A woman who had her iPhone stolen has been keeping an eye on the thief, using Dropbox. Apparently unaware that the phone was set to automatically sync its camera roll, the phone’s new ‘owner’ has been merrily posting pictures of himself and his surroundings, which now form the basis of an amusing Tumblr account, ‘Life of a Stranger who Stole my iPhone’. Click through for some pictures and a link over at connect.dpreview.com.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Not every shoot I’ve done is full of lollipop promises, cute matching (but not too matching) outfits, and happy families throwing their kids up into a perfect blue sky with puffy cloud dreams. In fact, typically the ones that didn’t, are among the most important pictures I have ever taken. The ones that there are no road maps for, no instructions, and no cheat sheets. Several years ago I photographed a beautiful wedding of a young couple deeply in love on a perfect July day. I shot the wedding, went home, and put those images at the bottom of my “waiting to be edited” stack. Which is where they stayed until I got a random call that the groom, a police officer, had gone missing in an attempt to save a young girl who had almost drowned in a fast moving river. For three days rescue teams searched for him, until they found his body a day shy of his and his new bride’s first month anniversary.
I Googled everything I could think of in an attempt to edit the images, perfectly and quickly with poise and professionalism, as I knew that they would now would hold a gravity beyond what I could have ever imagined when I shot them. I found nothing—no road map, no instructions, no guide for this massive task I had ahead of me. Instead I holed up in my office for a weekend with a bottle of scotch and a case of tissues, emerging in time for them to be delivered to his bride at his memorial service. Those images are now locked in a vault of sorts for me professionally, and I can only hope that by now they perhaps bring an amazing and strong woman great comfort and lovely memories of a beautiful day in her life.
Photography is a very powerful thing. And having the ability to do it is an incredible gift. Not all tough to photograph events will be dire, but do photography even just as a hobby for long enough and you will find yourself in situation beautiful in it’s complexity and the images you take poignant beyond words.
This is a picture of my dear friend, her son, and her son’s birth mom. It’s out of focus and isn’t properly exposed. The kid is wearing a Captain America costume and was feeling especially “spirited” on this day. It is all of the makings of disaster. Yet it is one of my favorite images and incredibly important to both myself and the people in it. A picture doesn’t have to be technically perfect to be amazing. Sometimes it’s just you being in the right place at the right time, hauling a camera in tow. Sometimes it’s a matter of you being invited to something very special because you have been trusted to document it. What a beautiful responsibility that is. Sometimes it’s not about the where and the how you do it; it’s about that you showed up and did it. The pictures you take may turn out perfect. They may not. Either way, they will be treasured as great gifts.
Every once in a while I get asked to photograph someone (or a pet) who is gravely ill, or a funeral or memorial service. I have never been in a situation personally to want a photographer at something like this, but I am always honored when asked to do something so significant. This is one of those situations where if you have any reservations at all, you should politely decline. It’s a heavy task, one that can only be done with complete focus and presence. The first thing I do if I’ve been asked to photograph something like this is make absolutely certain that the immediate family members are all in agreement in wanting my services and what exactly that means to them. While I have personal guidelines, I want to be sure that what they are wanting works with these, and also something I will be able to do with great compassion. Each time I’ve photographed this type of situation I have come across someone that didn’t feel I should be there or was confused by my presence and camera. My best advice is to reply very simply and quietly: “I was asked to be here today” and move on. Not everyone will understand why a photographer was requested. Often I don’t understand myself. But I know that I am doing something important as part of a healing process for another and that’s reason enough.
Sometimes the occasion is joyful and wonderful and still requiring of great tact and compassion. Homecomings, be them military or adoption or just long awaited, fall into this category. If you have been invited to something like this, take a moment to be a bit proud of yourself. Go on—I’ll wait. This means that you have been asked to be part of a moment so delicate and special that your abilities are obvious and you are trustworthy beyond measure. Your camera may have been your golden ticket in the door, but your skills is what will get the job done. This is one of the few times I stay completely out of the way and ask nothing of anyone. I am there only to document, not set-up moments or force poses and smiles. The event will happen so naturally and beautifully on it’s own that you need only to trust in yourself, stay alert and in the moment, and know that the most intense moments will happen very, very quickly. 
