General Photography Observations, Instructions, and Information about Vintage Cameras and Photographic Techniques from this Photographer's Unique Historical Perspective Spanning Fifty Years Experience within Various Genres. Includes posts: Vintage camera information, Old cameras, Single Lens Reflex Cameras, Cameras, Twin Lens Reflex Cameras, TLR, Medium Format, 6x6, 4x4, 120 film, 127 Film, Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollieflex, Japanese, German, Super Slides, 4x4, TLR, Medium Format Rangefinder, Range finder, Large Format. Photographer Douglas Patrick Wright Provides an Interesting Personal Slant with his Personal Insight Into Half Century of Personal Photography Experience Including his own Transition from Film to Digital. Although never intended as such this Weblog has become an important Resource in its Own Right Regarding Vintage Cameras--as Consulted by Photographers, Historians, and Collectors, Due in Part to the Photographer's Personal Use and Period Comments.
I have spent a good deal of my lifetime as a photographer while in compromised and adventurous situations. It occurred to me that some readers of this blog may also have an interest in emergency outdoor activities that may one day place them situations to utilize information from another of my life interests as shared in a couple of my other weblogs. Alternative Fire Starting Methods. I am only guessing these to be the most comprehensive sources for such information. Check them out if you take a notion by starting at this link.
This Post mostly excepted from my eBay store description of this series of cameras I just listed.
Here is a chance to acquire three collectible Voigtlander Viewfinder Cameras.
Three Wonderful Vintage Cameras from My Personal Collection: These are from the 1950s to 1960s Voightlander Viewfinder 35 mm Cameras
What marvelous old cameras. They are compact yet heavy and made to precision instrument standards not much found anymore. These finely crafted instruments capture a golden era of German design and mechanical manufacturing at its finest. The cameras are made by an associate company of the famous German lens and camera maker and megacorporation--Zeiss-Ikon.. These three models came out of the 1950s and 1960s.
Voigtlander is an ancient optics company (began in the mid 1700s) that was making fine lenses for a hundred years prior to being among the first makers of cameras in the middle of nineteenth Century. The dominate much of the fine camera and lens business during the hundred years leading up to the production of these cameras. Over the years they shared many business arrangements with Zeiss and Zeiss-Ikon; they were finally bought out by Zeiss-Ikon during the mid-fifties. Established photographers when I was just a budding photographer in the sixties revered Voigtlander products. Although I never used their products as a professional, I have admired the workmanship of these cameras I have collected--and the era they represented.
Many of the clever design features are typical of fine-German engineering of the era. The bodies are sleep and ergonomic. You won't just accidentally discover the retractable rewind unless you curiously stumbled upon the in-obvious button that pops it up. You may not easily be able to figure out how to open the film back, and you may not readily understand how the shutter gets wound. These cameras are as amazingly crafted as any fine watch of the era. Fortunately, you can find and download the operator manuals for each. Please note: Before you incorrectly conclude that any of these types of cameras not working via the usual look and listen tests of the shutter and what-not, make sure that you understand how they work. The designers seemed to take joy in making the controls simple, sleek, functional--but not always obvious. One can feel stupid after learning the "tricks" of these cameras. More than a few of these cameras have been discarded as broken because of a failure to understand their nuances. For example, the shutter on some models will not cycle and cock without film tensioning the wind sprocket (or being manually depressed while the back is open). Or, with some models, you will likely never figure out how to release the back and/or realize that a rewind knob pops up to facilitate easy film rewinding. The shutter will not trip even after being cocked unless film is in the camera or the film counter has been manually reset on the bottom. But once you know them, these features become appreciated as pure genius.
The relatively fast 50 mm two.eight Voigtlander lenses used in these cameras are extremely sharp and fine examples of the Prontar shutters in conjunction with the Lanthar lens algorithm of vintage lenses. These algorithms were closely guarded secrets.
Vitomatic I Appears in great shape and passes all the mechanical tests. I am not sure about the selenium light meter which requires matching needles; Selenium has been known lose photo-sensitivity over time, but I don't know what the useful life of Selenium is. Vito C Metal top cover is loose. Look at the pictures carefully. I think all that is missing are the screws, but a black plastic spacer under the front of this cover may also be missing, as the other models have one. I think this camera works, but it needs the screws to be functional.) Vito CL Passes all the mechanical tests. Body is in great shape. The cover is solid, but somewhat discolored.
You can see pictures at this link until I get them posted here.
I've written about Exaktas Before. They are cool cameras. I call them Commie Cameras here for effect and because that's about all the West knew about them while the Soviet so-called Iron Curtain was in Place.
I haven't had a chance to post any pictures yet, but I have some on my eBay listing at this link, until I do.
You may have to cut and paste this link into your browser.
I was happy to find this pristine Exakta VX500 Camera and lens.I have never owned one, but I did use them during the late 1960's, as one of my friends, who also later became a well-known photographer started suing them. At the time, these were considered commie or Russian cameras. They were actually produced in Soviet controlled E. Germany, after WWII, by a famous Dresden Camera Company. Before the war, Germany was known hands-down as the best when it came to optics and cameras. Many of these companies were located in Dresden. After the wall went up, those companies were converted to the Communist ways of manufacturing. Westerners, especially those living in the USA, were led to believe that anything made within the Soviet Block was junk. The truth is that few even knew much about the products being produced there, so tight was the Iron Curtain regarding such things. When The USSR began exporting these cameras during the sixties and they stated showing up in the photography magazine ads, those who bought them were surprised at their quality.
These cameras were decidedly different in both function and appearance. But, they made excellent photographs and were easy enough to use. They had good optics produced by what became of the Carl Zeiss plants in Dresden and Jena that was the war-prize of the Russians. Around this same time, an arrangement was made for this design to be used by Topcon in Japan. Many of these cameras were virtually the same, and the lenses and many accessories interchanged. But the Exakta model that was being exported was the VX500, still the basic design of Ihaggee in Dresden. Although the design had undergone very few changes since the prewar models, the design had previously been refined for the first half of the century, and was very tried and proven. The Exakta VX500 had an appearance of by then vintage cameras such as Leica and Contax and other fine cameras. It was almost like a time-machine. But here were these brand spanking new cameras--that looked like fine vintage cameras. And that's pretty much what they were.
Exakta never produce their own lenses, up until that time relying on the Zeiss Jena plant lenses. Those Japanese companies that were supplying Topcon with lenses, found new markets for these new East German arrivals. Sun, was one of these suppliers. They made a lot of original lenses and aftermarket lenses for many different cameras. The zoom lens pictured here is one of those. I bought this kit just like this. The lens shows use, though not a lot. But the camera appears virtually unused and is in remarkable shape.
I like this camera. Oddly, it now has a relative worth that is far greater than more expensive cameras of the day. This is likely due to several things. First, it has weathered the test of time and proven to be an excellent camera. Second, it has a design that is visibly different than other cameras, including that vintage pre-WWII appearance. Third, they are far rarer than most of the cameras of the time. Fourth, these cameras capture a unique part of history, dramatically demonstrating how the same roots yielded such different results as the USSR and the USA and its Western (and Eastern) allies, including post-war Japan, diverged and shared little communications with one another.
A few noteworthy features to note regarding the Exakta VX500 versus other cameras include the interchangeable waist-level viewfinder, the camera lens mount, the shutter release lock, the all-metal design including the contours of the frame and knobs, the camera back and the way it opens. These are just a few. There are many others.
The claim is true--more or less. After Kyocera gobbled up many companies including Contax and Yashica, the design was shared, but for a few minor differences.
Historical Perspective regarding Yashica--and why this camera is their best model ever.
Yashica ruled a segment of the amateur camera market back in post WWII forward until well into the seventies. Their formula was like a lot of other Japanese companies of the time with everything from fishing reels to consumer goods--that was made possible by mass production techniques that copied the best competitor designs and make them cheaper, but good enough. They did the job and cost the consumer less. Were it not for this, most people would have done without. As time went on, the products got better. The Deming Method of Improvement in Manufacturing, having been rejected by American manufacturers, was embraced by Japanese companies to their advantage. These methods also affected Japanese Camera Companies. Yashica was one of the benefactors and survivors. Cheap and good enough was the formula.
Historical Perspective of this Camera
During the late seventies and early eighties, Japanese business conglomerates were gobbling up smaller companies. Shared resources provide economies of scale and exponential mass-marketing. already efficient companies were maximized for even greater potential. A Japanese electronics imaging company that I worked for at the time was purchased by one of these conglomerates--as were several related camera and optics companies--including the venerable high-end Contax and the lower-end Yashica.
Why this Camera is So Good
In the first part of the 1980s both companies were leveraged for maximum advantage in their respective segments of the photography market. Almost functional identical cameras were released under these two brands--one for the low-end, one for the high-end. Even many parts were interchangeable. Though both offerings were remarkable and good, Yashica buyers got a great value. They got virtually the same camera as Contax was selling minus a couple of professional features. Some less expensive materials were used in areas that did not much affect the function of the cameras. The Yashica FX-D Quartz was one of these cameras. By the way, at the time this camera came out, quartz-timed timepieces were new. Although quartz had been used as an ocillator for precise time-keeping with the first part of the century, it was only around the eighties that electronics were beginning to be minaturized enough to be used in watches and cameras. This was a big deal, then. It is still a very precise method of timiming, although it is fairly standard now.
But even the manufacturers might be surprised to learn, too long after the fact to matter, that they got a batch of inferior imitation leather to use for the Yashica models. After about twenty years, the stuff began to peel and deteriorate and then appear to almost melt. It looks awful, and it must have been used universally for all the Yashica cameras because they all seem subject to this effect so predictably that a user cult of photographers who so enjoy the camera that they buy them and immediately replace the old stuff with new leatherette or even leather. I had intended to do the same with this camera, as I had replaced dry-rotted leather on so many much older relics in my collection in the past. I never got to this, and my camera languished for years in storage until I decided to just sell them all.
Note: I have recently learned that the Contax version of this camera also had the problem with disintegrating letherette.
My Evaluation of this Camera
This Yashica FX-D is a pleasure to use. It is just like the Contax with a few exceptions. Designers intened to meet the competition head-on with a fine camera, under both the Contax and the Yashica label. This was by far the best Yashica 35 ever made. It is as small as the Olympus OM1n and offers feature for feature plus some. In is on a par both in appearance and function of many fine Nikon modelswith many Nikons and was better than the Canon AE1, that put Canon on the map as a viable producer of SLR cameras during same time. I once worked for Canon USA and I liked their products. I have owned three (maybe four) AE1s, which I really liked at the time. But I like the Yashica FX-D Quartz better. After over three decades, the Yashica feels and sounds new in operation. The shutter, though fairly loud, sounds strong and the metering is excellent, even though the TTL flash metering is one advantage the Contax version offers. The Yashica dodel offers many professional features including Shutter Lock-up. Although it lacks big bros Depth of field Preview it still offers features that are usually only included with high-end cameras. It even has an audio warning for unacceptable lighting conditions. The metering is still good. It uses Aperture Priority for the automatics, which was the choice of some of the best cameras of the time. A autowinding film advance was availabe from Yashica. One subsequent FX-SE Quartz Model came with the winder attached. Otherwise it was the same camera.
Both Branded versions have black the bodies prefered by professionals, which stylishly brass with much use. I don't think it was ever availabe any other way. Brassing with use on black camera bodies was regarded as a kind of badge of experience and usage among some Photographers. My camera was apprently used very little because it shows no brassing at all. The camera design overall in black is considered by camera enthusiasts to be among the most beautiful cameras. Except for the funky letherette, I am inlcinded ot agree.
You can order a precut replacement cove in a variety of colors for this camera from Internet third parties. You can also easily cut and replace it yourself, since it requires no angles or fine cut-outs. Rubber cement works fine for this. It is apparently becoming a thing for a cult following of these cameras to replace with bright colors.
My Opinion of this Camera
I got my start in photography when my dad, an accomplished hobby photographer allowed me the use of his Yashica 44 EM Twin Lens Reflex Camera. I have owned a fleet of Yashica Cameras, and know them as a user as well as anyone, including earlier 35s. Had it not been for Yashica's less expensive offerings back then, I likely would have been unable to own anything in the way of viable cameras. But I am telling you without reservation, that the FX-D Model 35 SLR was in a class head and shoulders above all other Yashica cameras.
The Lens
This is an excellent lens that I take to be an aftermarket lens. But the design means that any lens made for this vintage Contax/Yashica mount will work. The Contax version featured a great Carl Zeis lens. The Yashica version lens was also very good. Part of my point, however,is that any of these lenses will fit the body, and they are not hard to find, inexpensively on the used market. The lens show did a good job for me, though I was not doing anything extraordinary with it during these tests. It is clean and provides a good range of zoom 28 to 70, and includes a protective skylight filter, rubber retractable shade, and a lens cap.
Note: I got cameras for my collection from various sources, not the least of which was eBay, but this particular camera was given to me by a dear friend who had owned and babied it over the years. He knew that I enjoyed and collected cameras and that I blogged about them. He got a new digital camera, and very thoughtfully gave it to me. I have enjoyed it as much as anyone can who has his choice of virtually any vintage camera in a digital age. Whatever I get for this camera on eBay will be given back as a surprise to my good friend.
This camera beat the famous Pentax Spotmatic features by Years! But it seldom gets the credit.
My blog has become a widely read resource among camera collectors for a historical "been there, done that" perspective of many vintage cameras. Ebay used to allow links to it, but not now, which is unfortunate because it is a great resource, and the reason I buy and seel these cameras via eBay. I make no attempts to be commercial in any way on my blog. You can find it by an Internet search using the title Photography for Profit or Fun. It is a Typepad Blog.
Historical Perspective
Mamiya is one of the oldest and most successful camera companies of all time. They are best known for their commercial Medium Format 6x6 and 6x7 120 film cameras in Rangefinder and Twin Lens Reflex Cameras that were produced over 70 plus years. Mamiya was known for unique design solutions, as one of their main founders and corporate officers was a gifted camera designer. The Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL was one of the series that was among the first 35 mm SLR cameras to come to market in the USA. Typical of previous Mamiya cameras, the camera body was relatively heavy. Heavy cameras were not undesirable to many photographers at the time. They were considered durable, and this camera body was much lighter than the medium format Mamiya cameras at that.
The 1000 DTL holds a place in camera history often attributed to the Pentax Spotmatic. The Spotmatic name referenced the on-camera ability to choose a spot metering point to electronically read an exposure. But the Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL camera shown here preceded the Pentax with this feature. The D stands for Dual, meaning dual-metering--either Spot or Average electronic metering through the lens. The TL stands for through the lens; this was all a big deal at the time. It was a very advanced camera in history. There are actually two separate light meter cells incorporated in the body to achieve this. The selection is made by way of the film advance lever position. Camera history has largely obscured this advanced cameras abilities and deferred to the Asahi Pentax Spotmatic instead.
The Mamiya/Sekor uses a 42 mm lens mount which was the same as the early Pentax SLR's. At the time this was considered the standard mount and was used by many cameras. There are vast numbers of compatible lenses for this camera body. Although Pentax did not invent the mount, it is often called the Pentax Mount. It is also called the Universal Mount or just M42 Lens mount. It was also known as the Practica Mount. I have used lenses that came on a Pentax Spotmatic with this body. As we can see, even the removable Pentax viewfinder accessory Flash Mount, it interchanges with the Mamiya/Sekor. While some might guess these similarities to be the result of nefarious corporate espionage, the truth is that idea, design, and patent sharing was commonplace in the Japanese manufacturing camera world of this era. It is likely that Mamiya also shared their dual metering mode that inspired the very successful Spotmatic by Pentax.
Personal Experience with in a Historical Context with the Mamiya/Sekor Cameras
The 1000 indicates the top shutter speed. The first 35mm SLR I ever had unfettered access to was a Mamiya/Sekor TL500. It was made available to me as I assisted my High School Annual Staff and Newspaper with their photography needs. I was in Junior Highschool, but was allowed to assist because I was already taking photographs with a Yashica 44 TLR camera that used 127 roll film. I ahd also used Rollie TLRs belonging to my dad. I was enamoured by the mystical 35 mm cameras. I had used an old Argus I had found in some junk, and was not much impressed. but the Mamiya/Sekor opened up a whole new world of 35 mm capabilities to me. I used it with a huge over the shoulder batter pack and a Graphlex Electronic flash that would light up the whole football field at night--and them develop and print 5x7s to submit to the local newspaper. Although I still preferred the forgiving enlargements from the large 120 film, the 35 mm was not that much smaller than those from my 127 film. And wala, it gave me 36 exposures. what a boon! I have owned hundreds of 35 mm SLR cameras since I first had access to my first Mamiya/Sekor camera, but this camera holds a special place both in my own memory and in camera history. This is a must for any camera collector.
This old lens is my senior by a few years, and I am retired. It was designed for the Hasselblad 1600 and 1000 Models; these were the models that debuted the Hasselblad prior to the V Series with the leaf shutters that made them king of professional medium format cameras. The chrome looks pretty good, but as I examined the glass, this is a really clear lens.
A Hasselblad case good enough for those who could afford the very best. As I recall the one of my contemporary Rockefeller--Winthrop Rockefeller, "Junior".
I have long been a big Hasselblad early V Series fan. I have owned a fleet of 500's--C's, CM's, EL's, ELM's. I was a user back in the day, and although I have generally moved on by now, using mostly digital cameras for my current work--I still feel very secure with these old film cameras. They were built with mechanical precision offering a balance and feel that inspired confidence in what has been called human-engineering. The term is used to describe precision and user intuitive interaction. Hasselblad approached the market as a high-end alternative to Twin Lens Reflex Medium Format Cameras of the time--namely Rolliflex and the numerous emulators. They borrowed from the designs of the up and coming 35 mm Single Lens Reflex Cameras with interchangeable lenses.
