Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Flash Memory is a Marvel of Modern Science

The tiny memory cards that store hundreds of images for digital cameras may look insignificant at a glance but they are amazing. Their storage capacity, the speed at which they write, and their low cost make them a modern marvel. These little rectangular Compact Flash (CF) cards and SecureDigital (SD) cards are silent, have no moving parts and can withstand exposure to magnets, intense pressure and temperature extremes. Even if you accidently drop one in the toilet, it will not be damaged.


The person credited with inventing flash memory is Dr. Fujio Masuoka. In 1984 while working at Toshiba he made major developments in his work with cells that hold data and can be erased rapidly then rewritten. Flash was suggested as an appropriate name for the new type of memory because the process of erasing data from the cells was like a camera’s flash. History was made in 1984, when he presented this new technology at the meeting of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in San Jose, CA.
Intel and other companes saw that flash memory had great potential. In 1988 Dr. Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, former coworkers at Intel, formed a company to produce flash memory for consumers. They founded SanDisk, which is now a world leader in digital memory devices. Sandisk’s launch in Silican Valley was perfectly positioned to take advantage of the the arrival of digital photography.
Some early digital cameras like the Sony Mavica stored images on a floppy disk. People liked this because it was easy to take the floppy out of the camera and insert it into a computer to transfer the images. The next generation of Mavica recorded images to a CD. But flash cards ultimately became the prefered media for digital cameras because they were small, had no moving parts and could be erased again and again.

Flash memory, unlike RAM (Random Access Memory) can continue to store information in the absence of a power source. This made flash memory a good choice not only for use in digital cameras, but also PDAs and video games. As consumer demand for flash cards grew Sandisk, Lexar, Kingston, Samsung and other companies offered Memory sticks, xD, SmartMedia and MultiMedia and other removable flash memory products.
As competition heated up, each brand would advertise higher capacity cards: Attention we have 4 Gigabyte cards! Look 8 GB for sale! Introducing 16 GB! Come and get the amazing 32 GB card! 64 GB cards are here! And as the public purchased the newest memory cards they found that the price paid per GB dropped steadily. That is the good news, but there is also bad news.
Unfortunately, counterfeit CF cards that look authentic but are knockoffs of the big name flash memory cards have appeared. These are passed off as the real thing to bargain hunters who later may find their joy of getting a great deal replaced by the sinking feeling that accompanies the realization that their data is lost.
Overall the invention of flash memory has been a great benefit to photography. So next time you are clicking photos take a moment to appreciate the wonders of modern technology.

Friday, June 18, 2010

What is a DSLR Anyway?

Perhaps you have heard someone mention the term DSLR and wondered what they were talking about. The "D" stands for Digital. What about the S, L and R?

The term SLR goes back about 60 years or so to the time when 35 millimeter cameras were gaining popularity. The Single Lens Reflex (aka SLR) was a significant advancement in cameras because it improved on the design of the earliest 35 mm cameras which used a rangefinder method of focusing. That was a very simple focusing system based on the range or distance of the subject to the camera. If the person you wanted to photograph was ten feet away you set the focus lever or dial to ten feet. If they were 30 feet away you set it for 30 feet. This involved a lot of guessing. Also, the viewfinder did not allow the user to look through the lens. Instead, a rather simple viewfinder gave an approximate view. As the focus was set, nothing in the viewfinder changed. Not very helpful is it?

When some engineers came up with a focusing system using a series of mirrors, so that the photographer could see through the lens that takes the photo. This new through-the-lens viewing configuration was dubbed SLR. Photographers liked the SLR cameras because the the accurate preview including the focus of the image. Another feature was that SLR cameras were made for interchangeable lenses. A busy photojournalist could carry a variety of wide angle and telephoto lenses and quickly switch lenses to suit the situation.
Another type of camera from the old days is the Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) such as the Rolleiflex, Yashikamat and Mamiya. These cameras had two lenses - one for taking the photo and one for the viewfinder. The SLR eliminated one lens which meant cameras could be smaller.



When digital photography arrived on the scene the quest for a digital version of the SLR began. Back in the early 1990s Kodak and Nikon collaborated to create the first commercially available digital SLR, the Kodak DCS-100. It was built on the platform of a Nikon F-3 body with the film drive removed. The result was a big heavy 1.3 Megapixel camera that sold for $30,000. But it was a DSLR.

One company tried for years to make a conversion kit that transformed a 35 mm SLR into a digital camera. But this never made it to the marketplace. In the end it was easier to design and build a new camera from the ground up. instead of converting an old camera to a new purpose.

