Svenska Studios

Spring in DC

2011-03-29T21:27:00.004-04:00

Today it is sunny. Tomorrow it rains. The temperature fails to reach 50 degrees F. The newspaper says that this is the day for the maximum bloom of the Cherry Blossoms. I spend the day on projects in my jammies and wait until the temperature starts to drop and the light gets warm. I leave for the Tidal Basin. On the way I find love at Dupont Circle.

Everyone has a camera. Everyone photographs the blossoms from every angle. I wonder why I participate in this ritual. Yet, it is so peaceful to walk among the blossoms that frame the memorials at the basin. It is spring in DC, even if the temperature is freezing.

Buying a Point and Shoot Camera

2011-01-04T11:12:00.006-05:00

One of the questions I get asked most often is what camera to buy for everyday use. So I thought I would outline the various considerations for each type of camera starting with the Point and Shoot.

What is a Point and Shoot? Generally it is a small camera with automatic features and a fixed lens. The camera comes in various sizes but the most popular cameras are those that can be placed in a pocket and are quickly available for a candid shot.

The market for point and shoot cameras is overwhelming and changes quickly. Cameras are often improved and upgraded within a year of introduction so it is hard to stay ahead of the curve. The best way to determine the right camera is to outline how you will use it and what are the features that are most important to you. Armed with this information you will have a better chance of working through the options. After you have determined your needs, search online first to learn about cameras and options. Reviews are really helpful and some of the most helpful reviews by consumers are found on Amazon or B&H Photo. Also, B&H will highlight some cameras on their web site and provide a review. Once you have narrowed your selection do a general Internet search tagging for problems with the camera to solicit any negative feedback about your choice. Also, if you aren’t familiar with all the features of today’s digital cameras and want to learn more a trip to the brick and mortar camera store is invaluable. Not only that but buying a camera from a camera store can start a relationship where you can learn how to use the camera and get the most out of your investment. Many will match Internet prices but all of the independent dealers offer something that the Internet can’t provide – hands on experience and interactive learning about your new camera.

Here are 10 things to consider when buying a point and shoot (Note these are not in order of importance):

1. Sensor Size: A small sensor usually leads to more image noise. The noise increases when you're shooting at higher ISO settings. The sensor size is a limiting factor for the number of megapixels offered on a camera. Canon actually downsized the number of megapixels to 10 when it introduced the G-11 in 2009. The older G-10 had 14 megapixels but had more problems with noise. Generally there is no need to go above 8-10 megapixels for the point and shoot.

2. Lens: Consider what the camera will be used for: If you do a lot of nature photography, you may want to look for a camera with at least a 10X optical-zoom lens otherwise the typical 3X optical-zoom lens (the equivalent of a 35mm–105mm lens) will be fine. Don't think you are getting more if there is also digital zoom, you really want to just focus on the optical zoom capability as digital zoom isn’t really zooming in it is cropping the image to make objects appear larger in the picture. For day-to-day use, a 3 X optical zoom will suffice.

3. LCD Screen: Generally, the bigger the LCD, the better, especially if it is used in place of a viewfinder. Inexpensive cameras tend to have poor quality LCD screens that are hard to see. You want the image to be sharp and not delayed if you pan the camera across a scene. Also, most of the less expensive cameras only have the LCD screen and no viewfinder. I am from the school where I still use the view finder to compose and take the shot, if for no other reason than you can't see an LCD screen in bright light. I often take tourists' pictures with their own point and shoots on the National Mall and I have an awful time knowing if I have the shot with the Capitol in the background with the people in focus just using an LCD. So if you plan to do a lot of work outside in bright light, you might want to consider a viewfinder in addition to the LCD Screen. On my Nikon SLRs, I use a Hoodman over the LCD to check my shots, but I compose using the viewfinder. Many of the Panasonic cameras offer an optional viewfinder that you can attach.

4. Data management: You’ll also want to consider what settings and parameters are displayed on the screen when shooting. Ideally you want information on the ISO setting, number of pictures remaining, battery life, shooting mode (including white balance setting), and any exposure compensation, if that is an option. Of course some of these features may drive up the camera price so you have to decide what is important to you. While most cameras have the number of pictures remaining and the shooting mode, I find the most helpful information is the battery life so I can plan before the little red light suddenly appears and then I am shut down without warning.

5. Facial recognition: One of the more useful modes on many point and shoot cameras is facial recognition and now there are even cameras that have smile recognition. That is a bit too automatic for me but I know people find it very helpful, especially when taking pictures of groups.

6. File format: Almost all of the lower end point and shoot use JPEG and don't have the RAW. RAW is good if you want to process your own pictures and have full control over the megapixels without JPEG compression. If you want RAW look at the Canon S95 or the Panasonic Lumix series. In a future blog I will explore 4/3 cameras, which offer RAW capability, including the Canon G series.

7. Storage Cards: Storage cards keep changing. My old Canon S410 uses a Compact Flash card, which I love because I can use the same carrying case for the cards as for my professional equipment. That said I don't mix the cards between cameras. I tend to use my older CF cards with the Canon S410, as it doesn't require cards that read fast or have a lot of megapixels. New point and shoots use Secure Digital (SD) cards and now there is a Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) card. Remember, however, that you need to check compatibility of your cards with the camera you are buying. Also, SDHC cards are not backward compatible with SD cards. I won't go into the new SDX card at this point as an SD or SDHC should suffice. In addition, buying a high capacity GB SD card for a point and shoot is overkill. First, almost all of these cameras only shoot JPEG and not RAW, so you get a lot more pictures on a card even in the Fine mode. If your criteria includes the RAW feature, than a larger SD card is warranted. In addition, it is better if you have more than one card in case the card goes bad so get a couple of smaller cards instead of one large one. Consider it a little insurance plan of not having all your eggs in one basket.

8. Batteries: To keep the camera small it will likely have a proprietary battery, which is generally a small lithium unit that is rechargeable. While AA batteries are easier to find when traveling, the cameras that use standard AA batteries are bulkier. In any case, batteries do last longer these days and they are less expensive so get a back up to avoid being caught short at that special moment.

9. Video: Almost all point and shoots available currently have video. Check whether there is a HDMI output to get the display on a HD television if you plan to share your video with friends without looking at the tiny LCD screen.

10. Focus Control: Point and shoots by definition are designed to be automatic. Some point and shoots offer manual control but even professional photographers often use their supplemental point and shoot in the automatic mode. If you want the option of manual control you will be looking at a higher end point and shoot that may be more complicated to use. The Canon S95 gets good reviews for its focusing ring for manual mode use.

In a future blog, I will explore the 4/3 or mirrorless camera systems.

Kodachrome is Gone

2011-01-02T18:01:00.003-05:00

Kodachrome is gone. The last pictures came out of Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas on December 30th. I opened my refrigerator door and realized that I am probably sitting on some future relics in the film world. The question is whether any of this film is still good?

Even if it is still good, can I afford to use it? The last portraits I did with film cost over $100 to process 10 rolls of 120 without proof prints. So using film is not something to take lightly. Yes, it provides a superior image even today, but at what cost? So do I give this a whirl in 2011 or do I just clean house?

In Step

2010-06-10T00:00:00.002-04:00

It was Christmas 2003. I was spending it in Paris with friends. We were walking along Avenue des Champs Élysees to do a campy tourist thing -- climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Our coats almost matched -- the same material, just a little different style. They were from the same boutique in Paris -- a place where you ring a bell and are escorted into an exclusive shop. I was told by my friend that I would be "sized-up" and then from a small door leading to an underground space the shopkeeper would disappear and reappear with just the perfect coat. Indeed, that is exactly what happened. And a few days later we picked up the coat and sashayed along the promenade, enjoying all that a Paris outing had to offer.

I took out the point and shoot and snapped this picture with the image firmly ingrained in my mind. She with her pointed toe shoe of the latest fashion and I, with practical clogs that made me look like a clog -- except for the coat. I loved the coat. I still love the coat. Seven years later it reminds me of this moment with my friend who would have celebrated her birthday today with the same zest for life as she lived everyday she was alive. I miss her. Not a day goes by that I don't think of what could have been had she lived. She left behind an incredible family and fabulous career that lives on with continued accolades to her accomplishments. Everyday I think about how I can live a life that strives to be as caring, supportive, and intelligent in an effort to make a contribution to this world. Everyday I think about my friend but especially today when we should have been celebrating another milestone of a life well lived. It was a life well lived -- it was just far too short.

Thank you Mary Virginia Swanson

2009-11-08T18:34:00.005-05:00

It was a beautiful morning on Saturday. As I sat with my first cup of coffee I decided to check through my emails since I have been traveling and not as attentive as usual. I stumbled upon an email inviting me to attend a presentation by Mary Virginia Swanson (MVS) as part of Foto Week DC. It was Saturday morning at Glen Echo. I had been intrigued by the press and write-ups about MVS and on a whim I decided to hop on a bus to Glen Echo. I was not disappointed.
While she gives the same basic information over and over about the business of photography and representation she makes it sound fresh and she updates her presentation as she goes. She was full of ideas and ways to pursue fine art photography. A central theme was the community of photographers and the art world in general. She stressed the need to get out there, to have portfolio reviews, and to find avenues through connections. Towards the end of her presentation she mentioned that Foto Week DC might still have some openings for portfolio reviews. After she had described the necessary preparation for a review I thought it interesting that she would pitch a review at the last minute. So I popped the question and she said that it is always good to have a review as you always learn. With that, I contacted Foto Week DC and signed up for a review today.
Taking all the information provided by MVS, I spent my day sorting, processing, and printing. By late in the afternoon I had 20 respectable pictures of Antarctica to share. I was also out of ink and low on paper. So I packaged up the prints and trundled down to the Corcoran for my review. I don't really know what I was expecting. I had decided on the end of the day to not only get ready but to potentially have a little more time with the review than the 20 minutes alloted time. My review was with Melissa Farlow. While I prepared prints, I found that she wanted to see more work related to penguins in Antarctica so I was glad that I brought the computer along. Her review was thoughtful - stick with the penguins. It was clear that I had a way of capturing them in whimsical moments and that I took great care about how they were posed.
As we discussed the market, we lamented on the changes that have taken place with the advent of digital and while she had some suggestions, she agreed that it is hard to find markets, and certainly hard if you want to be connected with the top tier in travel, adventure photography.
Still she sent me away with some ideas of what to do next and spurred me on with her geninue response to the penguin pictures I thought were the best of the lot.
With the winter almost upon us that will give me a chance to regroup, figure out my next steps and see if I can launch these photos out of the computer and into the mainstream. At the very least it launched me back into blogging with something to say.

Hickory Horned Devil

2009-09-06T18:54:00.006-04:00

The National Zoo is the most popular destination point for people who come to see me because it is only a five minute walk from my house. I always enjoy going, especially as the unexpected often happens at the Zoo and each visit is unique. Yesterday was exceptional as a Hickory Horned Devil ambled across the walk by the outdoor elephant area. As you can see he is quite colorful and quite large (approximately 5 inches long). He drew a huge crowd and we had to watch the children who kept getting too close and almost stepped on the little fellow. As it turns out he was seeking a place to burrow so that he could morph into a Royal Walnut Moth.
I thought at first that he must have escaped from somewhere else in the Zoo but he is actually a native of North America and is found throughout the deciduous forest areas of the eastern U.S. With the help of a Zoo volunteer we got the fellow to climb onto a piece of paper and then deposited him on the other side of a fence with lots of foliage and nice soft dirt. After searching for information about him on the Internet I learned that that is exactly what we should have done according to information from the University of Florida; "If a larva is found crawling on pavement or in an area of thick turf grass where it would have difficulty burrowing, it should be moved to an area of soft soil or a mulched area where it can burrow for pupation."
Now I will have to keep going back to see if I can find a Royal Walnut Moth someday.

Eastman Glass Plates

2009-08-12T18:01:00.009-04:00

Sometimes buried treasure comes in small heavy boxes. In recent weeks I rediscovered several original boxes of Eastman's Dry Plates in my mother's Amelia Earhart trunk. The plates are well preserved and show Victorian life in all its splendor. In fact, whoever took the pictures really wanted to record everyday life as well as the more traditional family gathering on the porch. This first picture sets the stage with this traditional pose of all the men in front and the women dutifully standing behind them. It is one of the best preserved plates that I have scanned.
Eastman Dry Plates were made commercially available in 1880 after George Eastman decided that there had to be a better way to take photographs than carrying your darkroom with you, which was required by the then available method for photography using wet-collodion plates. He actually bought the wet-collodion plate system to record a trip he was going to take, but in fact never did as he became intrigued with finding options to this cumbersome system. He found articles in British journals about photographers who were making their own gelatin emulsions. It took him approximately three years to perfect his formula for a gelatin emulsion that adhered to the glass and remained light sensitive. This allowed the user to take pictures and then develop them later. It was a huge step forward in making photography accessible to everyone.

Web Site Update

2009-08-09T21:27:00.009-04:00

I have made a few changes to the web site to reflect a broader range of what I do. I also want to make the site more dynamic with additions as well as subtractions of work on a regular basis. My goal is to add more work to the new "Places" category weekly. I am limiting the work on Places to just eight pictures per category. In some cases I will change the eight pictures over time if it is a collection where I have a substantial body of work. I have also added an "Events" category that shows a sample of event work. For actual events I still use on-line services to post all the pictures in an event for the client to view via pass code access. I hope to add to the Event category as well over time with some classic work. At present, I am just testing the new categories to see how they feel and if I want to keep them. I welcome comments and suggestions on what might be of interest and what you would like to see on the web site. Check it out at www.svenskastudios.com.

2009-08-02T07:17:00.004-04:00

There is an article in today's New York Times that skirts around an interesting issue of how we not only view art but how we view our world when we are experiencing new things. The lead picture shows people in the Louvre taking pictures of the pictures with their point and shoot cameras. The essence of the article is how we don't really take time to look and study, we just seem to collect data points and feel we have something if we have recorded it on our cameras. Whenever I venture out to a Smithsonian Museum I find the same phenomenon of people just clicking away and not really looking, or seeming to not look at what they are seeing. An interesting observation by Michael Kimmelman is that "Cameras replaced sketching by the last century; convenience trumped engagement, the viewfinder afforded emotional distance and many people no longer felt the same urgency to look." Now with the advent of digital, it is so easy to just snap a picture of everything as if seeing it all but are we really seeing anything at all that way?

