Hello all, and welcome to the Greg Binon Photography news letter. I hope to keep you up to date on my work, give you some insight into the creation of the photographs, and tell you more about the places represented within the images.

News : I have relocated to Northern California and the areas of coverage for new work will soon expand to include; California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada.

In the Field: I was recently on the south rim of the Grand Canyon during the enormous winter storm that hit the western states last month and later stayed in the McDowell Mountains for awhile on an assignment for Arizona Highways Magazine.

Stock Call: December and January are busy months “photographically” with most of the large Calendars issuing stock calls for publications one to two years out.  As of right now the following calendars containing my work will begin appearing soon in retail stores (starting this October):

• 2009 Arizona Highways Scenic wall calendar
• 2009 Zion National Park wall calendar, Smith-Southwestern 
• 2009 Grand Canyon National Park wall calendar, Smith-Southwestern 
• 2009 Sedona desk calendar, Smith-Southwestern 

How a photograph is created

In reality, it is not nearly as romantic as many photographers would lead you to believe. Large Format photography is also significantly more complicated than what is outlined below, but I did not want to bore you with a technical dialogue. A good photograph usually begins to take shape months sometimes years in advance. Hours of research are spent studying maps, sun and moon tables, reconnaissance trips, securing permits, digging through field guides and examining other photographers work. When it finally comes to my first day at a location the camera normally stays at camp. I begin by walking the area, studying the light, and getting a feel for the location throughout the day. Images will start to “announce” themselves, pulling me towards them, now all I need to do is figure out how and when to shoot them; this is the really hard part. Day two, I show up at least one hour before sunrise. The pre-dawn’s reflected light and the earth’s shadow are what motivate me to get out of bed. Every image is shot twice and each sheet of film is number and identified A or B to distinguish duplicates. Around 8am the light is gone so it’s time to eat breakfast and take a nap. The evening light is at its best one hour before and the hour after sunset; this is my favorite time to work. After dusks light has finally faded (most people leave to soon and miss the real show), it’s time for a cold beer. Day three, I repeat day two but shoot what I missed the day before and re-shoot what I know can be done better. During the drive home I always review and plan how to do it better next time, almost always the next visit to each location yields better results.

When I get back to civilization it’s time to run the film. One sheet of film (A’s) per image is sent to the lab.  When the film comes back each transparency is examined and the lab is instructed to push or pull (lighten / darken) in 1/3’rd stop increments the each corresponding (B) sheets of film. If it’s done right the seconds (B’s) should be dead on. Now it’s time to cull the mediocrity and this can be difficult , often some of your favorites when shooting in the field end up hitting the scrap pile. Only about 33% now remain and only one or two images are good enough for fine art prints, the balance become stock images.

Images that make the cut to become a print are scanned and processed on a photographic computer workstation. Each image's contrast, tonality, and acutance is adjusted to equal the original transparency and work within the reproduction capabilities of photographic papers. This process takes about 3 hours per image. Now I have a 1 gigabyte master file that is the digital equivalent of a 400 mega pixel camera. When a print is requested the master file is duplicated and processed again to produce the highest quality image possible specific to the size and printer/paper type of the ordered photograph. The image is now ready to be sent to a photographic printer.