October 2009 Archives

© Michael Williams - All Rights Reserved

Moving Pictures

The first and last series have over 30 images so they're a bit are slow to load --my apologies-- but I think they're worth the wait.

Each series is comprised of either a single photobooth strip or multiple photobooth images of the same person--sometimes, as is the case with the first and last series, taken over the course of many years.

Several series (the 5th, 6th, 7th, 11th, 12th, 18th, and 19th) come from the collection of Michael Williams, one of the co-authors of my new book Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America.

Richard Cahan or Nicholas Osborn

© Robert Caplin for the New York Times - All Rights Reserved

Q&A With the Travel Photographer Robert Caplin by Matt Gross

Having better equipment can give you better control over how to take the photo, but I don't think it necessarily makes you a better photographer.

Someone who's a good photographer can take a photo with their telephone nearly as good as they could with a professional camera.

Robert Caplin

© Ellen Anon & Josh Anon - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Overlay Layer Method.

Jim

Using Safe Dodge and Burn Layers in Photoshop by Ellen Anon & Josh Anon

We prefer this method to the older Overlay method because it's more forgiving and easier to use.

Ellen Anon & Josh Anon

© Dan Moughamian - All Rights Reserved

Learn how to create a surreal landscape scene by blending or merging multiple stock photos in Adobe Photoshop CS4 by Dan Moughamian

This article details useful techniques for creating surreal composite images in Photoshop CS4.

Dan Moughamian

© Dorothea Lange - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Dorothea Lange.

Jim

Dorothea Lange - Picturing the Depression by David Oshinsky

But perhaps the most iconic image — gracing textbooks, hanging from dormitory walls, affixed to political posters, even adorning a postage stamp — is Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother," taken at a California farmworkers camp in 1936.

David Oshinsky

© Elliot Erwitt - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Elliot Erwitt.

Jim

Iconic Photos

© Ansel Adams - All Rights Reserved

Ansel Adams in Color by Richard B. Woodward

Ansel Adams never made up his mind about color photography.

Long before his death in 1984 at age 82, he foresaw that this "beguiling medium" might one day replace his cherished black and white.

In notes tentatively dated to 1949, he observed that "color photography is rapidly becoming of major importance."

Richard B. Woodward

© Thomas Demand - All Rights Reserved

A Makeshift World: On Thomas Demand by Barry Schwabsky

Not that he cultivates the look of the amateur snapshot: nothing seems accidental or haphazard here.

But rather than availing himself of the camera's potential for an inhumanly penetrating apprehension of surfaces, he evokes what one might call a normal, technically competent but unfetishized mode of looking.

The photographs pretend to be a little less carefully made than they really are.

Barry Schwabsky

© Lucas Gilman - All Rights Reserved

6 Pro Photographers Share Their Most Guarded Digital Secrets by Michelle Delio

Most photographers would now agree that proficiency with photo-editing software is also a critical skill.

So we asked six photographers to tell us about their favorite image processing applications and add-ons as well as share their best tips for making and digitally refining images.

Michelle Delio

© Richard Howe - All Rights Reserved

Richard Howe - Manhattan Street Corners

Manhattan's street corners are our village squares.

Almost anything that takes us out into the public space of our neighborhoods will take us to or through at least one street corner.

Street corners are where we go whenever we go out to buy groceries, do laundry, see a movie, go to church, catch a bus, eat out, visit a friend, get a paper, go to school, get a haircut, find a taxi, have our nails done, go to work, take a walk, come back home.

Jane Jacob's human comedy of the urban street reaches its pinnacle on Manhattan’s street corners.

Richard Howe

Jane Bown

Also go to the slideshow.

Jim

Jane Bown - The Eyes Have It by Robin McKie

Decades later, she was still using her faithful Olympus because she was "supremely uninterested in photographic technology, accepting her camera's limitations as imposing a necessary discipline on her image-making," as Germaine Greer has observed.

Robin McKie

David DiMichele

David DiMichele: Pseudodocumentation by Anna Carnick

Photographer David DiMichele's latest series, Pseudodocumentation, depicts imaginary art installations that playfully examine scale and perception, blur the lines between truth and fiction and question the act of looking at art.

Anna Carnick

Son of Peter Hartlaub

Kids and photography (or, Why my son is an artistic genius ...) by Peter Hartlaub

So it was a bit of a shock when I handed him a camera, and learned that at 4 1/2 years old my son makes Annie Leibovitz look like a drunk tourist with a Kodak Funsaver.

Peter Hartlaub

Onion Magazine

The Onion parody is here: For Only $5 Per Month, You Can Help Continue Photographing This Child.

Jim

"I don't really care about the future of photojournalism" by Dana De Luca

The death of journalism is bad for society, but we'll be better off with less photojournalism.