Annie

2009-07-31T17:10:00.006-04:00

Late last night I got an email that updated Annie Leibovitz's financial situation -- it just went from bad to worse. While there are those who can't understand how anyone would need to borrow $24M using all past and future work as collateral, it is what it is and that is just what Annie did. If she has a financial planner, accountant, and/or attorney none of these individuals seem to be present in the current situation. She is now being sued for not upholding her end of the bargain. I feel a little like Carl Fredricksen in "UP" when he finds his hero, Charles F. Muntz, deep in the South American jungle and Carl is excited until he realizes that his hero isn't a hero after all. It seems so incongruous that the world's most famous photographer with million dollar jobs would dig a hole this deep. Rumors abound including those that say the estate of Susan Sontag added mounds of debt to Leibovitz. Whatever the reason let's hope she gets some real help, including someone who can manage the negative press, which could just make this hole deeper without professional help.

Metro Red Line Crash

2009-06-22T22:14:00.012-04:00

I try to avoid rush hour but today I was with out-0f-town friends and we were returning from the Holocaust Museum and on our way to Luna Grill and Diner on Connecticut Ave. We hit the Smithsonian Metro at 5:40 PM and planned to change trains at Metro Center. One look at the platforms at Metro Center and I knew there was a major problem. So instead of Luna we exited Metro and had dinner "downtown". When I got home I was greeted with a voice mail from a friend hoping I wasn't using Metro at this time. It doesn't take much to bring the system to a screeching halt and today, unfortunately, it not only brought the system to a halt but it took a number of lives with it. Metro is my transportation system. I gave up my car to reduce my carbon footprint over three years ago. I am now one of the crowd on this platform at Metro Center when something goes terribly wrong. It will take days, perhaps weeks to figure out what happened but it will take years for the families of the victims to adjust to their new reality. We may be many on the platform but we had the chance to freely exit. For those between Takoma and Fort Totten there was not the same option. My heart goes out to the families of the victims and to all the emergency personnel dealing with this horrific crash. For those of us stuck on the platform six deep, we were lucky to be there.

Fathers Day

2009-06-21T08:00:00.010-04:00

I have written before about "Hallmark" holidays that are disguised in caring when in reality the idea is to spend -- buying something to show you care about someone else. My father never liked Fathers Day and asked that it not be "celebrated". At the same time, he never seemed to mind getting a card and a phone call even if it was connected to this contrived day of recognition and celebration. Now I don't have to send the card anymore and there is no phone number that will reach my dad. Yet that doesn't stop me from thinking about him on this day, as I always have done.
He wasn't your typical dad who went to the office, watched television sports, or hung out with the guys drinking beer and playing poker. He was a dad who was always there for school plays and events, often the only father in the crowd those days. I always felt special because both my parents came to school events, long before it was the "in" thing to do.
When he was younger he also tried his hand at photography in LA. Recently I came across one of his class projects. There is no date on it but it was most likely done sometime in the late forties after returning from WWII. I imagine he took a class using the GI Bill. It is titled: "The Other Half" and shows the seedy side of LA. It also shows a side of my father that was rarely revealed -- his interest and compassion for recording a world outside his own.

Paint Made Flesh

2009-06-20T09:14:00.011-04:00

I went to the pre-opening last night for the new exhibit at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. It captured the kind of art that Duncan Phillips made a lifetime of collecting as he opened the first modern art museum in America. In fact a number of artists weren't even born until the 1970's whose works were part of this exhibit. The exhibit itself is described by Mark Scala, Chief Curator from the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, as "works created since the 1950s by European and American artists who use images of the distressed body to convey the vulnerabilities of human life." It is not art that you can just casually glance at and make some trivial comment to sound like you know something about art. It is an exhibit that needs to be studied and perhaps viewed on a docent tour to understand the meaning within the meanings of the artists. It also demonstrates the vitality of painting and the ways in which art expresses our current existence and not just our past. In Mark Scala's description of the exhibit he says that "...for a time, in the late 20th century, painting was thought by many critics to be dead, replaced by film, video, and performance art..." much the same way that film has been declared dead in photography with the advent of digital. Yet, film is far from dead as it still provides an art form that will be used by some to express both current conditions and to take us back to a time when photography was a much simpler art without the overlay of computer technology.
This is an exhibit I will return to in order to learn more about expressions, media, and technique of presenting the human condition in all its forms.

Is there a future for Cards?

2009-06-19T21:37:00.009-04:00

We've all read that the Post Office is in dire straits with volume declining and huge overhead costs in their business model. With all the instant communication options of email, blogs, Facebook, My Space, Twitter, and the like there are fewer individuals who sit down and write letters or perhaps send cards. Even our bill paying is on line for the most part since checks are electronically processed and never come back anymore. Hallmark has shifted with the times and offers to send a paper card for you to someone from their web site. All you have to do is log on, select, pay, and off it goes. No more need to spend those hours browsing in the drugstore for just the right card. So it always surprises me when I get request to make cards.
I actually do make cards but most of them are for personal use and many of them are custom to the individual. It is a little creative fun to think up a card and figure out how to present it. I also make postcards, so that I can send a card when I am visiting again. In some cases there are no postcards where I go so it becomes even more special to have a card from that location.
So is manufacturing a card or postcard like going into the buggy whip business at the dawn of the automobile? I am not sure if cards will become a thing of the past but I know personally that I like receiving mail that doesn't come in a window envelope. I like the tactile experience of holding something in my hands that came just to me and I savor the words, enjoy the print of the card and display it for a while if I want. I rarely go back to old emails but I do find cards that have been sent over the years that take me back to a time gone by and flood my memory with people and places that otherwise would be long forgotten.

Portraits

2009-06-18T09:35:00.007-04:00

There are many books and articles on the web and in print about how to photograph people. I think the key element is to have people willing and comfortable with you. When you achieve this level of trust then people feel more free to be themselves. Building trust in relationships takes time and doesn't automatically happen, even with people you know. I took a series of pictures in front of the house on this particular day and knew that I had some "nice shots" but not the shot I was looking for. When that happens I have to find a way to regroup and be able to bring the subjects along with me to a new location with the same enthusiasm as when we first started shooting. In this case we moved to the back deck with a wonderful brick motif to photograph against in even light that just needed a boost of fill flash.
Along the way it is good to have fun too! I actually think the fun shot of this mother and daughter tells the story of their relationship much more than the "formal portrait" previously posted.

One Shot

2009-06-17T21:42:00.013-04:00

Reluctant subjects in photography are always challenging. This is Amber, who is very shy and very wary of anyone new. Yet she had some curiosity about what I was doing with all this equipment. Still it was only one brief moment when I was able to capture the "classic" portrait. The shot under the picnic table; however, gives a better glimpse into Amber's personality and what she really thought about this portrait process.

Processing

2009-06-16T21:57:00.010-04:00

We all know that we are the new lab. Our work is processed "in-house" on the computer and the tools just keep getting better and better. In fact I find that the combination of Lightroom2 and Photoshop CS4 is hard to beat for getting the dodging and burning as precisely as I want. Add to that a few OnOne plug-ins and the work just keeps getting to be more fun.
I am in the process of testing some labs for larger jobs that I just won't want to process myself. As part of this endeavor I went back to older wedding work and redid the processing from the original Lightroom and CS3. The results are not subtle as shown by these two pictures processed two years apart.

Angles

2009-06-15T10:36:00.007-04:00

I remember when getting the horizon straight was the only way to go -- especially with weddings. Now the trend is anything but a straight horizon. The angles are used to create dynamic poses and take a static image and make it sing. I was working on that yesterday and I have to agree that it was more exciting and fun to tilt, turn, and move the image every which way.

A little Screech Owl

2009-06-14T23:38:00.011-04:00

I was out on a shoot yesterday in a sleepy little neighborhood in Takoma Park, MD. The neighbors were gathered around a large tree on a corner lot looking up at the tiniest little screech owl. The little fellow had a brother or sister who actually fell out of the tree a few days before and was gathered up and taken to the Raptor Center in Virginia (all reports are that the owl is doing well and will be released to the wild when it is old enough to fly). This little guy in the tree was very alert and watched my every move as I tried one angle after another to get a clear view without all the pesky leaves in the way. He was no more than 3 to 4 inches high and had the soft feathers of a baby. Then he decided to spread his wings as if he were going to fly. It was at that point that I knew I needed to step away as I didn't want him to take the leap at my expense. I promised to send some snaps to the neighbors for the local Internet newsletter.

Photo Contests

2009-06-13T22:03:00.007-04:00

I am always wary of photo contests yet they are still a way of showcasing work to a broad audience. Even John Paul Caponigro entered one of his Antarctica pictures last year. So now is the time to think about The "World in Focus Photo Contest" that is sponsored by National Geographic Traveler and Photo District News. It is a contest that leaves you with rights to your picture and only allows usage for 24 months after the contest, mainly to advertise the contest or the magazines. Should I take the time to enter?

Photo Fusion

2009-06-12T21:41:00.011-04:00

Yesterday I included some snippets on Photo Fusion. As the evening progressed after that blog I had a conversation with a good friend who said that the still cameras with video capability would not replace the dedicated video camera. Today I picked up my new issue of Digital Photo Pro magazine, and opened to an article entitled: "Will Video Kill the Still Photography Star?" The simple answer is yes because just doing still photography will no longer be enough. If I were a Canon user I think my next camera would be the EOS 5D Mark II. At 1080p HD it surpasses the Nikon D90 at 720p HD and more than surpasses it with a 21.2 megapixel/comos image sensor compared to the D90 12.3 megapixels.
This combination of technology allows for switching back and forth from video to still at the present time. It allows for motion far beyond the still picture movment of Ken Burns and actually brings sound and motion together in snippets of action that can complement the still picture. Next will be the quality capability that will allow just selecting the still off of the video. I don't think that day is far away at this point. Then the still photographer will be editing in Final Cut Pro (FCP) or Adobe Premier (and perhaps Avid) and instead of clicking a shutter it will be the electronic flagging device in the program according to Louis Lesko.
Keeping up with all of this is challenging, not only with the cost of equipment but the learning curve to bring it all together. It moves photography to a different level of story telling and perhaps offers the opportunity for photographers to apply a new level of skills -- much like a step function increase in accounting -- to the art of photography.
In the meantime, while I work on FCP I am also trying to maintain the skills of the still photographer and find interesting willing subjects to be before my camera. This bird (OK, I know I should be able to tell you what kind of bird it is as it is clearly printed on the information outside the enclosure) was more than willing to run over to the fence this morning at National Zoo and greet me. Now I just have to hope that I don't get a call from his agent and that the desire for video mixed with stills doesn't impede my opportunities as a still photographer just yet.

PDN Virtual Trade Show

2009-06-11T20:40:00.018-04:00

Get ready for the new age where the trade show is virtual in the comfort of your home wearing PJs. While there is an element of comradely that is missed, there is also an element of "green" where you aren't traveling and expanding your carbon footprint while catching up on all the latest photo news. Today I was able to participate fully in the festivities laid out before me on the computer screen. Throughout the day I discovered more and more as I linked and zigzag all over the web catching snippets of information and dancing in a sea of information. Yet, I was really doing nothing -- at least it felt like nothing as the time went on with no real productivity. That is the trap of the web and the same trap had I attended in person. I go from a high to a low in 60 nanoseconds wondering what I am doing with photography. In this case I find I am in good company with so many others who keep working at an art that is changing so rapidly it is hard to ever get ones arms around it. Doug Gordon got his arms around it and around models as bride and groom where he pushed and pulled them into position to show fifty poses in "Flow Posing" done in 5 minutes (He had time constraints for the presentation so he moved this along to show some fantastic photos from his poses). Amazing process but I dare say the models were at the chiropractors in the next 15 minutes after the tape ended. Robert Evans with Photo Fusion was interesting because he is the photographer of the TomKat wedding and other high profile stars and yet he is pushing the envelope in the next best method and system as he explores video combined with stills for events. Not for everyone but with the Canon 5D Mark II it is certainly within reach. The most moving piece, however, was found as a result of the trade show and after the trade show as I explored Zack Arias' work. When Zack Arias was the guest blogger on Scott Kelby's site in February 2009 he made a video instead of writing something. It tells the story we all feel and received an incredible number of comments on Scott's blog as it hit a nerve. While the summer may be upon us and we are busy with weddings, unions, events, and portraits there is always the winter just lurking around the corner. It will be here all too soon again and then we will really need a trade show to connect us and remind us of why we do what we do.

Erin

2009-06-10T10:00:00.002-04:00

To keep a memory alive is sometimes a challenge. In the case of Erin Anderson, it is so easy. I was in the airport recently passing the time at the Border's Bookstore when a Harvard Business Review publication popped out at me with Erin Anderson's name as the lead article. Never mind that she has been gone for a year and a half. Her work lives on in so many ways. She continues to gather awards, accolades, and honors on her behalf in the form of special seminars and meetings dedicated to her memory.
Erin would be celebrating her birthday today if she were still with us. Instead, we are remembering her for all that she gave us as a friend, a colleague, and a contributer to the greater knowledge of marketing. It is as if it were yesterday we were on the quay by her house in the warm sunshine enjoying the Seine and tranquility of living in a little village in France. Happy Birthday, Erin!

Equipment Mania

2009-06-09T19:48:00.007-04:00

It seems that there is always new equipment in photography these days and even the high end producers are scratching their heads while they make a list of "needs" versus "wants". While we all know it really isn't the equipment, it is the photographer, that is a hard sell in a "techno" era. It comes home quickly; however, when you see work done by Kim at Seattle Daily Photo. I know I have blogged about her work before but it just is incredible to view on a regular basis. Kim doesn't have formal training in photography as much as she has training in life. She takes her view of the world and manages to share it so well with so many people. In her most recent photo of a full moon in Seattle there were many comments about how she shot it and what she used. That doesn't seem to be Kim's bent on taking a picture. It is the picture itself that counts not the equipment that was used. Perhaps we can all learn from this approach in an equipment mania era.

iMovie and Final Cut Pro

2009-06-08T22:55:00.006-04:00

I went to attend an editing class tonight at Arlington Independent Media and found the class canceled with no notice. That was the bad news. The good news was that the other participants in the class were very interesting. I met a woman who was a picture editor and we started talking about iMovie versus Final Cut Pro (FCP). She really is into still photographs, which is perfect for iMovie work as noted in my blog about Ken Burns recently. Yet, she kept thinking that perhaps she should be proficient in FCP for use with still pictures. I have come to the conclusion that there is a lot to be said for keeping it all as simple as possible. Still there is this aura about FCP and becoming an expert in the software. I think the trick to all of this is assessing the right software to meet the production needs. For most users iMovie will work just fine. We just have to keep our eyes open to the possibilities.

