Photographer_Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley

Wilson A. Bentley adapted a microscope to a bellows camera and became the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885. He would go on to photograph over 5000 snowflakes during his lifetime making the discovery in his small rural town of Jericho, Vermont, that "no two snowflakes are alike". Not only is this interesting but appropriate for this time of year. See more of his collection HERE at snowflakebentley.com, and more here at the Buffalo Museum of Science.

A Photographic Benefit for the Survivors of the Haiti Earthquake

The title Haiti: One Respe comes from a traditional Haitian greeting meaning "honor and respect." Several photographers including the iconic photojournalist Mary Ellen Mark, have donated the use of one or more of their works to help create this issue as a fund-raising photography magazine to benefit Haiti.

All proceeds go to the American Red Cross International Response Fund for Haiti relief.

A good way to help the people of Haiti and receive an interesting and beautiful collection of photographs in this Magazine.

CHECK IT OUT HERE

Who Needs A Camera

CGI... Computer generated imaging. The movie Avatar has taken cgi to new heights, computer imaging is going nuclear and you will be seeing more of it even if your not aware of it. Take this video for example, it was produced by a guy in Spain on a single PC. All of it is computer generated. What else is amazing about this, well here is a quote from A PHOTO EDITOR, "We’ve all seen a lot of CGI over the years, but it’s usually just a bit off, or just too slick and most of it is really expensive, and requires a team of people to make it look right. But this is different — this is one guy and a PC. Low budget. And he’s not a photographer by training either. Photographers, especially ad shooters, are freaking out about this. (Read HERE) The video below includes composite breakdowns of the imaging process. To see the full video done by Alex Roman go HERE.

Compositing Breakdown (T&S) from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

BIG...NOT LITTLE

Canon. 5200mm, f14 lens was for sale last month on ebay. Price: $45,000, No takers

World's Largest Nature Photo Competition Investigation, (Or Scandal)?

Evidence of a scandal?, it could be but I say it is still a great photograph. A tame wolf with some of the same markings as the supposedly wild wolf in the photograph has come to light. It does seem to be the same wolf with the exception of a difference in one ear that is being attributed to a possible fight the animal may have been in since the photo was taken. Also is a photo comparison of the actual spot where the photographer took the photo inside a nature preserve that holds the tamed wolves...UH -OH. Seriously this is a big deal because this is the largest and most respected nature photo competition in the world and the winning photographer inherits a huge merit for life. This information comes from Suomen Luonto, full story HERE.

UPDATE to this Post_INVESTIGATION OF IMAGE

I posted this image of an Iberian wolf back on October 27, (scroll down to see original post). The image, shot by Jose Luis Rodriguez won the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year award and was selected from over 43,000 entries from 91 countries. Staff at the Natural History Museum opened an investigation after learning the image may have breached competition rules and it seems the photographer may be stripped of his title. At issue are allegations that the photographer used a farm raised "animal model" rather than capturing the spontaneous behaviour of a wild wolf. Kingsley Marten, the managing director of the Association of Photographers said the rules, which clearly state that images of captive animals must be declared and that judges will take preference to images taken in free and wild conditions. Full story from The Independent HERE. Set up with a tamed wolf or not its a great shot that would require a great amount of planning and photographic skill.

A Lighting Tutorial

I'm not saying you need to follow the technique exactly, but the idea is there. A good basic starting point for shooting people in direct sunlight. A simple white card will work, or an assistant in a tight, white suite will work too. So if you want better photos of people outside in direct sun... watch the video and remember...BOUNCEMAN!

Platon's Portraits of Power

The New Yorker magazine has an interactive portfolio of portraits by Platon of world leaders along with commentary by the photographer on every image. Viewing images in print form is better than viewing images on a computer, but this portfolio along with the commentary is extremely conducive to the computer platform. Platon, a staff photographer for the New Yorker set up a tiny studio off the floor of the General Assembly this past September when most world leaders were in New York for a meeting of the United Nations and worked to hustle as many of them in front of his lens as possible. I'm sure this was a very intense project for any photographer but I think Platon nailed it by looking at his portraits...they are great, and the commentary he has with the images are fascinating and add to the portrait viewing experience. See it HERE at the New Yorker. Platon's web site HERE.

Polar Obsession

National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen has an amazing collection of photographs of Leopard Seals HERE that will be published in a new book called "Polar Obsession" HERE. Check out this amazing story he has of swimming and photographing these beasts on you tube video!!

Fallout From The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

There is a mass of plastic garbage floating in the pacific. Nobody knows how big, some reports compare it to the size of Texas, and some the size of the United States. Nobody knows how much garbage is out there either. Part of the problem is that you can't see it because most of the plastic garbage is floating under the surface of the water. The fact that it is hard to see poses many problems with research, but one interesting obsticle that I came across at A Photo Editor (HERE) is how to do a story on it and present photos of the garbage. It seems that this was such a difficult task that whole stories were scrapped because of it. Photographer Chris Jordan was able to photograph some of this plastic garbage when he photographed dead albatross chicks that were fed this garbage by their parents, thinking it was food. Tens of thousands of albatross chicks die from this diet of human trash every year. Photographing on Midway Atoll, a small stretch of sand in the middle of the North Pacific, and more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent, these images depict actual stomach contents of the baby birds without any manipulation. See more Chris Jordan photos HERE.

A picture of a hunting wolf has won the prestigious Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 award.

