I've spent the last several days final printing the work from Iceland called: Finnur's Trip.

If you come to the Open Studios next weekend (Open Studios) I would be happy to show you the portfolio.

I wrote previously about this two day off-road trip across part of Northern Iceland: Finnur's Trip 1 and Finnur's Trip 2.

Now the work is printed. Printing like this, making 23 prints in a few days, is part joy and part torture. Joy for the discovery of finding things in the pictures I hadn't noticed before, finding new images that were passed over in the first edit, working to  find the right color palette, the right tonalities, the right emphasis in the prints. Torture in finding A-edit photographs irreversibly flawed, of discovering that something I was excited about seeing did not fulfill my expectation, that I should have been more astute, aware, careful, intuitive, smart, visual, and so on. 

Then finally, when done printing, the realization that many many hours of work on a project is now finished, that I can put the preoccupation with this group of pictures to bed, take a breather perhaps, then move on to the next series in a list that seems  endless.

Finnur's Trip is a series of pictures, shot in a disconnected and disparate way, over a two day trip. They are not particularly tight and cohesive, yet retain a certain pace and rhythm as though made by someone who is very practiced, experienced and mature. Which is exactly what I am.

Imagine having the luxury to be so consumed with this one thing and having the time and means to do just that. I thank my lucky stars every day.

I am very excited to be able to announce here that I will be co-teaching  an Architectural Photography Master Class at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, April 14-20, 2013.

The class will be taught by three of the most prominent of US architectural photographers: Steve Rosenthal, Nick Wheeler and Peter Vanderwarker. Also, we will have help from two very talented young photographers, Mercedes Jelinek and Elizabeth Ellenwood as studio assistants.

Don' t miss this opportunity to work with some of the acknowledged masters of late 20th and early 21st century architectural photography. They will share their careers with you and critique your work in group and one on one sessions. We will use nearby Asheville, NC for our on site shooting.  For more information go to: Penland

Or contact me directly Neal Rantoul 

This one below by Steve Rosenthal:And this as well, from a long term project of Steve's of New England Churches:

The Hancock Tower in Boston by Peter Vanderwarker:and a house on Martha's Vineyard (Peter Vanderwarker Photography):This one and the next are by Nick Wheeler, who's been working on a long term project photographing the Badlands in South Dakota:

I am honored to be able to teach with these three men.

My role? I will facilitate, instigate, question, guide where needed and  assist the  group in any way I can. 

Do I photograph like they do? Hardly, but I have always been interested in buildings, how they are situated in our environment and particularly how they decay. 

The above from the Peddock's Island series. Peddock's