The Jump

2009-06-07T22:41:00.008-04:00

For all the photo journalistic approaches to wedding photography there still seems to be trends that go with the territory. One such current trend is the "the jump". Instead of the line-up of the wedding party, there is the jump of the wedding party, capturing that spontaneous moment in mid-air. It doesn't seem to happen perfectly the first time as the jump is done a few times, just like the photographer taking multiple shots of a portrait. Have you ever wondered what it looked like from the back? I happened upon a jump recently and while being careful to stay out of the way, I couldn't resist the view from behind.

Delete?

2009-06-06T11:14:00.007-04:00

It's Sunday morning and time for slowly sipping a cup of coffee and reviewing old digital files taking up precious space on external drives. Yes, I know that Peter Krogh keeps telling us that storage space is cheap but I keep thinking I should become lean and mean. As part of that process I came across a picture taken with a little point and shoot camera that was virtually black. So I popped it into Lightroom2 and discovered a special image. It took on an ethereal quality that I hadn't expected. The subject matter was wonderful with Phila, the black lab, trailing behind as my friends walked in quiet conversation along the Seine in the middle of Winter 2003. The picture also takes on a special meaning because my friend Erin is no longer with us. Peter Krogh is right that we never know how the importance of an image might change overtime.

"The Hot Shoe Diaries"

2009-06-05T09:50:00.009-04:00

There are so many books on "how to" for photography that it is nice to come across a book that is not quite the same. Joe McNally really means it when he says his book is a diary. He includes shots from cameras that he no longer uses (Nikon D2X) and even references the old workhorse of a flash system, the Norman 200B (I won't tell you what he says about it but it is not flattering). While I am not enamored with his use of "hip" language where he tries to be cool by using the wrong tense combined with strong language, I am taken by the jewels of information embedded in his stories about each picture he includes. Instead of just a cookbook of instruction he uses the metaphor of cooking and says that you really have to tweak the recipe for the results you want. It couldn't be more true. While this book isn't for someone looking for basic lighting techniques it is actually fun to read about how he created so many high end shots. Somehow I think using it as a cookbook; however, is like cooking from the French Laundry by Thomas Keller and thinking you are going to rise to the top of the celebrity chef list. It took Joe McNally 30+ years to glean the information in this book so cooking with it will take time, patience, and lots of practice. Thank goodness for digital which makes "practicing" the art of photography so much more accessible.

Digital Albums & Ken Burns

2009-06-04T09:17:00.016-04:00

While the post production can be time consuming there is one venue that is fun to pursue -- making movie DVDs from still pictures. Apple has made it so easy with iMovie and iDVD to create "live albums" of events. I just completed one today for my friend I traveled with to Assateague and Chincoteague. The DVD can be played on large screen and the pictures move with the story and the music. It is a dynamic presentation that provides the opportunity to use multiple pictures in a presentation that would otherwise never be printed. Apple incorporated what is known as the "Ken Burns effect" into iMovie several versions ago (we are now on version 09). There is some controversy in the film community attributing the panning of still pictures to make them appear to move to Ken Burns. He the person; however, who gets the credit for doing it and to his credit he did not take a commercial interest in the Apple designation of the effect using his name. He first used the technique when he made the film Brooklyn Bridge in 1981. At the time he was asked where he got the "movies" of the Brooklyn Bridge, which was constructed before Edison and others were making the first films. It is a very effective technique and used a lot in historical documentaries but it is equally fun to use with pictures taken today. When I am creating a digital album I use iMovie instead of Final Cut Pro ("FCP") because the Ken Burns effect built into iMovie is much faster and easier than FCP.

Cattle Egret

2009-06-03T21:37:00.001-04:00

While not a "birder", the opportunity to photograph birds abounds in nature. Birds aren't easy to photograph. Typically they are quick to change location and elusive to find among the branches in a tree. Water and marsh birds are very interesting because they spend so much time hunting for their food. At Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge there is more than one kind of egret. A smaller cousin to the Great Egret (the fellow who swallowed the bullfrog recently) is the Cattle Egret. There aren't many cattle around Chincoteague but the famous horses seem to be a suitable substitute. I enjoyed taking this fellows picture for quite some time before he finally decided to take flight.

Delmarva Fox Squirrel & ARSC

2009-06-02T23:05:00.001-04:00

These last few posts have been about idyllic days in Assateague and Chincoteague sandwiched between bits and bites about the ARSC conference which just ended last Saturday. I have spent the past few days processing pictures of the tour at the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress as well as the presentation at the conference entitled "Recovering the Earliest Sound Recordings". The finished work was finally delivered early this evening after fighting with FTP uploads and suffering from server configurations that no longer meet my needs. I was finally saved by a good friend who already had the server capacity set up in the right way and took my ready to go web pages and hosted them on his server for the short-term. Without that help I would have lost at least another day while I reconfigured my system. As I reflect on the experience I think back to the little Delmarva Fox Squirrel I photographed along the Woodland Trail in Assateague. He doesn't have to worry about hardware and software configurations, programming problems, or compatibility. He lives in a protected world because he is an endangered species, oblivious to all that is done to keep him going. Photographing the little guy was a lot of fun but dealing with the post production can be daunting. I already wish I was back on the trails and able to experience nature in a quiet setting where a rabbit didn't even move and a young Delmarva Fox Squirrel was as curious about me as I was about him.

Nitrate Film

2009-05-31T09:52:00.012-04:00

35MM film stock before 1951 was made with Nitrate. It is a highly flammable film stock that requires special storage and handling. There is a huge collection of this film at the Library of Congress facility in Culpeper Virginia. As part of the ARSC tour last week, we had the privilege of seeing some of the original work done with this type of film. In the Fall of 1984, WKL Dickson of the Edison Manufacturing Company (later known as Thomas A. Edison, Inc.) created the Dickson Experimental Sound Film. There is no sound with this but you can click on the link and see the two men dancing while presumably Dickson plays the violin into a horn. Early films such as this were viewed in a Kinetoscope, which was a precurser to the projector. The photograph shows the original Dickson film which is part of the Library of Congress moving picture collection.
The space where the Nitrate film is housed is deep in a bunker in the side of Mt. Pony. NAVCC was built using part of the old Federal Reserve facility that housed computers handling electronic funds transfers across the country and, until 1988, held cash reserves in case of a nuclear attack for banks East of the Mississippi River.

The Library of Congress not only preserves the original film at the right temperatures it is also copying these films to new media. This will allow more access to these fragile and valuable resources for the future.

Assateague Lighthouse

2009-05-30T11:50:00.001-04:00

The Assateague Lighthouse has a very interesting history. Perhaps the most notable feature is that it resides among the marshes of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge approximately five miles from the sea. It seems that the land has built up a tad since it was constructed in 1867, just after the Civil War. Yet, it is a working lighthouse that serves as a beacon to ships off the Virginia coast. Built of brick it has an inside/outside construction. It has a brick core that is straight up the middle and then there is an outside brick structure that tapers from the bottom to the top. Between these two structures is space and air holes for ventilation. Inside the patterns to be found are a photographer's dream.

Earliest Recorded Sound

2009-05-29T17:31:00.006-04:00

This morning I covered a presentation at the Association for Recorded Sound Collections 43rd Annual Conference being held in Washington, DC. It was related to my previous sojourn in Paris last Fall assisting David Giovannoni with research on phonautograms. This morning's presentation included interesting research work done by Ward Marston on the earliest known collection of wax cylinder recordings as well as an update on Archeophony and the phonautogram. Some of the phonautogram updates linked to the November 2008 work in Paris, but as the Firstsounds.org group keeps advancing our knowledge about the earliest recorded sound they brought to light a new interpretation of the now famous recording of "Au Clair de la Lune". You can go to their web site and hear the recording and learn the startling news that it likely wasn't a woman at all singing the tune.

In the groove

2009-05-28T07:09:00.002-04:00

The Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation is a national treasure. Tucked in the side of Mt. Pony in Culpeper Virginia it is a magnificent collection of film and sound recordings. It was a privilege to join ARSC on this tour, which gave them open access to the site. This is a station in the Disc examination room for checking records to determine the best copy to save and record. While the sound preservation was impressive, the film preservation captivated me as a photographer. I will write more about this adventure over the next few days trying to show the best side of both film and audio in this world within itself that grows at a rate of 120,000 to 150,000 items annually.

National Audio-Visual Conservation Center

2009-05-27T07:00:00.014-04:00

I am off on another adventure this morning to join the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) on their tour of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) maintained by the Library of Congress in Culpeper Virginia. It sits on a 45-acre campus that has approximately 415,000 square feet of space for more than five million sound recordings, videotapes, motion pictures, and born-digital works. It is designed to meet preservation needs of the 21st century and was built with funds from the the Packard Humanities Institute. ARSC is kicking off its conference with pre-tours of significant places in the DC area for sound recording. It will be interesting to compare storage facilities and collections in the United States with recent visits to the storage/restoration facilities of Conservatoire National Des Arts et Metiers just outside Paris and Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BNF). At Arts et Metiers I was able to document historical equipment for the researcher I worked for with the understanding that the photographs would remain unpublished. Inside BNF I also took pictures that are being used to further understanding and research related to sound. NAVCC also has some restrictions but we will be allowed to take pictures of various areas. I am looking forward to sharing a view of NAVCC with you tomorrow.

The rise of the Phoenix - Polaroid Again?

2009-05-26T10:18:00.010-04:00

When Kodachrome was introduced many thought that would be the end of black and white. Now black and white is more in vogue than ever, especially with the ease of digital capture, which allows the photographer to convert to black and white on selected images. In 2008 Polaroid stopped making film for its cameras, a victim of the market with the rapid rise of digital capture. As the New York Times reports; however, there is a die-hard group of Polaroid users who snapped up all the film they could as it started to disappear from the shelves of drug stores and photo supply houses. I still have a stash in my refrigerator for my Polaroid backs for the Hasselblads. I used it religiously to test lighting for portraits and weddings. It was key to making sure that exposures were on target and that there were no blips in the set up.
Now there is a group in the Netherlands trying to revive the film using technology that will advance the process and make it viable once again. Polaroid fanatics are holding their breath and watching the countdown on the groups website entitled, The Impossible Project. For those of us in the States watching the process, the New York Times offers the opportunity to send our polaroid prints to Lens, their photo blog. It will be fun to watch what appears over the next few days.

It's Summer

2009-05-25T16:02:00.007-04:00

They came thundering around the bend of the Wildlife Loop at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and the solitude of the morning was broken by the reality of summer just around the corner. The few days before Memorial Day are wonderful for travel. The roads are clear, the beach is empty, and the trails are full of wildlife not hampered by throngs of people. The arrival of the lifeguards; however, was a sure sign that summer is upon us. The thrones to the sea await them as the crowds traipse off to the Ocean beaches for the start of Summer. I am glad my journey was against the tide. I don't envy the trip home that so many are making in bumper to bumper traffic.

The Great Egret & the Frog

2009-05-24T22:59:00.009-04:00

In the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge at Snow Goose Pool there was a Great Egret on the hunt. He was very intent as he would stretch his long neck out and stealthy slink through the water looking for his prey. On this day he was not disappointed as he snatched a bullfrog. It took him some time to get the bullfrog into position to slither down his throat. He even had to dip him in the water again in order to get a better grip with his beak. In the end, it was a bad day for the bullfrog. It was a great day for photography; however, as I took a series of shots in rapid progression to record the event.

Fragile Dunes

2009-05-23T21:15:00.003-04:00

It was hot. We debated whether to take the Life of the Dunes Nature Trail at Assateague Island National Seashore. We took a few steps on the trail and photos just started flowing from the camera. It was the simplest composition; however, that really caught my eye -- the leaf and shadow.

Mail

2009-05-22T22:39:00.010-04:00

What connects us? For all the electronic options there is still the mailbox sitting by the side of the road waiting for the snail mail. These mail boxes are just outside the main entrance to the Barrier Island Visitor Center to Assateague Island National Seashore. I went down for a two day photo sojourn to test equipment for an upcoming event that I am photographing on the beach at the end of June. Inside the visitor center the National Park Rangers used the computer to obtain the most up to date answers to our questions. Outside it was a world that was untouched by technology.

Pereira Photography

2009-05-21T00:50:00.009-04:00

I could write a book on my photography mentor Steve Pereira. A couple of months ago in sleepy Mendocino on the rocky Northern California coast I went into the Mendocino Café for dinner and heard this booming and joyous voice. It was Steve and his wife, Barbara, having dinner with another couple. I was delighted to see him again after many years. He was the rock in my development as a photographer. I remember photographing events with him and the freedom and flexibility he gave me to to produce images. He was the consumate teacher with patience and support to allow the learning process that works best for the individual. Most of all, I felt he taught me well as he asked me to photograph his oldest daughter's wedding -- an honor for any photographer to be asked to photograph for a colleague.
Steve is still photographing weddings -- in fact he was shooting a wedding the next day in nearby Elk, California. He also is exhibiting wonderful work based on his travels with a focus on ships. As I left the restaurant I walked past the window where they were sitting and after all these years, Steve hadn't changed a bit when it came to having his picture taken.

Kelby on the Move - Lightroom 2

2009-05-20T00:33:00.010-04:00

Today Scott Kelby is in Denver for a Lightroom 2 seminar. I have a friend who is attending and we traded notes based on the CS4 Down and Dirty session I attended in Washington, DC a week ago. My friend asked if he should bring his computer. No. The pace is fast and the information flows. There is no time to try to replicate the work on your own computer. Instead I suggested he bring a point and shoot camera with small video and get their early for a good seat. With the right placement he will be able to record some of the techniques for viewing later. The video can be very helpful. I found the workbook to be challenging as it doesn't necessarily have all the details. I also encouraged active listening. If you listen to Scott Kelby you can learn a lot. I have already used some of the techniques from the class and I hope to incorporate more. I also cautioned to be ready to be sold on NAPP membership with lots of goodies attached if you buy at the seminar. Nothing wrong with that but it is better to have time to think it through, whether you are extending your current membership or getting a new membership. By the way, if you don't have a NAPP membership and you use Photoshop you are missing one of the best deals for photographers. The discounts by merchants alone pay for the $99 membership and best of all, the web site provides lots of great content on a weekly basis.
I realize I must sound like a walking advertisement for NAPP but of all the photography organizations I have been involved with over the years, this is by far the best.

Photo Walk

2009-05-18T19:14:00.004-04:00

The momentum just keeps growing with Scott Kelby's ideas to excite the photo community. He has just announced his second year of the Photo Walk. Last year's wildly successful event with photo groups from all over the world walking and photographing on the same day is destined to be an even bigger event this year. The prizes aren't stunning and judging is perhaps not as rigorous as vetting with a stock agency but the non-tangible rewards are phenomenal. So put on your walking shoes and be prepared for July 18, 2009! Join a group quickly as they will fill up.

Film vs. Digital Take 2

2009-05-17T23:41:00.015-04:00

Fred R. Conrad of the New York Times posted stunning black and white large format pictures on the Times new blog: Lens. He writes about how the photographer sees with large format and reflects on the care taken to produce one photograph instead of zapping off a zillion images and not really seeing what is being photographed. His comment about setting up the 8 x 10 for portraits (which are not shown in his essay) and then standing next to the camera to interact with the subject waiting until the right moment to click the shutter is particularly telling. The photographer actually becomes a participant in the moment instead of a recorder of a scene hiding behind the lens. He says: "When you shoot digital, the images are quick and you spend more time looking at the back of your camera than you do seeing". This is called "chimping" as we look to see what we have just taken. Instead, Conrad challenges us to go back to a simpler era and visualize before we record and to be in the moment with the subject instead of just there for a moment.
I thought about his approach and realized that when I use the Hasselblad for portraits, I use a cable release and once I have set up my picture, I too am able to step aside from the camera and interact directly with the subject. I dug through my files and came up with this portrait as an example of stepping aside and away from the direct line of the camera which resulted in the little boy forgetting I was there. That was the picture.

Off the beaten path

2009-05-16T18:55:00.014-04:00

It is the weekend and time to wander. Tucked away behind trees along Constitution Avenue sits a wonderful memorial to Albert Einstein. He graces the premises of the National Academy of Sciences. The cars just whiz by and I daresay most of the motorists have no idea that they are passing such a distinguished figure. Every once in a while I make a point to meander through the west side of town just to see how he is doing. For the most part I find that he and I are totally alone as he is also off the beaten path of tourists, most of whom go straight down 17th Street to the World War II memorial missing Einstein by a couple of blocks.

Why we take pictures

2009-05-15T20:31:00.007-04:00

With 5,000 pictures a minute imported to Flickr it is a wonder that there is anything that is not photographed at this point. Yet, there are many times when we say that we wish we would have taken a picture because the chance has passed and the moment is gone. I have gotten into the habit of taking lots of snapshots in addition to my work. I like to capture every moment because you just never know. This is a picture of KC taken in August of last year. He lived along the Colorado River and had a nice place from which he could saunter to the river each morning and then spent his afternoons when the sun got too hot in the cool confines of his home. He was pampered and loved and he knew it. He was a one-eyed Russian Blue. Three days before Mother's Day he disappeared. Now it appears that he may be gone forever -- perhaps taken out by a coyote or a rattlesnake. Who knows? His picture hangs on the bulletin board of his home place with everyone looking for him. He is a cat. Maybe he does have nine lives and will reappear one day. Until then, I am really glad I snapped photos of him when I did.

Origins of National Photo Month

2009-05-14T13:34:00.008-04:00

It seems that National Photo Month started out as National Photo Week in 1984, a proclamation made by President Ronald Reagan. There is another take on its origin that links it to the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) that took the concept and working with Congress made it a month long event in May starting in 1987. The most amazing find is that I didn't find it in Wikipedia. Now there is an opportunity for someone to do the research. In fact I wonder what my friend Upton would say about proclamations and designating days and months to every group under the sun. Well he is off exploring more relevant matters in Washington, DC as we look to see who will be the next Supreme Court nominee. Until then I will keep posting a picture a day and stay, for now, out of the political limelight of the City. I'll go back to Lake Tahoe and enjoy a sunny day at Sand Harbor.

National Photo Month

2009-05-13T22:55:00.010-04:00

It seems like there is a day and month for every occasion. I can't believe I lived through half of May without realizing that it was National Photo Month until Chrome Imaging sent me their fun little update. Now that I am "in the know", I am going to try to display a picture each day for the rest of the month to celebrate the occasion. So when you see photographers wish them happy Photo Month. Next someone will come up with a card line for photographers but until then just enjoy all the pictures jumping onto the web this month in celebration of the occasion.
This first picture is a boat under a long pier at Lake Tahoe. I like the perspective and placement of the boat in this winter picture. Hopefully by now the water level is up and the boat is along side the pier and not under it.

Film vs. Digital

2009-05-12T23:00:00.002-04:00

I took the Hasselblad 503CXi out today and connected it to the Quantum Qflash Model X. That in turn connects to the Norman 200B for power. It took me a while to configure it since I haven't used it in weddings for a while. In fact, I would never get the old Norman 200B through airport security for destination weddings with today's TSA. The metal rectangle case of the 200B opens up and looks just like a bomb inside with wires and transistors galore. It was almost confiscated at the Atlanta Airport back in the 1980's when I was doing a destination wedding at Callaway Gardens. If it got that kind of scrutiny before 9/11, I can't imagine trying to travel with it now. So I am trying to see if there is a role for a Quantum in the Strobis t movement. I just hate to see excellent equipment go by the wayside with our disposable society. After all, a Strobist is a minimalist, at least that is what s/he should be since the idea is to take small flashes off camera for enhanced lighting without bulky power supplies and cords wrapped everywhere. It is simply basic lighting that studio photographers have done for years but now with the help of the web and photographers like Joe McNally it has become a major force in opening the world of studio type photography to everyone with a digital camera. In fact, the biggest demand for selling old equipment on the web is for old on camera flash units that can be hooked up to a wireless transmitter. The Quantum, however, is a behemoth of a unit by comparison to the typical Strobist set-up. When I finally got my old system all together I think it weighed in at least 15 pounds, camera and all. I can't imagine carrying that around all day at a wedding anymore. Yet, I love using 2 1/4 and film. The picture quality is remarkable. Digital is good but the Hasselblad with the Zeiss lens is pure beauty. When I first bought my Hasselblads I felt like I had arrived and that I would be set for life as a photographer.

It was a nostalgic look back at a time gone by when 2 1/4 was the mark of a professional and the quality of the picture was unsurpassed with the medium format camera like the recent family portrait in this blog. So I will keep using the Hasselblad system for select portraits and wonder whatever to do with the Quantum Qflash and Norman B200.

Blue Kelby

2009-05-11T21:12:00.004-04:00

Scott Kelby picked up on my blog and noted that he was a tad blue in the picture I included. I don't know if that was due to the audio problems on Friday or just my attempt at making his photo look like a piece of a movie poster. I only took the little point and shoot camera to the Washington Convention Center for his session. In Washington, DC you can never assume that you can make it through security without a problem. I was amazed at the lack of security at the Convention Center. I could have brought anything I wanted, including a long lens with a pro camera outfit. As I was leaving the event that day I found a picture I really liked. No fancy techniques, just a good old fashioned shot with a lone woman giving it the depth and perspective needed to show the massive size of the Center.

A Hallmark Holiday

2009-05-10T21:22:00.005-04:00

I never really thought about Mother's Day while I was growing up. I was fortunate to be part of the traditional nuclear family. I didn't think about all the children who didn't have a mother. In fact, I didn't know anyone who didn't have a mother. When my own mother died suddenly three days before Mother's Day, my perspective was abruptly changed. I became very sensitive to all the hype and started turning off the radio in the car in the weeks leading up to Mother's Day as I couldn't stand the advertising for all the things I should do for the mother who no longer existed. I came to understand why my father didn't like Father's Day either. He knew it was a Hallmark Holiday.
Now it is 19 years later. My perspective has changed once again. My father has now passed but when he remarried he found a wonderful woman who made his life fun, adventurous, and worth living every single day. I find that I want to express to her my appreciation for all that she did for him and I want to recognize her on this day. So I find myself making a card for Mother's Day for someone very special in my life. Maybe Hallmark had it right all along.

Kelby and Customer Service

2009-05-08T20:30:00.011-04:00

I took time out to attend Scott Kelby's kick-off session on Down and Dirty Tricks for CS4 at the Washington Convention Center today. Scott was the presenter and he did not disappoint with either presentation style or content. The worse part of the day was the morning when there were so many problems with audio. But after that was fixed we were on a role. Although technique is very important, the most important part of the day was how Scott was able to make people feel included. While the room was filled with over 700 people, it was easy to go up to the podium and talk to Scott, ask a question, or in the case of some people, have their picture taken with him. He is the top seller worldwide of photo books, yet spending the day with him was just like having him as a neighbor.

As President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), he has formed an organization that is cost effective and accessible for users. His companies include Kelby Training and the Kelby Media Group. He has a team of people who can run any of these sessions for him but he puts himself out there and makes himself accessible to the wide range of Photoshop users who attend these mega sessions. So I thought about what makes it work so well:

Reasonable registration fees ($99 to $69 depending on whether you are a NAPP member and when you register).
A packet of value added materials (including a workbook that lays out all the content of the day and a take home DVD).
No restrictions, no ground rules, except to try and stay on time and have a good time.
Interesting and useful content presented fast paced with an injection of subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) humor.
100% satisfaction guarantee (a full refund if not satisfied).

If Tom Peters were still writing business books Scott Kelby would be at the top of the list of "In Search of Excellence". So with all that hype let's see what happens to my blog, my website, and my work as I start to incorporate this phenomenal day of learning. Scott has shown that customer service with a good product is always a winner.

First Steps

2009-05-07T23:53:00.008-04:00

This is just a personal insight and a snapshot. I spent today with family and I was able to click off a ton of pictures of Madeline. The most exciting pictures were of first steps. She just took the very first steps on May 6th, the day before I went to see her. So while this is a second day picture, it is just as awesome. While I was totally taken by her mobility, she was equally taken by my camera. We worked off of one another in perfect harmony. For the first time I was able to really capture her smiling as she showed me her world inside her new home. I love photographing children as they explore their world and make me more aware of mine.

The language of Weddings

2009-05-06T21:52:00.004-04:00

Today the Washington DC Council took a bold step and "OK'd" Gay Marriage from same-sex marriages performed elsewhere in the United States. That was front page news in Washington, DC and a tag line in the New York Times article about Gay Marriage advancing in Maine. Just last month Photo District News (PDN) in its wedding issue highlighted Gay Weddings. Rumor is that the California Supreme court will come out with a ruling on Proposition 8 very soon.
In Washington DC all but one Council member voted to recognize the weddings. Still Congress must review the bill or perhaps let it become law automatically. While DC is not the starting point for most trends it does elevate the issue to the Federal level just by virtue of the Congress having the final say over city laws.
As I write this the issues are huge for many photographers. There are lawsuits pending where studios have told couples that "they don't do those kind of weddings" and there are businesses cropping up to try and capture this market. While PDN outlines that in detail, in reality the time has come for photographers to change their language of weddings and perhaps help change perception. The concept that is disscussed in the PDN article is the notion of "separate but equal" web sites. Hello? Has anyone thought about Brown versus the Board of Education decision in 1954? Decisions on whether to photograph or not photograph a gay wedding and how to show it on a wedding site should not be done on separate sites. It is time that we shift our thinking -- it is time that we embrace a new language about weddings.
I am not sure what that language should be but I know that as I recently prepared a contract for a Union (that may be a wedding in California depending on the State Supreme Court decision) I thought very hard about the language I was using. It caused me to think about how I worded the contract and how I asked the questions of how the family groupings would be done. I photographed the first sanctioned commitment by the Episcopal Church in San Francisco in the 1990's. It was a beautiful ceremony and a wonderful reception. Now I find myself doing another event that could be a real wedding in the eyes of the law or just another commitment ceremony in California. In either case it will be a fabulous event of two people coming together in love and declaring a life long commitment to each other. To be a part of that and capture those moments is very special for any photographer. That is what Wedding Photographers do. We must be willing to move forward and help mold and develop the language of wedding photography to embrace everyone.

Scurlock Studio

2009-05-05T23:06:00.007-04:00

The rain continues to come down in Washington, D.C. While it is beautiful for the plants, it makes the neighborhoods look like a veritable jungle. It also drives us to the museums. There is always a photography exhibit to take in at any number of museums. One of the most fascinating is the Scurlock Studio exhibit that opened January 30 of this year but doesn't close until April 1, 2010. That provides plenty of time to make that trip to DC. Once again, however, if you can't make it to town you can take a look on line at the National Museum of American History.
The Scurlock Studio was the premier African American studio in Washington, DC. Of course, when it opened it wasn't labeled African American. That was a term that would not exist for a few generations. I remember my first trip to Washington, DC when I was a senior in high school. I was part of Model United Nations and we were housed at the Omni Shoreham on Calvert Street. The Metro didn't exist but the cabs carried us wherever we needed to go in town. It was in February and there was snow. I have the distinct memory of the MacDonald's restaurant on the corner of 18th and Columbia Road in Adams Morgan. We ate there a lot. The most pressing memory, however, was how segregated the city was at that time. I grew up in an enclave of San Francisco on the Isle of Pleasant Living -- otherwise known as Alameda, California -- right next to Oakland with the Black Panthers. In Washington, DC, I felt I had entered another world. Everywhere we went, blacks provided the service. They were very traditional in an era of Afro hair styles. In Washington, DC they had conked hair that looked like they came out of the 1940's. As I spent time on Capitol Hill and dined in the House of Representatives, I became more and more uncomfortable realizing that I was being waited on as if I was in the south in an earlier time. First impressions count for a lot and that one has never left me. The Scurlock Studio exhibit opens up that world from the inside looking out. It reminds us of a time in the not so distant past of a very different world.
Today all the rage in Washington, DC was President Obama in Arlington, Virginia (just over the bridge) eating at Ray's Hell-Burger. I was at Arlington Independent Media tonight and staff actually made a point of going there after Obama had lunch to get a burger before the lines became too long. When he ate at Ben's Chili Bowl in the District just before taking the oath of office you couldn't touch the place within blocks after that as the line was just too long. How the world has changed and yet living here gives me a sense that some of it hasn't changed at all. If you can't make it to Washington in the next year to see the exhibit in person you can experience it on line. It is not just historically significant, it is a reminder of what we were and an indicator of what we must do to continue to evolve our thinking and push more and more to a society that embraces and gives opportunity to all.

