Photography

This was my daughters college graduation... the b ...Brotherly Love

Last month on the Online Photo Program we gave the members the challenge of Slow Photos – where we asked them to shoot with a shutter speed of 1 second or longer. That’s tough to do! This month the photography class challenge was Fast Photos where we asked members to use a fast shutter speed to freeze any action to show implied motion in their photos. It’s also a tough challenge!! Better photos - Online Photography Program © Al G And the online programmers rose to the challenge! As usual I was impressed with the work they did and the results. We have a private Facebook group for members to share and exchange ideas – it’s nice to see people help each other grow. The Online Program Experience I don’t know any photo program offered like ours. It’s not quite a photography course… it’s more of a ‘group-exploration-of-photo-challenges.’ We offer a new photo challenge every month and support photographer’s development with: • a video lesson • course notes • photo tips • web links • equipment suggestions • support • weekly lesson by email • a Facebook based forum for members to share AND • a video critique of member’s photos to wrap things up. In all there are four weeks of programming every month. All for $30 a month, purchased as a 6 month block. Better photos - Online Photography Course - © Kevan E Member comments from May’s challenge keep coming in with praise for the program:• “Thanks so much Harry, couldn’t have done it without you and the online course.” • “I am very much enjoying the challenges and the format of what you’ve created here with the online program. For me, just the right balance of freedom to work at your own pace and structure to keep you honest and get something done.  With good advice along the way. I appreciate it, and am very happy to support it.” • “It was a tough assignment and needed a lot of elements to come together for it to work. But a great learning experience. I’m loving this and the FB group is terrific.” Better photos - Online Photography Course - Ken C • “I like the program a lot, it keeps me on track. I wouldn’t be using my camera as much if I wasn’t taking the program.” • “I am really enjoying the program. My intent when I signed up was to help me get creative, and off my butt and do some shooting. I find I’m more creative if I have a goal or deadline of some sort. Making one up didn’t work. I think the timing (a month for a challenge) and its spacing is perfect. And I enjoy seeing other’s work and getting feedback, especially the criticisms. Tough to take, but the best way to learn. I’m already looking forward to the topic for June.” Coming In June we’ll be looking at one type of story-telling with your camera. Join us! Better photos - Online Photography Course - Cathy V

by Sarah Hipwell It’s been about four years since my last visit to the zoo. Last week my two girls had a break from school so I decided to take them along with my Mum for a day out to visit the animals at Dublin Zoo. I brought my trusty new Sony RX100 and as a backup I brought my Nikon D300 DSLR. In the end the D300 camera didn’t come out of my bag! I really wanted to test out the RX100 and see how well this compact camera performed in the wild! Actually, I had been interested in purchasing a compact camera for a while now. My husband has taken some great shots with his Retina iPhone. But I don’t have an iPhone nor do I particularly like smartphones per se. With any camera that you choose, there will always be trade-offs. I find the D300 to be a little cumbersome not to mention heavy. There are just times when a handy compact is all you want, but you still want quality shots. Enter the Sony RX100. It was launched last year and has received glowing reviews. And rightfully so! The price did seem a little steep but the more I read about this camera, the more I wanted it! So I decided to trade in my Nikkor 28mm lens against the purchase of the camera. I also have a 18-200mm lens so it wasn’t any hardship to lose the 20mm. The moment we got to the zoo I put my RX100 on my sling strap. This was ideal. I haven’t enjoyed taking photos in this way for such a long time. It was pure point and shoot from the word go. I did decide to leave it on Manual mode for most of the time. I like to be able to adjust Aperture/Shutter speed/ISO quickly and the RX100 has a Function button which provides easy access to ISO settings when needed. I had previously seen a wonderful photo of Asian lion, a recent addition to the Dublin Zoo. I was looking forward to taking a few shots of him but somehow I managed to miss my opportunity. However, I get a few nice shots of this magnificent Tiger shown below. The seals were a treat to watch too. Their keeper explained a bit about these creatures and how they train them. I wanted to test the HD video quality and I was blown away by the quality, here is a screengrab that I took as a still. The zoom feature on the RX100 was a real surprise. I wasn’t expecting much but it turned out to be quite impressive. Here’s a couple of shots that I took of the giraffes, standing from the same spot. See below. Next were the Gorillas. Every time I see these primates, I’m in awe. I think it’s because we, as in humans, look so similar. I just love the expression on this gorilla’s face. See below. My favorite feature so far on the RX100 is the macro ability, especially as it can open to f1.8 Here is an example of a close up of this snake in the reptile house at f2.5. See below. The camera also packs a 1 inch large sensor with 20 million effective pixels. I’m still getting use to this camera but it is my go to camera for the moment. All in all, the Sony RX100 is a very nice, light and powerful compact camera. Get a price on the Sony RX100 at Amazon. Learn more about this camera with our previous full review of the Sony RX100. See more of Sarah Hipwell’s work at her website – SarahHipwell.com Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips. Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips. The Sony RX100 at Dublin Zoo [USER REVIEW]

