Invite Beauty To Remind Us Of Hope
November 10, 2008 by TheArtistsCenter
Filed under Art Commentary, ArtWorks, Top
Ah, my last outdoor show — last weekend, in Peoria, IL –and it was actually quite good, considering…
and I had to do a lot of grounding to keep myself from panicking — one of the things
I did was write this piece –
Hope and Beauty
“it is an ethical obligation to search for hope.” Tony Kurshner Read more
PRACTICAL HDRI: High Dynamic Range Imaging For Photographers
November 5, 2008 by Dr. Michael N. Roach
Filed under Books, Photography, Top
Jack Howard should be a familiar name to many of you photographers as he is the Editor of PopPhoto.com/Popular Photography & Imaging where he tests and reviews cameras, lenses, software and a multitude of camera gadgets.
Complete Guide To The Nikon D300 By Thom Hogan
September 22, 2008 by Dr. Michael N. Roach
Filed under Books, Digital Lifestyles, Photography, Software, TopOn User Manuals, Digital Books, Travel, The Importance of eBooks and The Foresight of Thom Hogan
I like physical books. By that I mean I like a book I can hold in my hand, feel the texture, and maybe even revel in the smell of the paper and the ink. I like to consume well-done images that inspire or instruct. I like books that open themselves flat and allow me to look at them without having to hold down both sides of the tight binding of a signature in the book without being afraid that the book would snap closed if I turned lose with one or both hands.
But then I have to say that there is a “but” that goes with all of that. The bigger a book gets the less likely I am to have it along when I want it. Big books in heavy bindings don’t fit easily into the weight requirements of modern-day air travel. They’re, well, “big” and “big” and “ease of travel” are oxymorons. They just don’t work interchangeably. Read more
Musings on Washing Machines and CompactFlash cards
August 4, 2008 by Britt Stokes
Filed under Digital Lifestyles, Featured Stories, Hardware, Photography, Workflow
If you have read any of my previous articles, you will already know that as a writer I tend to ramble, and that I am a photographer and computer geek. I like cameras more than computers, but use both every day.
One personality trait I have not shared in the past is my hang-up about things working… I like objects to work the way I want, when I want, every time. Yes, I will spend more money on an object if I believe that it will perform the way I want over a lower priced version of the same object. I spent more money on a clothes washer about two years ago than I really wanted to… I got a nicer front loader that had some features I wanted, and uses far less water than top loaders. Read more
LAYERS: The Complete Guide To Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature
June 23, 2008 by Dr. Michael N. Roach
Filed under Books, Featured Stories, Graphics, Photography, Software
When I pick up a book to read it I have an almost overwhelming desire to know something about the person writing the book before I even flip the pages of that book. I want a connection between that person and myself in order to justify committing myself to their momentary care. I look first at book forwards or introductions or at least the author’s brief inside the front cover. This is true whether the book is a work of fiction or a technical manual. Without this beginning I have a hard time relating myself to the author; I have this need to know something about them.
Some almost 50 years ago when I was a beginning college student I always avoided classes taught by "staff" or "to be announced" if there was an option, and when there was a name listed for a course I got out my college catalogue and looked up the faculty member teaching the course and tried to find out as much about them as possible before I committed myself and my hard-earned tuition money to their care.
Read moreWhatever Happened To The “Decisive Moment”?
June 9, 2008 by Jan Anderson-Paxson
Filed under Editor's Choice, PhotographyPhotography has been evolving constantly from its birth in 1839. There have been many different kinds of photographs and processes through the years, including the daguerreotype, calotype, ambrotype, tintype, prints from sheet film, prints from roll film, and now images from digital capture. Each process had its advantages and disadvantages but most of us would agree that generally advances in technology have made life easier and better. But in this “Instantaneous, quantity over quality, throw-away world,” have we also lost the ability to think? Read more
Seven Key Techniques For Taking Your Images From Flat To Fantastic
June 2, 2008 by Dr. Michael N. Roach
Filed under Books, Editor's Choice, Photography, Workflow
I included the sub-title with the title because I think it makes the subject clearer. I think that describes why Scott Kelby’s book is not just another Photoshop book even if you don’t know who Scott Kelby actually is. If you don’t know, then I suggest you crank up GOOGLE and pick a couple of dozen of the 999,000 entries it says it pinged up for your perusal when you punch in his name. I’ll give you the summation—he knows Photoshop. He knows it very well! Read more
The Nikon D3
May 26, 2008 by Britt Stokes
Filed under Commerce, Digital Lifestyles, Featured Stories, Hardware, Photography, Workflow
I was always an F kind of guy. My first Nikon pro camera was the original F - a 1971 black body FTN. It supplemented my FM2 and I had it until just a couple of years ago when I sold it to a close friend, who bought it with the understanding that I might occasionally need to fondle it… call it conjugal visits.
A few years later I found a really nice F2 that I still have… I skipped the F3 and F4 entirely Read more
EXPLORING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY & GROUP THERAPY, TOGETHER
May 19, 2008 by Beckett Gilchrist
Filed under Digital Lifestyles, Featured Stories, Photography
When I studied traditional photography over twenty years ago I did not see how much the art would shift for me in the way I executed it and what it meant for me. I believed like many of us that the silver halide was a thing of exacting beauty that could never be replaced. Read more
Exposure & Lighting for Digital Photographers Only
April 25, 2008 by Dr. Michael N. Roach
Filed under Books, Digital Lifestyles, Featured Stories, Photography, Workflow
I recently encountered a relatively new book by Michael Meadhra and Charlotte K. Lowrie entitled Exposure and Lighting for Digital Photographers Only published by Wiley Press in 2007. Read more