Washington DC Comes to you

2009-05-04T22:18:00.006-04:00

The National Portrait Gallery's web site brings its exhibits to you. With all the rain these past 5 days, I haven't been traveling around town as much lately but here is a link to a wonderful exhibit entitled "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography" . We can sit in our arm chair and enjoy much of what this wonderful city has to offer.

Where Wedding Photographers turn for their own Wedding

2009-05-03T20:18:00.011-04:00

Do you ever wonder where the wedding photographers go when it is their turn to get married or make a commitment? While it may seem logical that the competition is fierce but actually just the opposite is true. If you wanted to get married on August 28, 2007, you wouldn't have been able to hire some of the top wedding photographers in the world, like Denis Reggie or Joe Buissink. They were in Canada at Kelowana Ranch for Gary and Missy Fong's wedding. If you want to know what it is like to be married when you are at the top of the call list for wedding photographers you need to look no further than Gary Fong's blog or Elysium Productions videographers. And if you want to see how to build a business and a life that produces riches in both you need to look no further than Gary Fong.
Now the closest I have been to Gary Fong is through the ownership of a Gary Fong Lightsphere. So why would I blog about all this? Simply put Gary Fong beat the odds with the way he went about developing his business. He defied the first generation issue and showed his parents that indeed a degree from University of California, Santa Barbara in pharmacology did not mean an ascent to the high and mighty MD. In fact he never pursued medical school and instead set up a photography business in his bedroom in Playa del Ray, California. Within a year he was on his way. We often say that the opportunities have been taken but in the case of Gary Fong, he made his own opportunities. Skip the issues of the economy, slide by the problems with the digital era in photography and realize that within each of us there is a vision and a goal that can be reached. While you may think that Gary was a hard hearted businessman all you have to do is look at the wedding video and see a man on top of his game dissolve into tears when he saw Missy coming towards him and the beginning of a new life. It doesn't matter how much you may have or how little, with a wedding or commitment it matters how much you love. That is the beauty of the Gary Fong story. You can be a successful business man, you can be the top of the game but when it all comes down to it it is how much you can love. That in the end is what makes a photographer able to capture the special moments in people's lives. Now Jessica Claire is getting married. She shot Gary and Missy's wedding. She is blogging about her own wedding. The cycle continues and we don't know yet who will shoot Jessica Claire's wedding.

PDN - Virtual Trade Show

2009-05-02T11:13:00.005-04:00

I just signed up for the Photo District News virtual trade show that begins in May. I have done one other virtual trade show with Sony a month or so ago. These are a far cry from the experience the moment trade shows that used to go in venues in major cities around the country. I remember the old days at the Moscone Center in San Francisco when Photo West was in existence and I met folks like Denis Reggie (at the tender age of 38). He had only been in the business 18 years at that point. Seeing his style was important but seeing him was even more important. There is a feel you get from being in the moment with someone. While I think I should be more intimidated about talking to the real person, I was actually more reticent in the Sony show to post my questions on line. Seeing the people would have added a significant dimension to the process and given me a chance to assess whether or not to throw my hat in the conversation ring. On site, I could also network easily with other participants and find resources that now I have to develop on the web. A virtual experience doesn't allow me to touch and feel the new equipment on the exhibit floor. There is no replacement for seeing equipment, holding it in your hand and reviewing its features with an expert. Yet in a time when the world is going green and our carbon footprint is reduced by virtual trade shows I suppose it is time to regroup and adjust my thinking from what I liked before to what I can like now. So now I can sit with my own Nespresso latte in my jammies if I want. I can take breaks on my schedule and multi-task without disturbing anyone else. Of course I won't get as much out of the seminar if I approach it that way but I will be in total control of my time with the option to choose how I spent it. I'd like to see how a virtual show measures its success and if these really are a wave of the future. I guess we will know by how many more of these pop up on the web seeking our time and attention.

Seattle Daily Photo

2009-05-01T16:03:00.005-04:00

It is hard to miss the daily photo series on the web. Centered on cities around the world, individuals sign up to provide a picture taken and posted daily. Simple concept. Yet most of the sites don't have daily updates, like the DC site, which is linked to a person who has moved but left the site idle in DC. So with all the best intentions, it doesn't always work. The exception is Seattle Daily Photo.
I actually learned about the Daily Photo blogs from Kim who is the mastermind behind Seattle Daily Photo. I knew Kim many years ago when she called the San Francisco Bay Area her home. We worked together and she was one of the most competent, warm, caring, and intelligent individuals I have met along the way in life. When we were catching up one time, she told me about Seattle Daily Photo. There are two things about her site: 1) the pictures tell an incredible story about Seattle and make you feel as if you were there; and 2) the story lines are well written with Kim's inside perspective. I'd post a picture from the site but Kim is very clear about her copyright and besides, it is worth the click to go there and check it out yourself. Even though Kim keeps it rather private using only her first name you will quickly warm to her prose and her pictures. I keep coming back for more and I am never disappointed with what she has chosen and how she conveys it.

The Mexican Suitcase

2009-04-30T09:13:00.009-04:00

The New York Times this morning provided a gem of information about the discovery of the Mexican Suitcase -- tightly rolled film, 70 years old, from Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David Seymour when they were covering the Spanish Civil War. The International Center for Photography was the fortunate recipient of the material after it wound its way across continents from Spain to Mexico.
When we think that there is no more to discover in this world we are again amazed at what survives. I can imagine the excitement of the curators at the ICP as they first opened the box and then realized what a treasure they had just received. I was with members of the team of First Sounds in Paris late last year when they made a similar discovery of several more phonautograms recorded by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. There was an almost audible gasp at finding the documents inside a scientist's dossier at an invitation only library nestled along the Seine in Paris.
It is sometimes hard to know what to keep and what to toss. It takes vision to realize that what may not have value today will be part of history tomorrow. Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville never thought his phonautogram could be played and I am sure that Capa, Taro, and Seymour didn't think of their suitcase as a entrée to their thought process of covering war in a different era.

Is it Art?

2009-04-29T11:15:00.012-04:00

Photoshop allows us to do many things beyond processing a digital file. If I peruse the filters I can take a photograph and turn it into line art. I can add the color and texture I want to create an entirely different image. It is actually so easy in Photoshop to take a mediocre picture and make it something new and vibrant.
I remember my father used to take pictures with his Rolleicord and then take the 2 1/4 print and use it as a basis for painting a picture. He enjoyed painting boats in both oil and water color but my favorites were his charcoal sketches of the interior of sail boats. Again, he took a picture and then he did the sketch. He had a natural ability to capture what he saw and to recreate the picture in a different media. I thought of him as an artist.
When I take a picture in Photoshop; however, and manipulate it using the filters I just feel like I am using Photoshop to make something mundane more interesting and a little "artsy". I don't kid myself that I am suddenly an artist. Perhaps if I approached it from the graphic designer perspective I could goad myself into believing I am doing something "artsy". For all the power of Photoshop there is nothing that will replace the ability of the hand of the artist to create the oil, watercolor, or charcoal sketch.

Strolling the Brooklyn Bridge

2009-04-28T13:55:00.005-04:00

New Yorkers were out en masse to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather this past weekend. On Saturday when B&H was closed, I moseyed on down to the Brooklyn Bridge with my friends and took my first ever walk across the historic span. It was mid-afternoon, just the wrong time of day to think about photographing anything serious except taking a snap shot or two. Still that created a challenge to see if out of the bright sun, strong shadows, and the haze of the New York skyline there could be a picture. In fact, there is always a picture if we just look for it. This time it came on the way back from the Brooklyn side when we happened upon a family taking a walk. Hand in hand with the American flag at the top of the bridge span suddenly all seemed right with the world.

Bowling Ball Beach

2009-04-07T17:16:00.016-04:00

For years I have wanted to go to Bowling Ball Beach just south of Point Arena to capture the wonderful array of rocks that gave the beach its name. I have traveled the California coast from the Mexico to Oregon border numerous times but never remember seeing a sign for this particular beach. I figured that it couldn't be that difficult to find since photographers I know have created stunning pictures of it. Boy was I wrong. I discovered just why there are not more photographs of this elusive beach.
The beach is located near Schooner Gulch -- a blip in the highway on the Mendocino Coast. It is about 3 miles south of the Point Arena Lighthouse, which will soon be on an island with the rapid erosion of the California coast line. On Thursday, March 26, we started down the coast from the little town of Mendocino. I wasn't quite sure where I was going or what the tides would be on this particular day. Still, I was determined to be on Bowling Ball Beach at sunset to record the magic of multiple round boulders against the craggy cliffs with ocean waves breaking over them. I had the picture in my mind and I was hoping for just the right light on this sunny but blustery day.
We stopped at the Point Arena lighthouse and decided to take a tour of the light house before moving on. Usually when I am trundling down the coast highway I am in too much of a hurry to make a stop at this famous landmark. On this day the wind was blowing a gale but the sky was bright blue and dotted with just the right kind of clouds. We went up in the lighthouse at the end of the day and were treated to 360 degree panoramic views of the coast and ocean. I went out on a lower ledge below where the beacon for the lighthouse was originally placed and tried to take pictures. I had to hunker down and hold on for dear life the wind was so strong. Still it was worth it to have pictures of Devil's punchbowl and the ocean beyond. A tour guide at the lighthouse was extremely helpful when I inquired about getting to Bowling Ball Beach. She took us back to the visitor center, checked the tide tables and drew a wonderful map with three options for getting to the beach. I was in luck with the tides -- low tide was at 18:00. Just perfect for a warm light shot of the balls. So with renewed enthusiasm we sped off to our destination, going first to Moat Creek on the north side of the beach. As we traipsed down to the beach we encountered lots of driftwood and then rocks. These weren't the kind of rocks that you dance across to get to your destination or that adorn driveways and simply crunch underfoot. These were just the wrong size. They were too small to hop across and too large to walk on without slipping and sliding in precarious ways. The wind was also a factor in blowing us hither and yawn. We quickly gave up this route and retreated to option two -- the police call box just down the road. It was there that a wary cow check us out while munching on grass in a brilliant green field. The site didn't seem to lend itself, however, to an opening to the beach. It was bushy and overgrown on the coast side. Without getting out of the car to check it out further we moved on to Schooner Gulch. Here we found road side parking and a trail. It seemed easy and matched our map to a certain extent but when we made it to the beach we were too far south. In order to traverse North we had to either climb over huge boulders or go up on the cliffs. On the cliffs we eventually found the trail that had been drawn for us but alas there was a posting that said "Danger -- No Trespassing". It seemed OK to just peek around the sign and go a little ways down the trail as it looked like the only remaining option. Indeed it not only was the option, it was the trail described to a "T" by our "guide". All went well going down the steps that were nicely placed 4x4s. Then the 4x4s suddenly became a ladder hung together by steel cables that drop precipitously into water beneath a sea of large driftwood. Beyond was Bowling Ball Beach about 1,000 yards to the North.

I didn't have a backpack for the camera so I slung it onto my back as I started down the "ladder". About halfway down I realized how stupid that was since I had no protection for my gear and no idea if I could cross the driftwood sea to the beach. I reluctantly pulled away but was not ready to give up. First we went back to the police call box. I parked and ran across Highway 1 to a gate that looked like I would be able to slip through. Foiled again, this time by barbed wire, I retreated to the side of the road with my new found cow friends. The last resort was Moat Creek. I returned to that site. My friend stayed in the car with explicit instructions to me that I was to return no later than 7:30 PM. The wind was now howling and bitter cold. We were at 16:00 already and after that point the tide would start coming in. I was determined to traverse the rock sea beach and round the corner to my destination. I slogged along slipping and sliding. I fell and thought I had cracked my kneecap even though I tried to ease onto the rocks at the point I realized my balance was lost. The wind kept blowing me back with such force I kept thinking I should put some more weight on my petite bones. Finally I reached the corner and as I did I looked over at the crashing waves. The tidal pools were beginning to fill and the sea was making its comeback. I could make it to Bowling Ball Beach -- I just wouldn't be able to get back if I did. I had lost the advantage of the tide trying different paths.Moat Creek

There are so many pictures across the Interne t of places we say that we could take the picture just as good as the one posted. The first step is getting to the right location at the right time with the right equipment. Then it is the skill and artistic eye that looks for the unseen angle and light that will create yet another wonder of nature. I am still going to reach Bowling Ball Beach. It will just be on another trip with better preparation for what I know now lies ahead in order to make a memorable shot.

Opening Day

2009-04-04T22:39:00.011-04:00

Where I come from Opening Day means the blessing of the fleet on San Francisco Bay. Here in Washington, DC it means tourist season has officially opened. It did so in style today. I hibernated for most of the day but then relented and went down to the Tidal Basin for the setting sun. Walking down 17th Street was like a salmon going upstream against all odds there were so many people retreating from the Tidal Basin at 6:30 PM. I stopped and gave directions to lost tourists looking for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and wondering what street they were on. I took pictures of people with blossoms that were illegally picked. I lost count of the number of Nikon's and Canon's in use. Everyone had a camera and they were all taking pictures of each other, themselves, and even some of the blossoms. With the digital age everyone just keeps taking pictures, free from the days of roll film and the expense of processing. With media storage going down down down in price there is no limit to the number of pictures. It allows people limitless opportunity to create images. So I joined them to watch the setting sun and enjoy the last moments of a beautiful day as tourist season officially opened.