I've just spent a bracing hour in the company of Andrew Borowiec, thanks to Stan Banos's Reciprocity Failure blog. Starting with this short introductory video: ...and moving on to this longer but even more rewarding slideshow. (There's been such relentless rosy-hued propaganda through TV advertising about how lovely and perfect the Gulf Coast is that I've been in need of a corrective.) We're not quite there with the medium of the narrated online slideshow yet, but I think it's a particularly amenable way to look at photographs—a modern multimedia version of a book that pairs pictures with accompanying text, my favorite form. Hope you can take the time. Andrew has four books under his belt, two of which are still in print: Along the Ohio (Creating the North American Landscape), Cleveland: The Flats, the Mill, and the Hills, Historic Architecture in Canton, 1805–1940, and Industrial Perspective: Photographs of the Gulf Coast. His website is here and his gallery is here. Mike(Thanks to Stan Banos) Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. TOP's links! (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)Featured Comments from: No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

A Guest contribution by Hailey Bartholomew from You Can’t Be Serious. 1. Do Something Who are you photographing? If you don’t know them well, find out what they love to do and where they relax the most. Maybe they love to row boats or take picnics at their favourite park every Sunday. Maybe you are photographing your grandmother who loves to be out in her garden. Go and do that with them. Whatever they love to do to relax, tag along with your camera. But don’t sit back on the sidelines hoping to catch a moment from far away – get down and into whatever they are doing. You need to be in IN that row boat and if your nana is kneeling in the dirt, you should be too. Get into the action and photograph your loved one or client doing what they love. The family below loved playing music together and going on picnics… We did that! This couple love drinks by the pool…. 2. MOVE! Set your camera settings to multiple shots so you can shoot lots of frames quickly. Then, either get your subject to move around, or YOU move with them. If you have little kids and they keep wanting to run around, hold their hand and say pull me along! Select follow focus and start shooting. You will create natural moments but also fun energetic photos. Your subject will forget it is about being formal and ‘looking’ good’ if you are moving and having fun. Same if they are moving around. I love to get my subjects to piggyback each other or walk in a row or play around. Be there to catch the action and you will find your subjects are relaxed. Maybe play some music and dance! 3. Have your Camera Handy The perfect photo opportunity occurs when a real perfect moment is actually happening! The best way to get someone being real is to capture a real moment of joy or happiness or reflection. If I have my camera way upstairs and in it’s case I am much less likely to capture everyday perfect moments with my kids. So I keep my camera handy. It sits out of the case on a bench or is in a bag I take everywhere. Then when the right something happens I am ready to go! Try a week long challenge and have you camera handy all week long. Keep it on your shoulder or on the bench in the lounge – somewhere you can grab it quickly. See what perfect and REAL moments you can capture! Below is a moment with my daughter… after hanging out the washing she came to show me her rockstar outfit… So glad I caught this moment. So perfectly her! And another great ‘real’ moment was this recently on the beach we found an old trampoline and dug a hole for it. My daughter had the best time leaping off and onto the sand!! Lucky I had my camera with me! Lastly.. keep it real by being real yourself. Be honest and true to who you are. Don’t try to be all professional and formal and knowing everything rather relax, explore photography and be yourself. This keeps things not too formal. Have fun! Hailey Bartholomew is an award winning film-maker & photographer who is in love with real and fun work that hopefully either makes you smile or makes you think. Hailey works for international aid organisations, shoots TV commercials, documentaries, family portraits and promo videos. You can see some of her work at her site You Can’t Be Serious. Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips. Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips. 3 Tips for Taking Portraits that Reflect the Character and Spirit of your Subject

