April 2008 Archives

Nolan Wynne

Also see Build A Tilt-Shift Lens for Your SLR for Cheap and Olivo Barbieri - Model World.

Jim

Miniaturize a Scene

It's called a tilt-shift effect.

It's a favorite device of fine-art photographers and the Flickr crowd.

The result: a sprawling photo-scape suddenly looks like a scale model.

To pull it off you need an expensive tilt-shift lens — or this simple trick with Photoshop or GIMP (multi-platform free/open source image editing software).

Nolan Wynne

Tom Guilmette

Tom Guilmette - One Day At Fenway - Letus Extreme Film - Time Lapse - HDTV

I wanted to use my computerized pan head to preform a very slow left to right pan.

I used a telescope head designed to follow the stars in the sky.

I removed the telescope and modified the mount to accept my camera and Letus rail system.

The model was the Celestron Nexstar 114GT.

I set the pan rate to "one", the slowest possible pan speed.

Tom Guilmette

Allen Dutton

For more rephotography projects, go to Rephotography.

Jim

Allen Dutton - Arizona Then and Now

For his landmark book, "Arizona Then and Now," photographer Allen Dutton traveled across the state to recapture archival images from their exact original location.

Watch as early century images transform into contemporary photography.

Jill Freedman

Also go to Jill Freedman.

Jim

Jill Freedman - Through Weegee's Lens

BACK in the 1970s, a gutsy blonde named Jill Freedman armed with a battered Leica M4 and an eye for the offbeat trained her lens on the spirited characters and gritty sidewalks of a now-extinct city.

Niko Koppel

Cedric Wright Family

Ansel Adams's Yosemite by Miki Meek, Amy O'Leary & Tom Jackson

I knew my destiny when I first experienced Yosemite.

Ansel Adams

Kevin Van Aelst

Sepia No More by Virginia Heffernan

Guoleifsdottir learned how to title and tag photos so that they might readily come up in searches; how to police copyright transgressions (as when some of her photos were sold illegally on eBay); and how to push, push contrasts by processing her pictures with Photoshop software.

These skills might not have advanced her with New York galleries, but they made for a charmed ride on Flickr.

A photography blogger who posts under the name Thomas Hawk is a Flickr regular, and he told me in an e-mail conversation that there is not a single Flickr style.

But he conceded that intense postproduction processing is necessary for popularity on the site.

Virginia Heffernan

Ted Croner

The New York School

Between the late 1930s and the early 1960s a group of young photographers living and working in New York City redefined street photography.

This group of artists became known as The New York School.

A new exhibition at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London (until June 7 2008) brings together the work of these photographers as they documented the post-war energy of the city in their trademark black-and-white, film noir style.

Step in for a look ...

Guardian

Liwei Falls to the Earth

Li Wei

Discover This

The camera costs $47.95.

Jim

Pet's Eye View Camera

Any kid who's ever wondered what their dog or cat is up to when they're not around will find just what they've been waiting for in this sneaky little camera!

Discover This

Wall Street Journal

New Cameras Guarantee a Smile on Your Face by Katherine Boehret

This week, I tested three new digital cameras that claim to do the thinking for you.

Some digitally analyze the scene you're about to capture, automatically choosing the setting that would take the best picture.

Others can detect when a subject is smiling so as to automatically know when to snap the photo.

One camera even attempts to digitally alter frowning faces into smiles, with amusing results.

Katherine Boehret

Aislinn Leggett

Also go to Aislinn Leggett.

Jim

Aislinn Leggett - I Am Tourist Art by Rosecrans Baldwin

Who are these tourists, where do they come from, and why do they foul up my morning commute?

Anyone who's lived in a big city knows the feeling of working in Disneyland, and anyone who's visited one probably brought a camera.

Aislinn Leggett's series "I Am Tourist" takes on the wonder of tourism, zip-off shorts and all.

Rosecrans Baldwin

Stuart Franklin

For more, go to Stuart Franklin.

