Red River Paper Blog

by David Bergman— I’ve had the honor of traveling the world to cover music and sports events for over 25 years, and my most enjoyable gig is when I’m embedded on a tour with a band. I’ve done this with a number of groups so far, including Bon Jovi and Barenaked Ladies and I’m working...read more

By Peter E. Randall— Sand and surf. Babes in bikinis and babies in diapers. Muscular teenagers and spry golden agers. Boardwalks and arcades. These were among my subjects in the summer of 1983 at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire’s largest tourist destination, where I set out to document tourists relaxing, playing, and romancing. I like challenges...read more

By Suzanne D. Williams— You can exert a great deal of creative focus control over your images once you learn how to use some of the basic functions your digital camera offers. First, though, let’s define a few terms that are essential to the process. Photographers who use the term “point of focus” refer to...read more

By Michael Freeman— One of the first tenets of professional photography is that you have to try harder, always and all the time. There’s almost too much said about this, so I’ll restrict myself to one only, from American photographer William Albert Allard: “You’ve got to push yourself harder. You’ve got to start looking for...read more

By Christine Pentecost— I thought long and hard before I did my first art show. I was afraid to give it a try, afraid of failure, afraid of not being good enough. To actually set up a display and sell face to face was a daunting thought. But when an friend contacted me one day...read more

By Arthur H. Bleich— In Japan, Jean-Paul Deshong is a Mangaka, an artist who creates comics or graphic novels– an art form long revered in that country. Top manga artists there make high six-figure incomes and are superstars of the art world. Deshong, an American comic book artist, decided a few years ago to write...read more

By Christine Pentecost– I’ve always been intrigued by photos of flowers on pure black backgrounds, so last summer, I decided to do some  black box photography, using an abundance of mountain wildflowers blooming around our Montana homestead as subjects. I began by making a box that had four sides: right, left, top and back (no...read more

By Albert Chi– There’s a fantastic photo adventure awaiting you, requiring only a vehicle, your camera and some minimal planning for a most exciting trip. And chances are, it’s probably close to where you live and relatively inexpensive to get to so you can take the whole family along. Okay, what’s the catch? There isn’t...read more

By Arthur H. Bleich–   Gary Samson was an aspiring 25-year-old photographer in 1976 when he first met Lotte Jacobi in New Hampshire. She was 80 and a successful German portrait photographer from Berlin who had emigrated to New York City in 1935, narrowly escaping Adolf Hitler’s persecution of the Jews. Samson was working for...read more

By Ron Wolfe and Will Keener– You get to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, south of Socorro, NM, at least a half an hour before sunrise. You position yourself with back to the wind, so the birds will fly over you; your back to the rising sun, even better. In the near dawn,...read more

By Arthur H. Bleich– Inside every smartphone camera beats a heart that yearns to be a DSLR. The features are there but, like Sleeping Beauty, they need a few digital kisses to awaken them. Pictar Pro does that and more. Through an integrated software app, it will add of dozens of options that can be...read more

By Henry Carroll– Let’s consider the visionaries, the groundbreakers, the original thinkers – those influential figures from past and present who pushed photography forward and continue to do so today. How did they – how do they – approach their craft and what matters most? Here we have a selection of quotations, photographs and interviews...read more

By Anna Andersen–   When Erik Culver graduated with a BFA from The University of Texas at Austin in 2008, he went home with hundreds of photographs, paintings, drawings, and prints and almost all of it went into storage. Ten years later, while his art still collects dust, he’s helping students find better homes for...read more

By Arthur H. Bleich– I remember buying an all-in-one tool years ago that promised to do everything. It did…kinda. But it did none of them really well. When you need to make a task quick and easy, there’s nothing like using a dedicated tool. Lucis Pro by Microtechnics and Restore by Vivid-Pix are one-trick ponies, but...read more

By Maggie Kornahrens– There will be a plethora of cameras and smartphones at every party and soiree in the coming weeks and if you want to capture the spirit of the holidays in fresh and exciting ways, be willing to branch out of the ordinary. Cameras these days are advanced enough so that anybody can...read more

  By Larry Silver– As a boy growing up in the East Bronx, I knew “the photographer” as the guy who took pictures at weddings and Bar Mitzvah’s. My Uncle Herman, the “authority” on all subjects, had never heard of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Stieglitz or Edward Weston. nor, for that matter, had anyone else in...read more

by Suzanne D. Williams– Life happens. Things change. I was reminded of this recently when watching a series of videos by a large- format photographer who still uses film. He was explaining the mental process he went through to create a series of beautiful mountain photographs when he stopped to comment on how he felt...read more

 By Arthur H. Bleich–  If you’ve ever posted images on the web–and who hasn’t–chances are someone out there is going to steal them, use them without your permission and not pay you a penny. If they’re used on social media among friends –and for no financial gain– that’s a common scenario and except for asking...read more