The company formed by Victor Hasselblad chose to emulate many of the marketing practices of the day used by other high-end camera companies. In addition to Rollie, they obviously looked at another highly respected Lieca camera company in their model for marketing and support. A big part of this was packaging. Packaging and all the dressing and frills of the high-end image. And this they successfully did. This is the reason such things as this custom-fitted camera cases for these cameras came about. Such camera cases never had much real utility. Few working photographers used them. Some bought them in a package deal or kit as they are now being called, but most of these were either bought as a consequence of a display model having one--to make it as pretty and as lush and as expensive as it possibly could--in order to help justify the hefty price-tag.
A few others of these cases were custom ordered by well-funded hobbyists or others who wanted the best and wanted it all. I recall working as darkroom technician and general flunky for a hometown photographer who was doing some publicity work for Winthrop Rockefeller, one of the brothers who had settled atop Petit Jean Mountain in Arkansas with a cattle farm and agriculture research center and who became the frist Republican governor. His son, whom we affectionately called Winnie, was just a few years older than I. He was a pleasant enough fellow. I recall him bringing his new Blad around. I was not envious, I was just dumbfounded. I think I even had to refresh his memory on how to unload one of the 120 film backs.
Winthrop Paul Rockefeller [although he was the only son of Winthrop Aldrich Rockefeller, he was never a Junior] explained to me that he did not have then entire set-up with him, but even so, it was decked out in a large brown leather Hasselblad case. Within was a sparkling chrome (they made a few gold-plated models) 500 CM--inside another camera cover like the one shown here. It had a normal 80 mm lens attached back and a regular waist-level finder. It all fit nicely within the purple velvet inside the leather case. It was just like the one I have in my collection--the one pictured here. I have had several other variants, but mine now, and his then, are the only two such leather covers like this one that I have ever actually seen. You don't even see many pictures of these--but there are a few references that show them. I know they are very hard to come by as in rare. This is not hard to understand. It was only buyers like Winny Rockefeller--who, as the sole heir to his dad's share of the vast Rockefeller wealth, could have anything money could buy.
I have always felt a little sorry for Winny. I am not sure why. He was educated all over the world--materially blessed with all the advantages of privileged. He became a successful politician and the Lt. governor of Arkansas. He would likely have followed in his father's footsteps to become a governor of Arkansas, had it not been for being stricken at a relatively young age with a rare blood disease. To me, he just always seemed a little insecure and lost. He was the same age as my next oldest brother--four years my senior--and had everything, but still, I felt sorry for him.
But I did not feel much sorrow for him at that particular moment. It was hard for me to conceive of this kind of wealth. It still is. I recall seeing a Forbes list near the end of his life that showed him as 286th or wealthiest individuals). He was a nice enough guy, if a little odd in my estimation. Why wouldn't he be? I was also very sorry to hear of his death in 2006. I reserve a special place in my heart for his father--who, inspite of whatever personal faults he may have, was the first Republican to break the long-standing corruption then associated with the Democratic political machine of Governors in Arkansas, including another colorful character I knew--Orval Faubus--of then 1959 Central High civil Rights fame. Governor also did much to root out the over-the-top lawlessness and gambling in of 1960's Hot Springs Arkansas.
Here is an iPhone shot of the case that I now have, which I am about to list on eBay. Isn't it funny that I have resorted to iPhone images for such things. Hey, I have always been a practical guy. Check it out.
Note: I sold this case on eBay; I had been offered a good bit more than I got for it, so it was just a matter of timing and the luck of the draw. I am glad the guy who won the bid got it, however. He provided additional information about the origin and history of this case. Here is what he said: Hello PapaD, Many thanks for your message, I am indeed looking forward to the case, you're right it is a rare case, but was issued only for the Hasselblad 1600f, although the 1000F will fit also, it probably should have achieved a bit more cash for it than it did. These cases were made in America for the American market and not really available in Sweden, they had their own version in 1949/50 called 'The Swedish Sheath case' and maybe all the 1600F collectors have already got one, the American version was called 'Domestic Sheath'. Anyway enough of that, but thanks also for the pics of packaging etc, much appreciated. I will check your other items also. Kind regards & best wishes, Robbie.
4x5 was at one time considered medium format. Today it is considered more Large Format.
The Graphic 4x5 view camera became very popular almost immediately. It's
monorail design, as opposed to dual rail view cameras, was designed
with the rack and pinion under the rail and out of sight.
Okay, I have taken quite a hiatus from posting about old cameras. That's because I stalled out in the liquidation of my once very large vintge camera collection. I still have a lot of cameras left and I am still planning to liquidate them. So, now I am back, sort of. I'll ease back into this with no promise of finishing the project anytime soon, but I truly do hope to, as the cameras are doing no-one any good at the moment, unused, un-viewed, essentially in storage. I have a few more medium format cameras, TLR Twin Lens Reflex and SLR Single Lens Reflex Cameras as well as several old folding models. I may even have a Crown Graphic or two in whole or in parts, before I move on to a fairly vast number of 35 mm cameras.
This phone grab is not the best image, but I included it because I am trying to get back up and running with posts on the remaining vintage cameras before I sell them, and this was what I had on hand. What may here appear to be a flaw in the lens is a reflection of one of the shutter blades. The lens is actually quite clear. The lens-board, used to mount the lens to the front standard, is cosmetically not the greatest craftsmanship. Whomever undertook this job was obviously looking for mere utility. The mount works just fine, but the hacksaw cuts are a bit rugged, and the home-made adapter sort of thingy used to make it tight is, well, homemade. But it works just fine. I give them a A for effort and ingenuity. This was probably done pre-Dremmel Tool.
But I for sure have one good 4x5 Graflex Graphic View Camera which sets as a user albeit mostly unused on a sturdy old Bogen tripod. 4x5 was at one time considered medium format. Today it is considered more Large Format. At the time, greater film size equated to greater image quality. This is still true, but film emulsions, to say nothing of digital image sensors. offer much better quality with smaller formats. This Graphic is one of several million cameras produced and marketed by Graflex during the war-torn decade of the nineteen-forties. At the time, large format view cameras were the standard for studio and product work. They still hold a place for much of the latter. Most sources say 1940-1949 was the production period for this camera. When the updated version of this camera came out in 1949 as the Graphic II it was largely what we would call today a relaunch. The new model was not much different but for being designed from the onset to accommodate several accessories including the Graflok roll-film back. The bellows was a bit longer.
This little camera originally sold for less than a hundred-bucks, which was a significant capital equipment investment in the early 1940's. [I looked this up and the buying power at the time was a little over 10x what it is now, so the investment would have been about like a thousand dollars now. This does not tell the entire story, however. At the time, money was harder to come by. There was a lower percentage of people who had access to money. There was less money in the money supply, even given the higher value of the money then, and there was much less inclination of and sources for getting money to invest, so, however you cut it, this was not a casual expense for a photographer, but it was much less expensive than many competing cameras that offered feature for feature.] Still, it was relatively inexpensive for the day. It was by no means a pricey camera. This little camera is not little by todays standards, but it was lighter than most, while still offering all the movements required of a view camera.
Most sources say 1940-1949 was the production period for this camera.
The Graphic 4x5 was intended to take the photography world by storm as a mass-produced, all-metal framed view camera suitable for studio work, and with the optional carrying case. [I actually have been unable to determine if this useful case was an option or was standard with each camera. I have read some sources that insist that it was standard, which makes good sense, because the camera is very unwieldy without a case.
The Graphic 4x5 was intended to take the photography world by
storm as a mass-produced, all-metal framed view camera suitable for
studio work, and with the optional carrying case.
On the other hand, photographers were always looking for ways to save a few bucks. If the camera was to be used exclusively in the studio, a case would have been an unnecessary additional expense. I just dunno this for sure. I have never had a case with any of mine, which were all acquired secondhand.] The case was said to be light and portable enough for location work for architecture or product photography or even scenics. I have actually never seen one, but I believe that the case started out being made of wood, and was therefore quite heavy, it was later made of a synthetic material, maybe Vulcanite. One source cited below says that the case was made from Vulcanite. Vulcanite is a material that was patented by Goodyear in 1946. It is made from rubber and sulphur combined at high heat. It was often used as a artificial replacement for a mineral of the hard coal family that occurs naturally called Jet, from whence the term Jet-Black comes from. Vulcanite and Bakelite were two of the castable materials that were being used for camera body coverings and cases during this time. The earliest Graphic View camera cases were made from wood, as was usual at the time, sometimes covered with leather. Vulcanite was a much lighter and much less expensive material and it makes sense that this case would have been made out of it, at least after 1946 or even earlier as produced on a Patent Pending basis.
The Graflex Graphic is today among the best bargains in vintage view cameras for those wanting to learn View Camera techniques and gain the advantages of image quality aforded by 4x5 film as ell as the movements which can correct visual distortions more efficiently than can even the most advanced post-camera computer software. They are highly sought today by photography students and both amateur and professional photographers because there are still a lot of them to be had, and they are not prone to deterioration if they have not been abused or damaged by the elements. Because the large numbers still in supply against the fairly steady demand, these cameras were then and are today more than ever one of the mainstay go-to view cameras. This is because they were then and are now good cameras.
The Graphic 4x5 view camera became very popular almost immediately. It's monorail design, as opposed to dual rail view cameras, was designed with the rack and pinion under the rail and out of sight. The T-design, or V-Notch as it is often referred to, provided rail sturdiness and great flexibility of movement, both essential for a good view camera. Aluminum was still fairly novel in manufacturing. Owing mostly to aircraft production, aluminum had begun to come into its own during the first part of the 19th Century.
The aluminum base that connects the camera securely to the tripod head was precisioned machined using pre-modern production techniques that were then leading-edge methods. The base is an integral and necessary part of the camera. Although this base is propriatary, there is some evidence that other bases were used as on-hand from photograpers' other existing cameras and that some tripods of the period included bases that were compatable with the Graphics. One fact that may support this is that the cameras could be purchased without the base. I can think of no other reason for this as the cameras were too big and unwieldy to have been hand-held. We must always bear in mind too that photographers of this era had to be self-sufficient and inventive. Just as with parallel technologies that were developing during this time, such as radio and othe remerging electronics, most improvements and developements originated in the field. It was not uncommon for photogaphers to make their own cameras dring this time. Since View Cameras were among the first camera designs ever, proliferating during the nearly one-hundred years leading up to this time, photographers had a lot of old carcasses to scrounge parts from. Photographers, and people in general, often made things for themselves.
Wooden view camera frames were the norm prior to this time. In fact, great pride of workmanship made pre-WWII cameras things of beauty. Subtle or ornate wood grains were coupled with shiney brass hardware and black or earthtone bellows in every-bit as much the fashion statements from camera makers. This camera was a departure from these beautiful old cameras. The distinct aluminum frame and polished stainless hardware was paired with the red bellows marked a new era in good-enough mass production. These were and are pretty cameras, but they were intended to say new, new, new, buy me! You can afford me! Don't be old-fashioned.
Since View Cameras
were among the first camera designs ever, proliferating during the
nearly one-hundred years leading up to this time, photographers had a
lot of old carcasses to scrounge parts from. Photographers, and people
in general, often made things for themselves.
These metal cameras have out-worn wooden cameras. It is interesting to note that one non-metal part of this camera, a not so important one, was the handle grip made on my camera at least of bakelight. Bakelight was a pre-plastic plastic that was being widely used for a lot of things during this period made from a castable concoction of carbolic acid and formaldahyde that would harden. I call Bakelite a pre-plastic plastic dependent upon how you define plastics, which is not a universal thing. It was widely used during the first half of the last century prior to the development of Nylon 66 and other petroleum-based plastic plastics. In one since, I suppose that Bakelite could be considered the first plastic widely used. Bakelite was used for all manner of electrical knobs and fixtures. It was even used to make camera bodies for inexpensive cameras. As it turns our, Bakelite wore pretty well. But it weakens over time and eventually becomes brittle and cracks and crumbles. This happened to the handle grip on this particular camera. Why they did not use a wooden or metal part for this is understandable, but it is a flaw.
This imge shows the newly homemade handle replacement grip.
[I could not leave this alone. After writing about this, I went to the shop and made a quick handle from a piece of wooden dowel. It is larger than life. I have not tried it while taking pcitures, but if you want it smaller or more original, it can be made smaller or removed with a hacksaw. Personally, I think it is an improvement over the dinky little original Bakeight handle grip, as you must turn it to tighten or loosen the movement of the mount. The bigger wooden grip makes this much easier. It will certianly be an improvement over the missing handle grip.
View cameras can be said to be simple cameras, but they are also very sophisticated. This ain't no Brownie box camera. Some knowledge of operation and skill are required in order to produce basic photographs, but a skilled photographer can do so much more than basic photography. The view camera design is among the earliest camera designs, but they are still very much in use today. Two rectangle frame parts called Standards in the front and in the back of the camera, are connected in a light-tight fashion using flexible bellows, which can be tilted and turned on both horizontal and vertical axises in combination in such a manner as to creatively distort the image which is projected from the lens in the front onto the frosted ground glass at the back film plane where it is observed and carefully manipulated and focused.
A flip-up groundglass cover and hood may provide enough darkness for simple subject composition and focus. For finer focus a dark-cloth is used to drape over a user's head and the glass to provide a darker environment for focusing images. Once focused and set, a piece of cut film held in, of all things, a film holder, is then inserted and held in place while the exposure is made. Roll-film backs were just becoming more popular during the Graphic was being produced. Although some roll-film backs were available, even from Graflex, they were not immediately incluuded as an option. Inventive photograpahers have always home-made adaptations. I have seen various such devices used for rollfilm and smaller cut-film sizes.
Without getting into an entire desertation about the operation and use of View Cameras, may I merely say that there are many useful features that are unavailable on other kinds of cameras by using view camera movements in such a way to distort the image--which effectively corrects the lines that our eyes would otherwise interpret as distortion. Our brains normally interpret the whomper-jawed lines that otherwise objectively hit the film; such distortions--which actually become corrections--are made visually as compose on the frosted glass. Our eyes and brains want to see an image in two-demiensions that as nearly replicate what our eyes see in corrected 3-D, or we become unsettled. A view camera's movements can be used to make these lines straighter and uniformly spaced as we view images in 2-D.
Note a couple of other embelishments visible in the pictures. There is a level on top of the back standard. On top of the front standarda screw is evident. This is the accessory accomodation. It is for mounting a flash, which though awkward in appearance since the flash mounts siedways, it works fine that way. It could also be used to mount anoher level, or a reflector or a flat lens shade. Speaking of lens shades, you could lso buy an optional one for the lens or to mount on this accessory attaching screw, although photographers often used a hand or a hat for this.
Lenses could be bought with the Graphic body. However, there is nothing exotic about the lens-board mount. Mounts for lenses had become very standard by this time in camera history. Lenses were widely available, and although optically superior coatings designed to deliver better color renditions were being developed during this time, black and white photography was still the standard. Color film emulsions were available, but color photography was still in relative infancy. By the time I was born in the early fifties and a few years later observing my dad make color transparencies in the darkroom--Dad was a very advanced amateur photographer. Color photography then only represented a very small percentage of even professionally produced photographs. The big color boom was a decade or more away during the production years of the Graflex Graphic. My point is that a lot of extraordinarily good glass lenses were available by the time the Graphic came to be that could and were used on the camera body.
When choosing a view camera lens, several factors need to be considered as with any camera that can accommodate interchangeable lenses. Focal length as used for any given type of photography is the foremost consideration in my estimation. Once this is established, the optical quality is certainly the primary concern. If you plan to use the lens with electronic flash, which you most probably will if it is used in a studio, you will want to have a lens that is X-Synchronized, meaning that the shutter is completely open at the time the flash fires. Otherwise you may get no image or only a partial image. This was not a consideration prior to the electronic flash, although similar considerations were. Flash bulbs fired at much slower speed. Shutters were designed to be open when the flash bulb had reached its peak illumination. You will see vintage lenses that have no Sync at all, those with M or B Sync, and those with a combination of choices such as B, M, and X that are lever adjustable. There are other variants on this theme.
View cameras can be said to be simple cameras, but they are also very
sophisticated. This ain't no Brownie box camera. Some knowledge of
operation and skill are required
The B that is often regarded as being synonymous with time exposures as activated by pushing and holding town the shutter release for a time as determined off-camera and then closed when the exposure is finished, actually was intended to be used with early flashbulbs--thus the B designation. The idea was to make the studio completely dark, open the shutter, fire the flashbulb, and then while still in the dark, close the shutter. In this way, the only light that reached the film was that created by the flashbulb. The shutter and the bulb were effectively placed in sync in a primitive way. This technique still has some useful and unique applications such as using a method of lighting large objects, such as airplanes at night, called light-painting.
There are sophisticated methods of testing lens/flash synchronization. The easiest and most reliable is to take a series of test pictures and the process the film to see if they were indeed in sync. I they are not, it will be evident. I have always felt that a quick test could be done in the field and ont he fly, by holding a lens up at a distance from your eye where you can clearly focus while simultaneously blocking out extraneous light and clicking the shutter while an electronic flash is attached. If the lens is in proper sync you will see the image and the after image of the flash in a complete circle. I am told that this is not an accurate measure, but it has not failed me in half a century. It's a good trick to know when fooling with vintage cameras.
The lens that I have on my old Graphic View camera is a very optically high quality lens that was designed to be used with one of the original professional quality Polaroid Land Cameras. It is Prontar lens of 127 mm focal length. Polaroid Land Cameras were the earliest examples of instant image cameras which created quite a stir in the days when instant images such as we commonly see in digital cameras was unheard of. The images were not even instant at that, and were not so good in every case. They were also restricted to black and white images at that time. There is nothing also-ran about this lens, however. It is a Rodenstock glass lens--from the late fifties or early sixties, I am guessing. Rodenstock was and still is a highy respected name in optics, particularly cameras. Although as with virtually every other corporate entity, the original Rodenstock is not the same company of superior german optics makers as it once was--it was at the time this lens was produced. Rodenstock was long the maker of the finest optics available.