As the 1990s progressed all the camera companies and some computer companies were making and selling digital cameras. Nikon marked a milestone in 1999 with the D1. This was a camera that could deliver image quality just as good as 35 mm film and it accepted the autofocus Nikkor lenses. Newspaper photographers loved it! The demise of film cameras lurked on the horizon.

Canon broke the $1,000 barrier for a DSLR in 2003 with the introduction of the Digital Rebel in 2003. The general public had a feeding frenzy taking ownership of this 6.3 Megapixel DSLR as fast as the factory could turn them out. In the years since, the price for a DSLR has come down several notches with the features have increased. In 2010 Canon is selling the 10 Megapixel Rebel XS for $499 and this includes a zoom lens!

So now we have inexpensive DSLR cameras with an accurate viewfinder and interchangeable lenses. Life is good! The advantage of a DSLR over less expensive digital cameras is the ability to change lenses. Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Sony and the major manufacturers offer all sorts of telephoto, wide angle and macros lenses. Image stabilization systems help the photographer get sharper images than ever.

The disadvantage of a DSLR is that they cost more than fixed lens cameras. But as a person gets more involved in photography they usually trade up to better equipment so that there are less limitations to what they can shoot. The DSLR with roots in the film cameras of the past is a superior product. Professional photographers, serious amateurs and occasional shooters all the enjoy the benefits of the DSLR.


Monday, May 10, 2010

Depth of Field

What is Depth of Field?
When looking at the photos you may have noticed that sometimes an entire image is in sharp focus all the way from foreground to background, while other images are only in sharp focus for part of the image but the rest is blurry. The term Depth of Field refers to the part of the photo that is in focus.


An image with shallow Depth of Field has only a limited part in focus. Portrait photographers like to create this type of image with the subject nice and clear and the background very blurred. This draws the viewer’s eyes to the model and eliminates distractions.


An example of an image with a deep Depth of Field would be a landscape that shows flowers in the foreground, a lake with sailboats in the middle and mountains in the background with all parts of the scene in focus.

What determines Depth of Field and how can one control it? The aperture setting of the lens has a direct relationship to the Depth of Field in the photo. The aperture setting are labeled with f-stop numbers. A large number like f-16 is for a smaller opening. An f-stop with a small number like f-2 denotes a larger opening. At first it may be confusing that the small number is a large opening, but after a while you will get used to it.


When the lens is set to a large aperture such as f-2.0 or f-2.8 the Depth of Field in the photos is rather shallow. But when an aperture such as f-16 or f-22 is used the resulting image will have a deep area of Depth of Field. For a midway setting, f-8 is often chosen.

Understanding the f-stops or aperture settings on your camera is essential to mastering depth of field. After a person learns to master the camera settings, their photos will show an improvement.

If your camera is always set to the green rectangle for FULL AUTO or P for PROGRAM you will not be able to master Depth of Field. To set the aperture, place the dial on AV for APERTURE PRIORITY. (It is a good idea to read you camera manual to learn the specifics of you camera model.) After the dial is set to AV you have some freedom to choose an f-stop. The reason you have some freedom and not total freedom is because there is a relationship between aperture and shutter speed. When you use a small aperture such as f-22 there is less light entering the camera so the shutter speed must be reduced so that enough light enters and you get the proper exposure. In AV mode the camera’s onboard processors will calculate and set the shutter speed for you. In M or MANAUL mode you can set both aperture and shutter speed.

If we go the other way and set a wide aperture like f-4 then a lot of light is entering the camera so we need to compensate by increasing the shutter speed. Again the camera’s onboard processors will calculate and set the shutter speed for you.

Canon cameras also have a setting on the dial for Depth of Field mode. The setting on the dial is marked A-DEP which lets the photographer select on one spot in the foreground and one spot in the background then the camera assures that everything between the two is in focus.

The focal length of the lens and the camera-to-subject distance also affects Depth of Field but I will not get into that now.

So now you should take a few minutes to read your camera manual and then go grab your camera and experiment with different f-stops and see how the Depth of Field in the image changes. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Have fun and be creative.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Aperture and f-stops

The essence of photography is recording light. Light enters a camera and is recorded on a chip or on film. The lens has an opening called an aperture.

On all but the simplest of cameras the aperture can be adjusted to open very wide or close down to a very small pinhole. Why do we want to open or close the aperture?

The reason is because some situations are very bright like a sunny beach at noon. In that case we set the aperture to have a smaller opening. But other situations such as the interior of a barn on a cloudy day call for a wide aperture.