Jim

Stuart Franklin - In the Time of Trees

Magnum Photographer Stuart Franklin has spent a decade exploring the beauty of trees and the unique place they occupy in man's world

Time Magazine

Tim Hussin

Tim Hussin - Kids With Guns

I shot (pardon the pun) some kids playing guns at what seemed to be an abandoned church the other day.

These kids were serious.

One of them actually knew a little history for some of the battles they were trying to act out.

I realized that I don't need to go to Iraq to shoot war when it's right in our backyards...

*Sounds is best with loud sub woofer*

P.S. Gun sounds, howling wind, heartbeat and demonic synths added for dramatization.

Tim Hussin

Gregg Bleakney

Journeys of a Lifetime - Four very different trips change the lives of four very different photographers.

On his return he decided to continue taking pictures.

Last October he attended an adventure-photography workshop led by Corey Rich and organized by Rich Clarkson, the legendary former photo director of National Geographic.

Clarkson was so impressed by Bleakney's images of South America that he decided to publish them in an upcoming book, titled The Bicycle Diaries.

"I started the trip to see new places," says Bleakney, "and ended with a new life."

David Schonauer

Corey Arnold

Also go to How To Be An Alaskan Fisherman and Corey Arnold.

Jim

Corey Arnold's Fish Tales

I forgot to mention my lousy injury.

I somehow managed to drop a bucket full of engine degreaser that ejected itself into my open eyeballs.

I damn near blinded myself.

This is me with full bug eyes doped up on Vicadin after medivac to Anchorage.

It would've been way cooler to lose a pinky finger to a king crab claw but I don't think that's ever happened.

Corey Arnold

Wayne Miller

The music is Muddy Water's I Feel Like Going Home.

Jim

Wayne Miller - Chicago 1946-1948

We may differ in race, color, language, wealth, and politics.

But look at what we all have in common.

If I could photograph these universal truths, I thought that might help us understand.

Wayne Miller

Freeman Patterson

Freeman Patterson is the author of many books, including Photography and the Art of Seeing.

Jim

The Candid Frame #50 - Freeman Patterson

Freeman Patterson is a the epitome of what is sometimes referred to as a "photographer's photographer".

His many years as a photographer and a teacher has influenced and inspired generations of photographers all over the world.

The insight he brings into the craft of photography is both generous and eye-awakening.

Ibarionex R. Perello

Nick Veasey

For more. go to X-ray Photography.

Jim

See through the world: X-ray photography reveals beauty in unexpected places

A new book of photography has revealed a curious world of intricate beauty and startling forms hidden beneath the surface of everyday objects.

Nick Veasey used a lead-lined studio to create x-ray photographs of a remarkable array of objects, from fruits and flowers to humans, vehicles and buildings.

Daily Mail

Harry Benson

Also go to Harry Benson.

Jim

Photographer Harry Benson - 'Anyone is Getable'

Benson, 78, has spent the past five decades capturing iconic images of famous faces — from the Beatles to Benazir Bhutto — and he's still far too busy to be anyone's agent.

NPR

Eric Jaquier

Also go to Eric Jaquier and Frozen images.

Jim

Eric Jaquier - Lost World of Leads

Swiss photographer Eric Jaquier talks about the urban landscape of northern England 40 years ago.

SwissInfo

William Christenberry

Also go to William Christenberry and Lee Friedlander.

Jim

Smithsonian American Art Museum Launches Photography Podcast

We just launched a new podcast in our museum series about our photography collection and exhibitions here at SAAM.

The American landscape has always been a rich subject for photography.

Our photography curator, Toby Jurovics, talks about the work of two of his favorite landscape photographers in SAAM's collections, Lee Friedlander and William Christenberry.

In addition Jurovics discusses the "deadpan" dog photographs of William Wegman while conservator Kate Maynor talks about how the museum protects photographs while on exhibition.

And finally we take a look at a recent installation here called We the People.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Julie Blackmon

Motherhood & Photography by Heather Morton

I uncovered a strange little coffee klatch bit of posting at a photo blog awhile ago about the difficulty of bidding a job by way of a conference call with a client on the line while you are at the park with your kids.