So the lens works very well on this view camera. I did not do the adapting, but someone did. Other than the lens attachment to the lens board looking a little homemade in the cutting of the metal, it performs flawlessly with the camera. I am not sure that I know exactly how the 127 mm focal length of this lens translates to normal for 4x5, but it seems to be slightly wider than what is regarded as normal for 4x5 View Cameras.
The lens that I have on my old Graphic View camera is a very
optically high quality lens that was designed to be used with one of the
original professional quality Polaroid Land Cameras.
Of course any lens designed or adapted for the purpose can be used with this camera. The aperture on this lens goes from f/4.7 to f/45. While this is not astonishingly fast by today's standards, it is quite fast for the size of this lens. By fast, I mean in its light-gathering power at its widest opening. The shutter speeds range from B to 300. An EV or Exposure Value scale is also graduated on the lens. EV was a popular method of reckoning and changing exposures quickly during this time period. Many old lenses have this graduation, notably Hasselblad, Ziess, and Rodenstock lenses.
I apologize for the shaky phone pictures above. But the one on the left in particular was added as an afterthought to show the mechanism used to keep the lens aperture open while focusing the ground glass. you must push this lever first in and then to one or the other position to hold the lens open. This feature is necessary on a view camera to facilitate focusing as the image is projected from the lens, through the bellows, onto the frosted back ground glass. After the focus is made, but before the film is readied for exposure, the aperture is closed. Then the shutter is once again cocked. The film holder slide is removed and the shutter release is tripped. I recommend a shutter cable-release be used with this or any view camera, as it allows more mobility between the front and the back of the camera.
Interestingly, even though Rodenstock is now a massive world-wide supplier of quality optics still headquartered in Germany, the web-site reeks with poor translations into English. It is either computer generated or done by a translator heavily stilted with typical Japanese-English proclivities. Judging also from the misspellings found there--I don't think it is computer-generated. Oh well, I guess when you are such a well-known optics company, you can employee the CEO's grandson's girlfriend (or someone like unto) to translate web pages. Who cares??? ? Only OCD old camera buffs with marketing backgrounds I suppose. Unbelievable.
I replaced the age-crumbled Bakelite handle grip with one made of wooden dowel. Here is an IPhone Picture of it after this was done. While I was at it, I included a couple of images showing what a dark-cloth looks like. The photographer places this over his head at the viewing ending of the camera to provide enough darkness and contrast to easily see the image the lens projects onto the frosted ground glass for precision focus and composition. There is a pop-up viewing shade that is used for quick view without the dark-cloth.Showing in one image are two 4x5 cut0film holders. A piece of film is loaded in the dark into each side of a film holder. A dark-slide keeps the film from being exposed until the holder is in place in the camera back and the slide removed. The exposure is then made and the slide is replaced before the holder is turned to the other side or taken into the darkroom for processing. The image of a photographer with his head under the dark cloth standing behind the camera was the stereotypical portrayal of a photographer for nearly a hundred years. I don't see it used much anymore, and for good reason; modern digital cameras do not use this method much anymore, so the meaning would be lost on younger generations. I have sometimes wished for just such a cloth while using digital cameras with a LCD display.
I have had fun taking pictures of nature's photographic bounty over the years. During the past few years I have taken a lot of pictures of dragonflies. Lately, I have found it impossible to not give some camera attention to hummingbirds. According to the experts, this summer was banner for them; I live smack in the migration path of three varieties and I live very close to an Audubon Center that hosts an annual festival commemorating them as they congregate to fatten up prior to their dangerous flight across the gulf of Mexico, where they winter. I have always taken pictures of animals and birds both wild and domestic when the opportunities presented themselves. I have also spent some time actively stalking wildlife for the purpose of photographing them.
For thse interested in taking pictures of dragonflies, I'll prov e a few hints to get you started. It may not be rocket science to say begin by going to a local pond, lake, river, or stream. Even a swampy wet area that stays wet when other areas tend to dry up, sometimes called seeps, can be good places for dragons. Although not all dragonflies stay around water, they tend to stay fairly near water. Dragonflies and damselflies, or Odenates, spend a good portioh of their early lives under water where they are known as nymphs. Nymphs are famously imitated by fly fishermen. After a season under water, the nymph bodies have transformed into dragonflies. They climb up out of the water in spring and summer, crawl out of their nymph shells, and after drying their winds--fly off to live the rest of their relatively brief adulthood as the insect we commonly call dragonflies. Damselflies are closely related, but are generally smaller and have winds that angle more back toward their tails.
There are numerous species of Odenates. There are six broad categories of dragonflies. Since damselflies are a bit more reserved in both their habitat and their behavior, I recommend beginning your photographic excursions with dragonflies. Specifically, I recommend that you look along the edges of whatever fresh water you can find for those dragonflies that like to perch on the tops of weeds and limbs and outcrops to be seen. These guys are also often very curious and will come back around when they determine that you are not a threat to them. They may even land on you. I am always fascinated by how they will sometimes come hover right in your face as if to challenge you or size you up. This is part of their behavior that makes them interesting. I do not know if they are just checking you out, or trying to scare you off. But if you make no attempt to either retreat or to harm them, they quickly decide that they can coexist with you.
The longer you are around on a frequent basis, the less intimidated these insects are by you. You can then cautiously approach within a foot or so of them, so that even the most basic cameras will suffice for photographing them. Of course, the more capabilities you have for close-up focus, the better pictures you can potentially take. I usually have an inexpensive compact camera with zoom capabilities and a fairly good lens with me. Many of my best photographs have been done with one of these, although I also like to go out specifically looking for photographic opportunities along a creek or lake, with more capable cameras that allow greater adjust-ability and greater optical clarity. A telephoto macro zoom lens is what I often use during such cases. If I am wanting truly superb depth of field and clarity, I use a normal or slightly wide angle fixed lens. However, taking pictures with these requires greater patience and more expendable time to find and approach dragonflies and to get close enough to photograph them. I also sometimes use a fixed focus telephoto lens of an excellent quality.
In the order of progression as I have mentioned them, these lenses become more expensive. I want to make the point, though, that they are not necessary, except for the most exacting needs. You can do pretty well with an inexpensive digital camera if you follow a few rules. The first one I have already given you--seek those that perch near the water as they are most approachable. the second is to go during bright sun and warm weather with fairly calm winds. At the first signs of clouds or rain or wind and as evening approaches, most Odenates head for the shelter of tall grass or high tree trunks.
Using auto-focus initially, you may be able to get some nice shots. You'll probably want to set both your auto-focus area and your exposure readings on spot or at least heavily weighted toward the center. Once you try this you will see the limitations your are constrained to. Then you may want to use multi-spot auto-focus. You may also experiment with manual focus or auto with manual focus after option if you have it. Use automatic settings that use small f/stop apertures (larger numbers) or aperture priority with higher settings. Shoot at maximum resolutions. This gives you greater ability to crop after-the-fact if you are not that close to the bugs. If you have to in order to achieve the first objectives, use higher ISO settings, but understand that you will see a degradation in image quality.
I will repeat here a few basics that you may already know, but it never hurts to review their practical application as it applies to specific situations. I try to make my posts usable by the most basic photographers as well as provide a few insights usable by experienced ones. Depth of field is critically important in macro-photography, as the distances make the field of focus so shallow that part of a dragonfly may be in clear focus while another is not. This still may happen at times due to lighting, but there are things you can do to ensure the maximum depth of field.
First, realize that the smaller the aperture opening, which means the larger the numerical value of the f/stop, the greater the depth of field. This implies several other things that necessarily follow. The lower the shutter speed, the smaller opening you are able to use. this has practical limits. I remember my dad telling me when I was in the fourth grade of elementary school in Fairbanks, Alaska, as he allowed me to use his Yashica 44 EM Twin Lens Reflex camera in 1964, when I asked which of the combination of f/stops and shutter speeds that the built-in light meter offered, "Any of them". Dramatic pause to let it sink in and give rise to the natural questions that came from that not very satisfactory answer, "But use at least 1/125th for the shutter to stop the action." This is still pretty good advice. Camera shake alone can ruin an other-wise properly exposed photograph. There are more considerations than how much light you have. So, use the lowest shutter speed that stops the kind of motion required. Many digital cameras provide electronic warnings or refuse to take the picture until shaking has stopped at the camera. this does not provide for movement at the dragonfly. Another way of ensuring freezing action is to use the action preset, for Sports shots. This may NOT provide the optimum f/stop, however. One way to accomplish both needs is to use the "A" Aperture Priority setting. Choose a small f/stop such as f/16 or f/22. You will then need to adjust the ISO setting upward to increase the sensitivity if necessary in order to accommodate low light situations. Alternatively, you can use a fill flash, but everything has other ramifications. This may ruin the desirable natural lighting that you see on or in the camera. Choices may have to be made regarding which elements are most important. Don't fret about it, just shoot away with the best application of automatics and/or knowledge that you can muster on the fly, and plan to analyze and improve from there. I can tell you, that this process never ends, but with experience, you gain a broader understanding of what to do when to get what . . . . you want.
Of course, if you are trying to catch them on the fly, you'll want to use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the images enough to be meaningful. But having the wings blur a bit can be fun too. Get as close as you can to the dragonflies. This becomes easier as they get used to you and decide that they are not a threat. Many of the bigger dragonflies will actually approach you and hover in your face to look you over. I don't know if they are actually challenging you and trying to protect their territories or if they are simply curious. But they are inclined to land on any outcrop. I use this tendency to my advantage and will sometimes place a pointed object out above the others--such as along a pond bank. They will very often land on it to claim it for themselves. The males like to be seen and be positioned where they can see intruders. Use this to your advantage.
Another way to gain greater depth of field in any photograph is to back up. This has its problems when you are taking macro pictures of insects. You are trying to get close or give the appearance of being close. If you are able to get close, using a wider angle lens or zooming out to a wider angle view will provide greater depth of field--but, of course this necessitates getting physically closer to compensate. You never know how close your quarry will allow you to get, so take a lot of pictures as you go, moving ever closer for additional sets.
Conversely, using a telephoto lens will give you a closer view, however, the depth of field diminishes greatly by so doing. Quality telephoto lenses, that is, those that provide critically sharp focus, become exponentially expensive as the magnification increases. But even this factor can be moderated by obtaining good used equipment. I have posted previously precisely about how to achieve this aim.
I generally advocate using just the highest resolution in megapixels that each job requires, but when it comes to these kinds of photographs, I recommend using the maximum allowed for almost all images. The reasoning behind this has to do with the ability to crop and enlarge just a small portion of the image in the event that you are not able to get close enough to fill the frame up. This is very useful, but it may affect the speed at which your camera can process the images within the camera in much the same way that using a fill flash has to wait to recharge subsequent filled shots. Both of these concerns are applicable for each use under given quick-shoot applications.
You will likely notice the advantage of manual focus or auto-focus plus manual tweaking, if you camera allows this function, as you take more pictures. Even as you maximize your depth of field, you may find the focus being not exactly where you wanted it to be. Your camera may choose to focus on the perch rather than the bug. This can be minimized by using spot-focus settings. More sophisticated digital cameras will allow automatic focusing, with tweaking or fine tuning after the focus has been done automatically, but this is usually a separate focus setting. It can be a very useful feature, but your eyesight, the camera display, or viewfinder view must all be considered.
Manual focus surely has its applications with dragonflies and other macro photography work. The aforementioned auto-plus feature has its limits. Some digital cameras offer manual focus assist that imposes a stark outline in one of several choices of colors of whatever is in the clearest focus. I sometimes use this with yellow. In the fall, I may have to vary the color. But familiarity with this feature as well as manual focus without this assistance should be practiced before you get into a mission critical situation. You may want to utilize the memory or so-called Soft-Keys or Buttons to facilitate going from one feature to another.
I am throwing a lot of ideas out there. If these put you off and become confusing, be assured that you only have to use them if you want to. As I have already written multiple times, use whatever you are comfortable with. But a once over of all of the features your camera offers is still a good idea, just to know what you may have the capacity to do with any given camera.
There are other considerations, but this should get you started. You may wonder, so, given all this, what is the best way to do it. The best way is whatever way will get the job done for you. Beyond this, I can tell you what I use. I have a homemade, actually, a home-altered, flash bracket that was originally intended to mount an off-camera flash above a camera, so as to direct the background shadow down and out of the field of view when taking candids of wedding and other such events. Instead of having a flash mounted on the top platform as intended, I have another camera mounted. I use used Sony NEX 5N camera bodies which have a respectable 16 megapixel maximum resolution. Next round, I will probalby ge the next rung up in resolution, but this has proven pretty good, even for the picture books I do.
Onto one camera body, I have a fairly wide angle to fairly telephoto zoom lens mounted. to the bottom body, I have a lens that picks up wehre the other telephoto leaves off and goes several times farther in the tele direction. To reduce expense, I use old Minolta lenses intended for analog cameras, but new enough to tap into the electronics of the Sony cameras. This also requires an intelligent adapter made by Sony, which I am pretty impressed with. It has limits, but it works under most circumstances. I also carry a 2x tele-converter sometimes if I am on a serious expedition--which is not that often. When I am into this serious mode, I wear a photography vest with lots of pockets. I don't like to carry a bag at all. I may also have a compact digital camera in my pocket. I have considered rigging my frame so that I could turn it to the handle side where I would ideally have the compact camera mounted. I have not been compelled to do this, but I may experiment with it.I also have an integrated flash on one of he cameras.
Yes, this is a fairly cumbersome and heavy set-up by today's standards. I came up through the ranks with heavy analog cameras, some which easily weighted twice as much; at least for me, there is a case to be had for being able to hold such heavy and physically larger rigs steadier for slow shutter speed shots without a tripod. I don't necessary recommend it, but it can be an upside. I may have a remote-controlled radio-slave driven off-camera flash either mounted on the rig for the non-integrated flash camera--still a smallish one--in a vest pocket. I may have a very good prime fixed focus lens or two as well, but this is getting more esoteric than I usually want to get. If it become too much more complex and heavy as to adversely effect my mobility, I will likely find myself less motivated to go take dragonfly pictures.
For this reason, the little compact pocket automatic Sony or any other brand remains a viable alternative. Most of my insect pictures are taken coincident to other activities whether it be hiking or fishing or traveling. It is virtually always there. I have worn out at least three of these, which does not cast aspersions on their quality. They are what they are, and they are not expensive. I am happy with them. I also am considering trying a waterproof and shock-resistant variant of a compact digital camera for even greater versatility and rigors.
During the Fall or late Summer, Odenates will couple to mate--even in mid-air. This provides unusual photographic opportunities. All Odenates are predators. They eat many harmful insects. Some also eat one another. I recently photographed something that I regarded with both fascination and horror. One female Pond Hawk was attacking another from behind and devouring her. The one being attacked might well have been able to escape but for the smaller male who was simultaneously mating with her. Such photographs place both amateurs and professionals on a par as they are able to participate in scientific research and input these photographs, along with dates and times of sightings that go into a database used to learn more about these animals.
Although I have spent a lifetime as a professional photographer to one degree or another--sometimes pursuing it full-time, while at other times only part-time, I am also an amateur Naturalist. I am currently pursuing a course of study that will certify me as such. This is only important to me as it helps me better understand plants and animals in a desire to help protect them from extinction, control them as a good steward over the environment and simply learn more about them. The more I learn about these animals the more incredulous becomes the whole idea of anything less than an intelligent design, and the less probability it seems to me that e everything evolved accidentally, as it were.
It is hard to ignore fossil evidence of Natural Selection playing a part in animal and plant diversity, but it is a huge leap with a gazillion unexplained gaps jumping form one species to another. Evidence of dragonflies goes back millions of years before even dinosaurs walked the earth and then fell extinct. They have survived Ice Ages and climate changes longer than most other beings. Yes, I feel sure that improvements via Natural Selection has played a role in this diversity, but the nuances in design and behavior that makes these insects so incredibly interesting shows the creative hand of both an Artist and a practical Creator, perhaps even with a pleasing sense of divine humor.
Although I accept that I may be able to make some scientific contribution, even if by mere accident, by taking these pictures, my motivation is primarily amazement and appreciation for their beauty. If I can capture just a smidgen of that displayed by dragonflies and other insects and birds, humming and otherwise, and all the other subjects nature presents, I will be well-satisfied. This is not hard for anyone to do.
I have expressed in at least one previous post how at one time, having become burned-out as a photographer, because I did not allow enough time to take these kinds of pictures in preference to those that had immediate and demanding commercial application, that I had all but stopped taking pictures. I found more enjoyment in collecting old relic cameras, most of which I had been contemporary with, and writing about them. This was well and good, and I did make a significant contribution with related posts, but it did not scratch that creative itch that photography had scratched early on, and did so for so many decades. My wife bought me a simple little compact digital camera to carry in my pocket. I had several highly-featured digital cameras and had kept myself up-to-date with software and technology, but the u.ndeniable accessibility of the little Sony camera, got me taking pictures again.
With the little pocket camera, I found myself unable to squelch that part of my minds-eye that had become finally honed over a lifetime with a particular style of composition and rendering images more or less the way I see them screamed too loudly to be ignored. It was intuitive. I used the full automatics for the most part at first, but fairly soon, the understanding of the mechanics and physics of photography kicked in and I found myself using them to make manual adjustments or tricking the automatics into shortcuts to the same end. The gift, or curse, came back. I am limited and contained more by circumstances now, but the eye and the inner voice is there alive and well. This is what dragonflies and flowers and birds and grand-kids and a thousand other things have given me.
If a dragonfly of these varieties is startled and leaves his perch, don't give up or dispair. they will ften circle back around and return to the same or a narby perch. Sit down or just stay still. You may even want to take opportunity to advance to a better position, counting upon his return. If he does not return, his perch may well uickly be occupied by another dragonfly.
I will never allow this voice to be overpowered and silenced again. I hope that other photographers will take note and beware that this does not happen to them. Feed the creative need a little all along. If ever you feel photography becoming drudgery, step back and take steps to change whatever it is that is doing this. It is not the fault of your camera. It is your own abuse of your gifts. Stop it.