One analogy for the aperture would be salt shaker. Instead of letting light enter a camera think of putting salt on your soup. Do you want a little bit of salt to come out of three little holes? Maybe you would prefer twenty large holes so you can have nice salty soup. That is how the aperture is. The lens has settings called f-stops that allow you to regulate the amount of light coming in. For some odd reason an f-stop with a large number like f16 is a smaller opening that an f-stop with a small number like f4.

As you gain an understanding of apertures and f-stops you will be able to create great photos in situations that previously would have been problem.

We can also control light with the shutter speed. This will be discussed in an upcoming blog post.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

What is the ISO setting on my camera?

Have you ever asked, “What is this button for?” Many people use a camera without understanding the function of some of the buttons and dials. Is that you?

The topic today is ISO setting. What is ISO? The initials stand for International Organizational Standard, but that doesn’t answer the question of how to use the ISO setting on your camera. The reason camera manufacturers include this feature is to allow the photographer to adjust the camera’s sensitivity to light.

Back in the days before digital photography, a rating system was established so film could be labeled with a number. The precursor to the ISO was the

American Standards Association (ASA). For a bright sunny day a photographer would load 100 ASA film into the camera. If the setting was cloudy or shady then 400 ASA film was used. A disadvantage was that the entire roll (36 exposures) was at that ASA (ISO) setting. What if you shoot half a roll of 400 ASA and then it stops raining and the sun comes out? An advantage of digital photography is ability to change the ISO setting for every shot if you like.

Thirty years ago film was available at ASA 64, 100, 160, 200, 400 and 800. Later the chemists at Kodak and Fuji developed films rated at 1600 and 3200. But a high quality digital camera nowadays can be set with ISO numbers up to 12,800. Now you have choices.

Why would a person want to adjust the light sensitivity on a camera? Are there disadvantages? Why not just crank the dial to the highest setting like 3200 for instance? There is a trade off. With a low setting like 100 ISO the images are smooth and pleasing. At the high end of the spectrum, such as 1600 and 3200 an issue with digital noise becomes apparent. This is the fuzzy or buzzy texture seen especially in the shadow parts of an image.

In film the problem with a high ISO was grain the equivalent of noise.

A rule of thumb, (and photographers like to break rules at times) is to use the lowest ISO possible. But, sometimes the choice is no photo or a slightly noisy photo. So turn the ISO dial up a notch or two and shoot. Some of the Pulitzer-prize winning photographs were a bit lacking in technical quality, but captured a moment in history for the whole world to see. It is fun to experiment with all different settings and compare the results. We learn by doing.

With less expensive point and shoot digital cameras the ISO is set automatically. So there is nothing to worry about. Even with more sophisticated cameras, when shooting in auto mode the ISO is set automatically going lower when there is plenty of light and raising to higher settings as the light decreases.

If you have lot of money to spend you can buy a pro camera with a better chip which will provide very low noise even at the higher ends of the scale. Also you can get software such as noise ninja to remedy the effects of noise. But if possible, get it right as you shoot it and eliminate the need for a software solution.

As you learn more about your camera and more about light you will understand how to override the camera and get some photos that you may have missed in the past.

Monday, March 8, 2010

What is so special about black and white photography?

For me the appeal of a well done black and white image is the simplicity. The eye is allowed to concentrate on form and texture without the distraction of color and hue. Some people are amazed by the wide range of shades of gray that can be found lurking between darkest black and brightest white. It can be stunning.

A couple years ago I was asked to photograph a house that had been the dwelling place of a Connecticut family for many generations. The framed black and white photo was to be a gift and when I delivered it the customer was very pleased. “I never knew there were so many kinds of gray!” she told me.

At the dawn of the history of photography there was no color process but people were impressed enough with the magical images produced on tin or glass plates even though they were monotone. In the sepia process instead of shades of gray, various shades of brown created the images.

As science progressed and color film gained in popularity some people began to perceive black and white photography as inferior or outdated. However, among the true art lovers, that perception did not take hold.

Even in the year 2010 when there all sorts of advanced photo techniques, some photographers still concentrate on black and white photography. Great photographers have always known that a photo does not have to dazzle the viewer with bright colors if the techniques of composition of lighting are properly applied. The landscape photos of Ansel Adams and the still life pepper plants of Edward Weston are proof enough.

The three images that I posted with this entry are some of the images that I created for my own enjoyment. Starting with just a simple item like a chain, a gear or a cluster of ferns, I was able to shoot a few frames with my camera and afterward refine the image into the stark and simple hues of gray which convey the essence of scene.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Photography is All About Light

The word photography comes from photos for light and graph meaning to draw or write. So if you want be a successful photographer, you need to learn about light. There are many types of light and this blog post concerns HARD LIGHT and SOFT LIGHT

An example of hard light is bright sunshine which is direct and creates harsh shadows. Another example is an on-camera flash unit. Hard light can create an image with washed out details.

