Steve Simon
Steve Simon is passionate about documenting life through photography, and has been published in Mother Jones, The New York Times Magazine, Life, Colors, German Geo, Le Monde, Walrus and Harpers.
He has four previously published books, Heroines & Heroes: Hope, HIV and Africa (ISBN-88-8158-610-X), The Republicans (ISBN-88-8158-561-8), on the Republican Convention in New York City published by Charta. Healing Waters (ISBN 0-88864-277-6) documenting the healing powers of a small lake in Alberta; and Empty Sky-The Pilgrimage to Ground Zero (ISBN 2-7604-0914-7), an excerpt of which was included in Time-Life’s book The American Spirit, forward by George W. Bush.
You can see more of Steve's work at www.stevesimonphoto.com
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Steve blogs at:
http://blogs.oreilly.com/lightroom/
After listening to Derrick Story's podcast interview with Aperture wedding shooter Joe Buissink, I got to thinking. Joe mentioned he uses a technique to train himself to be a better photographer. Basically, when he's out in his life and he... read more
I'm sure many Inside Aperture viewers have already taken advantage of the Web Gallery features in Aperture. I finally decided to take the time (three minutes) to create one, and it reinforces for me, the value of this amazing program.... read more
Diane Arbus once said that the more personal you get, the more universal and interesting the photographs become. After years in the business and years more teaching and leading workshops, I know how difficult it sometimes is for photographers to... read more
February 05 2009
It's always a good idea to refresh your knowledge of Aperture, and with every new resource there may be little nuggets of information that you weren't aware of to help with your workflow. I recently came across a series of... read moreDecember 07 2007
I often do presentations and I find that one of the most effective and entertaining way for you and your audience to digest a large number of images in a short time is to put your images to music. Generallly,... read moreNovember 29 2007
In teaching various workshops, one of the key points I try to get across to students is to move around when determining the compostion. Everytime I remind them, I also remind myself. It’s natural to shoot from a “comfort zone”,... read moreNovember 22 2007
I have to admit, one of the apps I’m having most fun with in Leopard is iChat. With all the new features Leopard brings to applications like Safari and Mail, iChat’s 24 new features outnumbers all others. With the new... read moreNovember 15 2007
Generally, when my raw files are well exposed, the White Balance control is the first step I take toward squeezing the best image out of my raw file, and to get the overall color close to where I want it.... read moreNovember 08 2007
I haven’t used List View in Aperture so much, because List View seemed to be one long boring list of text. But List View is full of suprises. List View can be transformed with a simple slide of the Thumbnails... read moreAperture and Time Machine Follow Up
November 01 2007
Further to the Time/Machine backup issue, Inside Aperture viewer Bill Cheeseman is on top of this issue for us, commenting on my last post about new information that Apple has posted. You no doubt saw the warning that “Running Time... read moreAperture and Leopard's Time Machine WARNING
October 27 2007
Bill Cheeseman brought up what looks like a potential problem that all Aperture users wanting to use the Time Machine feature in Leopard should be aware of. I don't think any of us want to take any chances with our... read moreOctober 26 2007
Further to Ben's post, apparently updating to 1.5.4 won't be enough to prevent problems with Aperture. I’m loving Leopard already, but I have noticed that Aperture seems to be a bit less stable in some instances. When I use the... read moreOctober 25 2007
At the recent PhotoPlus Expo show in New York City, one of the many seminars was something a little different. Entitled: Iron Chef Raw Processing—the format was similar to the popular cooking show. Moderated by Photoshop/Lightroom guy Andrew Rodney, it... read moreOctober 18 2007
With most software programs for those not blessed with a photographic memory, it’s a matter of use it or lose it. As photographers we constantly take pictures, but even if I’ve been away from the camera for a short while... read moreOctober 11 2007
You never know where this site is going to take you. After blogging about my trip to Africa, I received an email from Inside Aperture viewer Brendon McClean, who read that I was taking this big trip to Mozambique and... read moreOctober 04 2007
In June of this year, Aperture added support for the Leica M8, among other cameras. I have to admit, I have always been jealous of The Leica Shooter. Armed with a small camera and a few tiny lenses (compared to... read moreSeptember 27 2007
More on my post shoot workflow from my recent assignment in Mozambique for Oxfam UK. I went through every image in each album, harnessing the editing power of Aperture, occasionally toggling from full screen to standard view to see where... read moreSeptember 20 2007
Because I have been traveling with writer/story editor extrordinaire Kate Pattison from Oxfam, and since we are on a tight deadline—Aperture has proven invaluable. When I had time to edit, I got rid of the unusable stuff by rejecting those... read moreSeptember 13 2007
I’m writing this from rural Mozambique, a small community called Machaze, where the only electricity is at the Oxfam office and is only on when the generator is humming. So far my equipment choices have worked out well. Aperture is... read moreSeptember 06 2007
Copyright Steve Simon Okay, the six-week big trip through Mozambique and South Africa continues. I’ve already bared-all with the description of what I take with me equipment wise. The big question remains, what kind of underwear and how many?... read moreAugust 30 2007
Traveling with your camera is a secret dream of many of us. There's no question when you're in a new and interesting place, all your senses are stimulated particularly your visual sense and it almost feels like pointing your camera... read moreAugust 23 2007
I've said it before, my travel fantasy is to be all packed and ready, looking at my watch to see if it's time to mosey on over to the airport and check-in. But the reality is always a bad case... read moreAugust 19 2007
In Aperture, I want to make my time at the laptop as efficient as possible. To do this, I want to be able to import quickly, with as much information as possible, as well as add as many relevant keywords... read moreAugust 09 2007