If you are taking photographs for identification purposes, take as many angles as possible.
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Welcome
Creating photo books is increasingly becoming one of the most popular ways to get your digital photos off your computer and into your hands. Printing individual photos and having to insert them into those clunky albums is okay, but not very original. It's hard to be creative within the limitations of a 4x6 plastic sleeve but with digital photo books, the possibilities are endless. Traditional scrapbooking has also gone digital and stickers don't actually have to "stick" anymore. Hello digi-scrapping!
With the myriad of photo book publishers offering their own spin on the digital photo book, it can be extremely time consuming and confusing to figure out which company is best and what features and products are available. I have been printing photo books for about 5 6 years now, and a lot has changed in even that short period of time. I find myself excited to try the newest company and to find the latest deals, and I'm happy to pass that information along to you.
This picture book introduces children to Odonates, the scientific name for dragonflies and damselflies. I use a little amber dragonfly of the variety that hang out by our pool to narrate the tour of a few other friends. His name is Peter, thus Pete's Dragons, an obvious play on the animated movie Pete's Dragon, singular. Peter is pretty sure that he is a not only a dragonfly, but a Fairy. Who are we to judge?
Although it may seem obvious to some, increasingly, it is not; I am sometimes quizzed by those heirs to the digital world who did not cut their photographic teeth on film cameras or even the earlier digital cameras regarding the use of manual functions such as exposure, aperture settings, and focus. Coming from the ancient world preceding greater electronic technology in cameras, it is second nature to me since it at one time was the only way available. But this is intended neither to disparage the younger crowd, nor to imply that I do not fully enjoy the increased versatility afforded by the latest and greatest technology. I am, was, in season, a hearty technology buff and often among the first to try new features whenever it was offered. I have been less so in recent years, not for want, but for practicality. I cannot always justify and even less frequently fennigle the use of the newest stuff. I might could, but I don't.
Still, I will answer this question of manual feature usage with a few examples. I am not saying that there are not other work-rounds or that these are the best ways to get from point A to point B, but in some cases it may be exactly the best way. The first case in point will default to a common automatic point and shoot with manual override capabilities and the second will be a more sophisticated camera that offers both a full range of automatic settings as well as manual capabilities.
I was going to comment about these, but is it really necessary? I rest my case. However I will add to my endorsement of a couple of other hybrid features. Manual focus with a mode that allows you to tweak and adjust minutely after the auto-focus is done, is useful--however, it does not replace completely manual focus. Here's why. What we used to call Zone Focusing, relies on either a scale on the lens barrel that corresponds to the aperture setting, indicating what is in acceptable focus at any given f/stop. It is especially useful in fast-moving photography such as sports.
It is easy to use with or without a scale on your lens. You simply manually focus on an object at about the same distance that you want to shoot a scene at--one that will fill the frame and show the action as it comes within a given range. You then choose the smallest aperture setting (largest aperture number) that provides a shutter speed that sufficiently stops the action. You then wait until the action is within that range, pan with the motion, and shoot. The farther depth-of-field provided by the small aperture opening maximizes the depth of field.
I have recently used this method to photograph dragonflies in mid-air. The reason the autofucus with manual tweaking does not work well while using this technique, is that it takes too much time refocusing and does not settle down quickly enough for you to tweak. Straight Manual Focus works best for this.
Another consideration is the exposure. Depending upon the sophistication of your camera, the exposure might best be preset for the area where you expect to take the pictures. Doing this manually may be the best choice. You may just have to experiment. If the auto-exposure is up for the task, it can really be helpful. But it may also have a hard time trying to guess what effect you are going for.
Manual adjustments to provide a good combination for freezing action versus gaining greater depth-of-field and working in lower light situations are important concepts to understand, although, increasingly, presets provide for more situations using quickly settable icons. The way I use these icons are usually not for what they were intended or suggested to be used for. but it does not matter. If you understand the concepts behind why the settings work, and/or if you experiment to discover exactly what these settings do, you can then file that info away in your mind and use them under whatever conditions they work for your needs. I use these setting to cheat for simplicity and quickness quite a lot. I like presets for this reason, although there seems to always be times when manual settings work better.
Okay, so I like the first try with the free offer. I expanded the book to 12x12 amd more and bigger pictures, edited text, and forty pages. I ordered several more copies. I did not want to go hawg wild as we say here in the South, without seeing a finished book. They did hteir job, but I am not too confident of my own proffreading abilities. Stranger things have happened than ME making such mistakes. This is a good example of a company putting their money where their mouth is. They also piggy-backed another half-price coupon that I used.
I got the trial photo book back from Shutterfly. I had an offer for a free book. I got a hardback 8x8 with the twenty pages offered of a recent scenic float trip of the nearby Ghost River my sons took me on for a Father's Day gift. All I paid for the book was postage. Using Shutterfly's onboard software, the book was a cinch to layout. The turnaround was a matter of days and I had it in hand before I thought much more about it.
I am impressed sufficiently that I doubled the number of pages to forthy and added pictures to flesh out the book in the 12x12 hardback format and ordered half-dozen copies--for which I will pay list price less 20% from a coupon I got in the mail today. These guys are great marketers, but mostly the product is as advertised, an increasingly rare find.
I will gift each of my sons as well as our river guide friend with a copy, keep a copy for my coffee table, and place one on consignment at a country store near the river where kayakers stop. I may also provide a copy with the local library. I will imprint an email and web order URL in the book. This is all part of a continued postcard marketing effort that I first began dabbling in nearly forty years ago. I can surely tell you that it is a much easier prospect today then it was then. There is always a market for good scenic postcards by those who exercise a bit of enterprise making them and selling them wholesale.
Shutterfly's offer worked for them too. I will be ordering more books. I have a good dozen picture books of various photographic themes that I have long had in the making. Their freen photo book offer got me off of dead center and has brought those projects to the forefront so effectively that they are likely to actually get done this summer--likely within the next couple of weeks.
My earliest photographs were oriented toward storytelling. My mom was a writer. My dad was an advanced amateur photographer back in a day when photography was the high-tech photography of choice of the technically-inclined. Life Magazine, Look, and the Saturday Evening Post were picture vehicles that told the news in storied form with pictures. I had aspirations of becoming one of those photographers. Little did I understand that that particular medium would be so fleeting. Televison and moving photography supplanted them before I was even an adult. But I had already become a committed photographer for several newspapers. A savvy old newspaper editor taught me the importance of each photograph "telling a story".
I adapted my story pictures to my own stylized portraits of life in snapshots. People liked this style well enough for me to support my family for a good number of years, until I evolved and moved on to another aspect of my career. Still, I almost habitually seek to capture the life stories that unfold around me. The commonplace inevitably becomes cherished memories. Digital technology is especially adaptable for capturing our life stories.
There is something about freezing a moment in time for our later reflection that is lost in video capture. The ease of keeping an ongoing journal as it happens, along with our written thoughts, that makes it seem unimaginable to not participate in this process.
I sometimes fancy that these images and thoughts will mean something to future generations and perhaps help them in some way to not have to repeat the same mistakes that we make--or even give them a leg-up legacy of what did work--a blueprint of sorts for how to live effectively. I think artists have had similar aspirations since it all began. Else, what does it matter? I think we have a good shot now of succeeding in this. But I have always been an optimist.
Okay, here's the thing, I have a few Artists Screening passes that will get your entire family into this concert at the Grand Ole Opry House July 11th. I will be the official photographer, or will have someone there as such. These passes will cost you twenty bucks until I run out. The tickets are being sold at normal concert prices through Ticketmaster and the Opry Box Office, but these are available only through my contact.
You need to be aware of this event as a Nashville Artist. Applications and Auditions at a lot of levels are held Fall, Winter, and Spring, so you will want to know firsthand what this is about. It is a good paying gig for both known artists and this next year, one or more unknown featured artists. This event is in its sixth year and has flown under the radar pretty much as it is an adjunct to a choral festival that precedes it.
If you have or know children who may enjoy or need to be exposed to an example of how a classically trained children's choir can beautifully back-up artists from all music genres, these kids are among the best in the world--drawn from great child and youth choirs everywhere. If you have or know children who reside in Nashville, you will want to be aware of a local host-choir effort that begins this fall. Get them to this event.
If you need fund-raiser for your group, they have one that will easily generate big bucks fast for a well-networked organization--selling tickets to this event in the Nashville area.
You can contact me on Twitter or FB or via comments here and I will try to hook you up, but you need to respond quickly. It is a great family-oriented multiple style concert. It pairs a great professional symphony with celebrity artists and a mass children's choir that is out of this world. You've never seen anything like this unless you have attended this concert in past years.
The online marketing tools are in full bloom for any enterprising photographer. I just put together a photo book to try out a free promo for an 8x8 book using some of the same pictures I used in my previous post about The Ghost River, Wolf River float trip I took. It looks good online and it was easy enough. I could not get the promo code to come back up in the offer so I could plug it in after spending the time opening an account, choosing the photographs, and writing text to fit the text boxes--and I thought I had been had.
I opened a Chat dialog, but Rabish (Out-Sourced again) could not help me unless I had--guess what--a promo code from the offer. Then in an amazing stroke of good fortune and memory, I remembered that I had had the foresight to copy the promo code--and it was still in the clipboard. I tried it and it worked. The postage was reasonable. I hope the book is nice. If it is, I will reorder sufficient to gift each of my sons a copy and give one to the young guy that served as our guide. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Shutterfly is a big outfit and I am sure this kind of thing is old-hat to many. But I just have never used them much. I plan to. I am going to attempt to plug in source code they provided for sharing the online book and an offer now. I hope it works.
In order to display these images fully or to make the small ones larger you may double-click them.
To most people, the Ghost River, a section of the Wolf River near Memphis, particularly in the summer, is at best nasty black-water slough--or at worst, a haven for life-threatening perils such as snakes and toxic plants. Indeed this picture illustrates at least some credence to their views. Scenes such as the one below abound along the river. Though they make a pretty contrast of colors, this picture consists of deadly toad-stool surrounded by lush Poison Ivy. The poison Ivy is abundantly hanging from the trees that overhang the river and they easily brush against your face. You need to readily identify the tell-tale triple leaflets and be ready to dodge them if possible. It is not always possible. But you'd do best to leave these toad-stools alone. Bright colors mean beware.
There was a time when I would throw a canoe on my car and go out somewhere all day; if I thought to tell anyone where I was going, it was usually in passing. Those times are gone, but not the desire.
At had plenty of gear with me on this trip. I was not sure what to expect. I have done plenty of whitewater in both canoes and kayaks. This is not that. But it does have its own navigational perils in the form of obstacles and current pressing you against trees and stumps to get hung up on--so I had my good stuff stowed in dry-bags with the intent of breaking it out after I got a feel for what I was facing. I had a small Sonypoint and shoot in a plastic bag to start with.
It was a Father's Day gift of sorts. I have
wanted to do the Ghost River Section of the Wolf for pictures for a long
time, but it would have been irresponsible for me to have done so
alone, because it disappears into a cypress swamp where you
sometimes have to pick the channel out. It can take forever. B has a
young church friend who has made the float numerous times, so he
arranged to have the guy guide us this trip, not knowing exactly what to
expect. C was happy to join. I have devised a specially outfitted
sit-on-top kayak that allows me to recline onto a beanbag, or I would
not be able to go at all. My rig is wider and longer than a river kayak
should be. With me on it it also draws a lot of water, so it is not as
fast or nimble. Each took a turn coming back to assist me. They were
literally paddling circles around me--but at least I was there.
I am old school. I am all about clear, properly exposed photographs. Although I have always been prone to experimentation with special effects so that I know how to do them and their possibilities when they are called for as tools to project my own interpretations of my environment--or as called for to illustrate particular products or points--I have seldom used special effects for the sake of special effects alone.
I used a soft software filter on this photograph after-the-fact in keeping with the motif I had revised on the fly from a pure documentary-style representation of this kayak trip. I arrived at this idea when I was unsure of whether I wanted to crack out my good gear and have it exposed to the elements. But most of these images were created in the camera, without special filers or software. Let me make a few points about this. I have long advocated a no excuses approach to delivering the goods when it comes to professional photography--meaning you must come through--no matter what. This approach means you must be prepared for any and everything. You must bring back-up gear and back-up to back-up gear. You need access to three of most things and four or six of other things--depending upon their propensity to failure.
This point made, I will make another divergent point. Sometimes you decide to punt. My little Sony was already on the blink. I seem to wear out one of these a year. I take more pictures than most people. My experience is that regardless of the brand, they have a particular life-expectancy. This may be a result of heat on the electronics, accidental abuse, wear on the mechanical parts, and what-not. Whatever the cause, this camera was perfect for the occasion since it did not really matter if it got ruined.
This was a pleasure trip with pictures to be taken on speculation and my own art purposes. Later trips may be more earnestly in pursuit of a particular photographic mission--but this one was a trial photographic trip. I had to learn the river, my limits, my kayak, and the navigability and the time it takes on the river--and how much of this I can endure in my current health and the summer heat.
I had flexibility regarding what kind of pictures I came back with. I was not very careful about splashes and paddle-water dripping on the camera. This likely did not help the camera operation, but the big thing that arose from this was that water drops and smudges got on the lens front and started creating partial blurring of the images. I wiped it dry a couple of times at first. Then, while looking at a couple of the images, I had an idea to go with the flow and in fact crank the effect up a bit, in order to convey a sense of the action and environment of this float trip.
If you have followed much of this and others of my weblogs you know that I have a thing for dragonflies. I photograph them a lot around my home pond. During this trip I saw some new varieties from thin and delicate as is this one to some of the largest have ever seen. I could spend several days on the river just making dragonfly macros--and likely will.
My
concentration was more on navigating though the trees with the swifter
current and paddling hard in the slower swamp than on taking pictures
this trip, but I did take some with my little go everywhere point and
shoot--which was on the blink, possibly from being splashed once too
often or maybe dipped below the water line during a down-stroke since I
had it dangling from my wrist. It was five hours on the water, an
hour longer than it should have taken--with me in tow. At the take out I
volunteered to sit with the kayaks while they all went to get the other
vehicles--seeing how I was literally unable to get out of my boat for a
while. My arms and abdomen were simultaneously knotting into cramps. I
was hot and exhausted to the limits of my endurance. It was about like I
thought it would be. For them it was a easy boat-ride; for me it was
fun, but only in a perversely challenging way. I loved it. They came
home to a surprise big-number birthday party for one, while I sat in a
chair and hydrated and then comatosed until morning--unable to attend
the birthday party with my wife. This morning I got good reports about
the party. I am glad it went well. I know my boys understood.
So in order to amplify these accidental effects produced by the smudging and water drops on the lens--I chose to select the Pop camera setting that automatically pumps the color saturation up and slightly posterizes the images--meaning that it captures fewer levels of gradation. I also chose to creatively throw some images out of focus, and to use slower shutter speeds in order to show motion-blur. Some of the images were intentionally angled to convey the sometimes whomper-jawed view that I got as I bounced around and turned this way or that while getting past stumps, trees, and logs in the current. Occasionally, I would play back an image I had just taken and based upon what it looked like I would adjust the effective vignette resulting from the water and smudges by wiping only part of the lens.
So on the one hand, I would make a regular, clearly-focused, if slightly over-saturated image, interlaced with a creatively blurred/smudged lens image. These were not falsely produced filter-effect. There is nothing wrong with such effects if they do the job, but you know the effects are authentic if they result from accidental, though channeled natural smudges resulting from the water drops and river crud.
I also used creatively under and over-exposed some images. I sometimes do this via the exposure-compensation control that allows this, but only if I am going to uniformly do several images this way. Otherwise, I point at a spot brighter or lighter than the spot I am about to photograph until I get the lightness or darkness I want. I then press the button down half way, which on most modern cameras will hold that exposure setting, while I point at the scene I am photographing. Then I push the button the rest of the way to take the image. This quickly becomes intuitive to do and requires little thought. It is merely cheating the automatics into doing what you want them to do.
Some of these become quite abstract. Standing alone, you might not get it with these, but in the context of the other pictures in the series you do.
Double click images to display them fully.
Catalpa trees are native to Tennessee. These are the cigar-trees or fishing-worm trees that are famous for their symbiotic worms that typically come to feat on their wide leaves once or twice a year. These Catalpa Worms are caterpillars that are often said to be the best possible catfish bait. They make good fishing worms for most types of fish. I have one that I planted in my yard next to my pond. I am concerned that the caterpillars have quit coming during the past few years. It may be a sign of the wide-spread unintended affects of commercial poisons from crop-dust or other pollutants.
I tend to be politically Conservative, however, when it comes to the environment, I want to ere on the side of caution. Although fishermen may survive the extinction of Catalpa Worms, humankind would likely not survive the extinction of honeybees (I accidentally first typed hineybees; I have never encountered these, butt they don't sound so good.) upon which we rely to pollinate so many of our foodstuffs.
An interesting by-note about Catalpa Trees is found in a supposed story about the name. It came from the attempted phonetic transcription of the Cherokee Indian name of the tree, which was purportedly Catal-pha, with an "f" sound. A mistake was made and never corrected--so instead of Catalpha the name became Catalpa.
The Wolf River is not just another Southern black-water river. The clay from farming land runoff and the typical tannins from cypress trees other swamp vegetation are certainly apparent, but the origin of the river is artesian. So remote and inaccessible is the source that it was only a couple of decades ago that a group traced and found the definitive source of the Wolf River. It is less than forty miles from this stretch of the river, across the Tennessee-Mississippi river somewhat close to historic Holly Springs, Mississippi. The entire Mid-South Delta region enjoys extraordinarily pure water pumped from natural aquifers that filter the water over the years it takes to seep below the surface into the subterranean counterparts to the Mississippi River. Layers of delta sand deposited from the Mighty Mississippi is free from the pollutants above ground.