Soft light is indirect or diffused and an example of this is a cloudy bright day. The cloud layer evens out the sunlight and acts as a huge diffuser. This is the pleasing quality of light create great portraits. Studio photographers spend lots of money buying all sorts of equipment in an effort to put soft light on their models.

When it comes to light sometime you have to take what you get. But you can learn to manipulate light. There are several ways to soften light.

Bouncing light off a white ceiling causes the light to reflect and soften. There is a reason the ceilings in most homes and offices are white is that this helps brightens the room.

The Dutch Master painters of the1600s such as Rembrandt and Vermeer appreciated the quality of soft light. What was their preferred light source? These painters loved a window that faced the North, because the light that enters a Northern exposure is indirect and diffused. Take a look at the portraits painted by Rembrandt and you will see fine examples soft lighting.

An easy way to bounce light is to use the ceiling or a wall. Just make sure the surface is a light color. I have also done a lot using a white piece of poster board which cost about a dollar. Photo equipment manufacturers such as Photoflex and Lastolite sell folding reflector disks that can he used to alter light. I have one with white, silver and gold surfaces. The gold adds a bit of a warm tone.

Another way to obtain soft light is to place a sheer cloth between the light source and the subject. Draperies, curtains and tents can provide a useful diffusion of hard light. Photoflex and other companies sell translucent disks for softening harsh light.

Another great item especially when it comes to product photography is a light tent. Light tents help you get soft even light on the subject while also reducing reflections. There are all shapes and sizes and most are collapsible. Cloud Dome offers a kit that includes fluorescent lights and a background. The whole thing folds flat so it can be taken on location.

As a photographer in search of soft light you can wait for a cloudy day or use Northern exposure of employ some equipment to modify the light to your demands.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Even Great Photographers Had to Start Somewhere

Edward Steichen, one of the great pioneer photographers, had a less than amazing experience when he first started taking photos.

This great photographic artist was one of the talented people of the early 1900s who helped change the attitudes toward photography which was viewed as a novelty or a fad whereas painting was considered high art.


Photography eventually found a home in the world of art and Steichen won many awards but back in 1895 when he obtained his first camera he was not an instant success.

In the book, A life in Photography, Steichen recounts how he got started in photography as a teenager living in Milwaukee. As I began reading, I expected to learn how even from day one he produced great art as his natural talent flowed out. Wrong. Steichen said the first camera he purchased was a Kodak that took a roll of 50 exposures. The result of his first roll was 49 misses and one hit. Yikes.


But he kept trying and later he upgraded to a camera that used 4x5 glass plates. In the book he told how he took a photo of a skyscraper in Milwaukee and then in his home darkroom started to develop the plate. As the young photographer submerged the glass plate in the tray of chemicals and rocked the solution back and forth the image appeared causing him to feel great satisfaction. He celebrated with a loud whoop of joy which frightened his mother because she was worried about all those poisonous chemicals he was using. But he assured her that what she heard was a shout joy not distress.

But as the developing process continued Steichen’s joy faded because the photo kept turning darker and darker. Being a novice Steichen had figured the exposure wrong and set the camera to allow too much light onto the plate. Eventually, the image on his plate was so dark that nothing was recognizable. Finally, as he completed the process and took his image upstairs to rinse it in the sink. He was determined to get a print and after an all day exposure was able to get enough light to pass through his overexposed plate to make a decent print of the Milwaukee skyscraper.

As the months and years passed Steichen began exhibiting his work and building a reputation as a professional photographer. He forged bonds with the Museum of Modern Art where his photos and those of other photographers were displayed for the public. In my opinion the pinnacle of his artistic expressions was the “Family of Man” exhibition of 1955.

This amazing exhibit of photos from 68 nations taken by great and unknown photographers showed people living, eating, dancing, playing, fighting, laughing, giving birth and dying. A book by the same name became an international best seller.