Jose Luis Rodriguez captured the imaginations of the judges with a picture that he had planned for years, and even sketched out on a piece of paper. This is what vision, a layout, and good photographic abilities can bring... an award winning photograph."I wanted to capture a photo in which you would see a wolf in an act of hunting - or predation - but without blood," he told BBC News. "I didn't want a cruel image."
With a great deal of patience and careful observation of the wolves' movements, he succeeded in taking the award-winning photograph.The panel of judges looked through more than 43,000 entries to this year's competition.When he started planning the photograph, he feared that he might not be able to get close enough to the Iberian wolves.
This subspecies of the grey wolf lives close to human habitation in northern Spain. They are often persecuted by people who see them as a threat to livestock, and they are consequently very wary.
Watching the animals as they returned to the same spot to collect food each night, Mr Rodriguez decided on his dream shot.
He eventually captured it using a photographic trap that included a motion sensor and an infrared barrier to operate the camera. Full story HERE.

Prius "Harmony" TV Commercial

Interesting video of behind the scenes look at the making of the Prius Harmony commercial. Obviously a lot of planning and work went into this little commercial. Thanks to my friend Jim for bringing this video to my attention.

Ten photographs that changed the world

This interesting article comes to my attention from my friend Jim, who occasionally sends me interesting tid bits of information on world oddities and human interests, and since I have been really busy and not updating this blog as much as I would like, I thank you Jim for the info.
To celebrate 170 years of the camera in the public domain, a look back over photographs that have had a profound impact on the way we live today, see the Ten photographs that changed the world from the Telegraph HERE.

The Making of a commercial Product Photograph

This week I spent 10 Hours on a photograph for a catalog. It was not the greatest photograph, but it was technically correct and pleasing, an excellent photograph to interest a person to buy this particular merchandise. 10 Hours! Thats a long time for a photograph. But, with that said I have spent as little as minutes to multiple days photographing merchandise. It all depends on the complexity of the photograph and the merchandise involved. Here is an example of a cover shot for Mac World, done by photographer Peter Belanger. He shot a time lapse video of this cover shot, check it out. Check out the Mac World article HERE.

Cover creation from Peter Belanger on Vimeo.

10 Years, 60 Hours a Week=80 Photographs

Photographer Robert Buelteman sends 80,000 volts of electricity through his flowers via a metal plate and uses a fiber-optic light source to photograph his flowery subjects. Its hard for me to believe but he has spent and average of 60 hours a week for 10 years to produce 80 of these types of photo's!?!? These photos are nice BUT...10 YEARS, 60 HOURS A WEEK, ARE YOU CRAZY? Read full article HERE at Daily Mail.

The Slap-Chop Re-Mix

This remix of the Slap-Chop commercial apparently started as a joke but is now a real commercial starting this week. The re-mix was done without copyright permission, but the owner of the copyright liked it so much they decided to make it an official commercial to sell their product, read more HERE at Photo Business and News Forum. Obviously a lot of work went into this re-mix and it is pretty cool, check it out. Compare it to the original commercial HERE.

Iconic Woodstock Photo_40 Years Later

Nick and Bobbi Ercoline, now in their 60's were immortalized on the cover of the original Woodstock album in 1970 and also on the movie poster. The photo was taken by Burk Uzzle. They had met three months before Woodstock and married two summers after and remain together. This August 15-17 is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Read the full article HERE from NY Daily News.

A Photographic icon for 74 Years... Today KODACHROME Concludes It's Last Run

The Eastman Kodak Co. announced Monday it's retiring its oldest film stock because of declining customer demand in an increasingly digital age.
The world's first commercially successful color film, immortalized in song by Simon, spent 74 years in Kodak's portfolio. It enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and '60s but in recent years has nudged closer to obscurity: Sales of Kodachrome are now just a fraction of 1 percent of the company's total sales of still-picture films, and only one commercial lab in the world still processes it. See the full story from Yahoo HERE. See Kodak site HERE for a tribute and Great Moments Taken with KODACHROME.

Tenderloin or Taco_?

The state of the advertising business can be summed up pretty easily, more for less. Give me more services for less pay. It is happening across the board right now. What is it exactly that you want? Do you want to sell your products? Selling your products consist of one of the most important things, a visual advertisement... professional photographic imagery that sells the product... and that costs money. After all the time and money going into developing and producing a product, it's the image that grabs the attention of potential buyers and sells the product ... Just look at most of the photographs that catalogs offer on the internet, they are cheap looking and very badly executed, camera inputs are wrong or they're shooting with a cheap camera that does not support camera adjustments, and lighting usually sucks. I do see a trend happening with some of your bigger companies producing better photography online, and there are many print catalogs that have consistently produced beautiful photography. You get what you pay for. Some companies don't realize how many more sales they can execute had they put more thought, and better photography (this costs more $money$) into their layouts, print or internet, but eventually they will...to stay competitive and make money. Spend the money on a tenderloin, sales will benefit, and it tastes better.

Photoshop Tutorial

Blue Angels

Shot the Blue Angels at Wisconsin's Southwest Regional Airport this past weekend and learned that 1/1250 of a second still is not fast enough to stop action on these bad boys_God Bless America.

4,664 Still Photographs Produce This Music Video

California based photographer Noah Webb (see his web site HERE) shot this video for the song "A Thousand Bees" by Sara Lov by setting 4,664 still photographs to animation. Cool, we are seeing a lot of this type of video/photography and though it may not work well in many circumstances it certainly does have its place where this style fits well and this is one of those.

Adobe CS4 Commercial_?

Well, this is just wild.

New York Times Photo Blog_LENS

The New York Times unveiled "LENS", a photojournalism blog presenting interesting visual and multimedia reporting, photographs, videos and slide shows. Lens will also draw images from the Times own pictorial archive dating back to the early 20th century. Check it out HERE.

Awkward Family Photos

When really bad photographers take portraits this is what you get, proving that portraiture requires a skill level that not everyone attains. This is really funny stuff, and amazing to me that someone can submit work to a client like this and expect a payment. For a hell of a laugh go HERE to Awkward Family Photos.com.