In my humble opinion, there is no greater honor than being trusted to photograph someone. Making the honor of being asked to photograph a human coming into this world the highest of the high. If you ever get the chance the witness life start, I highly recommend it. Most of this is going to be common sense, but in this case, don’t shoot for the moon. You are documenting something so special, so amazing, there is no need to force a specific shot. In a perfect world, you’ll be allowed to stand near the mother, at the top of the bed (or similar), lessening the chances of angles that no one will want pictures of, and increasing the chances of being able to stay out of the way. Photographing a birth is one of the only times I truly have to use everything I have to hold it together and do my job. But it turns out you can focus (literally and figuratively) through a layer of tears pretty easily if you need to. Much like birth itself, this is pure adrenaline; nothing to plan, no way of knowing what shots you are going to get. I do like to always ask if there is something special that is hoped for—perhaps the first bath or a picture of the baby getting weighed. Things like that are usually possible and of importance for some. Photographing births is a game of hurry up and wait and only a couple of things are certain: good glass, a high ISO (no one wants a flash here and the room is often dark), and impeccable manners.
These type of images may not end up being part of your portfolio, they may not be technically perfect in any way, but likely to someone they will mean everything.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
It’s Not Always Sunsets and Kittens: Photographing the Tougher things in Life
Just posted: Our quick review of the Autographer from OMG Life. Billed as the ‘world’s first intelligent wearable camera’, it’s designed to take pictures automatically triggered by the output from five built-in sensors. The camera has a super wideangle lens with a 136° angle of view, a 5MP CMOS sensor, and 8GB of built-in memory for image storage. It also has Bluetooth for connection to a smartphone. It’s certainly intriguing, but how well does it work?
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
These days it is pretty easy to lose myself in the stars with so many great images coming from NASA, the International Space Agency and others. It’s tough to resist day dreaming about what’s in the heavens and as a result become jaded with what is before us every day. While amazed by the constant flow of space photos it’s grounding to take a walk and appreciate what makes our oasis in the stars so special. This photo of springtime blossoms is a perfect example of the beauty and colorful universe right under our nose.
“We’re made of star-stuff.” – Carl Sagan
Photo Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 50mm f/1.0, f/1.0, 1/5000 sec, ISO 50
Copyright Jim M. Goldstein, All Rights Reserved
Life As We Know It
The post Life As We Know It appeared first on JMG-Galleries – Landscape, Nature & Travel Photography.
British company OMG Life has announced that its Autographer camera is now on general sale. Billed as the ‘world’s first intelligent, wearable camera’, it uses an array of built-in sensors to take pictures automatically triggered by changes in its environment. It has an ultra-wideangle lens with a 136° view, a 5MP sensor, and 8GB of internal memory for up to 28,000 images. Images can be shared with smartphones using a Bluetooth connection, and assembled into stop-motion movies. It’s available from the company’s website for £399, shipping initially to the UK and most European countries.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
This is a sumptuous book in a number of departments: it’s large, beautifully printed and full of useful, easily navigated information.
So why the word ‘digital’ in the book’s title?
Author Sint explains ‘I hate using Photoshop to correct my mistakes because I feel the time required to do so is both unproductive and unprofitable. … what I really love more than Photoshop is downloading pictures that I find pretty close to perfect the moment I open the image’s file.’
The book’s style is thoroughly disarming and direct to the point: when approaching a still life photograph the first step, Sint suggests, ‘is to spend a moment thinking about what type of photograph you are trying to create.’
He then describes the techniques in shooting simple setups on a plain background, the need for speed and the need to plan your shoot efficiently. After all, time is money and the more shots you can pack in per hour the higher your financial return. This book Sint affirms is about ‘how to make a living taking pictures …’
An initial step is to select a suitable shooting space. It should ideally be a big space, one that includes an office, shooting area, storage for props etc, conference area, makeup room and maybe a kitchen. However, in an effort to describe how little you really need, the author describes his own first studio: a room 250 square feet in area, containing his own twin bed, a dresser, small nightstand … with the remaining 225 square feet dedicated to the studio!
Next, you should assemble the necessary tools to make the space work: timber and the necessary power and hand tools; some form of canned compressed air or even a compressor and more. This is followed by three simple building projects: building a simple set flat; a diffusion screen; a light table.
The important subject of lighting gets serious attention, with tips on how to assemble and use a continuous light array, electronic flash, reflectors, barn doors and snoots, hair lights, scrims, a lighting umbrella etc. The variations in continuous and flash light are explained thoroughly and examples given as to which type suits what subjects.