The water is cold as is all spring waters. At its source, an anomalous set of natural land features causes the underground river to erupt above ground into a swamp area full of cypress trees and dense jungle-like vegetation atypical to this area. The cold spring water flowing through an area that does not otherwise sustain such above ground pure water sources, provides a unique habitat to sustain a very odd ecosystem for the area. It is prized and studied by naturalists and scientists. The Wolf River is not a nasty brackish slough that mayn people assume it to be. The river is alive and teaming with species of fish, animals, and plant life not generally found in this area. Along with the catfish one might expect to find in muddy-looking Southern streams, many other game fish are also found--including Smallmouth Bass that are prized by sportsman.
Although my son and I were psyched into believing that this was a poisonous Copperhead snake when it brushed up against him and then I, subsequent objective identification from the pictures with the forced encouragement from those who viewed them made us realize that the mere power of suggestion and lifetimes of culturally-induced panic had caused us to wrongly label him. Copperheads do not typically hang out in trees. This is a common Banded Water Snake.
Given twenty-four hours of more calm reflection gave way to this reality. It provides a good commentary on life and the prejudices people are saddled with and carry with them. I am usually, not much afraid of snakes, or so I thought. Having one suddenly brush against your face and nearly fall into your lap, without the benefit of your glasses does have an unsettling effect upon you. We had been hearing for days, and the complete half of the float trip, about the abundance of Copperheads on the river. To locals, all snakes are either 'Moccasins' or 'Copperheads'--both poisonous.
Indeed, these species are plentiful enough--I have several of each that live on my small rural acreage nearby--but there are many nonpoisonous varieties as well. The ratio of these harmless water snakes to the poisonous varieties that live on the river and hang from the trees is likely weighted toward the harmless ones. Still, if one cannot, or will not differentiate the dangerous from the harmless, the common adage held by most folks surely reenforces the fears of snakes. The only good snake is a dead snake. While I do not intellectually believe this, we are sometimes want to look for alternatives when we feel that our lives are in the balance. Don't get me wrong; prejudices are not always bad. Stereotypes are often born of necessity--and often hold true. While it is not always a good thing to be prejudiced and it certainly is not fair to all recipients of our judgement calls, we are just silly to think that we are without any. It would be impossible to get through one day, let alone our lives, without exercising judgements.
Each time we are faced with decisions, we analyze the facts as we know them, and we decide which course of action to pursue based upon these facts or what are often, probably most often, suppositions. This is why continual education and exposure to more and updated information is so important.
The great American religionist, Joseph Smith, penned in the Doctrine and Covenants 131: 6, It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance. I believe this, although I am guessing this meant complete ignorance, as we are all ignorant or conversely enlightened to one degree or another. I think of this each time I see someone go out of their way, even backing up their automobiles on these rural highways and byways to run over a King Snake or blue racer crossing the road. Although I take opportunity to wax philosophical on this issue of prejudice and ignorance--I simultaneously admit that one is inherently useful and the other is sometimes unavoidable.
I am not among those who soapbox and point fingers about this. We are the sum total of our experiences, including our culture, our environments, and often the luck of the draw. But it is only when we stop being willing to revise our conclusions given new information that we are guilty of any inexcusable wrongdoings in the form of our prejudices and incorrect judgements. Therefore it is sometimes best to simply resist being terminally judgmental--when snakes are not being rubbed in our faces.
In case you did not extrapolate the reason for the name of this section of the Wolf being called The Ghost, The Ghost River, or Ghost Lake it is because within this section the river often fans out into a vast swamp within which the channel or river part becomes a ghost being hard to track without a lot of trial and error. Even with the channel having been marked by avid conservationists and outdoorsmen who work hard to preserve this river, you can count on getting lost in the ghost once or twice per trip, because it is ever-changing with the season and water supply.
BTW,
those fuzzy disks of out of focus light points in the background are
examples of something about which much to do is sometimes made regarding
not much--usually among very techy photographers while discussing the
finer merits of lenses. The term BOKEH
is thought to be an aberration of a Japanese word that does not quite
translate to English. But Bokeh is sometimes used within these
discussions as a judge of the desirability of lenses. This old recycled
Minolta 80-300 zoom lens with 2x teleconverter affixed to a Sony NEX5
body is an unusual marriage of analog and digital technology that
provides marvelous technology on-the-cheap.
It passes the bokeh test in
my book, although the starkness of the bokeh pattern is not accurately
displayed due to the lower resolution of the image displayed here versus
the high-res of the image as captured. This inadvertent manipulation of
the digital raster can also result from raster noise when using higher
ISO settings with digital cameras--as the quality falls off roughly
equivalent to the way apparent grain similarly increases with film. I
sometimes use the effect intentionally to emphasize such things a water
drops in macro images as the undetermined flower pic I posted a few
posts ago.
Everything can become a tool if you know when and how it
happens. This is part of the quest. At high resolution these bokeh dots
appear much softer--making the lens nice for portraits and such where
you might want an unobtrusive bokeh in the background. Knowing just a
little physics can help a photographer who must operate on a budget.
Read previous blog posts for more of my own slant on all such issues.
There are subtle differences in the displayed appearance of these two seperate images. In upcoming posts I will also discuss how such features as Dynamic Rage Optimization DRO settings can take three different images within fractions of seconds of one antoher and combine them to good effect for such photographs.
This was taken last evening as I walked with Biggin down to the mailbox
and back. I had grabbed a digital camera with a 300 mm lens and 2x
tele-converter for grins because I have been seeing a blue heron around
and didn't have a camera in hand the last time I saw it. Obviously,the
sun was setting against a nice smattering of mixed cloud types as an
approaching weather system was falling apart. I often use trees or
whatnot to add impact and break-up the foreground if available. I did
not even realize that my across-the-highway neighbor had a hammock
hanging there until I started framing the picture. I took a couple of
dozen different variations of this sunset, playing with the foreground
and exposures to bring out the cloud patterns.
One effect of using a
long lens, as I have pointed out several times within this weblog, is that background objects appear disproportionately larger than
the foreground objects. I wish there had been a fully visible sun, but
it DID make the clouds appear larger than life. I used the automatic
settings, but closed the aperture down 1.7 stops to enhance the clouds
(otherwise it would have just been a silhouette against almost white
sky). The camera also has a vivid setting that pumps the color
saturation up a bit. This is one that I happened to upload to FB. I
write a good bit about such techniques within my photo blog for those
who may want to learn more.
Better is a subjective word. So what I am suggesting is a way to help you control what you want to subjectively convey in your photographs. Cropping is a tool that can be used to creat greater impact or emphasize different elements or transmit different mood. This is old-hat to painters or photographers or other artists who have studied art. But what rules and principles are taught are attempts to quantify and govern what is felt. Those who feel their images--and everyone does more or less--intuitively use these rules and principles. You can too.
The best way that know to demonstrate how cropping can change the feelings of photographs, is by demonstration.Cropping goes had in hand with composition. You look, you see, you are affected, you desire to capture something of what you are seeing. You may not immediately understand what it is that has attracted yoru attention. Composition is the practice of the art that develops from determining what parts of a scene that you want to try and catch so as to preserve and remember and hopefully give to others. You can never capture everything you are feeling. Photographic tools are too limited for that. But you can capture something worthwhile. You may then edit these images after the fact in order to best render whatever it is that strikes you as important and worth remembering. As with all perceptions and memories what we see is always going to be subjective because it si being seen and felt through us.
This series of images are some that were captured simply. They were taken with a simple automatic digital pocket camera that I try to have with me at all times. Digital cameras and phones with camera functions and the whole digital paradigmn has totally changed photography. While there will always be a need for those skilled in the craft of photography, digital technology has brought tools to virtually everyone. There are exponentially more images being made today than yesterday or ten years ago. The visual competition brought by television and computers and social media and smart phones has both brought huge visual expression to everyone as well as desensitized us to all but the most extraordinary visual images.
This partial sequence of images shows composition on the fly, using the zoom capabilities of my camera. It took mere seconds to slow my vehicle down and position myself in such a way as to vary angles and use foreground and background elements to try to catch a little something about the nice rural countryside that was passing by.
Even the fence, the fence posts, the ditch, and other foreground elements can be used in such instances, to make a presentation that those viewing your pictures can relate to. There may indeed be scenes that impress me so profoundly that I will decide to go back and capture with a large format view camera and tripod--but those are becoming fewer and fewer for me. I have found that as I become more senior and my time here is becoming in-my-face shorter, I would rather grab a lot of images than narrow them down to just a few. I suppose that it is an unconscious attempt at immortality. Whatever it is, it can be fun and rewarding. I beleive that for those who feel compelled to do this thing called photography, it is essential for any degree of happiness.
Compare the three images above. Double-click them if you need to to see each entire images. The first and the next two are from essentially the same vantage point, but only those next two are the same image. They are from exactly the same original, but the last one has been cropped slightly. I do a lot of cropping within the camera while composing images on the fly. Which one do you like best? After half a century of taking pictures on a consistent basis, there is very little that enters my field of view that I don't consciously see. I found my initial instincts sufficient that I preserved the first image although I cropped it to make a cleaner, less busy image by taking out the power pole and a bit of the forground. This is the most common type of cropping. There may be times when I would prefer the first, busier image for illustration purposes. For example, if I wanted to convey both the picturesque mood of this farm as well as a bit of, well, busy-ness, in the sense of a lot going on. Or I might want to have the viewer to feel old clashing with new. Granted, everything looks pretty old in this image, but the stereotypical power pole is an icon of civilization. Don't think so? That's okay, I am an old timer. You may have a different context--and this is important. Context must be kept in mind. The power pole and diagonal power lines also provide greater feeling of depth. But, for a more serene art image--the cropped image is better than the uncropped one.
I will post more examples of cropping for impact in the next few posts.
You can double-click any of these images to see a bigger view.
A well-known proverb reminds us that there is a season or everything. This idea has helped me adapt to various stages of life, and associated mobility or lack of. I lived an adventurous youth in exotic places due to the career and billet assignments Mom and Dad enjoyed. It has been a tough act to follow once calibrated to that level of stimulation. My expectation, if not literal need, for new and exciting places and varied activities has demanded indulgence for a good part of my life. Photography may be the perfect companion activity for such inclinations. I have enjoyed travels to a lot of places and did a fair job of documenting most of them. Just as the climatic seasons change, so do the seasons of life. I found myself imprisoned by my health and circumstances and in want of change.
Just as the theme of those stories of men who search the world over for riches who then return home only to discover acres of diamonds in their own backyards--so have I discovered such treasures nearby--often literally under my feet--and very certainly in my own backyard. The ease of digital photography and the immediate feedback it provides, combined with decent enough plastic zoom lenses and macro capabilities, has piqued then filled the need and subsequent satisfaction to those artistic leanings that we all have more of less. And the literal products given for the taking are far out of proportion to the effort--espeically when it becomes mostly effortless, yielding to the autopilot developed and honed over a lifetime. Finding the acreas of diamonds within the confines of wherever one finds oneself is an adventure of discovery too.
Situated smack in the middle of horse country and a historic and scenic natural place to live--this horse farm located less than a mile away--becomes just one of an enormous smorgsborg of exotic desination--albeit available as a sidewhow to any utilitarian trips to market--though generally few and far between.
It took about five minutes to compose and take
about eighty distinctly different pictures of this place from my slowly
rolling truck. By starting at one end of the scene on the opposite
shoulder of the road with my emergency lights flashing
to appease impatient traffic (which it did not, but it at least alerted
them so they could flip me off, preferable to being hit), I was able to
inch along and compose various different scenes using the foreground
limbs and brush for framing in conjunction with the zoom and exposure
controls of the inexpensive little camera.
I have passed this place a lot and
mentally bookmarked it for photographing another day. I think it was the field
of yellow flowers that finally got me to stop--or at least slow down. I
left many hundreds, maybe thousands, of photographs there yet to be
taken--well, no, actually an infinity of pictures still there. The thing is that any place is never static. The changing hues of
vegetation, or none, that go with the seasons, coupled with the
changing sky, light, and shadows cast, or not, plays out enumerable
patterns with the fences and farm structures. The horses are never in
the same place.
I do have to be careful these days--what with all the
terrorist stuff. People are spooked--and spooky. Right here. I will try not to be a statistic of mistaken intentions here near home after a lifetime of considerable forays into the bush, the mountains, the wilderness, the deserts, the oceans, and rivers and pretty or ugly zones, of strange peoples and villages and towns and scared cities of ugly and pretty and pretty ugly and sublime foreign destinations--survival secured.
It could happen. I recall the desperate final thoughts whilst near oblivion a few years back while choking to death at a church social on a piece of watermelon.
"No, this can't be. Please God, give me the dignity, instead of poetic justice. Let it not be said, here lies a poor fool who met his match in the form of a wrongly lodged piece of overly juicy watermelon at a church social--amidst friends and brethren who understood not what he failed to spaketh."
The horror, not of impending death, but of the content of quickly flashing epithets emblazoned upon a granite stone and the resulting attempts to cry out at last dislodged or Heimlic'd the offending obstruction from my throat--with no one the wiser. It is now a reoccurring nightmare--I hope not to revisit for good. It keeps me on my toes.
I have been reported at least once to have a Sheriff's
deputy in this county dispatched to check out a suspicious black truck with tinted
windows (it came that way) casing out places. People are very protective
of their horses. I think I once really freaked the Siek occupants of a temple between here and town a few years ago--while taking
pictures through their locked gate. I am prolly not going to be wearing
any kind of head-dress while doing this sort of thing.
Anyway, this
place, as does any place, keeps on giving these pretty scenes. It is only up to me to catch a
few of them.
Let’s face it, we all want to be edible in photos!
It takes one lucky being to radiate gorgeousness in every Facebook post, Instagram photo, or family album shot. And in all reality, even the most celebrated supermodels have shots they would love to hide from the world.
Here are five tricks of the trade to consider when an iPhone, iPad, digital camera, or professional photographer is pointed in your direction:
1. No “Cheeses” Allowed Whatever you do, don’t follow your mot
I am glad I am not the only photographer to go on record regarding dislike of the cheese word and others like unto it. I DO appreciate my daughters-in-law and even daughters (who were taught not to do so) who do an outstanding job of capturing excellent and representative images of my grandchildren.I especially appreciate the calendars.
Some of them even remind their children apologetically whenever I have a camera in hand that Grandpa does not like smiles. That's not exactly true, but it will do as a starting point. I DO like smiles. I just don't like posed FAKE smiles. I prefer the smiles that I naturally evoke, although sometimes this becomes difficult when they are intentionally trying to keep from smiling so as to not disappoint me. I also like a wide range of other expressions that I see from each of my grandchildren. Further, I have spent a lifetime learning, rehearsing, trying, discarding, refining, and mastering a bunch of antics from acting the fool to bird calls in order to elicit such expressions as needed.
Smile shutters my arse!
Feeling in the dark about portrait lighting? Whether it’s a flashgun or a softbox, off-camera lighting has confounded many aspiring portrait photographers.
But your portrait photography doesn’t need to suffer because of this. Portrait lighting need not be so complicated. Whether you’re in a professional studio or shooting a model in your home photo studio (see our 10 tips for setting up your home photo studio), often the simplest portrait lighting set-ups yield the most classic and dramatic effects.
To help you along we’ve put together our latest photography cheat sheet, a visual guide taking you through several simple portrait lighting set-ups, and showing the different e
In a perfect world, every light source would cast the perfect color onto your scene, but in reality, the color temperatures of the light sources in your scene can have a wide range, and this can cause color balance issues in your footage. In this segment we talk about the basics of color temperature, and how to use color correction gels on your light sources to create a balanced scene. Understanding how varying color temperatures affect your scene, and learning to correct the imbalance will have your scenes looking good.
I found myself posting advice as it was requested on a Facebook photography page regarding family portraits including off-lease dogs. I realized that this may interest my readers--AND that it might require more space than would be prudent on FB. I copied and pasted what I wrote. I will add to it when I get a few minutes later.
I love dogs and I have always enjoyed working with families with dogs large or small or multiples in combination. They are certainly challenging. I am now largely retired, but I do actually miss this kind of work. I prolly don't have to tell you that dogs are unpredictable. Being a "dog person" may help, but the key in my estimation lies primarily in the owner's ability to control their pets. Assign them this responsibility with some discussion ahead of time. Don't get snookered into owning this responsibility as it is not yours--ever--unless maybe you are a professional dog handler or have one working for you. On the other-hand, just as with working with kids may require a trick or two, working with dogs may too. ~ Actually some of the same techniques may work with dogs as well--such as using a special whistle or sound or meow or bark or squeak-toy to get an expression or their attention when everyone else is ready. Break sessions into multiple briefer attention periods--even if it requires several. ~ Be realistic regarding time, not making the entire session too long, but neither boxing yourself in with too little time or undue pressure to get finished. By properly prepping your people subjects about your directing cues and expectations in advance and reminding them just prior to the shoot, you can get them all helping you, sometimes by NOT helping you; let the assigned family member ALONE get the animals generally positioned, and then leaving it to you to gain the attention for individual shots. ~ Monitoring their own expressions and eyes on your or wherever you want them will be up to the people, while you monitor and direct the pet's attention with your noises and what-not. Get odds working in your favor by taking numerous shots--by "feel"--as well as utilizing burst shutter release features after some. Edit the results heavily, eliminating any marginal shots prior to showing them.
Basic knowledge of dog's social pack instincts may help you manage a photo shoot involving them. Dogs often fit into the family pack in such a way that they recognize one or more family hierarchy with the Alpha and Beta male or females being the head honcho. If one family member has primary care or ownership over the dog, this person may be held in a higher level of authority by their pet. Although these dynamics can often be determined by observation, it is a good idea to ask ahead of time who feeds the dog(s) or who it" belongs" to. Male or female animals sometimes have a more protective nature over the opposite sex family member whom they regard as their immediate superior--and they often show protective natures towards children in general. Dog will generally show protective behavior over any member of the family. It is wise to ask if these pets ever aggressive toward strangers.