The Kolb Brothers

2009-02-14T21:28:00.013-05:00

Wintertime brings the opportunity for working on many projects, including the longstanding family history. I had always wondered why my grandfather chose the Grand Canyon as his honeymoon location when there were far more glamorous places he had been on his around the world trip just three years earlier. I found out when I finally extricated the honeymoon photograph taken on Bright Angel Trail from the ghastly Longs Drugstore photo album that my mother had placed it in to preserve it. The album is not only not archival, it actually harms the photos because it is glue based backing with a clear overlay that seals the picture onto the page. These albums were a marvel of the 1970's where you could just slap your pictures in and they stuck with a "protective" cover. No more fussing with little corner guards. Unfortunately the damage to the pictures is extensive, especially on the back where the glue permeates the paper. I am in the process of restoring many of these pictures, all the while cursing the appeal of these albums to the consumer almost 40 years ago.
What a delight, however, to find the burro picture in its original holder with all the information about the Kolb Brothers. They were not only entrepreneurs they were truly pioneers in photography and film. They were the first to film the Colorado river from Wyoming to Mexico. It was unheard of at the time, but it was a great hit as a film that played across the country, including Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. It seems that they put the river and the Grand Canyon on the map as a tourist destination. They did it in 1911 and Emery Kolb personally introduced the movie to Grand Canyon visitors at their studio until his death in 1976.
For their photography, they were true professionals who managed to run up and down the canyon getting their shot at the exact location, taking orders at another location, and providing the prints to the travelers as they finished their burro ride. They estimated that 3.4 million people were photographed by them on the trail over the years. Not an easy task to accomplish as they used river water for part of their processing while on the trail.
You can see the damage to the back of this portfolio holder. There are lines of glue and my mother's handwriting to document that it was the honeymoon in 1916. I am not sure how much I can clean up on the picture back but fortunately in this case, the portfolio holder used by the Kolb Brothers has preserved this picture in pristine condition for 93 years. With restoration, and thanks to the advent of digital storage, I hope it will be around for another 93 years for future generations to enjoy.

The Commissar Vanishes & the Queen Appears

2009-02-03T18:18:00.000-05:00

I was reading Annie Leibovitz's new book titled At Work and I was taken aback by the extent to which she has embraced the digital age. While it is a good thing to have all the options for processing pictures, restoring old pictures, etc. there is still a debate about how pictures should be taken and then the extent to which they should be altered. In a general sense the basics of Photoshop allows the photographer to "develop" and print a picture with more tools than the traditional wet lab. Ansel Adams changed many of his prints over the years just by changing the intensity of the sky or dodging and burning some part of a picture to enhance its attributes. He was a master printer and I have seen several different original prints of "Moonrise" over Hernandez, New Mexico each printed differently by Adams. So why be surprised by Annie Leibovitz? It was the picture of the Queen. The Queen was never in the garden. While Annie Leibovitz took the picture of the Queen and the picture of the garden, it was Photoshop that brought them together. The picture is stunning. I saw it at the Corcoran as part of her exhibit A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005. It was taken after she published her book that was the basis for the exhibit but she included it anyway. I am glad that she did. I visualized the Queen in a regal pose in the Garden giving Annie just so much time to take the picture and that was it. I marveled at how she captured the light and matched it so perfectly to the Queen's expression. I now know that Annie visualized it too, only she made it happen in the "darkroom", not in real life.

For years people believed if it was a picture, it was real and it happened. There was a saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words." That saying doesn't hold true today. In fact it actually has not held true since at least the beginning of the 20th century. Joseph Stalin had pictures manipulated to remove comrades who had fallen out of favor. The purged rivals were just air brushed away and the picture reconfigured. Our 20th Century view of the Cold War and the rise of the Soviet Union feeds off of Stalin's evil deeds but how he manipulated photographs to support his cause was not widely known. In 1997 David King published his book, The Commissar Vanishes, based on 30 year search to unearth the original Soviet photographs in order to tell this extraordinary story. King's book provides excellent detail about the process while simultaneously giving great insight into Stalin's Russia.

From Annie Leibovitz's new work we also gain great insight but does it help us to move forward the debate about photography and how it is used to tell a story, evoke an emotion, or document an event. To what extent are we expected to expect that what we are looking at may not be real? If it is not real and yet it looks real should we always assume it isn't? We have the tools to do whatever we want with a photograph. When is it permissible to take liberties with what we do with pictures. If the photographed is altered to what extent is an explanation owed to the viewer. Would it detract if what looked real was not? If not from photographs, where are we to get our vision of events that we cannot see for ourselves. What can we trust if we cannot trust the photographer to give us that reality unfiltered? And yet, from all the news articles and commentary on how this picture was made, once again, Annie Leibovitz has indeed captured the true essence of her subject.

Inauguration - Outside Looking In

2009-01-20T21:48:00.005-05:00

At noon today I was sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial watching history being made. It was a great group of people who decided to hang back and take the long view instead of the crush of people near the Capitol. It was a wonderful place to experience the moment and even more wonderful afterwards to photograph the spontaneous excitement of people as Barack Obama became President. For that moment the sun shown and the air warmed ever so slightly.
I realize the view by most people was far superior to mine but I wouldn't trade the feeling of actually sitting as a part of history for all the HD television and warmth of my living room for the world. Here are a series of pictures from today that show how those of us without the tickets spent the day if we were down at the Mall.

Inauguration Eve

2009-01-19T22:28:00.009-05:00

I usually don't blog twice in a day. OK, I usually don't blog twice in a week. I was out tonight for an Inauguration related event and I found myself wandering by the White House in Lafayette Park around 9:00 PM. The maze to get through from H street to Pennsylvania Ave is incredible. The barriers are high and varied throughout the park. Once you find the path you are kin to many other people wandering in the dark hoping to find a key of access to see the President tomorrow. It is quiet but you feel the sense of history.

The town is so alive. Everything they said about not driving was true. Here is 16th Street and K Street at 9:00 PM tonight. The ride home on metro was crowded with an 8 car train. People were jovial, not something you usually experience on Metro. Many were talking about how they were getting up at 3:00 AM to get to the Mall to have a place to see the Inauguration at Noon. I predict it will be packed by 7:00 AM. No one will be able to leave because they will loose their place. Yet, it will all be worth it to be in the moment.

In the Moment

2009-01-19T13:17:00.011-05:00

I received an email that said: "Are you nutz?" At the last minute some friends invited me to a brunch at an office on 15th Street and then off to the Mall for the Inaugural concert: We Are One. My brother couldn't imagine trudging out in the cold to be squashed among so many people and herded around with more barricades than a cattle round-up. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else yesterday. Sure I wasn't going to sit by the President-elect or shake hands with any of too many stars to mention by name. But what I knew is that I was going to be "in the moment". As part of that massive crowd I was going to experience an event that I wouldn't be able to get a decent picture of unless I went on my own in the wee hours of the morning and was willing to stand in long lines in order to be first in line. It didn't matter. I have learned that you don't just snap the picture of the President elect like I did of Jimmy Carter doing a press interview at the Capitol in 1976. You don't get a ticket to the Inauguration Ceremonies without a fuss because the congressional offices can't give them away like Reagan's first Inauguration in 1981. I stood close enough to that event to see Reagan actually take the oath of office. Those days are gone forever. Despite all that I was there taking a few still shots and holding up the little point-and-shoot for a movie clip or two.

Just to be in the crowd yesterday; however, was to share the excitement of so many people from all walks of life in America. Even with the plethora of cell phones and point-and-shoots that shot up in the air every time something happened, people were just generating a whole lot of warmth and good will. There were sing-a-longs (that even the President elect did) and while some of it may have been a bit sappy, it was the people that surrounded me and passed in front of me as I stood behind one of the roped areas next a pathway that made it all worthwhile. I looked on U-Tube this morning for some footage but didn't find much from all those cell phones. The New York Times was much more interesting with a collection of pictures from around the world about the Inauguration with many of them from yesterday about the event. They are fun to look at and to see a world that has become so visual as electronic media is used more and more to connect us all. As we were leaving the grounds and the presidential motorcade zipped by us one of the "twenty-something" friends I was with asked me: Are Inaugurations always like this?" I assured him that they are not...we are truly in a moment of history that I know is unlikely to ever be repeated in my lifetime. And then I just enjoyed being in the moment.

Politics or not?

2009-01-12T20:14:00.010-05:00

I went to the Corcoran Gallery of Art exhibit Portraits of Power by Richard Avedon at least four times. I went to the special lectures and the tour by the curator for the exhibit, Paul Roth. It was on the tour that Paul Roth told us the story of the Barack Obama picture ending the exhibit. He said that Richard Avedon photographed Obama at the 2004 Democratic National Convention after hearing his keynote speech. Supposedly Avedon said that Obama was presidential caliber and that the picture was to end his exhibit on a project called "Democracy". Unfortunately Richard Avedon died from a cerebral hemorrhage before the work was completed but the Corcoran put together the work on "Democracy" up to the time of death, along with a retrospective of pictures about power beginning in the 1950's. I stood just outside the exhibit next to Paul Roth as he responded to questions by Corcoran members who were on the tour about why the print was so prominently displayed. Several members commented that there was a noticeable absence of a print to balance it of John McCain and it seemed questionable to so prominently display only one candidate in the middle of a presidential campaign. Roth reassured people that this was Avedon and not the Corcoran. There were no politics involved but Avedon had been quite clear about the order of the prints and the Corcoran was honoring the artist's wishes. So I was quite surprised when I passed the Corcoran on this cold Monday afternoon to find that Barack Obama's portrait had replaced one of the banners on the side of the building for the exhibit which closes January 25. While the placement of the Obama banner may coincide with my own views, I am also disappointed in the Corcoran for making the decision to change their banner as the politics of the land changed. The story Paul Roth told that night is not in the essay he wrote for the exhibition book produced by the Corcoran. We are left to our own conclusions about politics entering into art.

A Chance Encounter

2008-12-30T21:47:00.003-05:00

The year end always brings about the desire to get ready for the New Year whether it is those pesky resolutions or actual work to make changes with the change of time. I was searching the web for prices on D1X cameras (the camera I "should" have disposed of long ago) when I happened across a posting on "craigslist" for Red River Paper. The price was right and better yet, the ad was for a posting right in my neighborhood. I emailed. She emailed back. A photographer who didn't need the stock she had of paper that I use all the time. Since I was already on my way downtown for a luncheon meeting, I made arrangements to pick up the paper.
We had a brief chat outside her apartment building. I got the paper and was on my merry way walking down Connecticut Avenue to the World Bank. At the end of the day I emailed her to thank her and that is when I was introduced to an awesome web site with wonderful original work by Susana Raab. I got the paper but in the process I had a great chance encounter.

Is the Christmas Card Dead?

2008-12-17T20:42:00.003-05:00

I have been mulling this over in my mind for the past few days as I laboriously prepare a Christmas letter and cards with handwritten notes. I realize, like so many others who still do Christmas cards, that the level of effort is enormous. Each year I wonder why I undertake the task. As I was preparing the cards this year I took time out to search through some old family archives, that are are conveniently housed in my attic, and I found a much more efficient system: the postcard. The cards cost a penny to send and the messages could only be the size of a medium format negative (2 and 1/4 square). If you really wanted to say anything of substance, it was better communicated in a regular letter to the recipient.
In today's world; however, even the letter is passé. Now our networks are not letters or cards but Facebook or My Space. Our communication is one to one on email but many seek larger audiences with personal blogs. We send pictures over the web with lightening speed, taking them with digital cameras that upload on the spot and instantly send them to family and friends. Are we any better connected than this postcard from 1922? I doubt it. We may have more sophisticated tools but the sentiment on the card conveys the same feeling today as 86 years ago: "...what else do you want?" We still seek to connect to each other and let people in this world know that we care about them. I guess for now I will plod along using the arcane method of cards and letters crawling through the ever more expensive system of snail mail. In the back of my mind; however, looms the question: Is the Christmas card dead? I'll let you know next year.

Year end 2008

2008-12-11T21:11:00.001-05:00

As I look back on 2008 and look at my blogs I realize that they almost all tell a story about people. Oh yes, there is the occasional penguin in the mix but even those are penguins with a story to tell. My professional work this year has not been photographing people but the outcome of the pictures for me are always the ones about the people and their story. In fact, during my shoots this year I have been most excited when I am able to capture the people, not the things or the documents that I am photographing. It is in the moment and the collective moments that make up an event that motivates me and creates my best work. I remember when I was in Paris photographing Laurent Scott de Martinville as he held his great grandfather's phonautograph for the first time, which debut to the world as the earliest recorded sound in March of this year. I couldn't stop taking pictures as he broke into a spontaneous smile while delicately holding the 138 year old document. Eventually he glanced up and noticed me and at that point David Giovannoni said to him: "She thinks she's shooting a wedding." I prefer to think of it as capturing a moment that will never be repeated. To be in the moment, with the moment so totally, is an awesome experience in photography. To those who don't photograph it is hard to explain the euphoria of a shoot where you know you have captured a moment never to be repeated.
I sometimes try to not have a camera with me and to just "experience" through other senses. Most recently I went to the National Zoo without a camera. It was mid-morning in early December and I, once again, had a house guest who wanted to go to the Zoo (it is the most requested visitor location of all my guests). So I thought I would try it sans camera. Oh, never again. We entered the Zoo and started at the top end of the Asian Trail. The sloth bears were out and quite active -- right against the glass with the ability to take close ups of their unusual paws and large snouts. We ambled past the fishing cat, who was out giving himself a bath -- it was the first time I had ever seen the fishing cat. On to the river otters where all six of them were posed on a rock in perfect position for a portrait after their daily 11 AM feeding. The Red Pandas were happily dining on bamboo and the main attractions of the Asian Trail, the Pandas, were all outside and offered excellent photographic poses. The stroll through the Zoo continued in this way through the Elephant House and then on to the Reptile House where the Crocodiles were up against the glass with their jaws wide open. It seemed as if they were mannequins until I noticed the subtle breathing as they inhaled and exhaled. Yes, I have the moments in my mind but my view of the Zoo and my experience is not better for not having the camera. My view is as if I walked through the Zoo going "click, click, click, click". After all, that is what a photographer does. My view of the world is an interesting vision of moments and it is how I see those moments that tells the story. It is how I capture those moments with the camera that brings the story to the world.