I won't miss the self-important, self-congratulatory, hypocritical part of photojournalism at all.

The industry has been a fraud for some time.

We created an industry where photography is like big-game hunting.

We created an industry of contests that reinforce a hyper-dramatic view of the world.

Hyperbole is what makes the double spread (sells) and is also the picture that wins the contest.

Chris Anderson

Ron Haviv

Conversation between Photography and Policy by John Prendergast

Concepts like genocide and sexual violence are too often boiled down to numbers; for issues that are complex and foreign to many, it takes the power of images to elicit emotion.

Robert Padavick

John Harrington

Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington

So, what's new in this edition, and what do those who have had an advance look at it have to say about it?

John Harrington

Energy BBDO/a>

How Art Producers Find the Right Photographer for the Project by Rob Haggart

The next step is the creative call with the photographers and it plays a crucial role in deciding who gets the job.

It's really like a job interview.

I've been a part of many calls where a photographer who was a front-runner disqualified him or herself.

I've also seen the opposite.

Liz Miller-Gershfeld

Stephen Wilkes

Stephen Wilkes by T.K. Dalton

Changing time in a single photograph is a very interesting concept.

The genesis of this idea really happened many years ago when I was working for Life magazine on "a big picture".

They hired me to photograph Claire Danes and Leonardo Dicaprio as Romeo and Juliet, and I had an opportunity to photograph them along with the entire cast and crew in Mexico City where they were filming.

Stephen Wilkes

Michael Bierut

Would It Kill You to Smile? by Michael Bierut

The spirit of bershon is pretty much how you feel when you're 13 and your parents make you wear a Christmas sweatshirt and then pose for a family picture, and you could not possibly summon one more ounce of disgust, but you're also way too cool to really even DEAL with it, so you just make this face like you smelled something bad and sort of roll your eyes and seethe in a put-out manner.

Sarah Brown

Vivian Maier

Via Reciprocity Failure

Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work

This was created in dedication to the photographer Vivian Maier, a street photographer from the 1950s - 1970s.

Vivian's work was discovered at an auction here in Chicago where she lived for 50 years but was originally a native to France.

Her discovered work includes over 40,000 mostly medium format negatives.

Born February 1, 1926 and passed away on Tuesday, April 21, 2009.

John Maloof

Brenda Ann Kenneally

Via Reciprocity Failure

Brenda Ann Kenneally - Upstate Girls

My project has followed seven women for five years as their escape routes out of generational poverty have lead to further entrapments.

I am looking to compile a generational history of the emotional spiral of those resigned to the lower class in The United States.

I plan to use the Getty Grant to continue this work over the next year when the need for nuanced and sustained journalism that is reflective of the social fallout from the crisis that we are in will be crucial, and the responsibility for preserving these stories for history is incumbent.

Brenda Ann Kenneally

Eduard Serafim

Eduard Serafim - Sismogrammes

Memento Mori: Death and Photography in Nineteenth Century America, Dan Meinwald

Also go to Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, where photographers can volunteer their services.

Jim

Bereavement Photography May Help Healing by Debra Wood, RN

"Parents say photos are important to them to prove the child existed," explained Tamara Scott, MSN, RN, CPNP, CPON, a pediatric oncology nurse practitioner at Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center in Roseville, Calif, speaking at the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses Annual Conference.

Debra Wood, RN

What a comfort it is to possess the image of those who are removed from our sight.

We may raise an image of them in our minds but that has not the tangibility of one we can see with our bodily eyes.

Flora A Windeyer in a letter to Rev. John Blomfield, November 1870

scottbourne

Quick Tip For Recording Audio on Your Hybrid DSLR/VSLR Camera by scottbourne

Your new Canon 7D, or 5D MK II, or Panasonic GH1 or Nikon D300S (ETC) has an audio jack.

If you're serious about recording good quality video on your hybrid camera, you need to stop using the built-in mic on your camera and use an external mic.

scottbourne

Joshua Hoffine

Joshua Hoffine - Horror Blog

Mark Galer

High Dynamic Range - HDR - In Photoshop Elements 8 Tutorial by Mark Galer

Contrary to popular opinion, what you see is not always what you get.

You may be able to see the detail in those dark shadows and bright highlights when the sun is shining - but can your image sensor?

Contrast in a scene is often a photographer's worst enemy

Mark Galer

Robert Beck

The A List: Super Sports by Robert Beck

The truth is that professional sports are almost easier to shoot.

The younger the kids, the less you can anticipate—they don't have a sense of timing like the pros or older kids; the young kids are all a little bit off the timing.

Be prepared.

Robert Beck

Cliff Kolber

Photographing Sunrise at Mesa Arch by Cliff Kolber

To get a sunburst effect around the sun, use manual mode and close down the lens aperture to a small opening.