You know the story- kids see you're on the cell and proceed to hurt themselves, scream your name repeatedly, that kind of thing.

Heather Morton

Anthony Karen

Also go to Anthony Karen.

Jim

Anthony Karen - Aryan Outfitters

Coming from five generations of Ku Klux Klan members, 58-year-old "Ms. Ruth" sews hoods and robes for Klan members seven days a week, blessing each one when it's done.

A red satin outfit for an Exalted Cyclops, the head of a local chapter, costs about $140.

She uses the earnings to help care for her 40-year-old quadriplegic daughter, "Lilbit," who was injured in a car accident 10 years ago.

Mother Jones

Stanley J. Forman

Also go to The Soiling of Old Glory by Scott McLemee.

Jim

Stanley J. Forman - The Soiling of Old Glory by Louis P. Masur

In his recent speech on race, Barack Obama spoke about the legacy of racial hatred and resentment in America.

One of the events he probably had in mind was the controversy over busing that erupted in Boston in the mid-1970s.

A single photograph epitomized for Americans the meaning and horror of the crisis.

On April 5, 1976, at an anti-busing rally at City Hall Plaza, Stanley Forman, a photographer for the Boston Herald-American, captured a teenager as he transformed the American flag into a weapon directed at the body of a black man.

It is the ultimate act of desecration, performed in the year of the bicentennial and in the shadows of Boston's Old State House.

Louis P. Masur

Kasey Donahue

Photosynthesis III: A Collaboration Between the Boston Arts Academy and Winchester High School

By creating photographic portraits of themselves and their surroundings, students from the Boston Arts Academy and Winchester High School have been exploring their sense of self and place in a unique collaborative program at the Griffin Museum.

Griffin Museum

Victoria Hely-Hutchinson

The two exhibits below are the result of collaborations between young photographers and established photographers.

Jim

School of Visual Arts - Mentors

School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents "Mentors", an exhibition of works by nearly 80 photography students inspired by their year-long mentorship with key figures in the arts community.

Drawn from the ranks of New York City's best-known photographers, curators, art directors, publishers, art dealers, critics and writers, SVA's mentors are paired with students based upon their field of expertise and the student's area of concentration.

The 2007-2008 program mentors include Rolling Stone director of photography Jodi Peckman, photography critic Vince Aletti, illustrator Maira Kalman, gallerist Edwynn Houk, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, and photographers Lorna Simpson, Tina Barney, and Gregory Crewdson, among others.

School of Visual Arts

Melanie Schiff

Melanie Schiff - Spit Rainbow by Nicole Pasulka

Alongside large, loud, clamoring installation and sculpture at the Whitney Biennial 2008 and the M.C.A. Chicago, Chicago-based photographer Melanie Schiff's work is quietly and surprisingly magnetic.

The photos combine warmth and shadow in settings flooded with association and narrative.

It's as if the photographer's been lying around all day waiting until everything is just right.

Nicole Pasulka

Jason J. Corneveaux

For more, go to Night Photography.

Jim

Top 10 Wired Reader Night Photos, Decided by You

Wacom

Get a tablet today!

Don't worry about the learning curve.

Go to Wacom.

Jim

Wacom's Bamboo Tablets by Jon Canfield

Most serious digital photographers know that using a graphic tablet is the best way by far when it comes to editing and making selections in Photoshop and other imaging applications.

There is a learning curve when switching from a mouse to a pen, but after using one I don't know of any photographers who would go back to the old method.

Along with the finer control you have by holding a pen, and the more natural feeling of drawing compared to moving a mouse around (a method I compare to drawing with a bar of soap, you also gain functionality.

Jon Canfield

Before	After

The site is in Japanese.

To age a photograph, click Browse.

After opening one of your photographs, click the box below the Browse box.

Jim

Shogunate Old Photograph Generator

Vincent Lafore

Vincent Laforet used a tilt-shift lens for these photographs.

Jim

Vincent Laforet - The Long Way There

Paul Caponigro

For more essays, go to Marco Bohr.

Jim

Essays on Twelve Photographs by Marco Bohr

A few months ago I had the pleasure to attend a cocktail party held by a friend of the family.

After I declared my interest in photography I was led into the hosts bedroom where I found to my greatest surprise an original Caponigro print.

I saw the image many times before on badly reproduced slides or in various books.

I almost didn't recognize the original because it is actually a much darker print than its copies suggest.

I was left alone for a few minutes to study the large fiber print.

I realized that it projects harmony of repeating tones and purity due to the simple subjects photographed.

The untouched nature is recorded in such a harmonic way that it could be visual homage to the place captured on film.

Marco Bohr

Beth Summer

For more, go to Beth Summer.

Jim

Making Lemonade Out of Lemons by Beth Summer

How many times have you seen a gorgeous, dramatic sunset photograph from the Oregon Coast?

How badly did you want an image like that also?

You plan and research the best places to be for that sunset.

You're sure to have all the right equipment- camera, tripod, wide angle to telephoto lenses, split ND filter, polarizer and perhaps some other filters and equipment.

You rent the car, make hotel reservations and check out the best local eateries.

You pack, check, and double check. Everything is good to go.

I'm off and flying!

Beth Summer

Darwin Wiggett

You can see more at Darwin Wiggett and TimeCatcher.

Jim

Can You Trust Autofocus with Your Digital Camera? by Darwin Wiggett

I was testing the sharpness of a couple of Canon lenses the other day when I discovered something that blew me away.

I got much sharper photos by manually focusing my lenses than if I used autofocus!

Right away I thought something must be wrong - the camera must be at fault (maybe that rear focus problem that has haunted some Canon cameras) or maybe the lens was faulty or something like that.

How could manual focus give me significantly sharper results than autofocus?

Well after testing all my lenses on two camera bodies (a Canon 1ds Mark II and a Canon 1ds Mark III) and then testing my girlfriend's Nikon D200 with several of her lenses, the conclusion remained the same . . .

Darwin Wiggett

Sze Tsung Leong

Also go to American Horizons: The Photographs of Art Sinsabaugh.

Jim

Sze Tsung Leong - Keeping His Eye on the Horizon (Line) by Philip Gefter

"When I'm really familiar with a place, it is more difficult to visualize it," he said, citing New York, his home, as an example.

"But being confronted with a new situation, I find that I'm more aware of things visually."

He traveled to Amman because he hoped the uniform construction of its buildings might cast an even pattern and tone across the surrounding hills, which would offer him distant vantage points.

And the Roman ruins there attracted him as a reminder of the reach of the Roman Empire across national borders.

Philip Gefter

Hans (Jean) Arp

Tristan Tzara - Dada Magazine (1917-1918)

Dada: the abolition of logic, the dance of the impotents of creation; Dada: abolition of all the social hierarchies and equations set up by our valets to preserve values; Dada: every object, all objects, sentiments and obscurities, phantoms and the precise shock of parallel lines, are weapons in the fight; Dada: abolition of memory; Dada: abolition of archaeology; Dada: abolition of the prophets; Dada: abolition of the future; Dada: absolute and unquestionable faith in every god that is the product of spontaneity.

Tristan Tzara

Robert Mapplethorpe

Even if you're not going to buy, visit the pre-auction exhibits to see a huge variety of great work.

5B4 has an excellent review of the lots at Fine Photobooks auction at Christie's.

Jim

Spring Photography Auctions in NYC

Christie's:

Fine Photobooks From An Important Private Collection 4/10

Photographs From the Collection of Gert Elfering 4/10

Photographs by Diane Arbus 4/10

Photographs 4/11

Photographs By Ansel Adams From A California Collection 4/11

Philips dePury & Company:

Diane Arbus: Hubert's Museum Work 1958-1963 4/8

Photographs 4/9

Sotheby's:

The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs 4/7

Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs 4/8

Photographs 4/8

Adrian Piper

The Topic Is Race; the Art Is Fearless by Holland Cotter

Today, as Mr. Obama pitches the hugely attractive prospect of a postracial society, artists have, as usual, already been there, surveyed the terrain and sent back skeptical, though hope-tinged, reports.

And you can read those reports in art all around New York this spring, in retrospective surveys like "Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution" currently at the P.S 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, in the up-to-the-minute sampler that is the 2008 Whitney Biennial, in gallery shows in Chelsea and beyond, and in the plethora of art fairs clinging like barnacles to the Armory Show on Pier 94 this weekend.

Holland Cotter

Edelgard Clavey by Walter Schels

For more, go to Post-mortem Photography.

Jim

Walter Schels - This is the end by Joanna Moorhead

"What I was used to," says Schels, who has taken hundreds of portraits during his career, "was people who smiled for the camera.

It's usually an automatic response.

But these people never smiled.

They were incredibly serious; and more than that, they weren't pretending anything any more.

People are almost always pretending something, but these people had lost that need.

I felt it enabled me as a photographer to get as close as it's possible to get to the core of a person; when you're facing the end, everything that's not real is stripped away.

You're the most real you'll ever be, more real than you've ever been before".

Joanna Moorhead

Giambattista Della Porta

For more about Giambattista Della Porta, go to the Wikipedia entry.

Jim

Pictures and power by David Hockney

Parliament will discuss depiction, but not art. We are in a confusing time.

The decline of religion in Europe is seen as part of the "scientific" revolution.

I have begun to doubt this now; it is quite likely that it's to do with images.

The decline of the church parallels the mass manufacture of cameras.

They are deeply connected. I noticed on a recent tour of Italy that not many Italians went in the churches to see pictures. They see them at home, not made by Botticelli but by Berlusconi.

Think about it.

David Hockney

Jerry & Marcy Monkman

Go to Jerry and Marcy Monkman.

Jim

Spring In New England by Jerry Monkman

With winter expelling its last cold breaths of the season, it's time to think about moving outdoors to capture some of the year's most vibrant colors.

The New England area is highly regarded by nature photographers everywhere for its dramatic scenic views as well as its explosion of hues, from verdant ground cover and trees to brilliant floral displays.

Jerry and Marcy Monkman are a local photography team who make a living exploring this area and its rich photographic possibilities. They offer their tips and techniques for taking full advantage of spring in New England.

Outdoor Photographer

Mike Stensvold

For more, go to Sunny 16 Rule.

Jim

Indecent Exposures (And How To Avoid Them) by Mike Stensvold

While the multi-segment metering systems built into today's D-SLR cameras provide excellent exposures in an amazingly wide range of situations, there are some scenes that can fool them.

Learning to recognize and compensate for those situations will make you a better photographer.

Mike Stensvold

Hideki Omori

For more, go to Toy Cameras.

Jim

Hideki Omori - Play Around With A Toy Camera by Ayana (Translated by Natsumi Yamane)

First of all, it's best to choose a camera by its appearance.

Surely it is okay to choose one by the atmosphere of each camera's photos.

However, going for the appearance will make you want to carry it around with you everyday and it will encourage you to take more pictures.

I'd say, get outside and simply take lots of pictures!

Hideki Omori

Adobe

Photoshop Express is free, with two gigabytes of storage.

It's a beta release, so expect some bugs.

There's a test-drive button for experimenting without signing up.

Adobe is going to revise their rights-grabbing terms of service agreement: We've heard your concerns about the terms of service for Photoshop Express beta. We reviewed the terms in context of your comments - and we agree that it currently implies things we would never do with the content. Therefore, our legal team is making it a priority to post revised terms that are more appropriate for Photoshop Express users. We will alert you once we have posted new terms.

Here are some reviews: Sue Chastain (About.com), Lori Grunin (ZDNet), and Jackie Dove (Macworld).

Jim

Adobe Photoshop Express - Online Editing