creativity

Picture yourself in Death Valley, camera in hand, ready to seize the breathtaking interplay of light and shadow that defines this photographer’s paradise. Towering sand dunes, jagged salt flats, expansive badlands, and ancient rock formations await, offering endless opportunities to capture spectacular images. Led by Darran Leal founder of World Photo Adventures and joined by post-processing expert Julieanne Kost, this six-day workshop invites you to hone your skills amidst this awe-inspiring landscape alongside seasoned mentors.

If you weren’t able to join me in-person at Adobe MAX, you can now watch the recorded version “Creating Compelling Composite Images in Photoshop” online! In this presentation, you’ll discover the tools and techniques you need to create a successful composite using layers and masking in Photoshop. During the one hour seminar, I walk through the creation of two images, demonstrating efficient ways to organize, construct, and combine multiple images in Photoshop as well as reveal my creative process and how I fabricate surreal images that enable a viewer to temporarily suspend their disbelief and enter a world inspired by thoughts and dreams.

I recently had the opportunity to spend a few days in Death Valley and thought that I would share 10 quick tips that I was reminded of while I was making photographs.

On my last trip to Iceland, I was fortunate to hire a small aircraft to fly over some truly unique and stunning landscapes. Some of you may know that I’m afraid to fly, but for whatever reason, putting the camera between me and the ground below, enables me to become an observer, an not a participant, and somehow that works for me.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Ibarionex Perello, photographer, writer, educator, host and producer of The Candid Frame Photography podcast. We had a lovely discussion about photographing with intent, the balancing act between the technical and creative side photography, psychology and problem solving, pushing through your fears, and how to incorporate photographic projects into your daily life and see them to fruition.

I had the opportunity to catch up with Fredrick Van Johnson on This Week In Photo. Click here to view our discussion about the importance of color, technology and personal projects. 

Does every location have a unique, identifiable color palette that can define it? That was the question I asked myself during my last photography projected where I explored how color affects the process of making a photograph, the photograph itself, as well as how

Last month I had the opportunity to visit Berlin. It was cold, the weather shifting between snow flurries and rain – a perfect time for making photographs! I was staying on the east side of the city, so I started by walking towards the remains of the Berlin wall. I don’t typically make photographs of other peoples art, but these murals really made an impact on me. 

I had the pleasure of being a guest on “This Conversation with Jed Taufer” where we discussed the role of personal projects for professional photographers. A big thanks to Jed for asking such great questions and to WHCC for making this possible!

 When I first started making photographs on my iPhone, I found it incredibly liberating. I didn’t take my images very seriously and that gave me the freedom to play and try new things. In fact, for a number of years, I deliberately used the camera phone as a way to  exercise my creative vision, posting three images of a single scene, theme, or idea on Instagram on an (almost) daily basis. 

In remembrance of Winston Hendrickson, vice president of digital imaging at Adobe.

Over the holiday break, I happened to be looking through my journal, thinking about the goals and objectives that I want to achieve this year when I came across this note that I had taken in a seminar with Jay Maisel: “If you want to make more interesting pictures, become a more interesting person.”

For the past 7 years, I’ve created a slideshow as a simple way to review the images I’ve posted using Lightroom mobile to my Instagram account (instagram.com/jkost/). I find this yearly exercise yields interesting insights about where I am in my life and allows me to reflect upon the places that I’ve gone and the experiences that I’ve had. 

I had time over the weekend to sit down and retouch some images from Tasmania and thought it might be interesting to write up a quick overview of the workflow. In a nutshell, the majority of edits were done in Lightroom Classic CC with a bit of retouching done in Photoshop CC. On the left are the original raw captures, the final images on the right.