May 2008 Archives

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Thomas Holton

Eminent Domain: Contemporary Photography and the City

The exhibition Eminent Domain: Contemporary Photography and the City features the work of five contemporary New York based photographers drawn primarily from new acquisitions in the Photography Collection.

NYPL

Catching Superman

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Harry Nowell

Catching Superman by Harry Nowell

In my pursuit of motion I have attached cameras to skateboards, skis, bikes, cars and even my head.

My camera rigs became more complex as I experimented with the exhileration of motion.

Capturing the speeding subject can be quite simple and can lead to very, very fun photos!

Harry Nowell

DIY film

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dark orange

Also go to Film is not dead it just smells funny.

Jim

DIY film by dark orange

Can't buy the film you want any more?

Just make the stuff!

In this set you will find random photos and information on a project a friend has undertaken - a machine to make his own camera film.

Plastic and goop go in one end, and camera film comes out the other end.

This is not a trivial undertaking.

dark orange

Joni Sternbach - Surfers

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Joni Sternbach

For more, go to Wet-plate Collodian.

Via gmtPlus9 (-15)

Jim

Joni Sternbach - Surfers

...working with a large-format camera and historic process (wet-plate collodion), I have concentrated on locations that are close to or directly on the water.

At this juncture between land and sea, I explore subject matter in a constant state of transition.

Joni Sternbach

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Josef Astor

Also go to What's wrong with this picture? by Kate Betts.

Jim

Pixel Perfect, Pascal Dangin's virtual reality by Lauren Collins

In the March issue of Vogue Dangin tweaked a hundred and forty-four images: a hundred and seven advertisements (Estée Lauder, Gucci, Dior, etc.), thirty-six fashion pictures, and the cover, featuring Drew Barrymore.

To keep track of his clients, he assigns three-letter rubrics, like airport codes.

Click on the current-jobs menu on his computer: AFR (Air France), AMX (American Express), BAL (Balenciaga), DSN (Disney), LUV (Louis Vuitton), TFY (Tiffany & Co.), VIC (Victoria's Secret).

Lauren Collins

History of the Color Wheel

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Sir Isaac Newton

For more, go to Color Relationships & the Color Wheel.

Jim

History of the Color Wheel by evad

The first color wheel has been attributed to Sir Isaac Newton, who in 1706 arranged red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet into a natural progression on a rotating disk.

As the disk spins, the colors blur together so rapidly that the human eye sees white. From there the organization of color has taken many forms, from tables and charts, to triangles and and wheels the history.

evad

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Sarah Vaughan, Pearl Bailey, and Ella Fitzgerald by Milt Hinton

For more, go to Milt Hinton and Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories and Photographs.

Jim

Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories and Photographs

'Playing the Changes' Chronicles Jazz Great Hinton Host Liane Hansen talks to author David Berger about the photography of the late jazz bassist Milt Hinton.

Berger has co-authored the book Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories and Photographs.

NPR

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Adam Pash

Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera by

If you're using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you've got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box.

With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera.

Let's transform your point-and-shoot into a super camera just by adding a little special sauce to its firmware.

Adam Pash

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Richard Steward by Eric Etheridge

Also visit Eric Etheridge.

Via (Notes on) Politics, Theory & Photography

Jim

Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Freedom Riders by Eric Etheridge

In the spring and summer of 1961, several hundred Americans—blacks and whites, men and women—converged on Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge state segregation laws.

The Freedom Riders, as they came to be known, were determined to open up the South to civil rights: it was illegal for bus and train stations to discriminate, but most did and were not interested in change.

Over 300 people were arrested and convicted of the charge "breach of the peace."

Atlas & Co.

Storytellers by Carl Donohue

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Carl Donohue

Also go to Carl Donohue.

Jim

Storytellers by Carl Donohue

My parents, all the way from sunny Australia, visited me here in Alaska recently and together we took a trip to Denali National Park for a few cold, snowy days last fall.

We sought refuge from what my dad referred to as "the brutal and harsh sub-arctic weather" in the form of lattes and hot sandwiches at the visitor's center, where my mother, the consummate shopper, immediately discovered the souvenir store.

While mum browsed the shirts and hat racks, my dad and I wiled away the hours looking at some of the stirring photos on display.

A postcard image of a wolf that was a captive animal pre-empted a discussion of photography, art, and integrity.

That discussion, minus the one thousand interruptions from my mother inquiring about shirt sizes, colors, and styles, led to this column.

Carl Donohue

Gregory Crewdson Interview

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Robert Burley

Go to Robert Burley and Contact, the photography festival in Toronto.

Jim

The photo is dead. Long live the photo by Kate Taylor

Toronto artist Robert Burley is currently documenting the fate of chemical photography, recording the abandonment and demolition of various Kodak plants.

The films, papers and processing chemicals these factories produced will soon be obsolete, although Burley himself is still physically printing images from negatives, albeit ones he edits digitally.

The most notable of Burley's large, highly detailed colour photographs shows the implosion of buildings 65 and 69 at Kodak Park in Rochester, N.Y., where a crowd that includes people who worked in the plant busily snap pictures of its demise on their digital cameras.

Whatever sacrifices it may demand, technology is irresistible.

Kate Taylor

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Mitch Alland

For more, go to Mitch Alland and Street Photography.

Jim

An Approach to Street Photography by Mitch Alland

It is only three years ago that I started to do street photography: before that I photographed landscapes, buildings, objects, and sometimes made portraits of people I knew; and the exhibition that I had in Bangkok in December 2003 was of Thai temples, without people in any of the pictures.

Indeed, like many other people, I felt uncomfortable photographing strangers in the street and saw no purpose in doing so.

In 1993 when I participated in his workshop on colour photography in Tuscany, Sam Abell told me at the end of ten days, "You're certainly not a street photographer."

He was right.

I wasn't.

Mitch Alland

Panamatic

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Panamatic

Panamatic

This Level has been designed to mount between a tripod and a camera.

The Level will fit any standard tripod and hold the camera in an absolute horizontal position.

It will index into twelve positions. It rotates a full 360°.

It assists the photographer in taking panoramic pictures as well as todays Virtual Reality sceneries.

These V.R. clips have become very popular and are found more and more on the Internet.

Panamatic

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Chad Neuman

Selectively Adjust Color in Photoshop by Chad Neuman

There are many ways to partially color a photo in Photoshop, but some don't preserve the original image.

For example, when you use the paintbrush, even at partial opacity, it brushes over some of the photo's detail.

A better way to change color without losing an object's details it to adjust its hues.

Chad Neuman

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National Geographic Wildlife Camera

Photojojo Mother's Day Gift Guide 2008

Add this to your calendar: Sunday May 11th is Mother's Day.

Photog's Togs

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Tewfic El-Sawy

Photog's Togs by Tewfic El-Sawy

I've been asked by a few readers to share my preferred type of clothes when traveling on my photo expeditions or on assignments.

It's an important issue because weight, durability, ease of washing/drying, etc all come into play.

So here are the items that usually make it into my dufflebag...there must be womens' equivalents at the same stores.

(Since I don't mean this to be adverts for the companies that stock these items, I won't link to them...sorry).

Tewfic El-Sawy