There is a whole discussion that could be had regarding properly directing your subjects. But in this post suffice it to say that you should keep your hands off of your subjects. Rarely, upon gaining permission, it may be okay to lightly touch a subject on the shoulder or arm or poke them lightly with a knuckle in the small of the back while positioning them, but it is best to convey your wishes by example. Learn to turn you own body in sympathetic direction mimicking how you want them to pose--turned in the same direction as they are, in order to make it right-reading to them. Any touching or even moving close to them may be met by their dogs as hostile behavior and they may respond in kind.
If you are lucky, the family dogs will be socialized to regard anyone who has gained favor of the family as okay--but be aware that protective behavior is natural and may even surprise family members.Just watch them to read their reactions. Once you have determined the pack dynamics as much through the dog's eyes as you feel you can, try to position the dogs next to one or more of the family members most likely to command the dog's respect. The exception to this might be if the dog is so enamored by the unusual attention of being next to the pack leader that the dog is distracted and constantly is turning tor looking oward this person. The following dynamics may help explain this tendency.
My dad liked animals well enough, but having been raised during the Great Depression, Dad had a different perspective regarding the role of animals. Dad trained hunting dogs during his lifetime. Dogs served a useful purpose. He was never mean cruel to them, but he did not often exhibit loving behavior toward them or pet them unless he was specifically conveying approval. He seldom even spoke to our family pets. Dad would have just as soon kept all dogs outside, but due to extremes in weather, it became necessary at times for our outside dogs to become inside dogs if they were to be kept by us. Still, with my dad, dogs had very specific boundaries while when kept inside.
Dad seldom spoke or showed any other attention to these dogs unless he was gruffly correcting or issuing commands to them. Our dogs often did not know how to act around Dad, so they usually avoided him or would lay down behind his chair or well out of his way. Dad did not feed the dogs, the kids or Mom did. Dad was a calm man of few words, and yet their was never any mistake as to who was the Alpha dog in our pack. When Dad came home from work, any dogs we had became animated and obviously happy to see him, even though he seldom even acknowledged them. And yet our dogs seemed as if they would have nervous break-downs trying to please him whenever he spoke to them.
I used to wonder why, since my siblings and I were all about taking care of the dogs and feeding them and playing with them or taking them outside when necessary, the dogs adored my dad so much. They jumped to please him. This is an example of pack behavior. Our dogs instinctively knew who called the shots, who was boss, and who they owed their ultimate allegiance to. They observed our usually obedient behavior when Dad asked us to do something. The dogs also knew that Mom had authority over us--and them. Mom was outwardly kind to the dogs, and her higher pitched tones and softer voice may also have been perceived as less authoritative, but the dogs still knew that they'd best behave when she spoke to them.
Understanding such canine pack behavior can help understand how the mere proximity of certain members of the family may affect a dog's posing behavior. You can use this to your advantage. You don't have to be a dog trainer or a dog psychologist, but being aware of such dynamics can be used to your advantage while directing family portraits when family dogs are involved. If you position one of the care- givers such as the children next of the dog, he or she may be best equipped to manage the dog without unduly distracting it.
As I mentioned previously, you cannot count on a dog's attntion span to be very long. I have often refered to the advisability of grabbin g whatever initial shots as you can when covering rare new situations or other unusual events. I have probably cited an instance before when my wife and I were staying in a primitive campground A-frame Cabins just outside of Denali Park in Alaska. It was in late June so the daylight hours were very long. We had enjoyed a good day of adventure and good food at the only restaurant in miles and had slept soundly until something woke me up in the wee hours of the morning. It was dusky daylight and the perfect weather was perfect. I looked up to see a big face moose face peering at us through the front side window.
As a young photographer I used to imagine such events and practice for them. I would practice changing film with different kinds of cameras with one hand with the camera in my lap as I drove. I would do the same blind-folded until I new every click and nuance of every camera I owned in order to be prepared for unexpected news events that might present themselves. But by this time, I was older, and not reliant upon my photography for a living. I was on vacation and I had long-since reconciled that I some life moments could go by without constantly ruining everyone else's time with my compulsion to record everything through my camera lens. But I had not given up on keeping a camera with me during such times.
I worked for Canon as an Area Sales Manager at this time, and I had somehow snagged a pretty nice little Canon point-and-shoot film camera that i tried to keep with me constantly. I had not rehersed all the nuances of its operation as I once made a practice--but by this poi/nt in my life I was an seasoned photograPehr who had seen m y share of action in the field and I suppose once you rehearse for things like that and establish certain basic procedures, you don't just forget them--so in that sense I suppose that my instincts were still intact.
Without thinking much, I did what I had trained myself to do. I siezed the first shots without much concern for details. I moved very little to keep from startling the moose andI took a few shots, but she was still spooked and began to trot off. I got up and followed. I don't recall if I put pants and shoes on or not. There were only a few other guests the campground and no one else was up, so I may not have. But I know that I would ahve been making the necessary adjustments to the little compact canon camera to make sure I got the best pictures I could. But come what might, I had gotten something to remember preserve this event to corroborate this fun story life story. By then I saw that the cow had a calf nearby. Who knows what drives a wild moose to look through a remote A-frame window near Mount Mckinley, but when it happens, you cannot take very long fiddling with the camera, if you expect to get any picture at all.
This approach, to a less urgent degree, is how I approach most photographic events--with the thought that nothing much in life repeats itself exactly--so you have to grab what you can while it isbeing presented. It may get better, but it often goes to heck very quickly. This is not an observation that i can claim as my own, also I learned it for myself. It is a derivation of the those principles sometimes called Murphy's Law--one of which is that if anything can go wrong it will. Honestly I am an optomist, but a certain orientation in reality can prepare you to, well, prepare yourself. Being thusly prepared, you may in fact be able to minimize many initially fated poor outcomes. When it comes to photographing anything, especially subjects as unpredictable as a mixture of dogs and people, you'll want to get some shots behind you before you start tryin g to orchestrate aligning the Moon with the Sun and the Stars. The latter is an ideal for which you will always want to strive, but you must start with where you are at the moment and build on that.
With this mind-set, realize that the more live subject that you have in any given group portrait, the less are your odds of capturing all of them in even one photograph with an expression suitable to each one of them--much less all of them together. This can be prtally helped by taking many frames and limiting the numbers of changed sets.
By giving more thought than you may usually do in advance about the placement of your subjects within the setting and using available props, you can limit the amount of time changing poses and rearranging the group and a,low more time for taking more frames of each pose. This is always important, but it becomes essential when working with the limited attention spans of the animals. Take advantage tot the tendency that animals will have to settling-in sitting or lying at the feet or standing between the appropriate family mebers. The fewer gross changes in the set you have to do the better. You always want to think through and give due consideration for enhancing the positive qualities of your subjects and deemphazing those qualities about which they may be sensitive such as wieght and size when considering placement, but the more of this you can do in advance of the session will facilitate efficient use of time and movement when it is most critical. It will help you to work fast.
For example, as with any group, sub-sets that may be desired such as the children only should flow into one another until the whoe group is assembled and then end the session. The parents only, or parents with each child individually--should be minimized when possible or certainly steamlined into as few movements as possible--such as first the kids, add the dogs, add Mom and Dad and end--instead of the whole family, with the dogs, then the children with the dogs, then the whole family again without the dogs, or the kids without the dogs. Start with the fewest subjects and then build onto it. Just think it through in that way--in advance.
Other caveats include, realizing that if you whistle or smack or otherwise seek to engage a dog to get its attention may also be accidentally calling the dog over to you. This can happen when you spend the time gettin gthe grop together in the correct position, carefully add the dogs, get the right position, provide the correct directions, and then in an effort to get the dog to look at you, you smack or whistle--and the dog thinks you are calling him and off he goes to lick your hand. You have to go through gettin g the dog back in place. This can often happen anyway. If it does, it does. Be prepared. Be patient. But try to consider the effect each of your actions could have in advance.
In the end, it is what it is--as it has become popular to say. Preparation and planning always makes it better. Sometimes it goes according to hoyle, but as John Lennon was credited with saying, life is what happens while we are making plans. If nothing seems to work, if the people argue about who is to control the dogs, if sis has to leave for work unexpectedly in five minutes, if the dog eats your squeaky toy--be ready to change things up and go with the flow and make lemonade. Dogs even less than people, can be regimented. They are what they are. Go with it.
In the final analasis, it may be good to remember that in a generation or two, probably less, those subjects that will matter most, will be the people. Make sure you get good pictures of the people. The dogs will not be very critical regarding the pictures.
Wow! Getting there was only half the fun. Using a vintage Johnson 160 Guide Accu-cast spin-cast reel surely enhanced the experience. But seeing the first dragonfly of the season as it stood sideways on a nettle stem just emerged from its spent nymph shell. Wow! Just Wow! It is a great omen for the season to come.
Watch and learn how valuable a leading line is in directing the viewer in your photo, and how a small aperture is key.
Join Bryan Peterson at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia where he shares a great example of how the use of immediate foreground interest can enhance the composition of your landscape photography. In this episode of You Keep Shooting, prepared exclusively for AdoramaTV you will see how valuable a leading line is in it's ability to lead the eye towards the main subject in your photo. You'll also learn how to maximize your depth of field by choosing a wide-angle lens and a small aperture, such as f/22.
I have been negligent regarding posts to help make you money lately. But here comes one. I have image software aplenty, but I do occasionally rally to try and review software packages that interest me. I haven't decided if I will buy this one, as my own commercial applications are now passe' when it comes to most people pictures, unless they are newsworthy or have stock photo potential. But this software package--not really new by a long-shot--but it was new to me as I ran across the ad for a trial that popped up on my new laptop.
Here is what I am thinking. This collage-making software will take a folder of digital images and automatically spin them into a cool seamless collage layout in a fairly random fashion. I don't pretend to understand the algroithms used, but if you don't like the first one or first ten or first however many, you've only to spin it again and you'll have a different layout. This can be both good and bad. I see Easter promotional opportunities to advertise and draw in business for those who care to try. But be sure to use the desired resolution images when you do--because the software will not be able to repeat the same collage if you don't. You and I know there is some unwritten law in the cosmos that if you cannot deliver any particular pose of picture or choice because of closed eyes or whatever--it will invariably be the one the end-consumer will want to buy.
So do due diligence and try it out and get your ducks in a row before you make any promises. But here is the link. It is free for thirty days. The images resulting from the free trial will have a software ad emblazoned across the bottom. You can crop that off if you choose your collages carefully before showing them. If one doesn't lend itself to the cropping, just make another, and another until one suits you. Then crop it and show. I think it will be a no-brainer for kids and flowers and Easter pictures. Here is one I did just for grins.
To market this, you can run an ad in a local newspaper, but if you have a good direct mail piece for previous and/or likely customers, this is where I would concentrate by doing an email blast with an attachment that automatically opens. If you don't have such a list, you should work on getting one now. You may be able to try social media ads for this as well. Narrow by geography and socioeconomic identifiers as such media allows.Narrow it down to a finely targeted audience and feature one collage. Keep the message simple with a link to the details of the offer.
You can make bucks by selling the collage at a low price to cover the ads and other expenses--or build in some profit, but if you work it right, you can even offer the collage for free and take a lot of nice pix and bank or print reorders. Display low-resolution proofs with watermarks over them online using services such as www.dotphoto.com, which will take orders, process credit cards, and deliver the pictures and send you the profit that you build in above their charges.
I recommend something along the lines of what I have posted. Another thought is to make up some stock photos of bunnies and chicks and flowers--but I beg you not to exploit such animals by turning the kids loose on them indiscriminately. Be humane. Were I live, the first spring wildflowers are popping out in abundance. Make up a folder of macro images of these and maybe an Easter Lilly or two and you'll be on your way. Using Autocollage, you can have a folder ready with the Easter motif images and then just copy the folder and label it with the clients name--and then drag and drop client images into the folder.
The software does the rest. It allows you to choose the number of images to use--so a couple of different folders might be good. As always, three choices is a good way to approach the market. One nice but pricey, one basic buy very cheap, and one priced in the middle which is the obvious best value. Allow enough prints for parents and grand parents and maybe a couple more. don't go too big. Dotphoto.com has a lot of aftermarket products including books, calendars, mugs, etc. which can make you a lot of money by making the point of sale purchasing easy. Take time to set up a free web site via dotphoto or someone else if you don't already have one.
But be careful when you use a third-party site as their ads will reveal your base pricing and savvy customers may cut you out of the picture--so to speak. Just use commonsense when you offer the links to your clients.
They will whisper with their mouths, while their eyes will scan the room for spies wearing strange spectacles.
The spies will likely be men. How many women would really like to waft down the street wearing Google Glass?
It won't be easy. Once you've been cybernated, there's no turning back. Which is why the refuseniks are already meeting in shaded corners of the Web.
One site is called "Stop The Cyborgs." It claims to be "fighting the algorithmic future one bit at a time."
A sticker being offered on the "Stop The Cyborgs" Web site.
It's going to take a lot of bitty fighting, but the people behind this site -- they're naturally anonymous, in an attempt to stop Google spying on them -- say they're fighting
Google Glass in particular.
They say that it will herald a world in which "privacy is impossible and corporate control total."
Some would say that, thanks to Googlies and other bright, deluded sparks, we're there already. The Lord and Master Zuckerberg explained to us a long time ago that he knows us better than we do and that we don't actually want privacy at all.
Still, the people behind this anti-cyborg movement claim that there's no way you'll ever know that someone wearing Google Glass is recording your every word and movement.
There's no way of even knowing if someone else is recording you through their glasses from somewhere in the cloud.
And how are we, whose egos are already more fragile than a porcelain potty, supposed to feel when we know that a glasses-wearer has one eye on us and another on our Klout score or teenage sexting pictures?
The site explains: "Gradually people will stop acting as autonomous individuals, when making decisions and interacting with others, and instead become mere sensor/effector nodes of a global network."
Well, yes. But isn't that the precise dream of those who want their engineering to finally prove that humanity is a deeply inferior species?
The gardens at Versailles are riddled with paths that lead to flower beds, quiet corners, ornamental lakes, and a canal that King Louis used for gondola rides.
Please note that due to the narrow template columns (and my lack of ability in laying out these posts correctly) that you must click the images to see the entire view in some cases.
One of my trademarks of style was developed long ago. I often have something blurred (or not) showing prominently in the foreground--such as these dried weeds, which I like for adding color and depth perception. I usually will vary the degree of blur from very clear to out of focus and then do the same using the subject as the blurred element. Sometimes it works better than others. Once years ago, I did an outdoor family portrait during the peak of the autumn leaf colors. I used a bough of a brightly plumed sweet-gum with several colorful pointy leaf sets to frame the family of two adults and a little girl they were holding in several frames. The expressions in one shot was magical. The leaves were blurred enough to prevent the eye from being distracted from this very nice-looking family. I was quite please with the result and was expectantly awaiting the delighted response from the couple when I showed the proofs.
As with most things, there is an art as to how you make your initial presentation and how it is perceived. I had been so enamored with my art that I had even blown said pose up larger than usual on speculation. To me this was a prize-winning shot. Talk about not seeing the forest for the tree--I was not ready when the husband said, "Wow I love this one, but you CAN get rid of that stuff all over the picture in the finished print can't you?" He was referring to the carefully blurred leaf frame. In his mind, it was some defect in the processing that I had merely neglected to correct in the proof. So much for art. Since then I have always felt a need to explain that the foreground objects are SUPPOSED to be there.
You can insist on artistic liberties when you, the artist, are the only one who has to be satisfied. Not so when your subjects or clients must sign off before paying the bill. As I recall, the wife got it and they did indeed order that one enlargement, but their other picture choices for Christmas gifts were ones without the leaf frame. To each his own.
There will always be those who get it, and those who do not. But my salient point is that sometimes it matters, and sometimes it does not. It should always matter at least somewhat. Art is a lot of things to different people. Sometimes it is not art at all--if art is not what is desired by the intended viewer--especially if the viewer is a paying consumer. Art is your own self-expression, but if no one gets it at all, what good is it? Maybe even then it can satisfy some deeply intrinsic purpose for the producer of the art. But if art is expression in the sense of communication, then someone has to get it or you have not expressed or communicated at all.
There are different levels of expectation and sophistication in the consumers of art. I suppose ultimately, it depends upon whether or not your work satisfies the consumer, if it is to be enjoyed by them. Sometimes the consumer merely wants a clear picture that is finely focused and shows ultimate details. Sometimes the consumer does not want to see things the way they really are; they'd rather see an illusion. A successful photographer has to second-guess and/or try to determine whether to be an artist or a craftsman or both. He also must reckon with who is paying the bill. If it is merely himself--and if he has no hopes or expectations of ever making any money or becoming well-known or selling his photographs--then I suppose it may not matter who else besides himself likes his pictures .I have never been that arrogant.
This old thing about not selling out or not doing this or not doing that for money or public recognition has never completely flown with me--whether it was being proposed by musician or painters or photographers. Although it displays something of my own Capitalistic inclinations, it seems to me that the ultimate vote for your work is whether anyone is willing to pay money for it. So what's wrong with that?
Thomas Kinkeade never gained the adoration of the critics or the snooty artists--but he gained the adoration for his work of the common people who liked the way his pictures looked enough to buy them. By the droves. If I was a critical person, I could find a lot to criticize about Thomas Kinkeade--whom I never respected much personally--but it would not be with either the beauty of his paintings, nor his marketing abilities (which really means, his good understanding of what people want and how to provide it).
Thomas was a least a good artist--but he was a genius of telling his story, sticking to it, and presenting it well. He was a genius of marketing his work and himself. Thomas was as much a theatrical magician as he was an artist. He brought a lot of relatively inexpensive art to peoples homes, which brightened their lives and presumably made them feel better for having it. His stories as to why he became the painter of light, became indelibly linked to the characteristic golden glow from within the homes and buildings in his paintings. And guess who gave himself that title. I don't know how many paintings and prints of his painting Kinkeade sold during his liftime (and by-the-way) they are still selling steadily through the privately owned franchise stores and now gaining in value since his death. But it is way more than any other painter has every sold--exponetially I am guessing. He made a lot of money in the process. Everybody wins, and that's a lot of self-expression. Don't tell me Thomas Kinkeade was not a real artist.