It was a surprise to read Derek's post about his new OWC bus-powered drive. Only because just a day earlier, Inspired by some of your comments on my last post of "How Fast Is Fast Enough"--your Aperture/Hard Drive performance experiences... read moreAugust 02 2007
Next week I will be on my way back to Africa, specifically, South Africa, Angola and Mozambique--so I thought I would talk about my preparation for this six-week trip. The last time I was on assignment in Africa for that... read moreJuly 26 2007
In the second part of my Aperture In Slovakia post, I wanted to mention how I used Aperture to plan out the final exhibition. At the end of the week, we made some tough decisions to come up with our... read moreJuly 19 2007
I'm here in beautiful Liptovsky Mikulas, a four-hour train ride from Slovakia's capital Bratislava, teaching a workshop on digital documentary photography. Of course, I have brought along Aperture, which has proven to be a teacher's best friend and assistant extordinaire.... read moreJuly 12 2007
When it comes to color correction--skin tones are probably the most difficult to get right, and the most closely scrutinized. After all, if the skin tones are off, we immediately know something is amiss and it's hard to get past... read moreJuly 05 2007
One of the greatest resources for learning Aperture is made available by Apple, 24 hours a day in the form of tutorials on their website. When you go to www.apple.com/aperture and click on "Tutorials" you will see a range of... read moreJune 21 2007
Today is a happy day for Aperture users with the following cameras: Panasonic DMC-LX1, Panasonic DMC-LX2, Leica M8, Leica D-LUX 2, Leica D-LUX 3, Fuji S5 Pro, Nikon D40x, and Canon EOS 1D Mk III. The lastest Mac OS X... read moreJune 14 2007
One of the ways I have increased my speed and efficiency working with Aperture was to learn a few layout shortcuts that kicked my workflow into high gear. This is particularly important if you're an Aperture laptop user, which many,... read moreJune 07 2007
I'm still in the process of moving my archives over to Aperture. I'm taking my time, pre-organizing and story boarding my collection to maximize efficiency. I love that I can create a new folder in Aperture and under the File... read moreMay 31 2007
I'm quite confident that like me, you probably use the Loupe tool or Z (Zoom to 100 percent) key, to check in on small details as well as check critical sharpness of your photographs. Here's a little tip that comes... read moreMay 24 2007
When making adjustments in Aperture, like most image-editing software, there is usually more than one way to arrive at the desired result. To make sure your images are within the tolerances of the final print, it's good to check yours... read moreMay 17 2007
Using the levels control in Aperture, you can play with different color channels to make color adjustments; but I find the Color Tool a much more natural and therefore easier way to fix color, particularly with all important skin tones.... read moreMay 10 2007
The more I play and use Aperture, the more I love what it does for me. I keep coming up with new and improved ways to use it. This spring and summer, I will be leading a few workshops and... read moreMay 03 2007
A flash bracket is one of those accessories, I have always known about, but never really needed. Frankly, most of my shooting is horizontal, and the biggest advantage of using one of these things, is when you're shooting verticals with... read moreApril 26 2007
I have maintained that Aperture can make you a better photographer in many ways. Not only can you organize your photographic life, getting rid of the cyber-clutter (duplicate images) and ultimately have more time to shoot; but it also lets... read moreApril 20 2007
Apple has released a version update of Aperture. It weighs in at a respectable 129.5 megabytes. Get it through "Software Update" under the Apple Menu or click here. From Apple: What's New in this Version Aperture 1.5.3 addresses issues related... read moreRare Interview With Gary Winogrand
March 29 2007
From an interview by Barbara Diamonstein with Gary Winogrand: BD: I've often wondered how a photographer who takes tens of thousands of photographs -- and by now it may even be hundreds of thousands of photographs -- keeps track... read moreMarch 22 2007
I recently did a commercial job which had a precise schedule over two days. I have done this kind of event photography before, but this time using Aperture, I planned on cutting my post processing time, with some pre-production work... read moreTaking Shortcuts; A Good Thing?
March 15 2007
The timing was perfect. I was in the middle of post processing a commercial job with Aperture, when the courier shows up with a brand new, USB connecting white Aperture Keyboard from LogicKeyboard ($99USD), which they sent me to test... read moreMarch 08 2007
LogicKeyboard is now shipping three versions of a new custom keyboard specifically designed to take advantage of Aperture 1.5's keyboard shortcuts. This Danish company makes a variety of custom keyboards, including ones for Photoshop, but I'm anxious to get my... read moreMarch 01 2007
Okay, it's a sad fact that photographers are often not the best editors. I think there are many reasons for this. For one thing, you were there when you took the picture. So often when looking at images, you remember... read moreFebruary 21 2007
BIDOA, SOMALIA-- It is very interesting to observe the process that Dr. James Orbinski, the former head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of MSF in 1999, goes through in determining whether we... read moreAperture in the Democratic Republic of Congo
February 15 2007
GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC)-- A documentary film crew and I have made our way here by car from Kigali, Rwanda. We are following Dr. James Orbinski, the former head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), (who accepted the Nobel... read moreFebruary 08 2007
KIGALI, RWANDA--From what I've seen of this country, like so many places in Africa, it's beautiful with lush vegetation, rolling hills framed by mountains and active volcanoes. But there is also poverty and the burden of HIV/AIDS and the legacy... read moreFebruary 01 2007
It has been a mad scramble as usual to pack for my trip to Africa. I always fantasize about being a James-Bond-like-traveler; relaxed, in a tux with martini in hand, bored and checking my watch to see if it's time... read moreJanuary 25 2007
Further to my post about editing last week, I have been thinking about it and have looked around and found some interesting posts about deciding which digital images to keep and which delete. From Derrick Story's website, The Digital Story,... read moreRecent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts
