Month: December 2014

28 December, 2014 – Fraser Island Australia – Anatomy Of A National Geographic Assignment

Growing up I had two magazines that I always looked forward to receiving in the mail and they were Life Magazine and National Geographic. I always wanted to photograph for these magazines and travel the world. Well, I have traveled the world but never had a chance to shoot for these magazines. Today’s article is by Peter Essick and he has lived the dream. He has done a number of assignments for National Geographic and shares one of those with us in his Fraser Island Australia – Anatomy Of A National Geographic Assignment story. Peter shares what it is like to pitch an assignment and what it takes to shoot one. Plus, he takes pretty darn nice images.

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The Luminous Landscape – What’s New

December 29, 2014
Meltdown: 12 Dripped, Dropped & Abandoned Ice Cream Trucks

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

If ice cream trucks are rolling symbols of childhood happiness, abandoned ice cream trucks are sadder than a dropped double-scoop cone on a hot summer day.

This forlorn former ice cream truck has found an odd sort of peace, marooned amongst fellow relics of good times (not to mention Good Humor) past at the Pearsonville Junkyard in California’s High Desert. Kudos to Flickr users cins_city (top) and codywbratt (above) for capturing this one-eyed metal monster basking in the eerie twilight glow. Curiously, the decrepit van appears to have moved to a different location on the lot during the year between the two photographers’ visits.

Colorado Low

“Is there anything sadder than a junked ice cream truck?,” asks The Truth About Cars’ Murilee Martin, to which the answer is none… none more sad. This unusual minivan-style ice cream truck is destined to count down the days before it’s fed to the crusher in a Denver-area pull-your-own-parts salvage yard.

The clapped-out 1998 Ford Windstar van’s dayglo paint job and copious stickers haven’t faded much and from all indications it sold Blue Bunny brand ice cream, frozen treats and cold drinks – you’re a long way from Iowa, old friend. Sadly, it seems they’re sold out of Rice Pudding Bars… make that “gladly”.

Desert Desserts

You can get your kicks on Route 66 but don’t expect to enjoy a cool, refreshing frozen treat afterwards… at least not from these abandoned ice cream trucks beached amidst the tumblin’ tumbleweeds somewhere in the Great Southwest. Doubtless these old blue Dodge ice cream trucks were once a welcome sight for tourists, travelers, cowboys and ind, er, Native Americans. Now they’ve been relegated to the modern equivalent of a bleached buffalo skull.

Forest Dumped

From baking deserts to baked Alaska, abandoned ice cream trucks are everywhere it seems. “This is what happens to ice cream trucks in Alaska when they play the same annoying tune too much!,” notes Flickr user Van Vickle Photography after posting the above image taken in early August of 2013. One wonders, though, if an abandoned ice cream truck plays an annoying tune in an Alaskan forest, does anybody hear?

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Meltdown 12 Dripped Dropped Abandoned Ice Cream Trucks

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Scooped: 12 Chilled Out Abandoned Ice Cream Stands

Cone in 60 seconds? Though these 12 cool abandoned ice cream stands thought they could take a licking and keep on ticking, they ended up just being licked.
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16 Abandoned Cars, Trucks, Buses, Tanks, Roads & Paths

We’ve all seen an abandoned car or truck, a deserted bus or road … but stop to admire them? Abandoned vehicles are more than just an eyesore; they can be …
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Meltdown: 10 Semi-Sweet Abandoned Chocolate Factories

Chocolate factories were once fragrant masters of their delicious domains but many have fallen victim to high costs, cocoa shortages and changing market tastes.
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[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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WebUrbanist

December 29, 2014
Top Portrait Tips of the Year on dPS
If you like to do portraits here is a round up of some of the top portrait related articles on dPS in 2014. There are some really great tips here – get out and try them out:
- 3 Simple Ways to Create Stunning Eyes in Your Portrait Photography
- How to Improve Your Portrait Photography in Five Minutes
- Using Composition to Create More Powerful Portraits
- 15 Tips for More Powerful Portraits
- How to Plan the Perfect Portrait Shoot
- How to Create a Unique Bokeh Portrait for Under $ 10
- 10 Portrait Tips to Take Your Photography to the Next Level
- Tips for Great Beach Sunset Portraits
- Tip for Using a Reflector for Portraits
- How to Find Great Backgrounds for Portraits
- DIY How to Build and Use a Reflector to Take Better Portraits
- Tips for Taking Great Portraits in 10 Minutes or Less
- 7 Tips for Interacting with People to Create Better Portraits
- Tips For Great Indoor Portraits Using Natural Light
- How Self-Portraiture Makes You a Better Photographer
Don’t forget dPS also has several portrait ebooks in our store. Check out the entire collection here.