I wish that I could become the Thomas Kinkeade of photography. In fact, now that I have articulated it just so, maybe I will set out to do that. It would be a worthy goal as far as I am concerned. It would mean that droves of the masses would first see my photographs, and that they would like them enough to pay a reasonable amount for each of them, AND that they would tell others who would do the same. There is genius in that. I admire genius.
Yes, I experienced the burdens of making pictures to suit other people day in and day out for years on end while seldom making the kinds of pictures that suited me. Shame on me. It was no one's fault but my own. It is the same old story of the woodsman nat taking the time to sharpen the axe, or the woodworker the saw. Ultimately it killed the initial enjoyment that I had found in photography. Balance must be kept. If it is not, the golden goose dies. This does NO ONE any service. I got out of photography and it was years before I even could pick up a camera without a sense of dread.
I have found it pertinent to refer to Benjamin Franklin in two separate web-logs regarding two very separate topics within the same day. Moderation in all things, is one of many of his maxims. It is a good one. While one must pay heed to the desires of those paying the bills while making photographs for them, one must also interlace enough fun and experimentation and private art pictures just for art sake--to please the artist as well.While you don't have to get snooty about it, you can be deliberate about the art prints that you display, and to an extent, if you are careful, you can even show only the proofs that you choose to show.And you can pursue a particular style in your own genre gallery of artistic photographs.
You can and should develop your own identifiable style. Even if it sometimes raises eyebrows and questions as to why you do things the way you do them. Back to the foreground thing that I do as a matter of style. Look at the different photos that I took yesterday on my walk. By this late date in my artistic/photographic evolution I have a method. I don't even consciously think much about it. I find myself grabbing the fleeting shots that are available as quickly as I can to the technical degree that I can given the tools available at the moment.
Then I start changing things up, adding elements here and deleting elements there, composing on the fly, observing all the things I have to work with and incorporating them as I can. I want to make art from my pictures. I want to capture and document, but I also want to do it through my own prism. I have worked as a news photographer before, but I am not a news photographer now in the conventional sense. I have experience in both photography and in life. It effects the way I see things and it effects the way that I want to portray things that I see. I am making art. It is both challenging and it is fun.
If it was neither challenging nor fun--I would not take pictures anymore.
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Documentaries aren't easy to make. You have to have be a great storyteller with an idea that will capture the audience's interest. You have to be a skilled director who understands the ins and outs of shooting movie footage. You have to be a gung-ho reporter who knows how to interview people and get them to spill their guts. Finally, you have to be a meticulous fact-checker to make sure you get all your information right. No wonder so many people think that documentaries should be left for professional filmmakers, TV journalists, and PBS hosts.
There's no skill needed to make a documentary that you can't learn. A documentary is a challenge, not an impossibility, and anyone with the drive and the dedication can rise to the occasion. Videomaker's Documentary Production Series gives you everything you need to pursue your documentary dreams from start to finish.
Documentary Production: Storytelling - The truth is that great documentaries don't just happen by luck; they're meticulously crafted. At the heart of every good documentary, there's a story aching to be told. Find yours and your documentary will fall into place.
Documentary Production: Funding - Finding funding for a documentary is no fun; it's tedious and who knows where to start? Fund raising doesn't need to be a chore; we'll break it down, so you'll know exactly where to go for funds, what to say, and how to get them.
Documentary Production: Equipment and Crew - You might have an idea for the best documentary ever, but you can still be sabotaged by an unqualified crew or inadequate equipment. Avoid that with a few simple guidelines for selecting the best crews and equipment.
Documentary Production: The Shoot - This is the most fun part of the process, but it's also the most demanding. From setting up your microphone to conducting an interview, this DVD will help you master it all.
In y opinion, documentaries are among the most important and will prove to be the most enduring types of videos. I'd love to make a documentary--and I just might.
The Most Convenient and Versatile Underwater Camera Ever!
The new AV Micro is a complete underwater camera system that is the same size as a smart phone! This means you can take it anywhere and do a lot of different things with it. It works great for ice fishing, on the boat, or off the dock. It can also be used for a variety of above underwater uses like looking into tight spaces, or even as a back-up camera in your vehicle!
The Aqua-Vu Micro has a full color camera with 50-feet of 22lb test cable attached. The camera is about the size of a quarter. You can rig the camera to look straight up and down or sideways when its underwater. It features a built in light sensor that automatically turns two invisible infrared lights on and off depending on light conditions. Compared to traditional underwater cameras, this camera is much smaller and stealthier underwater.
The handheld monitor has a 3 1/2" diagonal display that's housed in a water resistant case. On the back of the monitor case is a cable spool that neatly stores the camera cable. The monitor has a built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery that powers the camera and display for up six hours.
The First and Only Color HD Underwater Video Camera with Zoom!
The new Aqua-Vu 760cz features 3X digital zoom and the only 1/3” CCD color camera in the industry. All other underwater video cameras on the market use 1/4” CCD or CMOS sensors. The 1/3″ CCD sensor is able to reproduce a wider and larger area coverage due to the larger sensor. In addition to a great picture, you also get camera depth and direction and water temperature, right on the screen. The AV760cz has 7” sunlight viewable LCD display that has a back-light heater for cold-weather performance, and is IP67 rated (waterproof to 3-feet.) This top-of-the-line underwater camera system lets you see fish, structure and your lure like never before, with unmatched clarity, low-light visibility and field-of-view.
Hundreds of manufacturers market thousands of memory cards and devices built to SD standards in a variety of storage capacities, speed classes and three different physical sizes: SD, miniSD, and microSD. SD memory cards are typically used in personal computers, video cameras, digital cameras and other large consumer electronics devices. The microSD and miniSD cards are commonly used in smaller electronic devices like mobile phones and tablet computers. Some memory card manufacturers offer adapters allowing microSD cards to fit a traditional SD card slot. This gives you even greater versatility and flexibility to use the card in a mobile phone as well as a computer or video camera.
To determine the right card to match your device, always consult the device's user manual or contact the manufacturer. All memory card options are readily available in the marketplace, produced and distributed by a wide range of manufacturers, in retail outlets around the world including drug stores, electronics and computer shops and Internet sites.
Note: SD memory card and SD host device are the generic terms for any memory card or device built to SD standards. SD Association does not produce, market or sell any product; it creates standards and then promotes the adoption, advancement and use of SD standards used by competing product manufacturers that make interoperable memory cards and devices. For questions related to products, please contact the product manufacturer.
Choosing the Best Card - What Memory Capacity Do I Need?
Manufacturers produce SD memory cards in a range of memory capacities designed to fit your needs and budget. Today, products using the SDXC standard will have the greatest memory capacity and fastest performance when using Ultra High Speed (UHS) standards. Products using the SDHC and UHS standards will also enjoy the fastest performance. Your device's users manual should help you select the memory card standards that are right for your device.
You should consider how you will use a memory card to determine the right memory capacity and speed choice. For cameras, consider the quality of the picture resolution of every photo, and for your MP3 player, the bit-rate required for smooth playback. Take a look at our reference chart that illustrates the various stora
This article may help you understand the memory capacity, speeds, and other aspects of SD memory. I was surprised to learn from a Walgreen's guy that there are now at least five types of SD memory.
The White Balance Lens Cap leaves you no excuse for not properly white-balancing every situation you encounter.
Simply flip your camera into custom White Balance mode, snap a photo with your White Balance Lens Cap on, and your camera creates a perfect profile of the actual lighting in front of you.
Best of all, unlike a gray card, the White Balance Cap takes no extra room in your gear bag. Just replace your existing lens cap with this one and you'll always be able to white balance with no additional equipment.
Ever since the iPhone camera was invented, it's aspired to be what it simply never quite could be: a DSLR. Sure, apps have helped your camera phone inch forward with simulated focusing and faux filters.
Faux no more. The iPhone SLR Mount gives you the real thing. It'll set your phone photos apart from everyone else's on Instagram in an unprecedented way (#nofilter)!
This case-adapter combo lets you mount your Canon EOS or Nikon SLR lenses to your iPhone 4/4S giving your phone powerful depth of field and manual focus.
Telephoto, wide angle, macro, or your fixed-fifty lenses all attach to this mount giving you a full range of lenses at your iPhone lovin' fingertips. Heck, you could even throw on a Diana adapter!
Plus, you'll be putting the SLR lenses you already have to use with the camera you always have with you -- your phone.
Two loopholes on each end of the case let you tie on a camera strap, so you can hang it around your neck just like your real DSLR.
Now that your favorite camera has it all, what're you going to do with your DSLR?
Photo of the Year and First Prize: Spot News, Singles
Photograph courtesy Paul Hansen via WPP
The World Press Photo organization's annual contest, now in its 56th year, recognizes the most outstanding journalistic and documentary photography of the previous year. In 2013, a global jury of 19 experts selected winners from more than 100,000 images submitted by 5,666 photographers from 124 countries.
For the most coveted prize—Photo of the Year—the jury chose this image by Swedish photojournalist Paul Hansen. It shows two Palestinian children being carried to their funeral after an Israeli missile struck their home in Gaza City. The children's father, whose body is on a stretcher in the background, was also killed in the blast; their mother survived but was in intensive care.
Hansen had mixed emotions about winning. "I felt very happy, honored, and sad. It is a horrible photograph, on many levels, and I feel for the family," he said. "I hope that the decision makers on all sides look at the photograph, read about this family, and feel ashamed for the political failures that lead to the suffering of all these innocent people."
Here I have inserted one original photograph and then used various effects and automatic one-click adjustments from the Aviary Photo Editor that pops up when you double-click and image. The lite version requires that you resize high resolution images to lower resolution images before these effects will work--which it does for you and then allows you to save the results. The name of each respective effect is noted below each altered image.
As a longptime photographer who has been using and experimenting heartily with image manipulation software from its onset, I have never been much for canned one-click effects, but it is a quick and easy way to add some dazzle to your lack-luster photos. Many non-photographers use Typepad. These bloggers may especially enjoy the feaures of this image editor.I like it for that very feature of resizing images. Cropping, rotating, and resizing to several fixed sizes is also a breeze, as is placing different weigths of borders around images. is easy too.
Night
Original
Clyde
One
day I was walking my dog at the lake when I started taking a few
snapshots of a picturesque scene with unusual lighting. I thought,
wouldn't it be cool if I had a fishing boat in this scene. A little
while later some fishermen trolled their boat over. I took that picture
and then thought, if my brother was painting this, I bet he would put
some ducks or geese in the foreground or in the water. Wala, it was not
that long as I was on my way back when I realized the Canadian honkers
had arrived; could they have heard my thoughts? Pretty sure someone did.
We have average days. We have bad days. But then we also have VERY good
days. You will never convince me that those enumerable "little
coincidences"--merely happen by chance. I know they are little trail
markers provided by Our Maker to let us know that we are not forgotten.
Things always seems to wind up on the plus side of the balance if we are
patient.
Enhance/Backlit
Boardwalk
There
are subtleties that make this picture in the high-resolution hard-copy
print that you may not notice in this low-res screen image without
having them pointed out. First, the geese that appear headless are just
ducking their heads at an angle. The tree is a sweet-gum still loaded
with a ton of those little symmetrical sharp-pointed fruit balls we
threw as kids. The red on the far bank is the red
clay where the waterline is exposed from the low water-levels. The late
afternoon sun is casting long shadows through the trees and is about to
go down. The sky is clear only from that vantage. The otherwise
overcast sky is causing an unusual blue glow contrasting with those
golden rays partially illuminating some of the limbs in the background
and just a few foreground overhangs. This is in the bleak of winter, so
the colors are very unusual in this peculiar light. There is a wood-duck
box house on the side of the tree facing toward me (the camera). About
mid-way up within he space between the two trees are two bright red
objects lighted by the sun.These are the lost floats from hapless bank
fishermen who caught them in the over-hanging limbs while casting. Most
fishermen have shared this fate, so it adds a dose of authenticity to
the scene. My oldest brother was a consummate outdoorsman and a
wonderfully gifted painter. His attention to details of scenes painted
mostly from his own minds-eye would add such detailed minutia that
seldom aligns in real life. It was truly my good fortune that all these
elements came together and I was able to catch such fleeting moments
during this outing. I probably took a hundred or more photos during this
brief outing, all uniquely different.
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For many situations, the automatic White Balance setting is sufficient to render lighting that closely replicates how you are seeing the image in real time.
I was asking my local Walgreen's store photo guy for advice about all the available SD chips. I didn't realize there are so many variants now. This will make a good next post, but this post is for him. As I got to visiting with him, he told me that his wife was likely to be ordering a new digital camera at that very moment. The couple are serious birders and that's the central focus of the camera they are acquiring. They take bird pictures often from long distances as you might guess. I hope to visit further with these folks. I can probably learn something from their birding photography experiences. I enjoy this activity myself, although when it comes to birds, I am an amateur. This is a wonderful specialty that has always interested me, but one I have only recently began to pursue more in earnest. I have been doing more wildlife photography in general during the past few years and have specifically taken an interest in various bird viewing areas within my geography. My best wishes to this couple in their birding pursuits.
Some cameras allow you to save manually taken White Balance settings for
different conditions, but if you practice it a few times, you will see
that it is so simple that you can do it on the fly with very little
trouble under any lighting conditions you find yourself in.
During our very brief discussion at the store, this gentleman mentioned that he wanted to better understandISO and White Balance. Having been in photography for a long time I sometimes find it difficult to know what topics to write about that would be meaningful for other photographers who are just getting into photography. Today, digital photography is usually what they are getting into. Although ISO has long been with us, previously known as ASA or DIN, it means the same thing as it always has. White Balance has also always been with us, but not always by that name or as used by rank-and-file photographers. In the old days, we used film types, primarily Tungsten or Daylight choices, in conjunction with filters in order to correct the color contamination from various light types as rendered by the delicate silver-halide film emulsions and the dyes therein.
This is not a snow scene. It was taken within minutes of the others shown in this series. White Balance, ISO, along with exposure settings can be manipulated creatively to create different effects.
The whole concept of white balance is to cause your captured color images to look as closely similar to what your eye was seeing at the time--OR in some cases to make it look the way you want it to look, which may be completely different from what your eye was seeing at the time. This discussion can be complicated or it can be easy. I will leave the complicated discussion either for later or for other forums. My readers are generally not looking so much for the science behind White Balance as for the practical application. My store friend is probably looking for an answer that will help him take excellent pictures of birds--presumably outside. He made the statement to me that he is not just looking for a good and recognizable picture of his quarry, but he wants to see the gleam in his eyes. I think his reference was to a specific situation involving a bald eagle, but I think I get the idea. This discussion should help him achieve that gleam.
. . . . he is not just looking for a good and recognizable picture of his quarry, but he wants to see the gleam in his eyes.
I have one more disclaimer, primarily intended to stave off comments from those who want to point out the subjectivity of color. Let me just beat them to the punch. Color IS subjective. Although scientists pretty much agree that everyone sees colors more or less the same way, there can be subtle, even stark differences. You've probably wondered how anyone can know if one person is perceiving red when another person is perceiving blue--while both are looking at what your brain interprets as green. I have. I am not a scientist, but I know that It is an individual's brain that interprets and decides how those colors are presented to your sense of sight. It is possible that these perceptions could be different for everyone--but as long as it was perceived the same way for any given individual each time--then it wouldn't really matter--everyone would be calling that the same thing. I dunno the answer to this. Scientists claim they know, and personally I believe that everyone sees colors more or less at least close to the same way. But the fact really is that it does not matter.
Choosing the White Balance pre-set for Cloudy conditions can brighten a too gray day.
Outside of the fact that some people have genetic differences that disallow them seeing certain colors as distinguished from others--called color blindness--this should not be made into be a big issue. I became aware of one of my family being color blind to a particular orange as in contrast to green once while we were traveling in the Bahamas. I noted how beautiful the almond blossoms were. They are bright orange. This family member said, Where? I thought there was some leg-pulling going on as the blossoms were everywhere and virtually unavoidable. But it was not joke. To some color-blind people, the orange blossoms simply are indistinguishable from the surrounding green leaves unless they are right up on them and can see the difference in the texture and shape of each in contrast. There are a few variations to color-blindness. It need not be a handicaps even in situations requiring close matches--as long as one is aware they have the condition and how to compensate for it. So although some major perception differences certainly do exist--White Balance will not correct such differences for these people.
Different animals see different colors in different ways. Mammals for the most part are able to see the range of the colors that humans do, then some. They are said to be able to perceive the ultraviolet spectrum that humans cannot see as well. This is beyond blues and purples. Most researchers believe that except for the higher primates, animals see colors much less distinguishable from one another than do humans. Maybe they see in black and white or more likely in several hues of grays and pastels. Cats and dogs are much better equipped to see in levels of darkness that humans find too dark to see well. My sixteen-year old virtually blind and deaf pooch, for most purposes cannot see in daylight. He seems to get around better on our walks after dark, when I have to use a flashlight.
ISO should be chosen, in most instances, just high enough to provide the kind of shutter speed and f/stop combinations that you can get by with--but no higher--in order to maintain the maximum image quality.
Speaking of birds, birds are thought to be able to see a much wider spectrum of colors than humans. I have had personal experiences with wildlife while stalking them in the dark with night vision aided by an infra-red beam. Humans cannot detect this infra-red 450 watt beam at all without the use of special night-vision scopes and devices. Through these devices, the otherwise invisible beams of infra-red light look like intense beams cast by high-beam car headlights. Mammals, at least most mammals, cannot see this infrared beam of light either--even when it is aimed right at them. Raccoons and possums and other mammalian critters seem oblivious to infrared.