To give an idea of the depth of detail found in the book, just go to pages 150 and 151 on clamps but not just ordinary clamps but ‘super clamps’! These can do so many more things on a still life shoot than merely position a light as they come in handy to build backgrounds etc.
More follows on soft and hard lighting, the colour of light sources, how to vary a lamp’s colour balance and filtration plus a useful primer on working with fluoro lighting and how to mix it with flash. Fluoros may be 20-30 per cent green in hue so you may filter the flash output with green gels and then add a magenta filter to the camera lens to bring everything back to a daylight balance.
A superb eight page section takes you step-by-step through the shoot of an expensive Cartier watch: how to pose it, light it, position fill lamps. And then there is the fundamental advice never to perform post editing on the original digital file: duplicate! And only work on a copy.
This book will be invaluable to the photographer who wants to move into the studio. Big time!
Author: S Sint.
Publisher: pixiq.
Distributor: Capricorn Link.
Size: 28x22x2cm.
Length: 271 pages.
ISBN: 978 1 4547 03273 3.
Price: Get a price on Digital Still Life Photography at Amazon (currently 50% off).
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Digital Still Life Photography [Book Review]
These days it is pretty easy to lose myself in the stars with so many great images coming from NASA, the International Space Agency and others. It’s tough to resist day dreaming about what’s in the heavens and as a result become jaded with what is before us every day. While amazed by the constant flow of space photos it’s grounding to take a walk and appreciate what makes our oasis in the stars so special. This photo of springtime blossoms is a perfect example of the beauty and colorful universe right under our nose.
“We’re made of star-stuff.” – Carl Sagan
Photo Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 50mm f/1.0, f/1.0, 1/5000 sec, ISO 50
Copyright Jim M. Goldstein, All Rights Reserved
Life As We Know It
The post Life As We Know It appeared first on JMG-Galleries – Landscape, Nature & Travel Photography.
JMG-Galleries – Landscape, Nature & Travel Photography
These days you are most likely to find me wandering the streets of London with a Leica M Monochrom hanging from my neck. Street photography and Leica have been inextricably linked for decades and this is solely down to Leica’s M system camera and its rangefinder focus mechanism.
This is not to say that you cannot be a street photographer without a rangefinder camera or, transversely, that you cannot shoot anything but the streets with a Leica. It is simply that this style of camera is the preferred tool of the serious street photographer.
If you’re unfamiliar with Rangefinders, the name is simply a reference to the distance oriented method by which you focus the lens. You are presented, within the viewfinder, 2 overlapping versions of the scene and as you turn the lens to find focus, the overlapping images merge together into one, at which point you are focused!
It does raise the question of why use a Leica rangefinder once you realize the camera is pretty much manual. Focusing, especially, is an entirely manual exercise. My camera will struggle to reach 4 fps. The viewfinder is essentially just a viewing frame where the image does not travel through the lens and is not related to the focal length either. It is just a ‘window’ for you to frame the shot. Side stepping image quality, there’s more and improved functionality out there in the DSLR world. And the cost?! US$ 13000 for a Camera, lens, spare battery and a strap!
It just doesn’t make sense, does it?!
I actually traded my entire ‘bag’ of Canon bodies and lenses for this camera, never more convinced this was the system for me. I have always been a manual photographer, actively disliking AF for its constant need to slave my compositions to specific points in the frame. The mirror system means bodies are big and lenses, good quality lenses, are bulky too. Compare a Canon 5D Mark II and a Leica Monochrom, each with a 35mm f/2 lens, and the Leica is 2/3s the weight and I dare say the size too. Factor in shutter noise and you are a lot more conspicuous in a crowd with a DSLR.
Rangefinder cameras, generally much smaller, quieter and inconspicuous than their DSLR counterparts aren’t just the subjective opinions of a few desperate fans. I recently read that quite a few US court rooms dictate that cameras, “… shall produce no greater sound than a 35mm Leica “M” Series rangefinder camera.”.
For most of you, I concede, not the right camera. For me? Definitely. I want lightweight, quiet, inconspicuous and excellent image quality.
I plan exactly where I will take photographs. My style is slightly minimalist and the contextual environment is paramount. With a history oriented to architecture photography, I am picky about my backgrounds.
Of course many locations are new to me and, once I get there, I have to establish the best vantage points. How and precisely where are the people interacting with this place?
