The Journal
Behind The Print
Stories from behind the lens — process, craft, and the moments that shape every session.
October 8, 2026
The New Girl Has Homework
Gemi’s first studio lesson begins with a print and a question about why a photograph matters.
Read the story →September 29, 2026
Behind the Print: The Retouch You're Not Supposed to Notice
Testing Reblum on a real ShutterFest portrait of Sydney, and learning that the best skin work is the kind nobody has anything to argue about.
Read the story →September 27, 2026
Behind the Print: Knowing When to Stop
Retouching two ShutterFest photographs of Claire Rieger and a snake with Reblum — and relearning that restraint, not another slider, is what actually finishes a photograph.
Read the story →September 19, 2026
Behind the Print: Learning How We Work
A look back at the early friction of building an AI-assisted photography workflow, and what changed once memory stopped being mistaken for knowledge.
Read the story →September 17, 2026
The Pitching Duel Continues
Recognition can confirm that the work is connecting, but the deeper lesson is discipline: slowing down, protecting the person in the photograph, and letting the print reveal whether the job is truly finished.
Read the story →September 10, 2026
See It in Color Before You Kill the Color
A strong black and white photograph should not begin with throwing the color away. I look first at what the color is giving me, then decide what needs to survive the conversion and eventually the print.
Read the story →September 8, 2026
Hink’s Smokehouse: From Folding Table to Food Truck
A familiar Farmers’ Market neighbor grows from bottles on a folding table to a full food truck — a small story about consistency, hard work, and recognizing growth around us.
Read the story →September 7, 2026
The Campaign of Living
The campaign. The company. The feeling that all those hours meant something. On living, having enough, and keeping the moments we want to revisit within reach.
Read the story →September 3, 2026
Summer’s End
At the end of another summer, joy, cultural continuity, and the finite nature of time sharpen one photographer’s responsibility to make family art that can outlive him.
Read the story →September 2, 2026
I Had to Live With This One
Some photographs are finished when the editing is done. Others keep calling you back. After creating this portrait of Alonna Gibson at ShutterFest 2024, I needed to know what would happen when the image left the screen and became a 13 × 19 inch fine-art print.
Read the story →August 31, 2026
An Extraordinary Collection of Beginnings
I asked AI to stop helping me make things and look instead at the record of what I had already been doing. What emerged was an uncomfortable question about ideas, concentration, unfinished work, and what happens when curiosity is allowed to interrupt everything.
Read the story →August 27, 2026
The Card I Didn’t Know I Needed
A trip to the Bloomington Public Library for a simple library card became a reminder that learning, creativity, and community can meet us differently at every stage of life.
Read the story →August 24, 2026
A Song Moved Me to Tears
While Micro Spice performed “Die With a Smile,” one refrain brought nearly twenty years of love, loss, growth, and hard-earned clarity rushing back.
Read the story →August 23, 2026
The Market
A photograph returned as a hug, a song broke something open, and a chance meeting between two artists completed the day.
Read the story →August 19, 2026
Moments Matter
Sometimes the camera is more than a tool. Sometimes it is comfort, continuity, and proof that a moment mattered enough to keep. This Behind the Print piece reflects on photography, self-awareness, and the power of turning images into heirloom prints.
Read the story →August 18, 2026
Hey, What Are You Looking At?
We photographers can spend an extraordinary amount of time staring at photographs in ways nobody else ever will. This image from Miller Park Zoo reminded me that eventually you have to stop interrogating the pixels, back away from the screen and look at the photograph.
Read the story →August 18, 2026
Hey AI You Alright?
If something doesn't feel right, question it. Even if that means asking the AI if it's okay.
Read the story →August 18, 2026
What AI Is Actually Teaching Me About My Business
A week of real AI use, not hype, taught me more about authorship, provenance and where the human line stays firm than any tutorial could.
Read the story →August 16, 2026
NAS: Storage Is Not the Same as Security
Owning a Network Attached Storage box for two years taught me the hard way that redundancy, backup, and security are related concepts — but they are not the same thing.
Read the story →August 7, 2026
The Photograph That Time Will Choose
No photographer presses the shutter with certainty — but every image deserves the craftsmanship worthy of an unknown future.
Read the story →