Cliff Kolber

Robert Morrison

Photographer Robert Morrison's Montana by Donna M. Lucey

The artist's eye for the off-kilter and unusual offers a distinctive portrait of the West at the turn of the 20th century

Donna M. Lucey

Phillip Toledano

Phillip Toledano - Days with My Father

Heiti Paves

Nikon Small World Winners

Robert Bergman

Robert Bergman - The Man Who Waited by Judith H. Dobrzynski

Every now and then, the art world offers up an unlikely story, and Robert Bergman's is one of them.

The 65-year-old photographer went his own way over the past four decades, never selling a work until two years ago, but he nevertheless is about to burst onto the scene with two museum exhibitions this month.

One is at the prestigious, conservative National Gallery of Art in Washington.

The other is at P.S.1 in Queens, the adventurous branch of the Museum of Modern Art.

And next month he will have his first show at a commercial gallery, Yossi Milo in Chelsea.

Judith H. Dobrzynski

Gary Stochl

Gary Stochl - On City Streets by Ken Tanaka

Amid the usual young students was a middle-aged man with a paper shopping bag.

Thall's secretary told him that the man said he had some photos to show someone.

Thall invited the man into his office where he introduced himself as Gary Stochl.

He told Thall that he had been doing photography for forty years but hadn't really shown his work to anyone.

Ken Tanaka

John Baldessari

John Baldessari - Men Swallowing Swords, Men Blowing Out Candles by Benjamin Weissman

On the occasion of his major retrospective at Tate Modern in London, we present an homage to, meditation on, conversation with and analysis of the multi-faceted, 50-year career of John Baldessari.

Frieze

Philipp Engelhorn

My Toughest Shot

We asked 16 photographers to share their hardest-won images and the wild, sometimes foolish, and invariably bold adventures behind them.

From a nomadic Kutchi camp in Tajikistan to a frozen lake in Siberia, and everywhere in between, these pros show--and tell--how they got the job done.

Outside

Also go to How to Become a Pro.

Jim

I am a 16 year old interested in a career in photography, what can I do to achieve this goal? by NickNameUser

Don't listen to any of these people.

cinemafest 8 points

Also go to How to Become a Pro.

Jim

21 Signs You're a Real Photographer Now by Peter Phun

. . . here are 21 clues that you've crossed the threshold from pretender to contender . . .

Peter Phun

Monica Almeida

Also go to Julius Shulman.

Jim

Julius Shulman - The Lens That Loved Modernism by Steven Kurutz

Julius Shulman, the prolific architectural photographer who died in July at 98, benefited in equal measure from talent and timing.

He was, of course, a gifted, inventive photographer; his introduction of real people into architectural images is considered groundbreaking.

But he also lived and worked in midcentury Los Angeles, an epicenter of Modernism and a canvas for architects like Richard Neutra, Pierre Koenig and John Lautner, whose landmark houses Mr. Shulman captured.

Steven Kurutz

Asahel Curtis

Understanding the Magic Lantern by Catherine Shteynberg

"Magic Lantern Slide" technology actually predates the invention of photography.

Originally, glass slides made from drawings or paintings were held up in a device, lit up by lantern or candle light, and projected on a wall.

The resulting projections were often animated and accompanied by music as a form of entertainment.

Understandably, these fantastical lantern slide shows fascinated audiences living in a time before film and photography

Catherine Shteynberg

Stacy Cates, Simon Abrams, & Dan Moughamian

Controlling Contrast and Detail with Curves and Levels in Photoshop by Stacy Cates, Simon Abrams, & Dan Moughamian

Increasing contrast is one of the best ways to improve images, often dramatically.

Images with good contrast can seem to "pop" off the page and appear to have more detail.

Stacy Cates, Simon Abrams, & Dan Moughamian

Ellen Anon & Josh Anon

Reveal Image Detail with Shadow/Highlight Adjustments in Photoshop by Ellen Anon & Josh Anon

The Shadow/Highlight adjustment is an excellent way to reveal subtle detail in the shadow and/or highlight areas of your images.

Although you could theoretically produce similar results with sophisticated use of Curves, the Shadow/Highlight adjustment is far easier to use when you need to recover detail that has been lost in shadow or highlight areas because of excessive contrast.

It's similar to the Fill Light and Recovery sliders in ACR, but it has additional controls so you can fine-tune the results.

Ellen Anon & Josh Anon

josephinaphoto81

Also go to How to Photograph Strangers.

Jim

100 Strangers

100 Strangers

Ella Manor

Also go to Ella's exhibit in NYC.

Jim

Vision of Self--A Portrait of Ella Manor by Jerry Currier

Artists often look inside themselves in order to ignite the creative flame.

The history of art and artists is replete with self portraits.

Such personal images have been one of the tools that artists employ for various, often complex and private reasons.

Jerry Currier