So I wait. And watch. I am largely ignored and, for all intents and purposes, I don’t look the least bit ‘professional’ just have a compact camera around my neck.
After a few minutes I know where to focus and do so in readiness.
And… nothing!
I can’t count the occasions where the people who are at the scene or walking through it are simply doing just that. If the scene is extraordinary, then the people ignoring it make a good composition. How dare they not notice how wonderful the building behind them is?! Otherwise it will just make a dull photograph.
Patience does pay off and, eventually, you are rewarded with a great image.
I did mention the downsides of using an entirely manual set up, but there are distinct advantages. The boy, in the image above, ran through the fountains only once. He didn’t think he’d be caught by the water jets as they erupted and he reacted so quickly and ran to escape, but I got the shot. I’d already focused my lens and was just hanging around needing only to point at my chosen scene and press the shutter.
Did you realize that, with a full frame camera, set an aperture of f8 focused to a distance of 3m away and everything will be in focus from 2m to 10m? This is called zone focusing and allows me to focus without lifting camera to eye. Very stealthy! Why 3m away? I am frequently around this distance from a subject when I want to take their photo.
This business man was clearly checking his phone, probably for emails, whilst smoking his fat cigar. He couldn’t stand still, so I waited, wondering whether he’d step on the larger steps. A good result!
Whatever your camera, there is some helpful advice I can pass on after learning some hard lessons.
Have a plan, even if it is, “I’m going to walk from place A to B”. Before I head out, I put together a list of interesting places, items, or a theme. When it has rained, I will always look for reflections in puddles. Either way I look for reflections in the windows of buildings. Lately, I have been interested in phone boxes and graffiti.
Be like the tourist, walk confidently, look and stare. Whilst everyone seems to be able to see the skulking photographer, camera clutched at chest height, no one pays the tourist attention… unless they get in your way, which they quite frequently do! Be bold, see your shot, stand firm and take it. If the subjects see you, wave and smile and walk away. Like a tourist!
Look around you. Simply taking random snapshots of ordinary people in normal life situations is not going to be rewarding for very long. Additionally, think about the viewer of your photograph too – what will they see from your image? As I walk around I look at the buildings and signs, graffiti, bill boards and giant posters. People in front of these can be a great juxtaposition. So look around you and mentally picture a person, or a group, as a foreground subject. Is it worth waiting a few minutes to see if anyone interesting turns up?
I hope this article gives a glimpse into life with a rangefinder camera which, for me at least, is the perfect camera.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Life With A Rangefinder, Plus Street Photography Tips.
Rob Hart was amongst the 28 members of the Chicago Sun-Times photography staff laid off last week. He’s been pointedly documenting his experience via Tumblr ever since, deliberately opting to use his iPhone over his Nikon D3 because, as he says of himself in his blog, he was “replaced with a reporter with an iPhone, so he is documenting his new life with an iPhone, but with the eye of a photojournalist trained in storytelling.” We spoke to him about it for connect.dpreview.com.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]
Have you ever wondered how 19th century artists were able to produce such incredibly realistic drawings? It isn’t just because they were unusually talented, though it’s hard to argue that they were. Many of them benefitted from the use of a ‘camera lucida’, an optical device that reflects real-life images onto a drawing surface so they can be traced. A new version of the tool, called the ‘NeoLucida,’ aims to bring this drawing aid back, with a few modern updates.
Essentially a prism on a stick, the camera lucida was once a very popular drawing tool, making it easy to create realistic drawings. A portable version hasn’t been manufactured in nearly a century. Antique versions sell for hundreds of dollars, but Pablo Garcia and Golan Levin, the makers of the NeoLucida, aim to sell theirs for just $ 40.
“We want to make this remarkable device widely available to students, artists, architects, and anyone who loves to draw from life,” say the pair on their Kickstarter page, which has already raised nearly half a million dollars – far over the original goal of $ 15,000. “But to be clear: our NeoLucida is not just a product, but a provocation. In manufacturing a camera lucida for the 21st century, our aim is to stimulate interest in media archaeology—the tightly interconnected history of visual culture and imaging technologies.
The NeoLucida is made from a combination of mass-manufactured and custom-machined parts. It has a clamp to fit onto the edge of desks and tables, and a goose neck for adjustability. It’s lightweight, non-electric, and compact enough to fit in a handbag. Get more details at the project’s Kickstarter (via notcot.org.)
[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]
     |
You must be logged in to post a comment.