The Last Mile

2008-12-10T19:55:00.005-05:00

It has been over a month since the 2008 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC. I was caught up in the festivities this year with two young friends running the race. They finished within an hour of each other and ran the race keeping with their pace groups. The magical tracking device tied to their shoes followed them along the course and gave me the chance to follow them also. I was only able, however, to find and photograph one of my friends and that is now his Facebook picture. Jeff trained diligently, had pre-course events the day before the race, and created a support group that followed him around the course on that brisk Sunday morning. I found him by finding all of his friends at the Lincoln Memorial waiting for him to round the bend. His mother had flown in from Georgia and she and I danced and pranced through the crowds following the young Washington professionals that made up Jeff's core support group. As I was waiting as close to the finish line as I could get, I took this picture of runners facing the last leg of the race on a moderate slope that I am sure felt like climbing Mt. Everest. I thought of all the people I was watching who made the commitment to run, each with a story to tell.

I realized at that moment the significance of Jeff's story. Back in April he set a goal to shed unwanted pounds and get into shape. He decided he would do it by running. Over the course of 7 months he lost 130 pounds through exercise and diet. The Marine Corps Marathon was the goal with many smaller races in between. After the race he said it was really hard since the goal had been reached and there was a natural let down after the big event. Along the way, however, he brought so many people together through his events and networking.

He has a guest list of over 400 people on an e-invite to his upcoming birthday party this weekend in Dupont Circle and I bet anyone who is in town will show up. His energy is boundless, his attitude is phenomenal, and his story is inspiring. It shows that we can accomplish anything when we set goals that are meaningful to us and when we build a support team to help make it happen. Happy 26th birthday Jeff. You may be almost half of your former self but you are a huge role model on how to make life happen instead of letting it happen to you.

Blog Comments

2008-11-23T09:08:00.005-05:00

Building a blog site is an art form. It is a major source of information about a company or individual in today's Internet marketplace. It is a weird cross between the professional conveyance of product and service and personal insights that link the site viewers with the blog author. Blogs are suppose to be short. Mine are too long. I still think that people will be interested in a story. Journalism tells us, however, that you have to capture the reader in the first few sentences and most people never read a newspaper article to the end, regardless of whether it is electronic or in traditional print. The blog, however, offers instant two way communication. Yet it is this feature that I find empty on my blog. Most often I receive emails back from folks about a blog and their comments never make it to the comment section.
Most recently I received a comment from Aline, whose wedding I photographed in Héricy, France in 2007. I was writing a tribute to her mother who passed away last November and I included a link to pictures of Erin at the wedding events. What Aline said went to the core of why I continue to photograph even as the digital age makes us all photographers:

....so much of what you wrote coincided so closely
to how I felt and feel about mom.  But the
pictures, to use a cliche,were truly worth a
thousand words.  She would have really loved the
one on the blog posting.  And all the others...
well, they capture so much it's tough to explain
but I think you know what I mean.  In
retrospect, we are even luckier than we could ever have
imagined that you got that weekend on film,
and so perfectly.  If there were one
wedding gift to be kept out of the whole lot,
those pictures would be it.  To be honest, if
the house burned down and there was one thing to
take they would be it....

Most of us will never be Annie Leibowitz where we
are more famous than our pictures but a wedding
photographer's work lives through the
generations of families.  Thank you Aline for
valuing the effort, for valuing the work, and making it
a meaningful part of your life.  As a
photographer, I could not ask for any greater
recognition than knowing how much it means to you.

A tribute to Erin Anderson

2008-11-21T06:33:00.010-05:00

In June I wrote a blog about my good friend Erin Anderson. I never posted it. It was the day before what would have been her 53rd birthday. I don't think she would mind me telling you her age as it was well known throughout her life that she was generally younger than most of her colleagues and even many of her students when she started her career an Assistant Professor at Wharton in the 1980's.
There was something very special about Erin. She was my college roommate and even back then I realize that I was learning from her every day. She had the capacity to ask questions, seek information, and respond to change better than anyone I have ever met. I remember when she and her sister Ellen would come back from a weekend at home and comment on how the weekend food made her feel sluggish. This was long before the world had Jane Fonda to make 40 year olds realize that they could get into shape and celebrity chefs gave us as much diet information as they did good food. So we talked about diet and exercise. I always had an opinion on things about what was the right thing to do but like most people rarely did it consistently myself. Erin, however, was able to take information, sort through it, and make a plan of action for herself. In this case, she changed her diet back in the mid-seventies and started an exercise program that became a life long endeavor. It was in reality a simple thing to do but the tenacity to make it happen was pure Erin.

Erin was remarkable in her career and as a mother and wife. She was one of the few women I have met who really did manage to balance it all and keep perspective. Over the years we had wonderful conversations as we walked along the Seine by their house when I would come to visit the family in France. I always learned from Erin and came away from those trips with a better sense of myself and what I could accomplish. Erin never gave up and she never focused on the negative (except for Mitt Romney's candidacy to be President of the United States). In 2006 she had a life changing event with an illness that would challenge the very core of her being. She took on the challenge with vigor and with resolve to beat brain cancer. I went to France every chance I could to cook for the family and support Erin during this time. It was amazing to see her progress and see that she actually was beating all the odds with her approach and with the strong support of her family. And then...well she died suddenly the day before the American Thanksgiving in 2007. But she died knowing that she had responded positively to all her treatments and that her tumor was all but gone.
It has been a year since she left us. It seems like yesterday that I was talking with her about life and what we each hoped to accomplish. For Erin the accomplishments endure. This year she received the Interorganizational Special Interest Group (IOSIG) Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Marketing Association and the AMA established an award in her honor. Insead and Wharton established the Erin Anderson PhD fund to support PhD candidates in the field of marketing and Wharton just held a conference in October titled: Erin Anderson B2B Research Conference to "foster an inter-disciplinary discussion of recent theoretical, empirical, and methodological advances in B2B research". If Erin was here, she would deflect all this attention and attribute her accomplishments to the collaborative efforts with her colleagues. That was just the kind of person she was.

In July 2007, I photographed Aline and Maxuel's wedding in Hericy. I found myself taking many pictures of Erin throughout the two days with the family, from the Civil Ceremony through the evening reception held at the family home. In these photographs I see the radiant mother of the bride and groom, the glorious and beautiful wife of Hubert, the caring, loving mother of Valerie, and the fabulous mentor to all the graduate students that she leaves behind. I see my friend as a person who didn't let illness prevent her from keeping focus on what was most important in life. She was living life to the fullest and finding the positive in everything that she did. A year later no one wants to forget and Erin's presence in so many lives grows ever stronger. Here is a link to some of those moments that were captured that glorious weekend in July 2007. I am thinking of Erin today and thinking about what is truly important in life. Erin taught me a lot.

Adamson Editions

2008-11-20T21:58:00.012-05:00

David Giovannoni explains Scott's method and
notations on a phonautogram at the
Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle in Paris, France.

I remember the first time I ventured out to find Adamson Editions. It is a jewel in the printing world of photography. I had come across information about it several times but never had any need to pursue services. Then, I began working on the Scott project, which has taken me to Paris and inside the workings of the French Patent Office and other places that a tourist would never venture to in France. At home, however, it has taken me to an alley around the corner from the Convention Center and just across from Rent-a-Wreck in Washington, D.C. The first time I went there I went to the wrong door because the address noting 926 N Street, NW Rear, was not entirely clear. Today when I went to meet John Hughs there was a new sign on the glass garage door that clearly marked the business. My purpose was to discuss an going project related to phonautograms.

John Hughs and Wade Hornung work inside of a brick building with more Epson and Canon printers than you can imagine. As I walked in today there was an enormous print coming off of an Epson printer with Wade overseeing the print production with the eye of a seasoned professional. John comes out to meet me from the back of the house where he processes prints and works with customers like myself. He has been our main contact on this project. Today we discussed the Paris trip and I returned with scans and samples of the work that were done there. It is an interesting discussion as we look at proofs I have made and how to match color, density, paper weight, etc. The conversation takes a bit longer perhaps than it should but the project itself is interesting and we catch up on what it is like to spend days photographing patents and dossiers for researchers to bring to life the earliest recorded human sound.

Everything about our conversation is casual and relaxed but John keeps coming back to particular points and questions my notes comparing original documents with a proof we had him make before leaving for Paris. I am recalling what I have seen and realize how imperfect it is to describe the color, texture, and density of a document accurately for someone else to print, even with my proof prints that include a calibration card. Yet, I have every confidence working with John that my client will receive the best reproduction possible. I am simply the facilitator in a process that brings the fine art printing world together with researchers who seek to bring to the world the earliest recorded sound of the human voice. My client is precise and knows exactly what he wants -- after all he is the man who could see sound from a soot covered paper with squiggly lines. He could see that Édouard Léon Scott de Martinville's recording of sound could actually be played back for the world to hear 148 years after it was first recorded. While my days in Paris were spent balanced on chair looking down at dossiers trying to copy documents without the benefit of a copy stand or tripod, my goal is to recall more than the thrill of seeing Scott's original patent filed in Paris by acurately recreating those pages of history for researchers to use to advance our knowledge of recorded sound.

The Earliest Known Recording of the Human Voice

2008-11-11T10:47:00.015-05:00

As a photographer, the light in Paris never fails to excite me. Last week I was walking across the courtyard of the Louvre past the pyramid with the clouds dancing in the pools of water and the sunlight glowing on the side of the building. I was documenting the transport of a professional scanner from the Académie des sciences back to a small hotel on Rue de Richelieu in the 1st Arrondissement. After crossing the Seine at Pont des Arts -- a pedestrian bridge between Pont du Carrousel and Pont Neuf -- the route cuts through the Louvre. On the left bank is the gold etched dome of the Académie des sciences, which is part of the Institut de France.

Pulling the scanner is a well-dressed man in a cashmere coat that turns out to be a little too heavy for the weather in Paris on this particular day. The scanner is housed in a box stamped with baggage tags that looks like it belongs on a loading dock instead of traveling through the courtyard of the Louvre. I am dancing and running alongside him and then darting away to capture his silhouette with the scanner as he crosses in front of the pyramid.

He has just finished a day of work reviewing dossiers in the Académie des sciences including Édouard Léon Scott de Martinville (“Scott”). This is not the well-dressed man’s first visit to the Académie des sciences. Earlier this year, along with researchers associated with a group called First Sounds, a phonautogram made by Scott was discovered, and using research methods by Lawrence Berkeley Labs, sound was extracted from it and début to the world on March 28, 2008. It is the earliest recorded human sound from the air. Scott, inventor of the phonautograph, recorded human sound 17 years before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. For the next 148 years, however; his invention remained in the Académie without recognition of the phenomenal accomplishment to actually record the human voice for the first time. During his lifetime, Scott never tried to play back the sound, only record it. Edison was the first to play sound back.

The well-dressed man with the scanner in Paris is David Giovannoni. His passion is sound and he is a founding member of First Sounds. He is also a three time Grammy nominee and a Grammy award-winning producer for Best Historical Album in 2007. His research is precise and carefully executed working with a team that shares his passion. This trip to Paris will take him, along with Scott’s great grandson and Parisian Laurent Scott de Martinville, from St. Denis to the heights of Tower 3 at BNF in search of an original phonautograph – the first instrument to record airborne sounds capable of being played back. In-between days scheduled for the search for the phonautograph, he will go back to the Académie des sciences and to the Institut de France to search specific dossiers at the Bibliothéque d l’Institut de France. He will also visit Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI) again, where Scott filed his patents. On this trip he will show Laurent Scott de Martinville the phonautogram, Au clair de la lune as well as the original patents at INPI. At INPI, the staff working with David acknowledge that the opening of the Scott patents are the most exciting find in their careers.

Clearly this is a story that is still unfolding. It is now documented that the earliest recorded sound of human voice from the air was made in France by Édouard Léon Scott de Martinville. Yet, there is much more work to do. The days reviewing documents are long. The recording process, sometimes with the scanner and sometimes with the digital camera, is tedious. Materials have to be translated. Relationships are critical to not only establish Scott’s rightful claim to the earliest recorded sound but to work with the institutions that house these incredible documents. This is a discovery for the world but it is the pride of France to be the first to achieve the recording of the human voice from the air.

To be the photographer on such a journey is to record more than the documents for research work – it is to record the story. To capture the expression of Laurent as he views original documents of his great-grandfather’s from patents to the “singing” phonautogram. To feel the excitement of David Giovannoni as the research leads to new insight and discovery about Scott in particular and sound in general. It is stepping inside of Paris for a view that no tourist experiences. To see beyond the façade of the Institut de France that rises so gloriously along the Seine and to walk within the inner courtyards and down the creaky floor of the Bibliothéque to present papers from a Secrétaire perpétuel of the Académie des sciences to access its dossiers is a journey of a lifetime and yet only the beginning of discovery in this incredible story.

Meanderings in Washington, D.C.

2008-10-21T09:32:00.006-04:00

Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
Surf Sequence 3, San Mateo County Coast, California, 1940
gelatin silver print, 1982
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Yesterday was a picture perfect day in Washington, D.C. I went to vote because I will be on a combination assignment and holiday tour on November 4, 2008. Once downtown, I decided to catch the photography exhibits that were on my list. I was not disappointed. First stop was the National Art Gallery to see Oceans, Rivers, and Skies featuring Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, and Alfred Stieglitz. It is a small exhibit with only 21 photographs. The concept is the presentation of extended time, almost like frames from movie films. The earliest work is Alfred Stieglitz's Music: A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs. The National Art Gallery has over 8,000 photographs in its collection, including the largest and most significant collection of Alfred Stieglitz's work that was placed there by his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe. This particular showing of Stieglitz's work was last seen together in 1923. Next are five pictures by Ansel Adams. This is an unusual grouping of photographs by Ansel Adams, who typically did not present collections of works. This series, shot in 1940 along the San Mateo County Coast, is titled Surf Sequence. Visually you can see the Zone System at its best in these shots and the care that Adams took to capture the full dynamic range throughout the compositions. Robert Adams (no relation) work is the remaining six pictures in this exhibition. Taken in 1990 these photographs are from the South Jetty in Clatsop County, Oregon. They are much like Stieglitz's cloud photographs, which first appear to have no focal point but upon reflection have a profound impact on the viewer with a subtlety that reaches to the depths of the soul and questions life itself where the river meets the ocean.

