Just got back from a great, but short, trip to LA and Las Vegas. I gave a presentation on documentary photography at the Annenberg Space for Photography. The space was wonderful and the crowd enthusiastic. Lynda, Bruce, David and Ben of www.lynda.com were there.

The next day I went to Las Vegas to give a presentation titled “The A-Z of documentary projects” and judge the photojournalism categories of the print competition. The experience of the  people at my talk ranged from just a few months to over 42 years. They were incredible and had lots of great questions.

I was in awe of many of the fantastic images I judged at the competition. Susan Stripling continues to do sweet work. A desaturated and vintage printing style is one of the trends right now. It adds a timeless quality to the photographs. Long narrow crops were also striking. Most winners were printed smaller than the 16×20 board and matted. Some were so small the judges had to get up to see the detail. In my mind, this doesn’t help the image. Make it big enough to see.

Another tip, especially for the photojournalism categories, GIVE THE PRINT A TITLE!  Too many compelling but confusing photographs were untitled. These are categories where the story is often as important as the imagery.

I was pleased to learn that one of my  portraits was honored in the Senior Portraits category. Riley is in his first year of a full-ride scholarship at Juilliard. I processed the file by pulling back the saturation, adding warmth and then creating a mask to bring back color in the grass.

Be sure to customize your LR gallery for the upcoming assignment. Here’s a link to what I went over in class.