Tell us about your work? My work is a visual journey, exploring what calls me, often those things which bring me joy or contemplation. My work is spiritual, color saturated with symbolic and natural elements. What mediums have you worked in and which is your favorite? I have worked in oil, soft pastel, oil pastel, watercolor, acrylic, gouche, pen and ink, charcoal, textile, collage, colored pencil, mixed media, photography and assemblage. My favorite is whatever I am working in at the moment … [Read more...]
PHOTOGRAPHIC MULTISHOT TECHNIQUES by Juergen Gulbins & Rainer Gulbins
April 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I've been neglecting a new book that's been on my desk for a month. When I first glanced at Juergen Gulbins and Rainer Gulbins new book PHOTOGRAPHIC MULTISHOT TECHNIQUES I realized that several of the techniques discussed involved the new Adobe Photoshop CS4, and at the time I hadn't upgraded yet. I put PHOTOGRAPHIC MULTISHOT TECHNIQUES aside until I had upgraded to Photoshop CS4 and become comfortable with the new interface and some of the new tools. Now I've … [Read more...]
Lensbaby Composer: A Selective Focus SLR Camera Lens (pt 3)
March 18, 2009 By 6 Comments
A Three Part Series Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Pt. 3 of 3: Be My Lens, Baby...always Another improvement over my Lensbaby 2.0 is the lens cap - the 2.0 shipped with a nice, heavy solid metal lens cap that screwed in place... unfortunately, it was kind of slippery and difficult to get off sometimes. The Composer ships with a new squeeze-type lens cap (the style that lets your fingers get inside a lens hood, hmm, what a handy accessory that would be?). Easy on and easy off, but not so … [Read more...]
Lensbaby Composer: A Selective Focus SLR Camera Lens (pt 1)
March 16, 2009 By 8 Comments
A Three Part Series Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Pt. 1 of 3: Be My Lens, Baby! Soon after receiving my first 35mm camera, I found that photography was a little more difficult than it had first looked. Ok, it was a lot more difficult. After mastering the learning curve on how make a sharp, well-exposed photo, I saw some photography by David Hamilton and Robert Farber. I was back to square one. Suddenly, I wanted to shoot soft focus images. But, how to do it? Shortly after graduating … [Read more...]
The Nikon Creative Lighting System: Using the SB-600, SB 800, SB 900 & RiCi Flashes
March 3, 2009 By 2 Comments
As a landscape, architectural, and product photographer I seldom actually photograph people, and most of my artificial lighting is done with "hot light", that is, continuous lighting done with Lowell or similar tungsten-balanced equipment. Therefore, flash units for me are usually confined to snapshots and general family pictures. My experience with on-camera flash has been limited to the level of advanced amateur if I'm being completely honest with myself. However, a couple … [Read more...]
Infrared Photography
January 21, 2009 By 2 Comments
The switch from film to digital photography has benefited people who desire to shoot images in infrared. Infrared photography was born in the First World War as an aid to aerial photography that was used to film troops and equipment on the ground. Where infrared photography aids in this is due to the fact that when tree leaves or grass is photographed through a deep red (visually black) filter on infrared film, it is plainly different (lighter) than buildings, metal vehicles or … [Read more...]
On lessons learned and the importance of living in the present
January 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Some of you may know that over ten yeas ago I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) which is a disease that causes the immune system to suddenly go into overdrive by attacking the body. Periodically and unpredictably Flare occurs not only causing extreme pain ( I know combat vets who have been wounded and take a bullet wound over a flare) and depending of the area affected minor to extreme disability. This is not your grandmothers arthritis which it often gets confused … [Read more...]
Requiem for The Polaroid
January 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The days of the in your face - no touch-up's - crappy lighting - crappy paper - instant photograph have come to a close, as Polaroid ascends to the big darkroom in the sky.I could write about the history of Polaroid, but then you could Google it if you were really interested. And you should because it's pretty good reading. Instead, today, I'm going to tell you the story of Amelia. Amelia was just ten years old when I was a volunteer at the Bancroft School in Haddonfield NJ, a … [Read more...]
PhotoVoice
November 10, 2008 By 1 Comment
It is well established that if you give someone a fish, they'll have dinner for one night. Teach someone to fish and they'll have dinner for the rest of their life. In 1998, Edinburgh University Social Anthropology students Tiffany Fairey and Anna Blackman established two projects which sought to integrate participatory photography into their MA dissertations. These projects, the Rose Class project in Nepal and the Street Vision project in Vietnam, encouraged and inspired refugees from these … [Read more...]
Sebastiao Salgado: Eye Contact
November 10, 2008 By Leave a Comment
It’s something about the eyes. In times of conflict, war, rebellion, or natural disaster, it is so often the civilian who suffers, and it is the children who suffer most for they had supposed themselves to have the longest future yet to come. It is not the terrible shock of seeing homes destroyed or parents or siblings killed. It is not just the hunger that eats at the body or the tiredness in that same body; it is the loss of innocence that changes the eyes. … [Read more...]
PRACTICAL HDRI: High Dynamic Range Imaging For Photographers
November 5, 2008 By 2 Comments
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. HDRI photography (high dynamic range photography) is a growing phenomenon of interest in the photography field. Simply put, it is a method by which the photographer produces an image that has more dynamic range than that which is possible with normal film or … [Read more...]