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The post Top Portrait Tips of the Year on dPS by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 28, 2014
My Favorite Year: A Sony shooter’s inspiring 365 day project

With start of a new year, many photographers will take up a ‘365 challenge’, creating and sharing a photo every day of the year. If you’re looking for inspiration to start your own, Toni Ahvenainen’s ‘Year of the Alpha’ project is the perfect place to start. He’s a DPR reader, an enthusiast photographer and, of course, a Sony shooter. In our Q&A he tells us how the project started, how it evolved and what he learned along the way. See gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

December 28, 2014
Die 5 Artikel des Monats

Hier ist er nun ein nächster Teil unserer Sonntags-Serie. Es handelt sich dabei um eine Art Best-Of der Foto-Links des Tages, die wir im Ausblick verpacken – jedoch weit entfernt von Klickstrecken. Nein, heute bekommt ihr die Crème de la Crème der Artikel, die sich im Dezember 2014 inhaltlich mit aktuellen fotografischen Geschehnissen befasst haben.

1. Folter, Geheimdienste und die Bedeutung der Fotografie

Definitiv einer der wichtigsten Artikel des Monats ist das Interview mit David Levi Strauss, der Fotografie in Verbindung mit politischen Prozessen untersucht und dazu ein Buch herausgebracht hat (das ich mir direkt bestellt habe). Im Kontext des Prozesses um die Verhörmethoden der CIA geht Strauss auf die Blockierung der 2100 Folter-Aufnahmen aus Abu Ghraib ein und erklärt, warum genau diese Aufnahmen so wichtig sind. Da die Publikation der Aufnahmen erneut von der Obama-Regierung verhindert wurde, ist das aussagekräftige Interview nach wie vor sehr relevant.

+ Das Buch von Strauss trägt den kuriosen Namen „Words not spend today buy smaller images tomorrow“ und ist auf Amazon* zu bestellen.

+ Auch Newsweek berichtete über die Blockierung der Fotos und kritisierte die Obama-Regierung dafür scharf. a

2. Jonathan Jones kritisiert „Phantom“ in Grund und Boden

Nachdem Peter Lik mit dem teuersten verkauften Foto, genannt „Phantom“ für Aufsehen sorgte, war der Kunstkritiker Jonathan Jones einer der ersten, der das Bild kritisch analysierte. In seinem Artikel begründet er, warum Phantom kein besonderes Foto ist und attestiert – nicht zu Unrecht – dem Fotografen Peter Lik schlechten Geschmack. Wichtig bei diesem Artikel ist, dass man die ersten Diagnosen Jones’ zur Fotografie, der er jegliches Recht, Kunst zu sein, verweigert, bewusst überlesen muss. Denn das ist nicht die Kernaussage des Artikels und kann somit als Nebenschauplatz der eigentlichen Diskussion eingeordnet werden.

+ Sean O’ Hagan ging separat auf die Behauptungen Jones’ ein und erklärt, warum die Fotografie als gesamtes trotz „Phantom“ eine Kunst ist

3. Wohin fließt Geld bei einer Foto-Ausstellung?

In Foto-Kreisen wurde viel verlinkt und geredet, und zwar über diesen Artikel von Joachim Schmid, der untersuchte, wohin Gelder eigentlich fließen, wenn ein Fotograf seine Bilder ausstellt. Bermerkenswert: Schmid verdeutlichte, dass Fotofrafen eigentlich diejenigend sind, die bei Ausstellungen häufig am allerwenigsten von allen Mitspielern verdienen – und dabei doch das entscheidende Rad am Wagen sind. Ein viel zu selten diskutiertes Thema, und deshalb ist diese Kritik besonders wichtig.

4. Wie die Person(en) des Jahres fotografiert wurden

Für Uberraschung sorgte im Dezember das TIME Magazine, weil es weder Politiker, noch einen der Öffentlichkeit bekannten Menschen als Person des Jahres kürte, sondern Ärzte, die gegen die Ebola-Krankheit kämpften. Ein für Fotografen besonders spannender Artikel wurde ebenfalls auf TIME veröffentlicht. Da er bezüglich der Portraits, ohne die ein „Person des Jahres“-Feature nicht möglich ist, einen Einblick verschaffte und die verantwortlichen Fotografen vorstellte, möchte ich ihn heute noch einmal in Erinnerung rufen.

