Chicago Nanny Vivian Maier Is Undiscovered Photographer
Vivian Maier Self-Portrait Image via Wikipedia
The story of Vivian Maier is unbelievable. Judging from the sources, there may be good reason for her story to be unbelievable too, but if it’s a fable, an interesting story anyhow.
The story is that Vivian Maier was a professional nanny who enjoyed photography in her off time. She had traveled extensively. That in and of itself isn’t odd, what’s odd is that she never developed much of the film and never showed the work to anyone! A while back, someone bought many boxes of used film at an auction of stuff from unpaid storage units. They started developing the film and they were astonished to find these incredible photos.
Take a visit to the Vivian Maier’s website for more information.
Here’s What Happens When a Photographer Gets OCD
I found this Tumblr website interesting. It’s nothing but photos of things organized neatly. It’s oddly creative.
Trying to Improve My Black and White Photo Skills
I’ve been working on learning more about black and white photography and HDR. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I think the results are getting better. There’s more to it than just using a conversion to black and white when trying to make a photo that stands out. Here’s one a new one that I did of a tractor.
Black And White Photo Of A Farm Tractor
Related articles
- How to See in Black and White [and how HDR can be a Powerful Tool for the Monochrome Photographer] (digital-photography-school.com)
Ansel Adams Would Have Been a Photoshop Enthusiast
Even after so many years of Photoshop being widely used, it’s not uncommon to see a negative post about it’s use. I think these posts come from people that have difficulty with it or maybe they simply don’t enjoy learning about the program. After learning about the processes of one of the greatest, Ansel Adams, it really makes me wonder why some would discourage using digital manipulation to improve a photo.
In his day, all they had was the darkroom. Much of his work would happened in the darkroom. He could spend an entire day on one photo. As the video states, “It was labor.”. Considering all that can be done in Photoshop, I bet he would spent more than a day on a photo.
Don’t let anyone discourage you from using Photoshop or any other process that allows you to bring your photos closer to the visualization that you’re trying to create.
Sunrise on the Highway
Sunrise/Sunset photos always seem like a good idea, but the problem is that they’re boring. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen a variation of all of them. The only way to make them really interesting is to get something in the foreground, at least I thought. Placing something common and boring in the foreground is just as bad. I tried using the highway. Still boring.
Sunrise on the highway.
A while back, I caught this tractor silhouetted in a sunset. As simple as it is, it’s more interesting.
Tractor sits in silhouette against a sunset.
Wild Things Photography
Every once in a while I stumble across a photographer that really stands out. I think that John Hyde at Wild Things Photography has some work that anyone would enjoy. His black wolf photos remind me of our dog Hunter. I can’t find a picture that that isn’t outstanding.
Newark, Ohio Video Created With Picasa and YouTube
I did this Newark, Ohio video using some photos I’ve taken. I am promoting a website and I read a suggestion to make a video for YouTube for promotion purposes.
For a person that enjoys photography as much as I do, videos allude me. I’m still working on creating a video that is worth anything at all and will show up correctly on YouTube. My first attempt was fun, but a failure. I made a mount out of PVC pipe and placed the camera on my motorcycle handlebars to make this video of a motorcycle ride in Licking County, Ohio. It turned out shaky and pixelated. It was a start though.
I need to do a real video of Newark, Ohio sometime, but for now a photo collection would do. I found a tutorial for making movies with Picasa that worked. I did a search for “open source music” and found some music I could use legally. I gave the musician mention in the video. I’ve used popular music, but I don’t know for certain what the legalities are for doing it. I feel much better using music that the owner is asking you to use.
Here are the results.
How I Publish Web Photos
After twice converting my website to other formats, I have learned that managing a massive amount of photos requires a system. I’ve tried Picasa, Flickr, and just storing them on my own web server and they produce poor results for me. I change systems enough and do so many things that I wanted a digital photo service that did everything. I found SmugMug.com – Serving up crisp, clear photos – without the side of Spam.
SmugMug’s price is reasonable and they provide you with -
- A real website that ranks well quickly in the search engines.
- Good support for any questions.
- An API that allows you to connect WordPress and other Content Management systems to your photos
- A method to print your photos on everything I could think that people would want a photo on. I’m waiting for them to offer photo tattooing though. Some merchandise, like calendars, aren’t as good as they should be, but overall, setting up your merchandise is easy.
- Correction software built into their system.
- The ability to sell digital downloads.
- The ability to price your photos at any price above cost.
- Sharing abilities for social networking websites.
- Video file storage and the ability to sell them as downloads
- And probably much more that I have not discovered yet
The downside to SmugMug is the cost. Some competitors are free. There are some down times for maintenance and I have had a few times where photos would not upload. Overall, there hasn’t been enough of these incidents to annoy.
If you’re looking at my photos now and seeing the strange descriptions, they are there because I uploaded 590 photos and it’s going to take a while to type all of their descriptions in.
If you’re tired of spam, ads, frustrations, and the annoyances of the free services, give SmugMug a try.
Sagelight Photo Editor
Sagelight is a lighter-weight photo editor that will edit RAW format files or any other type of digital photo. It’s a nice lightweight, low-cost alternative to Photoshop. For amateurs, it makes it easy to edit your photos, for advanced users it speeds up many processes, and I’m really impressed with it’s ability to process RAW files efficiently. There are 20 free tutorials on their website.
Normally, I wouldn’t spend much time telling people what photo editor to buy. There are many free ones like Picasa and Gimp, so you really don’t need to buy one at all. I’m making this exception because Sagelight is offering their software for whatever you want to pay through your Paypal account for a limited time. I suggest you pay at least $2 to cover their Paypal transaction costs. Go to their website, download the 30 day free trial, and if you decide you like the editor, pay what you want.
Again, many will not even need the added functions that Sagelight provides. My suggestion for Sagelight is for those that want to take their photos to a new level, but don’t want the expense or learning curve of higher end editors. If you’re trying to process RAW files on a slow computer, Sagelight is a huge help there too.
Casio EX-G1 an Outdoorsman’s Camera
A rugged digital camera
I have been through many good cameras. A few times, the cause of their demise was their bulk in whatever juggling act I was trying to do at the time of incident. The Casio is extremely thin and lightweight on top of being waterproof and shock resistant. It most likely could stand up to the mishaps that I would put one through. The small size also helps motorcyclists, backpackers, or any other type of activity where space is limited.
I’m not a big equipment fan. I have found that equipment is very far down the list of requirements for good photography. The only cameras that really grab my interest are the ones that change the way you take pictures. Telephoto lenses change how you can position yourself, digital placed a darkroom on everyone’s desktop, SLR cameras allowed everyone the capability (but not the ability) to shoot like a pro, and rugged cameras allow the camera to be wherever you need one. Since having a camera with you is the most important requirement, rugged durability cameras could be the most important advance in photography.
Though not due out until December 2009, I think this camera is going to be a huge success. I can’t wait to try one.
