Red River Paper Blog

By Christine Pentecost— I’m fortunate to see a lot of wildlife. Living with my husband in the mountains near Bozeman, Montana, close to Yellowstone National Park, we’ve had black bears look into our windows, moose wander through the yard, bobcats and mountain lions meander through our property, and an over abundance of deer visit us,...read more

By Gavin Pretor-Pinney— It is easy to forget that you live in the sky—not beneath it, but within it. Our atmosphere is an enormous ocean, and you inhabit it. This ocean is made up of the gases of air rather than liquid water, but it is as much of an ocean as the Atlantic or...read more

By Andrew Slaton— So here we were in Florida, as March rolled closer to April. News about the Coronavirus sparked fear throughout the country. All of our state and national park reservations were canceled out from under us, and photo jobs were postponed or canceled outright. The world, to most everyone, looked a bit more...read more

By Andrew Slaton— It’s mid-May at American Horse Lake in Oklahoma as I sit down to write. Things are beginning to open back up, but the second wave of a global pandemic still looms as an inevitable possibility. So much has changed. The Sooner state in the spring is awash with color. Newly budding branches...read more

By Suzanne D. Williams— Light is the key element in every photograph and having an understanding of it is essential to becoming a good photographer. Relying on your camera’s automatic settings will at some point become a hindrance because these settings can be misleading. The camera does not always make the correct choice. Instead, you,...read more

By Arthur H. Bleich— It’s 2011. On a jumbo jet 36,000 feet over the Pacific headed for New Zealand, night has fallen, the cabin lights are  dimmed and most of the passengers have dozed off.  Nina Katchadourian  slips quietly out of her aisle seat, cellphone in hand, and makes her way down the aisle to...read more

By Arthur H. Bleich— “These are times that try men’s souls.  That’s what Thomas Paine wrote in 1776, after our country severed its ties with England. Now, 244 years later, we’re facing  a similar challenge with most of the country in mandatory lockdown. Although confinement to quarters can be frustrating and time seems to creep...read more

By Albert Chi— Many strange-looking cameras have been produced but Solarcan may be the weirdest, yet. And, certainly, what it’s made to do gives it a leg up on all the others. Basically, it’s a pinhole camera with a twist (curved to be more exact), made to record the transit of the Sun, for a...read more

by Arthur H. Bleich— By day Jules Aarons worked as an astrophysicist, unraveling mysteries of celestial communications; weekends he roamed Boston’s West End, photographing its vibrant street life; nights found him in the darkroom, transforming his images into works of art. When he died in 2008, at 87, Aarons had made his mark; both as...read more

By Christine Pentecost— Living in Montana, where the winters are  long, I decided to give myself a photographic challenge, so I could enjoy my flowers year round. I wanted to photograph fresh bouquets of flowers, but in a way that I could have unique backgrounds, which could easily be changed.  I also wanted a new...read more

    By Albert Chi— If you crave something new and unusual for your overseas vacation this year, why not consider spending some time with a master artist, photographer or other creative artisan in the country of your choice? Vacation With An Artist (VAWAA) can connect you with about a hundred of them in almost...read more

By Arthur H. Bleich— Thirty years ago, Jason Ware’s wife gave him a simple telescope as a Christmas gift, kindling a passionate love affair with the stars that has never faltered. Today, at 58, he’s still enamored with the night sky and the photographic exploration of deep space. He’s very good at it– his images...read more

by Andrew Slaton— As Wyoming’s towering mountains began to thaw, we hit our stride, spending more and more time apart, fully immersed in our new endeavor as business managers. We found our rhythm and dialed in each of our roles. I was the mechanic and extra driver, as well as the company’s web developer. Ellen...read more

By Andrew Slaton— I’ve learned that stagnation often seems to be the natural state of humanity. But this is not how people thrive… it is merely how one survives. And Ellen and I need change. Dallas in December is a crap shoot. For many reasons, really. First, the weather is often all over the place....read more

by Joshua Haruni— As a photojournalist, I became curious about the resurgence of the “Practical Kabbalah” amongst mainstream Israeli Jews and was intrigued as to why, at the end of the 20th century, educated people with full access to modern medicine, technology, the law and democracy were turning to religious scholars and ascetics for help...read more

By Will Keener and Ron Wolfe— It’s hard to imagine an event that could provide more colors, shapes, characters, configurations, and downright joy to photographers than a hot-air balloon festival. The kaleidoscope of color and the interaction of the setting, the viewers, the balloons and their crews make for a stunning variety of possibilities. Living...read more

By Baron Wolman— In April 1967, my life changed unexpectedly, and for the better, when I met Jann Wenner—a then twenty-one-year-old freelance writer and student at the University of California, Berkeley. I had been photographing bands for a while in the Bay Area, when Wenner told me of his plans to start a new kind...read more

By Arthur H. Bleich— Frames are fantastic for making your images stand out, but rather than going for traditional plain ones, here are some unusual options (and the stories behind them) to make your pictures shine. We’ve even obtained some special deals just for Red River Paper blog readers should you be interested in purchasing...read more