The photo sharing site Flickr, sometimes written with a lower-case "f," which seems to be used by a disproportionate number of the more talented of the many photographers in the world, has changed its look and organization. As you might expect, its users have...er, some opinions about that. Go ahead, see if you can read that whole comment thread. According to one estimate, more than 20,000 comments so far. The way I see it, the problem with things like this is that artistic people take into account the interface when they're deciding how to organize and present their work. If you change it, it's not so much that the change is bad, it's that it doesn't appear like the person whose pictures you're looking at expected it to appear. (Shades of what I was talking about the other day regarding shuffled-up software user interfaces.) It's one advantage of paper publication...the "published" work is at least set into a semi-enduring form that can't be recast willy-nilly by others later. Clearly, however, books are no longer the primary way photographers share their work and look at the work of others. Mike(Thanks to Bob Blakley) Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. TOP's links! (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)Featured Comments from: No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

We emailed Art Buyers and Art Producers around the world asking them to submit names of established photographers who were keeping it fresh and up-and-comers who they are keeping their eye on. If you are an Art Buyer/Producer or an Art Director at an agency and want to submit a photographer anonymously for this column email: Suzanne.sease@verizon.net Anonymous Art Producer: I nominate Kenji Aoki. “Kenji has amazing work. I particularly liked the NY Times piece he illustrated with a tuna fish.” more magazine : want skin like a skin doctor's? a story on how to care for wrinkles (for females) v magazine: indulgences a story on indulgences of celebrities (musicians, actors, etc), this represents a vinyl collection. Psychology Today: the brainiac-billionaire connection concept: a genius that is 1 in a million New York magazine The truth on drugs images shot for a story about laws on drugs New York magazine The truth on drugs images shot for a story about laws on drugs Time magazine the truth about oil images shot for an article about crude oil resources-- their reality and where its heading Time magazine the truth about oil images shot for an article about crude oil resources-- their reality and where its heading Time magazine Coal, Hard truths image for an article about coal and it’s relationship to political campaign (obama vs. romney) New York Times Magazine Tuna's end image for an article exploring the extinction of the blue fin tuna Bloomberg Pursuits story about making cocktails using liquid Nitrogen How many years have you been in the business? I started my career in Tokyo 22 years ago and moved to NY 2 years ago. I began to only accept still life assignments 15 years ago. Are you self-taught or photography school taught? I studied design and photography at Kuwasa Design School in Tokyo. Their curriculum is heavily influenced by the aesthetics of Bauhaus. Who was your greatest influence that inspired you to get into this business? There is an opening scene in a movie directed by Alejandro Jodorwsky called EL TOPO, where a tree standing in the dessert, casts a long, bold shadow–I think it was this that made me a photographer. How do you find your inspiration to be so fresh, push the envelope, stay true to yourself so that creative folks are noticing you and hiring you? All of my inspiration comes from geometry. When you have an object that needs to be photographed with a certain concept, you always come across complex visual problems that need to be solved. By thinking of the object as a pure geometric shape such as a circle or square, the speed required to visually communicate the concept of the image and the object itself is accelerated. The space that it’s in, the color, the shadows — balancing all of these elements allow these sensations to penetrate a deeper place. Do you find that some creatives love your work but the client holds you back? Understanding the restrictions of any project is the most important factor. Making the effort to face these restrictions means there is a necessity to create work that is beyond my personal aesthetic sensibilities and to provide a better answer. It’s confronting the self and at times an opportunity to rediscover my own uniqueness. What are you doing to get your vision out to the buying audience? I think the only way to do this is to believe in your own work. Also my agent, Michael Ash has been making sure my work gets out there. His effort to do so has been beyond simply getting the job done. What is your advice for those who are showing what they think the buyers want to see? There are all kinds of photographers out there, which I think is a good thing for art buyers but my advice would be to avoid being swayed or influenced by technology too much, since this may dilute a photographer’s individuality as well as their pursuit for it. I believe it’s necessary to be very careful of this. Are you shooting for you

So while Cariou v. Prince can rightly be considered a victory for appropriation art to some extent, what it is not is a victory for clarity, guidance and certainty in the very murky area of fair use and “transformativeness.” via theiplawblog.com. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Revolutionary New Website Design: HTML5 Fast, Easy to Build, Smart Phone/Pad Friendly, Multimedia Galleries and Retina Ready. Free demo (here).

Thursday: 5.23.13 Design Director: Thomas Alberty Photography Director: Jody Quon Photographer: Benjamin Lowy (click ad to see today’s visual interview ) Buying a new website? APhotoFolio.com builds portfolio websites for photographers. Have a look (here). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Revolutionary New Website Design: HTML5 Fast, Easy to Build, Smart Phone/Pad Friendly, Multimedia Galleries and Retina Ready. Free demo (here).