From the National Art Gallery I was off to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, enjoying once again the bright sunshine and blue sky with wisps of clouds. I passed the Newseum with people standing outside reading the days front pages from newspapers around the world and watched as "Newseum goers" tromped up and down the huge glass enclosed staircase that afforded them an unrestricted view of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Capitol, just a short distance away.

At the American Art Museum I viewed the exhibit: Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities. The exhibit consists of 42 paintings and 54 photographs. Although they are shown in the same gallery, they are separate in their presentation with little overlap of photographs and paintings. The book that accompanies the exhibition is done in the same style, with Georgia O'Keeffe paintings first and then followed by Ansel Adams' photographs. It is up to the viewer to put the collections of each together to realize the "natural affinities".

Tucked away in a corner I was delighted to find a small exhibit entitled Earth and Sky: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth. Bosworth uses large format cameras and makes panoramic triptych style photographs by lining each picture up with a clear demarcation between prints. Her collection entitled The Bitterroot River is a personal work in which she says: "I want to hold on to all the life that remained around me by securing my world in a photograph. I convinced myself that it could not be totally taken away".

My sojourn concluded with a brief viewing in the National Portrait Gallery of Women of Our Time. This is an exhibit that is more about women than it is the art of photographic portraits. The photographers range from masters such as Edward Steichen and Arnold Genthe to amateur photographers who were in the right place at the right time including David Geary, a navy medic, who shot Marilyn Monroe on a USO tour during the Korean War.

Living in Washington, D.C. provides a rich and still untapped resource of photographs shown at numerous exhibits in the area. The time spent going and looking at photographic exhibits of what has been always inspires what will be. Robert Adams provides perspective in his book, Why People Photograph:

"At our best and most fortunate we make pictures because of what stands in front of the camera, to honor what is greater and more interesting than we are. We never accomplish this perfectly though in return we are given something perfect, a sense of inclusion. Our subject thus refines us, and is part of the biography by which we want to be known."

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Over the River

2008-10-11T09:30:00.005-04:00

Last night was the preview of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude exhibit entitled: Over the River, a Work in Progress, which opens today at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. It is a very different exhibit for the Phillips. In fact, it is something I would expect to see at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, not the Phillips. The collages in the exhibit are the work of Christo but the creativity, the idea, and the art is Christo and Jeanne-Claude. They are intertwined and their art must speak from their heart. In fact they do not accept proposals or commissions as it would then, in their minds, become someone else's work. The exhibit is fascinating as it presents the process of creation, the negotiation with numerous bureaucracies, environmental impact reports, and rows upon rows of pictures of meetings showing each step of the process since the idea was born in 1985. It is ironic that the creation of their art requires them to be the ultimate diplomats, working within the very structures of society that they wish to be financially independent from in the creation of their work. To finance the work they sell preparatory drawings of work in progress (the work at the Phillips is not for sale) and early work done over a 20 year period from the 1950s through the 1960s.

This exhibit is housed within bright white walls with numerous collages by Christo made from pencil, enamel paint, wax crayon and photography by Wolfgang Volz. The sweeping translucent fabric panels are portrayed with bright blue sky and billowing white clouds along various parts of the Arkansas River in Colorado. In many collages, river rafters are enjoying the river with the canopy of cloth above them. The exhibit puts the complexity of the undertaking in perspective, not only with the level of detail in the collages and the accompanying black and white photographs of countless meetings, but with an actual sample of the core steel supports to anchor the cloth across the river. A sample of the cloth, steel cables, and hooks is also displayed that allows the viewer to have a tactile experience with this environmental art before it is put in place.

The approvals are not yet completed and the project is at least four years away if all goes on schedule. In the past Christo and Jeanne-Claude have had 37 projects fail (not completed) due to numerous reasons related to negotiations or in some cases the time to completion resulted in the artists losing heart in a project. Over the River, however, spawns from the wrapping of the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris. As a piece of fabric from that project flew out across the Seine, the idea was born for Over the River.

Over the River is another example of Christo and Jeanne-Claude challenging us to think about art differently, to think about art environmentally, to think about the experience of the moment when we view these huge environmental landscapes that are only present for two weeks or sometimes as little as 48 hours if the weather doesn't cooperate. Christo and Jeanne-Claude also challenge us to think about the creation of art as the artist and not as the recipient of the art who commissions a work. Is a photograph of a family portrait really art if the photographer makes it to please the family and not him/herself? Is photography only art if we take the picture for ourselves, to please ourselves, to create for ourselves and for no one else?

"What a Woman Can Do with a Camera"

2008-10-07T19:39:00.005-04:00

Clearly not a title that would appear (hopefully) in any of today's journals but in 1897 it was a captivating article in Ladies Home Journal. Written by Francis Benjamin Johnston, who is known principally as an architectural photographer, her passion was to create a place for women in photography, not just in the United States but internationally as well. Her advice on the prime requisites for pursuing photography as a profession still hold true today: "The woman who makes photography profitable must have, as to personal qualities, good common sense, unlimited patience to carry her through endless failures, equally unlimited tact, good taste, a quick eye, a talent for detail, and a genius for hard work". In the Ladies Home Journal article, she details exactly what is needed to establish a portrait studio, outlining the size, necessary equipment and associated costs.
As an individual, she was willing to take risks and perhaps one of her most famous portraits is a self portrait smoking and holding a beer stein with her petticoat showing. She sought to break the mold not only of the role of women in photography but in portraiture itself.
Long before Margaret Bourke-White became famous for photographing coal miners, Johnston was in the mines using flammable flash powder to capture the workers. She also set the stage for being involved in military activities by managing to secure a spot on the USS Olympia as it came home from the Philippines after the Spanish-American War. She was one of the first photographers at the White House and she gained the title "American court photographer" for her portraits of Presidents, senators, diplomats and others of prominence in Washington, D.C.
She showed the world clearly what a woman can do with a camera.

Summer Solstice

2008-10-02T14:39:00.011-04:00

For the penguins, the glorious summer solstice is about to arrive in Antarctica. The two Gentoo penguins shown here are truly dancing in the light with the arrival of summer. I have captured them on a few articles of clothing and a travel mug for your enjoyment. There is always the option of a fine art print but sometimes it is more fun to have a picture on something you use everyday. I was exploring the options for using penguin images in my Cafe Press this morning with my good friend Barbara. She suggested that I add this image to the collection as it is one of her favorites. I welcome your ideas and suggestions for more images on items as I grow this collection.

Historic Photos of Washington, D.C.

2008-09-21T15:46:00.022-04:00

A book review of Historic Photos of Washington, D.C.

Authors: Matthew Gilmore and Andrew Brodie Smith

This is not a book about photographs or photographers – it is a book about a city. The authors, Matthew Gilmore and Andrew Brodie Smith are historians whose paths appear to have crossed when they worked in different sections of the District of Columbia Public Library. The photographs, selected from collections at the Library of Congress and the Washingtonian Division of the D.C. Public Library, are not the typical well known depictions of Washington, D.C. and its environs. Gilmore and Smith dig deep into the archives to find pictures that bring new insights into the growth and development of Washington, D.C. It does not matter who the particular photographer is or how a picture was printed and preserved, but rather that the picture increases our understanding of the origins of the city as we know it today. To this end, one of the gems of this book is the attention to detail in the captions. In some cases the photographer is noted such as the “well-known Washington photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston” or Gordon Parks but more often than not the origins of pictures are not the heart of the story.

The book is organized into four periods from 1860 to 1970. The first section takes us through the Civil War Era with surprisingly good images, some of which were made only 25 years after William Henry Fox Talbot produced the first paper negative in 1835. The authors note, however, in a picture of the Washington Aqueduct that “The ghostly outlines of a man and horse are just visible beneath the arch, telltale evidence of the technological limits of early photography”. In fact, the photograph is amazingly sharp and the image conveys the civil engineering design quite well – it is just that the first image capture did not have shutter speeds sufficient to stop motion, thus creating the ghost image. In other images we see the Capitol under construction and learn about the decision to use cast-iron instead of “traditional masonry” for the dome. President Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861 with the partially completed building in the background. Each picture caption provides insights and brings the pictures alive, not only within the historical context but often with modern day updates, such as one noting that the Aqueduct Bridge, which connected the C&O and Alexandria canals, was replaced by the Key Bridge.

The next period covered in the book is the Gilded Age, which contains photographs from 1880 to 1920. It is in this section that we see the original State, War, and Navy Building, which is now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and learn of the tragic suicide of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, Alfred B. Mullett, when he was denied his fee through a contract dispute. Despite the daring photograph of Will Robertson riding a bicycle down the steps of the Capitol (the front cover of the book), the most stunning photograph of bicycles is the line up of the Capital Bicycle Club, which strongly resembles the newly installed Smartbikes overtaking downtown Washington, D.C. today. As one views each picture it not only brings history to the forefront, but also conjures up current images we all have of D.C., and does so without having to do the standard before and after series of photographs. For example, the picture of caskets draped with American flags in Arlington Cemetery from the U.S.S. Maine look just like the caskets coming home from the Iraq war. From an architectural perspective, the authors show us buildings lost to the ages. One such building is the Church of the Covenant, which was on Connecticut Avenue at N Street NW, and today is the sight of “an unimpressive office building.” This photograph gives rise to the question as to why some buildings endure and others do not.

While there are a few pictures of Presidents, they are outnumbered by pictures of the city’s residents getting on and off trolleys or messenger boys that were photographed by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee. Gilmore and Smith do show us some original gates, guards, and bollards outside the White House, while also giving us a view of a more innocent time when the South lawn of the White House appeared to be without the fences we see today (Note: Until World War II the public had access to the White House grounds during daylight hours).

The last two sections of the book, Isolationism to War (1921 – 1949) and the Postwar Growth and Decline (1950 – 1970), seem to move us along at a much more rapid pace, much as our society moves today. In fact, the final period has the least number of photographs. I would have enjoyed more photographs and especially a more complete review of the last period. While I appreciate that this is a book about a city and not its most famous inhabitants, it is curious to note that FDR’s funeral is covered but not JFK’s. Also, while Marion Anderson is shown commemorating the 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to sing at Constitution Hall, there are just a few pictures that depict racial issues in the civil rights era of the 1960's.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not point out that the caption on pictures for the glory years of baseball with the Washington Senators calls them the Nationals. While this might appear to be a mistake, it is in fact accurate. The Washington Senators were one of the original eight charter franchises of the American League when the club was founded in 1901 but the name was changed to the Washington Nationals in 1905. That lasted for two seasons before the logo on the uniforms was changed simply to “W”. However, the “Nats” as a nickname stuck and it wasn’t until 1959 that the word “Senators” first appeared on team shirts. With the current team called the “Nats” this caption could have given us a little more insight into the naming of our first baseball team.

This is book well worth including in your library, not just for the photography but for the sense of place of how Washington, D.C. has grown up. While I would liked a little more depth in certain time periods and a little more information about the photographs from a technical perspective, I can assure you that this is a book that will grow to have tattered corners on my coffee table as I will go back again and again to gain insight into the growth of the Nation’s Capital.

Penguins on Products

2008-09-17T21:39:00.018-04:00

What fun! You can now purchase t-shirts, totes and mugs with penguins on my web site. These are items offered by CafePress and I selected just a few to start. You can request the pictures you would like to see on items or even ask for more items. This is just the beginning of creating fun shopping for those who have too many pictures on their walls but would like something more functional yet personal.

Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power

2008-09-13T08:15:00.004-04:00

The Richard Avedon exhibit opens today at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. I was able to tour the exhibit on a members only day with Paul Roth, curator of photography and media arts and curator of this exhibit. This is the second time I have seen a photographic exhibit at the Corcoran through Paul Roth's expert descriptions of prints and historical tidbits about the photographers. I was not disappointed. Roth brings Avedon alive and puts in perspective Avedon's relationship to power in a "five-decade photographic inquiry by one of our finest artists." Not only does he enrich the viewing of the photographs but he shares his research insight and information he unearthed in the archives of The Richard Avedon Foundation including a startling prediction by Avedon before he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage as he was working on a project call "Democracy". You won't find Avedon's prediction in the exhibit or in the book that accompanies the exhibit. You do, however, have a chance to hear Roth once more on this exhibit when he presents on Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 7:00 PM with Frank Goodyear, associate curator of photographs at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.

Early Metadata

2008-09-09T18:45:00.000-04:00

Personal photo restoration projects are painstakingly slow. Currently I am restoring several albums that were created at the beginning of the 20th Century. The paper crumbles in my hands (which are gloved to keep the oils in my hands from contributing to the deterioration).

I realized as I was doing the initial scans of the full pages (the first step) that I was really working with early Metadata as the photographer typed out information and pasted it on the album page to explain the pictures. And when the data was wrong, it was corrected by hand as shown in the photograph below.

George Eastman opened the world of photography to everyone with the Kodak camera in 1888 that allowed people to photograph everyday events with flexible film already placed in the camera. The photographer could take 100 pictures (hand held) and then the entire camera was returned to Eastman Kodak for processing (and we thought that disposable cameras were a new concept where we sent the camera back with the film for processing in the 1980's). I don't know if the page shown was taken with a Kodak but the albums I am working with have almost 100 pages with at least two pictures per page. That would be a lot of glass slides and almost impossible to carry around on cross country and transatlantic journeys that make up the collection of albums so my guess is that the photographer was using a camera with "flexible film". The more I work with these albums, the more I want to know how the photographer captured his pictures, how he had them printed, and where the original negatives are located.

The story goes that many of the albums were "rescued" from the ranch property in the Central Valley of California after the photographer's son died in 1957. At the time, I don't think there was any thought given to where the negatives might actually be located. The albums, however, not only represent a fascinating view of life in the early 20th Century of a well to do "gentleman farmer" but they also show that the process of recording data on and about pictures has long been embedded in the photographic process.

Inside Washington DC

2008-08-22T21:20:00.003-04:00

I decided to put some personal work on a new blog that focused on Washington DC. Check it out at www.insidewashingtondc.blogspot.com. There will be more blogs after Labor Day. Enjoy this new blog site and let me know what you think.