+ Tipp: Das TIME-Magazin liegt in vielen Zeitschriften-Läden noch aus und es lohnt sich, zuzugreifen.

5. Über 17.000 Negative von Vivian Maier aufgekauft

Street Shootr schaffte es, ein Interview mit dem Galeristen Stephen Bulger an Land zu ziehen, der eine große Menge von Maier-Negativen kaufte, die bisher im Besitz von Jeffrey Goldstein waren. Weil es zum Erwerb (und der Zukunft von Maiers Aufnahmen) viele Fragen gibt, ist dieser Artikel besonders spannend. Insbesondere deshalb, weil Street Shootr nicht an der Oberfläche kratzte, sondern spürbar kritische Fragen stellte. Bulger entzog sich dem nicht, wich auch nicht aus, sondern ging auf alle Fragen ausführlich ein. Für alle, die wieder auf den aktuellen Stand im Maier-Prozess kommen wollen, ist dieser Artikel unverzichtbar.

Ich hoffe, dass diesen Monat für alle etwas dabei war. Falls nicht, könnt ihr gerne unser Ausblick-Archiv durchsuchen. Wenn Ihr jedoch einen Artikel gelesen habt, der in dieser Reihe fehlt, dürft ihr diesen gerne in einem Kommentar verlinken.

* Das ist ein Affiliate-Link zu Amazon. Wenn Ihr darüber etwas bestellt, erhält kwerfeldein eine kleine Provision, Ihr zahlt aber keinen Cent mehr.

kwerfeldein – Fotografie Magazin | Fotocommunity

December 28, 2014
Most Popular Gear Articles of 2014
Photographers love our stuff, let’s admit it. We geek out on gadgets and gizmos. We want the latest and greatest thing, lens, camera. We can’t always afford what we want but it’s fun to browse. Here are some of the top gear related posts on dPS over the last 12 months:

Cameras
- 10 Reasons Why a Pro is Using a Mirrorless Camera for Personal and Paid Jobs
- How to Clean Your Camera Sensor in 3 Easy Steps
- The Secret to Capturing the Best Image Quality with Your Digital Camera
- Updating your Camera’s Firmware – What is it and Why it’s Important
- Review Comparison of the Canon EOS 70D vs Canon 700D / Rebel T5i
- Review: Comparison Canon 5D MarkIII vs the Canon 6D
- Sony A6000 Mirrorless Camera Review and Example Images
Lenses
- Old Glass: How to Use Old Film Lenses with New DSLR Cameras
- The Only Three Lenses You Need for Travel Photography
- Why Prime Lenses are Better Than Zooms
- 5 Easy Steps to Choose the Perfect Prime Lens for You
- No Telephoto Lens No Problem – Tips on Shooting for the Crop
- Ready to Upgrade Your Kit Lens? Tips for Which Lens to Invest in Next
- How to Choose the Perfect Portrait Lens
- A Concise Guide to Choosing a New Lens
- Lens Review Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD
- Creating Swirly Bokeh with the Helios 44-2 lens
- Writer’s Favorite Lens – the Tamron 18-270mm
- Writer’s Favorite Lens – the 50mm f/1.4 Lens
Other
- Phottix Mitros+ Review – the Best Flash System You Have Never Heard of
- Light Blaster [ For Special Effects Lighting ] a Review
- Bounce Flash Secrets – Bouncing Your Way to Better Photography
- 5 Ways to Create Better Images Without Buying More Gear
- Two Videos on How to Take Care of Your Camera Gear
- How to Buy Used Camera Gear
- My Portrait Gear Essentials
- Essential Gear for the Landscape Photographer
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The post Most Popular Gear Articles of 2014 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 28, 2014
Project Sprawl: Mesmerizing Algo-Generated Game Architecture

[ By WebUrbanist in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

Facing down the difficult challenge of creating an ever-changing urban gaming environment, this digital designer went with a cheap alternative that is aesthetically compelling and could have impacts beyond cyberspace.

The game, Project Sprawl, is something of a cross between the Grand Theft Auto series and classic roll-playing games, but most critically: its metropolitan context needs to be dynamic and full of surprises, evolving over time like a real city.

Low on funds and looking for cheaper and easier world-building solution than stock skylines or fully-custom options could provide, Cedric Kerr “decided to develop software that could auto-generate complex cities, from street maps to skyscraper architecture, for his characters to inhabit.”

As these animated illustrations show, there are rules to the way the generative algorithm constructs buildings – starting with a simple baseline, windows and doors, cantilevers and split facades morph and evolve in mesmerizing ways.

