About Milton Barber Photography


Milt atop Huchuy Picchu, Peru

Basic Info

I am a professional photographer located in the Santa Cruz mountain area of northern California.
I do mostly Nature and Travel Photography, and I specialize in preparing and selling high-quality fine-art prints. I am open to special print orders and special assignments.

The Photographer's Job

I consider my job as a photographer to have two distinct parts:

  • The first is to use my camera to capture interesting scenes from the visual world around us.
  • The second is to present those captured scenes to you in a way that not only conveys the nature of the original scene, but that also arouses your interest in looking at and reflecting upon the scene.

Both parts have equal importance, even though the two parts have rather different requirements and employ quite different techniques.

For part 1 of the job, my artistic preferences tend strongly towards simple compositions of real-world scenes. Many photographers regard it as part of their job to create interesting scenes to capture. That is not my interest. All my life I have had an admiration for scenes in the visual world around us, particularly scenes that show clearly the interest and beauty of simple objects. I see such scenes, and I will pause, even briefly,  to consider the composition and colors of the scene. This kind of native interest in existing visual scenes is what now drives my artistic preferences. Almost all of my photos are taken outdoors, in natural light. Frequently my photos concentrate on depicting a simple object, such as a face or a flower, in a way that directs your attention to the beauty of that object. Also, as a sort of discipline, I strongly prefer to shoot scenes that occur naturally without interference from me (for example, I did not spray water on any of the "wet" flowers in my portfolio).

For part 2 of the job, some years ago I bought my first photo-quality inkjet printer, and I very quickly discovered the satisfaction of being able to prepare prints that are both accurate reflections of an interesting scene and that also have those qualities that seduce the viewers into considering and appreciating the scene as I did. Since that time, I have made a careful study of the arts of color management and high-quality inkjet printing, and I have moved up through a succession of increasingly better printers.

I like prints that are striking and distinctive; prints that catch the viewer's attention upon first glance; prints that cause the viewer's attention to linger; prints that tempt the viewer to step up closer and look at the details.

My interest in visual scenes led me towards photography early in my life, so I have been a keen amateur photographer for many years. I also love to travel because it exposes me such a variety of new scenes and images. Retirement has left me free to indulge my passion for photography and to increase my competence in preparing prints.

Methods

All of my work is done digitally. I use digital photography because it brings whole new levels of capability to the photographer. Our eyes are vastly more capable of sensing light values than any film ever made or any printing medium ever made. The power and flexibility of digital photography permits photographers to prepare prints that show a more revealing and more realistic presentation of a scene as we perceive it in nature than is possible with film. As one example, I am a frequent user of digital multishot techniques, wherein multiple shots of a scene are taken and blended together with software to produce the final image. These techniques can be used to increase the scope of the image, to increase the range and precision of the light values captured, to increase the detail and resolution of the image, and to increase the range of the in-focus areas of the image — in each case bringing the print closer to yielding the same visual perception as the actual scene.