But if you cast a beam on an owl or whippoorwill or other bird in the wild--at night--these birds take note and are immediately spooked. This is consistent with the the scientists theories. I have heard stories that Afghanistani tribesmen keep domestic birds such as guineas and they have learned that by observing these birds at night, they can detect approaching troops using infrared to enable their night-vision optics approaching from a very long way, and become agitated and noisy. These are all examples of both the different types of light and the different ways of seeing or perceiving light. Of course there is no color without light.Color is a function or a subset of light.
Any printer craftsman who produces high-quality four-color (know also as full-color) images such as brochures of furniture and food and other exacting subjects--realizes that the appearance of such hard-copy images differs when viewed under different kinds of light. Mercury vapor, tungsten, florescent, daylight with clouds, daylight without clouds in open shade, direct sunlight--are a few of the readily-identifiable differences in illumination sources that can affect how reflected four-color (CMYK) images appear to the human eye. You can look at a color printed color image inside under florescent or tungsten and carry it outside and watch the variances in hues and tint. When color copiers and color computer printers first came out, many end-users had a hard time understanding why their color output did not look as they felt it should. Often a phone call telling them to walk outside and view the color print in daylight helped convince them that color was not as far off as they first believed while viewed under a mix of inside light. Sometimes it corrected the color entirely. They often expressed astonishment at this phenomenon.
I must admit that back in the seventies, when I was first learning to print color images in the darkroom, learning to see colors that made up a mix of three colors in combination--to see which one or ones were dominating the others in order to make subtle corrections to the filters in the darkroom--required a steep learning curve. I will also note that no electronic color analyzer can compete with an experienced color technician in subtle color diferences. The human eye is capable of extraordinary precision in distinguishing subtle color differences. Computers and digital color printers generally work with 16.7 million theoretical colors--but the human eye can actually distinguish far more colors than this.
Camera angle and vantage point can make a huge difference in the perspective one has for any given scene. Several variations of essentially the same scene are presented here, as I encountered and captured in during a recent outing. The choice of lens focal length or zoom setting can also make a huge difference. Telephoto lenses enlarge distant objects proportionately more that close objects. This is how photographers can make an antelope appear very small outlined against a setting sun--by using an extremely long lens. Of course the setting sun is much closer to the photographer than is the antelope, so the telephoto lens magnifies the farther sun exponentially more than it does the closer antelope. The converse is true of wide-angle lenses. For my birder friend, knowledge of this gem of lens knowledge has the makings for many extraordinary photographs.
You get into a whole different discussion when viewing transmitted light versus reflected light. This is the difference between viewing your images on one or several different computer monitors, which use RGB (Reg, Green, Blue) color models and hard-copy printed images, which use CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) color models. These are by no means the only color models used, but these are the most common. If ever you have viewed a particular image on your computer screen and then been sorely disappointed that the colors don't look the same when printed--you have experienced firsthand the problem of color-matching that faces professional photographers and printers throughout the production process. And while you may feel that the photofinishing is way out of whack, it may be that your monitor is out of whack, or both are, or neither are. Gamut is the word used to describe a particular ability of any model to reproduce colors. Color gamuts such as RGB and CMYK overlap one another in some areas, but not in others. If you place your one open hand randomly over the other open hand n front of you (go ahead and do it now), those areas where the two hands do not overlap in such a casual exercise, without attempt to align them exactly, easily demonstrate those colors from one gamut to another, that simply do not cross-over from one gamut to the other. RGB and CMYK models do not overlap very well. So there will always simply be colors viewed on your computer monitor that don't look the same when viewed as color prints. They will look even different when produced by different types of printers such as offset printers, versus silver-halide photofinishing output or as a laser print or your ink-jet printer. Sometimes special dye-sublimation printers are used for very accurate archival printing.
Technology is rapidly changing all of these processes for closer matching--but nothing will ever make one gamut match all the colors of another gamut. To make things even more variable--the color, type, and finish of the paper or other substrate color images are printed on makes even more difference--even within the same types of output. If you varied the substrates while using just one color output method, such as your home ink-jet printer, you would find vast differences in the output.
Years ago, privy to a special industrial showing in NYC, I observed experimental color printers devised by Canon, which were printing at high-speeds with extremely close color fidelity. These printers were considered top-secret and were secured behind thick plexiglass. The prediction at the time was that some variation of ink-jet printers would ultimately become the output standard. This actually now appears to be coming to pass, but who knows? As a photographer, even just a decade ago, I could never have predicted the technological breakthroughs that we now enjoy. Digital photography has, as with other facets of life, have provided a paradigm that no one ever anticipated. However, I can personally testify as to how far color photography in general and the ability to match color has come in my lifetime. Simple White Balance adjustments on even inexpensive digital cameras amaze me personally. Though viewed with marvel and mystery, such adjustments need not confuse, but should be viewed as just another tool in a photographer's bag of tricks (skills). The automatic White Balance adjustments available on most new digital cameras will very likely provide the precision a photographer needs until such a time that he or she feels ready to undertake manual adjustments. My advice is to not worry about it.
When lighting is from mixed sources, the manual White Balance setting is what is called for in order to deliver images with "normal" lighting. The term normal is suspect, as it is loaded with all kinds of questions regarding the subjective perception of color. But this setting is very simple to use--requiring only a few seconds and a piece of white paper such as a napkin.
Mine has only been a very basic and unscientific discussion of color-matching--which is itself a very complex science--but it at least provides a basis for understanding and appreciating exactly what a digital camera is trying to accomplish when it uses its automatic or manual color-balancing or White-Balance adjustments. It is incredible exactly how well such features actually do work when it comes to practical application in delivering acceptable images for you whether viewed on a computer monitor, a HD TV, or as color prints from Walgreen's or WalMart, or from a more precise and expensive photo-finished print blown up for exhibition or for a simple wall-hanging.
To use the White-Balance feature of your digital camera, assuming that you are merely wanting to closely adjust your images so that they appear to you and most other people, more-or-less the way you are seeing them under the light where you are taking them, it is very simple. Virtually all digital cameras work essentially the same way, but you will certainly want to consult your manual or on-board instructions as to the exact procedures for yours.
Sometime you have no idea what types of lighting is overhead or it may
be a mix of several types of lighting. These conditions are when the
manual or custom White-Balance setting become most useful.
Most digital cameras have automatic White Balance settings that try to judge how you want to view things. They are pretty good, but of course they work on algorithms and averages and will not cover every condition--nor can they read your mind (yet). Then there are usually attempts to allow you to select what kind of light sources you are using. These may include Daylight variants such as Cloudy and Full Sun; Indoor variants such as Fluorescent (often several types or choices, and often displayed as long skinny light-bulb icons), Tungsten, and Mixed.
Sometime you have no idea what types of lighting is overhead or it may be a mix of several types of lighting. These conditions are when the manual or custom White-Balance setting become most useful. Back in the day, a Neutral Gray Card was the standard, and every serious photographer had one to take light meter readings from and to place in trial shots with bracketed exposure bad other adjustments. To make it simpler, any old white sheet of paper or white napkin will work with-your digital camera.
Each manufacturer may have recommendations as to what type of white paper will render the closest matches, but any clean white piece of paper or white sack or napkin will work well enough for most cases. I like to use a sheet of copier paper. Just plain white paper in 8.5x11 bond paper. You could carry a pieces folded up in your pocket for that matter or placed inside your camera bag if you carry one. The fold won't make much of a difference if you smooth it out sufficiently. Even a blue-line spiral notebook page works pretty well and you don't have to tear the sheet out to use it.
Once you select the White Balance Set mode, you take a reading of it by pointing it in such a way that no shadow is cast--as illuminated from the light you are in from a distance that does not allow the reading to fall off the page--in other words that fills up the frame. The reading is saved and a message appears on screen that says so. If you are in doubt that it worked do it a couple of times. There is nothing to it. Some cameras allow you to save manually taken White Balance settings for different conditions, but if you practice it a few times, you will see that it is so simple that you can do it on the fly with very little trouble under any lighting conditions you find yourself in.
Of course you will want to try the setting out and see how the images look to you to make sure that you did it right and/or that it suits you. To bend this process slightly, you can use it creatively by saving or replicating several different settings and then trying them out under other conditions to skew your lighting appearance unnaturally if you desire. Even the simplest cameras that allow a White Balance setting will keep the last reading you took until it is changed or until you select another preset.
So after all the big build-up--it is just that simple. Nothing to it.
Now regarding ISO--I have automatic links that appear at the bottom of my blog as I am composing a post. I can choose whether or not to keep them.There is one that explains ISO at the bottom of this post. But I will give it an off the wall shot here in my own terms. It is not difficult to understand. Maybe only slightly more difficult to explain well. ISO is merely a universally accepted standard that was first used to express the relative sensitivity of film to light. It is now also used to express the sensitivity of the charge-coupled devices used in digital cameras in the same way it was used for film. It is just a way of dealing with increased or decreased sensitivity.
So after all the big build-up--it is just that simple. Nothing to it.
Just as using a film emulsion that is more sensitive to light, enables greater ability to take pictures in lower light levels, using a higher ISO setting on a digital camera accomplishes the same thing. The numbers were made as seamless as possible going from film to digital photography in order to make it easier for film photographers to make the transition. A higher number denotes more sensitivity. Doubling the ISO setting, for instance from ISO 100 to ISO 200, makes a difference of one f-stop or one shutter speed. Going to ISO 400 makes one more f-top or shutter speed setting. If you do not understand the relationship between shutter speed and f/stop (aperture setting), you should take time to gain and understanding of this. You can search my blog posts or the Internet to find explanations of this relationship to to whatever level of understanding you desire, as this is basic to photography.
In this post, it is my intention to simply explain that if you are shooting at lower light levels or if you are taking pictures of objects in motion or if your camera is blurring due to motion, you need a higher ISO setting. So why wouldn't you want to shoot at the highest ISO setting for everything. Two reasons: You can have too much sensitivity for you available shutter speeds, AND the image quality generally falls off with greater sensitivity. With film, the evidence of graininess becomes greater and the color fidelity deteriorates. With digital information--the digital noise increase and the color fidelity decreases. The appearance of both conditions, whether with film or with digital information, actually look very similar.
Use the lowest ISO number that gives you the ability to shoot in the light conditions you find yourself in. This simple. Nothing to it.
Just as film speeds, expressed in ISO, increased over time, digital ISO capabilities are increasing over time. ISO settings that delivered very poor quality digital images ten years ago or even three years ago, now deliver much-improved image quality. This is due to better CCD's for less money in large measure, and to a lessor degree better electronics and computing power within smaller spaces.
Sometimes the gray color of a gray day is exactly what you DO want. White Balance can be manipulated to render such appearances to creative advantage. As a country kid growing up and as an outdoorsman, I have seen old broken down fences like the one pictured. Somehow it just seems fitting that they be viewed under the gray light of a cloudy day such as is so prevalent when hunting.
So, the long and the short of it, whether using film or digital mediums, is real simple. For most circumstances (there are always exceptions), the trick is to use the lowest ISO setting that gives you sufficient motion-stopping ability for any given photographic conditions with the lighting, whether natural or artificial (IE, supplemental or primary flash, or NOT). f-stops and shutter speeds have their own ramifications such as blur and depth of field, so the consequences of these setting have to be taken into consideration. But the issue of ISO is basically as simple as that. Use the lowest ISO number that gives you the ability to shoot in the light conditions you find yourself in. This simple. Nothing to it.
Yes, the discussion can become much more complicated than this. But the net net practical and useful result will never stray from these basic premises. So in summary, use the White Balance presets that your camera offers for most circumstances. Use the manual White Balance reading on a white sheet of paper for precision lighting, mixed lighting, or if you are in doubt of what kind of lighting you have. Use the lowest ISO setting that you can for any given lighting situation. Whether or not this explanation will provide that gleam in the eye of an eagle at long distances will most likely depend upon other considerations--within the perimeters of these maxims for setting ISO and White Balance.
May I also encourage my birder friend to learn about the RAW format and how to use a good image manipulation software program to tweak his images. Photo Shop is the best known and is the industry standard, but a shareware program can be downloaded and used for free that can give you a good start. It is called GIMP. Do a search to find a free download for this program. With such programs, you can put that gleam in an eagles eye if you must.
This article will be about how to use Gimp, the image editing Software to Make a Meme.
First of all what is a Meme anyway?
The “meme” word was first introduced by evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, in 1976. ”Meme” comes from the Greek word “mimema” (meaning “something imitated”, American Heritage Dictionary). Dawkins described memes as a being a form of cultural propagation, a way for people to transmit social memories and cultural ideas to each other. Not unlike the way that DNA and life will spread from location to location, a meme idea will also travel from mind to mind.
The majority of internet memes are transmitted by adolescents and post-adolescents. This is largely because these two demographics like to message, and have a playful curiousity about memes. But today, the average age of meme-transmitters has increased, as users over 30 years old discover the chuckles and humor about forwarding memes to their friends.
A “meme” is a virally-transmitted cultural symbol or social idea. A meme (rhymes with “team”) behaves like a flu or a cold virus, traveling from person to person quickly, but transmitting an idea instead of a lifeform. According to Cecil Adams of theStraightDope.com, the concept of memes “is either really deep, or really, really obvious”.
Historically, a meme is a discrete “package of culture” that would travel via word of mouth, usually as a mesmerizing story, a fable/parable, a joke, or an expression of speech. Today, memes travel much faster than simple speech. As internet email forwards, instant messages, and web page links, memes now travel instantly via the Internet.
If you want to Make a meme. Then you are in the right place.
This will give you the steps to go through to originally make a Meme.
If you realize how fast a meme can you viral, then you realize the power of the masses it can touch with the internet.
Although this article may or may not be useful to my readers, it is another reference to GIMP, the free Photo Shop-like software. It is NOT Photo Shop. Not even close. But it will do a lot of useful things with you images and will acquaint you with some of the thins Photo Shop does until such time that you can spring for the real deal.
May I also mention that Adobe has a special promo for "Creative Cloud", which includes access to Photo Shop and a lot of other programs for a monthly fee. It is exclusively for teachers. I teach classes in Photography. Even in Photo Shop My wife is a teacher. Neither of us work for public schools, so when I plug in the name of who I or she teaches for, it does not recognize us as "real" teachers. This is their mistake. We could give them a lot of exposure. I will not buy it for retail prices though, because i don't necessarily use it. Maybe some of you can qualify. Do a search to find it.
Make the impossible
possible. Change your
perspective.
Lytro’s newest light field capability,
Perspective Shift, allows you to interactively
change your point of view in a picture, after
you’ve taken the picture. On a computer or
mobile device, you can shift the living picture
in any direction; left, right, up, down and all
around. Perspective Shift will be available
starting December 4 and works on light field
pictures you’ve previously taken and with
any new pictures you take. Change your
perspective and see the moment come alive.
This Google Glass video, taken without the need to hold a camera, is part of a video-chat hangout.
(Credit:
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
"OK Glass."
Those are the two words that Google showed today will initiate a variety of commands for its Glass computerized eyewear.
In the Google Glass "How it Feels" video, people speak the words "OK Glass" and then pick from a list of featured voice commands to send a message, record a video, take a photo, launch a video-chat hangout, conduct a search, check the weather, or get driving directions.
When Microsoft introduced Windows 95, its Start menu became the gateway for just about anything you could do with the operating system. Google -- expecting to advance computing beyond the era of PCs and even smartphones -- no doubt hopes that "OK Glass" will become as familiar.
The Glass eyewear perches a screen just above a person's ordinary field of view; the device itself is equipped with a processor, camera, head-tracking orientation sensors, and other electronics drawn from the smartphone industry. Google began selling Glass developer prototypes called Explorer last year for $1,500 that are due to ship this year.
Google's site shows off Glass' GoPro-like videocamera abilities, with first-person views of table tennis, swordplay, trapeze acrobatics, jumping rope, sculpture carving, hot-air ballooning, and more. The company is trying to demonstrate it as a sort of real-time video Facebook you can use to share life with others as you experience what's going on around you.
Google's video and "what-it-does" explanation is very much from a first-person perspective, showing what it's like to wear the device. It makes for a very personal experience, reproducing what a person would see and adding an unobtrusive transparent Glass interface in the upper
I’ve been an advertising and corporate photographer for forty-five years, and in that time, I’ve had my share of legal problems over the unauthorized use of my images. For some incredible reason, people think that they can just come and take my photos for their own use and not pay for them. Since I’ve spent the majority of these years in film, it was a constant issue, and one which was very hard to find out about.
I had to see my photo in a magazine, a brochure, on a billboard, or for a second on the television. The only other way was to have someone (usually another photographer) recognize my shot and call me to let me know. I once was sitting at a light and glanced over to a bench next to a bus stop and saw a photo that I knew a friend of mine had taken. I decided to call him and “lo and behold,” he knew nothing about it.
In my online class with the PPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, I’m always telling my fellow photographers that putting a copyright stamp with the year on your image does not fully protect it. People always think it does, but I have some bad news for you…it doesn’t. Your image has to be registered with the Library of Congress to even be able to sue for infringement. Not only does it have to be registered, but also, if it was not registered before the commencement of the infringement, you will be severely
Please note that I have a large number of photographic images that I have make available exclusively for use at no-charge without restrictions other than a proper credit byline. This gallery includes some of my most recent photographs. These images are both copyrighted and discretely watermarked. They may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without my express written permission. A nominal fee may be charged for using these photographs for any purpose, commercial or otherwise; however, I often authorize and encourage their use for noncommercial purposes at no charge--for merely adding my credit or formal byline as my own form of advertisement.
Until automatic ordering is in place, please email me with your request for written permission and/or prices for using these images. Include your Company or Personal Name under which images will be used and a brief but full description of how you wish to use photograph(s)--listed by the image number. If you are in need of a particularly themed photograph, please contact me with a description of your needs, as I have several million photographs that remain unlisted and unpublished.
Please DO ask for my very reasonable prices and send special requests for photographs to meet your needs. I also have Themed Posters and LTD Edition and Original Images (Includes Negative and/or Only Digital File), and One-of-a-Kind Photographs available for Collectors. Regards, D. Patrick Wright
