David Stern

Taking the photos - I use a digital SLR, most often coupled with a 100mm-400mm telephoto zoom lens. This lens helps me create a compressed perspective with my images, and it helps me blend colors and graphical elements of a picture in ways that a more 'normal lens' would not. Also, when fully extended, the telephoto lens can also create beautiful, soft colored backgrounds in the out of focus sections of the image.

I print my images onto ceramic tile. The digital file is printed in reverse onto a dye-transfer paper using dye-sublimation inks and a dye-sublimation printer. The dye side of the transfer paper is then pressed next to a white, high gloss ceramic tile that has been pre-coated with a thin layer of polymer. Once pressed together, the tile and dye transfer paper are heated in a heat press at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. After 10 minutes in the heat-press the dyes are released from the transfer paper and are fused into the polymer coating on the tile.