From Wired, “The solution to Kerr’s urban planning problem came in the form of Unity, a game engine often used to design game worlds from the size of a room to entire solar systems. The result was a set of building blocks that could be pulled and stretched in any direction with facades that would update in real time. Kerr could quickly sketch an outline of a foundation and in seconds have a unique building automatically populated with windows, doors, and other architectural details.”

The result of this project is a kind of architectural vocabulary that could be useful for deconstructing architecture, creating simulations or generating backdrops for conceptual projects. From Kerr: “the idea is that each building is decomposed into a set of rules forming a grammar that describes each stage of the process. These rules are hierarchical so a building is made up of facades, facades are made up of floors, floors are made up of tiles, tiles contain windows and so on.”

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[ By WebUrbanist in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

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WebUrbanist

December 28, 2014
The Hottest Landscape Photography Articles on dPS in 2014
Landscape photography is always a popular topic here on dPS and we had some really great articles on that topic over the last year. Now is your time to read up, bookmark them, refresh your knowledge, or get inspired to get out shooting some landscapes.

A final image after being processed in Photoshop

In no particular order, here are some of the most popular landscape photography articles from 2014:
- How to Get Super Sharp Landscape Photography Images
- 10 Most Common Mistakes in Landscape Photography – and How to Overcome Them
- 3 Tips to Take Better Landscape Photos Regardless of the Weather
- 5 Steps to Help you Take Better Landscape Photos
- Some Punchy Black and White Landscape Photos to Oooo and Aaah Over
- Landscape Photography and Hyperfocal Distance
- 5 Tips for Better Long Exposure Landscape Photography
- Better Landscape Photography Tips and Video Tutorials
- How to Create Amazing Urban Landscape and Street Photography Images
- How to do Dreamy Landscape Photography with a Neutral Density Filter
- 5 Tips for Newbie Landscape Photographers
- The Power of Post-processing for Landscape Photography
- and a dPS ebook for good measure: A Guide to Landscape Photography Workflow and Post-Processing
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The post The Hottest Landscape Photography Articles on dPS in 2014 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 27, 2014
Towers Transformed: Massive Geometric Mural Collaboration

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Five distinct styles come together in a duo of massive geometric murals with ‘Recycles,’ a collaboration created for the street art curation project Urban Forms. Artists Tone, Proembrion, Sepe, Chazme and Cekas (photos by Marek Szymanski) all lent their own particular approaches to the diptych on a pair of apartment buildings in Lodz, Poland in nearly-identical compositions that create a mirrored effect when seen from afar.

Stylized human figures are seen against a backdrop of both geometric and organic forms, which look like architecture and trees at first glance, but are actually more abstract. One mural shows the figures walking toward the viewers, and the other shows them walking away.

According to one of the artists, the process of bringing such disparate styles together for such a large project wasn’t easy. Tone tells Brooklyn Street Art that getting a harmonious effect that represented each of them equally presented a challenge, but they ultimately found a synergy that allowed each of them to shine.

Having worked together in the past helped, says Tone. “We have never had a chance to work together in such a configuration, but our knowledge about each others styles helped us separate our separate roles. We began with a very rough concept for the general idea; make the composition somehow integrated with the landscape of Lodz suburbs.”

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Six industrial silos along the heart of Vancouver’s waterfront have been transformed into colorful, towering human figures in a massive mural project by …
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Colorful Contrast: Geometric Street Paintings in France

A wide strip of bold geometric patterns in bright colors painted onto the asphalt disrupts the muted historic visuals of a small city in France.
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Giants in Living Color: Massive Street Murals by Etam Cru

Polish duo Sainer and Bezt, collectively known as Etam Cru, paint massive-scale murals of people and animals on blank building faces around the world. Their …
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[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

December 27, 2014
The Winner of the Group f.64 Signed Book Giveaway is…
Mary Street Alinder Group f.64 Book Signing at the Scott Nichols Gallery

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway of a signed copy of Group f.64. Thanks to the craziness of the holidays I ran slightly behind schedule in making my winner announcement, but it’s finally here. And the winner is… Sid Vedula.

Congratulations Sid! Expect your copy of the book in the mail soon.

I hope everyone has a fun and healthy holidays.

If you haven’t already taken part, be sure to enter Your Best Photos from 2014 in my annual blog project.

Copyright Jim M. Goldstein, All Rights Reserved

The Winner of the Group f.64 Signed Book Giveaway is…

The post The Winner of the Group f.64 Signed Book Giveaway is… appeared first on JMG-Galleries – Landscape, Nature & Travel Photography.
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