Latest News 02/04/2010 :Event Updates For those of you who might be planning to come to my reception at the Blanche Ames Gallery in Frederick this Sunday, we will be rescheduling in light of the snow forecast fo this weekend. We will have the reception on February 21 with the scheduled presentation to follow the same day. Again,the gallery is [...] - More 01/20/2010 :Exhibit in Frederick, MD I have finished the printing and almost all of the framing for my upcoming exhibit at the Blanche Ames Gallery in Frederick, MD. The exhibit is a selection of black and white images from the last three years, but the large majority of the work is new from 2009. The title of the exhibit is “Light, [...] - More 01/01/2010 :Featured Image Special Print Prices First of all, Happy New Year to all. As I look forward to 2010, I am hopeful that it will be another year of technical and creative progress. Technical and creative progress by itself is satisfying, but I also wish to share the results of that progress with others while generating the financial resources to continue [...] - More 12/29/2009 :Looking Back at 2009 I guess it’s obligatory that everyone stop at the end of the year to reflect on the year past and look ahead to the new year. For me, that process involved looking through the images that I created in 2009 and selecting some of my favorites, which might or might not suggest where I will [...] - More 12/13/2009 :More Cyanotypes I  had good sunlight the other morning so I exposed a couple more cyanotypes from negatives I generated the day before when it was cloudy. The first is from an image I captured last March of an old church ruin in Kabletown, WV. The negative was printed on Pictorico OHC transparency film on my Epson 3800 and [...] - More Sterling Images - Fine Art Photography by Rip Smith on Facebook Sign up for my Email Newsletter:

Saturday, March 13, 2010
Digital Photography Workshop
Camera to Print with Photoshop Elements
Find out more and register here

About Me

Featured Image of the Month "Dark Hollow Falls" More Information about this Image Special Print Pricing $35 plus 7.50 shipping Print is approximately 8x10.5 matted to 12x16 If you are interested in a larger print or you would prefer to pay with a personal check, please email me: sterlingimageswv (at) gmail (dot) com

Like the ancient world composed of the essential elements of earth, air, fire, and water, a photograph depicts a subject with the essential elements of light, shadow, form, and texture. My images seek to capture that essence of the subject: the way it reflects light, it’s form and texture, and how it is modified by light and shadow.

I have been doing photography for something over 40 years, starting with a folding camera and black & white roll film. Over time I dabbled with various formats but mostly I worked in 35mm. I enjoyed the versatility of the 35mm SLR and took on the challenge of making high quality images from this small format.

In the 1960s I worked in a small photo studio where I spent many hours in the darkroom making black and white prints. Then I moved from still photography to television and video. I have now come full circle, returning to photography as art after a 30-year career in visual communication.

Several years ago I embraced the digital world. I now shoot with a Nikon digital camera and my darkroom is a computer, Adobe Photoshop and an archival inkjet printer. The image quality and creative control that you can get with the “digital darkroom” is just astounding.

With the great progress in the development of digital tools for photography over the last few years, the debate is pretty well settled as to whether digitally captured and processed images are valid art forms.

To me, photography is about the image, and the photographer’s vision. All of the technical tools, whether film-based or digitally-based, are are nothing more or less than tools for translating the photographer’s vision into a medium that can enjoyed by others.

Thank you for looking at my work. I hope you find something here you like.

Rip Smith

Email: sterlingimageswv (at) gmail (dot) com

Snail Mail: Sterling Images, PO Box 969, Martinsburg, WV 25402