the previous 5 semesters, but now I'm in the U of M's Art Department (Minneapolis campus) for this class. And here's my exotic shared faculty office at the U:

That's a bike helmet and bottle as I'm trying to bike like I did all of last school year.

And Concordia, we just had our first "nerdy lecture" covering some good stuff:

Happy Fall 2024!!

Photography as "Mirrors" or "Windows"

I've been reading "Strange Hours: Photography, Memory, and the Lives of Artists" these last few weeks. I found an interesting thought from John Szarkowski:

What makes this more interesting for me is that my "Faribault County" work from 20 years ago would fit as a "window," but my more recent "4 a.m." work is definitely a "mirror." I don't know what that means, but it's made me stop and think about my own art making...

Olympic Triathlon Photographer

Associated Press photographer David Goldman talks about the issues he needed to work through to photograph the Olympic triathlon and open water swims:

Direct link: youtu.be/YBz-uPDpUBs?si=INfAYqPUG_2wAP0Y

A Sweet Blast from the Past

Two years ago, I posted about the sudden death of John Marshall, my undergrad photography mentor. Last year, I shared some photos from a wonderful memorial for him at his house

Last week, I stopped by his widow's home because she had some more photography equiptment of John's for the college where I'm teaching, and she also smiled and handed me this:

That was the copy of the NY Times Magazine that I'd shot the cover photo. It's not an image I'm necessarily super proud of, but it was an experience I was proud of. John still had the copy that I gave him, and I had forgotten that he had wanted me to sign it (lower right). I hadn't laid eyes on that cover for at least a decade.

Inside image.


Photo credit.

Thanks John. We miss you.

Movie Poster Project

I shared a few movie posters at the end of fall semester from an intro to design course that I teach at the University of Minnesota. Here are 4 quick ones from this past semester:

Nice layering and texture from Devyn.


Good focal point from Emma.


Erik pushed the idea that he's stepping through the end of the song because he dies (spoiler alert).


Some nice use of space by Ben.

Again, here's a bit more from last year in a different post.

Camera Lens Focus Modes

I'm never going to see the "auto focus / manual focus" switch the same after this...

Color Naming Book from 1955

I found this in one of the classrooms where I teach at the University of Minnesota:

Figure out your Munsell notation (something I became VERY familiar with
teaching Color Theory at CVA) and then turn to the correct page in this book.


Follow the Munsell chroma and value notation to get the "name" of the color


PAGES of color names!


Close-up of names.

Being so wrapped up in "true" Munsell color notation while teaching at the College of Visual Arts, I never thought about what you would "name" any of the given colors in his system. But this book does that... to an extreme measure!

Students Making Big Prints

Just like we did last year, my students recently made some prints on the design department's 44" printer:

[click to enlarge]

Some eye-catching night shots coming out.






Catching 2 of her larger prints.


Re-printing 2 darker images a BIT lighter to make up the difference
between the glow of the screen and the reflected light off the print.
(Or: prints are always darker, and darker images can easily go TOO dark.)


Comparing 2 larger prints.

I think ALL of these images that we printed in class made it into the Juried Student Exhibition, and 2 of the 5 awards in the Fine Arts category* went to 2 of these photos! Congrats Photography II and Advanced Photography classes!

Come see their work in person in 2 weeks at the Juried Student Exhibition's closing reception: Thursday, April 18th, 5-7 p.m. at the Concordia Gallery, 1301 Marshall Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104.

* They are split between "fine arts" and "design" for this exhibition. A 3rd student of the 5 awards in Fine Art was a former student of mine, and 3 of the 5 award winners in Design are current students of mine! (But I can't take any credit for that as I'm their photography professor.)