On Taking Pictures

Bill gets fancy at the news desk, the importance of backups and technique vs gear. Plus, influential documentary photographer, Robert Frank as Photographer of the Week.

Light looking like lights, the long-term view of your portfolio, science vs alchemy of film, and more. Stéphane Lavoué is Photographer of the Week.

How much change is too much change for the sake of commerce? Why portraits are different than other types of photography, and who is copyright really protecting? Classic sports magazine shooter Ozzie Sweet is Photographer of the Week

Safe vs Experimental, to get good you need to stop trying to get good, and Jeffery's monologue at 42:20 which is among the best things ever spoken on our show. Iconic war photograph Robert Capa is Photographer of the Week.

Style vs Fashion and How do you develop a style anyway? The influence of luck, snow angels, and listener Q&A. Michael Light is Photographer of the Week.

Decaying Americana, taking being uncomfortable one small step at a time, and some talk about starting a flickr group on this week's show. Modernist Paul Strand is Photographer of the Week.

The new Gregory Crewdson Documentary, the morality of Photoshop, and Q&A from a pile of listener emails. Master of masters Richard Avedon is Photographer of the Week.

Presidential portraits, the 'cool kid camera club', why Bill uses prime lenses, and the importance of having Dreams on this week's show. Celebrity portrait and fashion photographer Norman Jean Roy is Photographer of the Week.

Technical and creative limitations as inspiration, schtick vs style, and how the artistic process is what gives art it's humanity. Innovative fashion photographer Paolo Roversi is Photographer of the Week.

Photographers not known for their pictures, popularity contests, and trying to be a nice guy in a divisive world. Listener emails about exploitation, education, and 'Meditation' are answered. Classic agressive street photographer and filmmaker William Klein is Photographer of the Week.

An epic show this week wherein Bill and Jeffery tear into legacy, life, death, and being remembered. It's deep and heavy and well worth the time. B&W conversion, photography movies, and photo education also make an appearance. Portraitist Platon is our Photographer of the Week.

It's the last episode of 2012 so we conquer comment trolls, Fuji's lack of auto-focus, and whether historical artistic perspective matters at all anyway. Artistic portrait man Philip-Lorca diCorcia is our Photographer of the Week.

The plateaus of getting better, why change is scary, why Jeffery can't decide what camera to buy and it's not because there are no good cameras available. Modern surrealist photographer Man Ray is our Photographer of the Week.

An update and discussion about how Bill's December portrait project is going, does pre-visualization suck creativity, and where is the line between photography and photo-illustration anyway? Darkroom artist Jerry Uelsmann is our Photographer of the Week.

Should you retire of you're no longer doing good work? What skateboarding has in common with photography and why Bill will never get asked to shoot the Pirelli calendar. Portraitist William Coupon is our Photographer of the Week.

Coercion vs connection in portrait photography , making it through the fear of failure or even fear of success, and what? Bill is shooing video now? The world must be ending, so we might as well start at the beginning with 19th century French portrait photographer Nadar as PotW.

Our thoughts on the HBO series 'Witness', classic Hollywood portraits, tips for making your composites look more real, and a deep delve into the mind of photographer of the week Joel Meyerowitz.

How do you know when you've got it right? Are trends in art supposed to be chased or ridden, and is there is a location which really is the 'place to be' at any particular time? Parisian street photographer Brassai is this week's photographer.

How do we know when art 'works' or doesn't? Is it intuition or knowledge? Bill and Jeffery also tackle some listener mail about b/w conversion, hype in the art world, and a rebuttal of a listener who thinks Bill is a little too cranky. Master portraitist Irving Penn is this week's photographer.

A serious episode this week as Jeffery and Bill discuss whether a body of work is retrospective in origin or whether it's built masterpiece by masterpiece. Also David Hockney's article on perspective, scanning slides with your dslr, and asking why photography is ever a crime. The wonderful Alfred Sieglitz is this week's photographer.