“Variations” – My New Exhibit at Multiple Exposures Gallery – May 8th – June 18th

Posted on May 8, 2012 by asislen


How boring our lives would be if every day, everything looked exactly the same. But in the daily frenzy of life, we rarely slow down enough to truly appreciate the beauty and sheer joy of the “ordinary” that surrounds us. A number of people have asked me about the panoramic photograph that I use at the top of my blog. I’ve told them that it was taken from a spot that overlooks the Cabin John trail and creek near my home. Well, that’s just part of the story.

I have been shooting from that exact same location in all types of weather and in all seasons for a number of years and over time I realized that what started out as a casual photograph, had become a few photographs, then many photographs, and now an exhibit.
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Creating Fine Art Prints

Posted on March 12, 2012 by asislen

Next Tuesday, March 20th I will be teaching one of my favorite topics – “Creating Fine Art Prints with Your Epson Printer” at Mac Business Solutions (MBS) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. This will be a 7-hour class and is an expanded version of the class that I have really enjoyed teaching many times in the last few years. We will cover everything you always wanted to know about making beautiful, impressive fine art prints. We will discuss in-depth, printer choices, matching the media to the image, archivability of various media, file preparation, printing black and white using Epson’s Advanced B&W mode versus printing color, getting your prints to closely match your monitor, soft proofing, and much, much more. We will have an Epson 7900 to demonstrate everything we discuss. I have been doing business with MBS for over 20 years, and I’m very pleased to have been invited to teach my first class in their training facility.

Further information can be found at Info and Signup.

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Fairy Circles – Are You KIDDING Me??!!

Posted on March 5, 2012 by asislen

Fairy Circles Seen from the Ground


During my recent trip to Namibia, as we entered the edge of the Namib Desert our very able guide, Elvis Hghumutina from Ultimate Safaris in Windhoek, pointed out some odd, circular areas of soil, interspersed with the yellow-gold vegetation. He said, “Those are fairy circles.” He went on to explain that no one really knew where they came from, but they were found in a band that runs North-South roughly parallel to, and from 60 to 90 kilometers inland from the coast. They are found from Angola in the North through Namibia to South Africa. The fairy circles are approximately 9 feet in diameter to 30 feet in diameter. Continue reading →

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Eastman Kodak – 132 Years of Kodak Moments

Posted on January 21, 2012 by asislen

From innovator to litigator. That about sums up the last 132 years for Eastman Kodak (EK). Had it not been for Kodak, it is unlikely I would have developed (pun intended) an interest in photography, and I’m sure that’s the case for millions and millions of us. Harvard case studies have been written about Kodak, and I’m sure there will be many more books detailing the rise and fall of this formally mighty company. Was it the inability to acknowledge that many of your company’s own innovations might totally cannibalize your bread and butter business? Some people argue that EK simply was afraid to decimate their film business, so they never aggressively moved into, and marketed digital. Was it the inability to appreciate the incredible pace of change and how quickly consumers will accept and embrace something they didn’t even know existed just a few years earlier? Or was it simply that innovators must continue to push the envelope and anticipate what the consumer will want, long before the consumer even knows that it’s a possibility. Think Steve Jobs and Apple. As companies get big and bigger, it becomes increasingly difficult to accelerate the pace of innovation and creativity, especially for a 130 year old company. Continue reading →

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Adobe Retreats – But Probably, Just Temporarily …

Posted on January 16, 2012 by asislen

In my November 18th, 2011 blog post, titled, “Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy,” I highlighted the fact that many Photoshop users would be forced to upgrade to each new version of Photoshop in order to get the “discounted” upgrade price on the new version. Not owning the most recent version would have necessitated paying full price for the new version, a difference of a minimum of $500. Many avid Photoshop users were understandably very upset, and the new policy probably motivated many CS3 and CS4 users to upgrade to CS5, so that when CS6 arrived, they could get CS6 at an upgrade price. Now those users are probably upset, because Adobe just changed the upgrade policy once again, and those users didn’t need to upgrade to CS5! Continue reading →

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My Favorite Photographs from 2011

Posted on January 3, 2012 by asislen


It is always dangerous to pick your favorite “anything,” especially when it comes to your own photography! I find I often fall in and out of love with individual photographs, especially ones that were recently made. How well photographs stand the test of time is always difficult to know today. Only time will tell! But as of right now, these five images are my personal favorites from 2011, all for very different reasons. Continue reading →

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The 100 Most Influential Photographers of All Time

Posted on December 14, 2011 by asislen

A number of months ago I wrote a blog entry called, “Staying Motivated … Being Inspired”. I mentioned that to stay motivated, I find that it very helpful to view other artwork, especially photographers whose work I admire. Going to exhibits, gallery openings, and uncovering the thousands of resources on the Internet all provide an unlimited opportunity to continually re-energize oneself. Continue reading →

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Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy

Posted on November 18, 2011 by asislen

Adobe recently announced a new upgrade policy for its Creative Suite, that includes Photoshop. There will definitely be frustration from many photographers that I know. Not all users of Photoshop have found it necessary or economical to upgrade to the latest, greatest version every time Adobe released a new version. For example, if you owned Photoshop CS3 and didn’t find compelling reasons to upgrade to CS4 when it was released, under Adobe’s old policy, you could have upgraded to CS5 when it came out, and pay the upgrade price of $199, versus the non-upgrade price of $699. Well, that is all about to change!
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I LOVE the Desert !

Posted on October 28, 2011 by asislen

Extreme heat, no moisture, rocks, sand, high altitude, below sea level, rattlesnakes. What’s not to like? I don’t know what it is, but I love photographing the desert. In the last five or six years I’ve been to White Sands, New Mexico twice, to Death Valley, California three times, and to the Atacama Desert in Chile. While each of these three desert locations is completely different (i.e. Death Valley -282 feet below sea level and the Atacama at 16,000 feet above sea level), there is something about the desolation, the natural beauty, the sand dunes, and the amazing mineral deposits that keeps me going back.
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Preparation and Process

Posted on October 3, 2011 by asislen


While recently watching the TV show, Grey’s Anatomy, one of the medical residents was being quizzed on the step-by-step procedures for the surgery she was about to perform. Of course, she accurately recited each step, but when it came time for the surgery, she couldn’t remember one small, but critical step in the procedure. While I certainly don’t equate medicine with photography, preparation for a photo shoot or for a photo trip are critically important. Continue reading →

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