We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chip Greenberg. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chip below.

Hi Chip, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned photography in the film era when I was only 13, and continue to shoot film today. I started perfecting my craft while studying photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I owned and operated a commercial studio outside New York City for over 15 years. Shooting for clients including Fortune 500 companies, I found clients’ expectations for quality work were high.
Walking around shooting with film cameras certainly elicits comments such as, “Can you still get film?” (Yes, but shortages occur like most everything else these days.) “You must have a lot of patience” (I do!) and often people half my age come up to me and say, “Cool! You’re shooting film.”
There are quite a few things I like about shooting film versus digital. There’s a wait between making an image and seeing your results. Sometimes this produces pleasant surprises. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that shot.” But the main reason I shoot film is it gives me a look that cannot be duplicated with digital imaging.
Film has a long, gentle roll off of detail in the shadows and highlights, and responds to light like an S curve. Digital is linear, abruptly cutting off at both ends of the spectrum.
One’s not better than the other; they’re just different. The difference is subtle, but artists choose their tools for a reason. I like the results I get with film.
Much of my work typifies how film handles highlights beautifully. The shadows are lovely charcoal grey and the highlights are light and airy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My wife and I live in a tiny town in the southern mountains of New Mexico. Our house is more than7000 feet above sea level! Moving here from New Jersey was quite a change and living in rural New Mexico has been a blessing both in lifestyle and creativity.

Many people have commented on the serenity they feel from my photographs. Whenever I walk past one of the images I have hanging on my wall I remember the peaceful warm sun I felt on my face and the delightful, serene tranquility derived from my experience photographing these locations.

I aim to bring the beauty and peacefulness of these scenes into my customers’ homes and offices.

One thing viewers will notice is my work has softer colors than most digital photography. This aesthetic comes from a combination of how I photograph a scene, film choice, and decisions the lab makes when scanning the images. My pastel color palette helps convey this sense of serenity to viewers.

My images are available in a wide variety of media from traditional fine art prints to canvas and acrylic options that fit into any home or offices’ style. We even offer gift items such as coffee mugs and tote bags so you can easily make a fine art gift!

Whether you own one of my Limited Edition prints or a coffee mug, each fine art image brings you a piece of New Mexico’s sun!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Transitioning from shooting commercially to shooting fine art photographs for myself was very difficult. In the commercial world I was told what to shoot. Clients often hired me to put my own spin on the image, but the shot was quite well defined. All that newfound freedom was daunting. I had to discover what interested me, not what was predefined by a client, and it took a long time to find my voice.
I realized the answer was all around me. My home here in New Mexico is nearly a mile and a half closer to the sun than where I’d lived in New Jersey.  Who knew you can get sunburned on a sunny 40 degree day?  Our unusual combination of altitude and thin dry air scatters light more readily than humid or dirty air can. This scattered blue light creates a deep blue sky while allowing warmer colors to drench New Mexico in golden hues.
New Mexico’s light can turn the mundane into the magical! That’s just one of the many reasons we’re called The Land of Enchantment.
That’s why I say when you have one of my photographs you own a piece of the New Mexico sun.
My Ordinary Things series explores how New Mexico’s marvelous light transforms every day objects into striking visuals.

My Passed Lives project looks at how our enchanted light enhances abandoned structures’ aged textures and faded colors.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I like doing something different every day:  learning something new, overcoming new challenges.  Not everybody is like this, but I certainly am and it suits me.

I had what I thought was a summer dream job in college, working at the world famous Saunders easel company.  Saunders made THE premier photographic darkroom easel.  After about a week I was losing my mind from the monotony of assembling easels eight hours a day.  To this day I remember speaking with a woman by the name of Mary who had worked there for more than 20 years.  I asked her how she did it, and was shocked to learn that she actually loved her job!  Mary loved knowing exactly what was expected of her each day, what work she’d be doing, how she’d be doing it and precisely what time her work day would end.

Just the opposite for me!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chipshootsfilm.com
• Instagram: chipshootsfilm
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087214073249

Image Credits
copyright Chip Greenberg