So even if his first roll of film was only two percent successful, Steichen went to become a great pioneering photographer praised by artists, writers and the general public.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Japanese 35 mm cameras of the 1970s

When I was in high school I got interested in photography. I wanted to own a nice camera so I started to save my money to buy one. While looking at camera magazines I read the articles about the great cameras and lenses. The front of the magazines featured full page adds by manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon, Konica, Mamiya, Minolta, Miranda, Olympus, Pentax, Topcon and Yashika. Most of the cameras were made in Japan.
Flipping to the back of the magazine, a reader could find pages and pages of advertisements from camera stores. The type in the ads was very tiny and hard to read. Each ad listed dozens and dozens of cameras and accessories. Most of the camera stores were located in New York and did a lot of mail order business to customers far and wide.
I did not want to take a chance on a log distance transaction so I just looked at the ads and dreamed. There were two camera stores about 30 miles from my home and sometimes I would go inside and look at the cameras and pick up some of the glossy brochures about photo equipment.
When I started getting almost enough money to buy a camera I went to one of the stores and asked the clerk if I could see some cameras. The only camera I could afford was an East German Praktika but it did not impress me, so I decided to wait. About a month later I had enough money to buy a Canon TX, an entry level camera with no fancy features. It was a sold camera made of metal and glass. Since I had withdrawn nearly all the money from my savings account I could not afford extras like lenses, filters or strobe lights. But I had a 35 mm camera and film so I was on my way.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Camera Shopping? Compare the Features

Coke vs Pepsi
Ford vs Chevy
Nikon vs Canon
What is your preference? I have no advice for comparing soft drinks or cars but when itcomes to cameras I can help.
There is now a website http://snapsort.com that is set up to pit one camera against another
and provide a detailed report with one camera declared THE WINNER! A few years ago,
a person shopping for a camera would usually walk into a camera shop and tell a clerk youwant to see some cameras. Or another alternate was to flip through magazines and booksreading reviews and descriptions of various camera models. Now you can save the tripto the camera store, bookstore or library.

I spent some time on the site entering models and noting the results which are broken down to important differences and important similarities. The winner and loser also have the pros and cons of the camera listed. I think that is good because perhaps you really need a feature
such as built-in flash or very rapid continuous shooting and the snapsort team has chosen a camera as a winner but the loser camera has a unique feature you need. Then you can make your own conclusion. Another nice feature of this website is the Popular Comparisons section below each camera which helps you see other cameras which are similar to the cameras in your search.

So with this information a person in the market for a new camera can spend a bit of time at this very useful website and learn plenty about all sorts of cameras before making a big
decision about a camera purchase. By the way, I prefer Pepsi and Chevy.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Keep Your Eyes on the Horizon




The horizon appears in many photos and where you place the horizon in your shot can make a difference. If you want to emphasize the sky, use a low horizon. Or put the horizon high if you want to show the foregound. The most important thing is to be creative and shoot the scene all different ways. A great thing about digital photography is that a person can shoot like crazy and later delete the bad ones.



Usually, it is not recommended to place the horizon right in the middle. But like all rules of composition, there are times when breaking the rules works.

Another thing about horizons is that in general, you are better off keeping level. Especially in images with water ther is something a bit disturbing at a subconscience level about a lake that is tilted because the human brain knows that that the water in lakes and oceans don’t slope upwards. Many photographers make this mistake, but with Photoshop it is very easy to use the cropping tool to level the horizon. However, sometimes you may want to experiment with tilting your camera at different kinds of angles to produce a creative shot.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Quotes Concerning Photography

Many brilliant people have commented about photography and here are some that I have collected over the years.


“Photography is a major force in explaining man to man.” Edward Steichen

“We see, hear, smell, and taste many things without noticing them at the time.” Carl Jung

“Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me, are not a major concern.” Henri Cartier-Bresson

“Look for what you don't see.” Rashid Elisha

“Creativity is a radical necessity, not a luxury.” Jean Houston

“Learn to see, and then you'll know that there is no end to the new worlds of our vision.” Carlos Castaneda

“A photograph is always seen in some context; physical, remembered, imagined.” Rashid Elisha

“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.” Henri Cartier-Bresson

“The hardest thing to see is what is in front of our eyes.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.” Isaac Asimov

“Composition is the strongest way of seeing.” Edward Weston

“Recording images serenity and beauty was a matter of devout observance.” Gordon Parks

"The so-called rules of composition are, in my mind, invalid, irrelevant and immaterial.” Ansel Adams

“I want my sitters to be noticed, not my work.” Lord Snowden

“The eyes are the windows to the soul.” Karsh of
Ottawa

“Look at any landscape photograph. You see the shape of things, the mountains and trees and buildings, but not the sky.” Kurt Koffka

“If I could tell the story in words, I would not have to lug around a camera.” Lewis Hiene

“The soul never thinks without an image.” Aristotle

“The best digital cameras have 6 to 16 million pixels. Our retina, consisting of rods and cones, has over 100 million sensors.” Dr. Richard D. Zakia

“Photography does not create eternity, as art does; it embalms time, rescuing it simply from its proper corruption.” AndrĂ© Bazin

“Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask "how," while others of a more curious nature will ask "why." Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.” Man Ray

“Photography knows how to authenticate its misrepresentations.' Mason Cooley

“It's a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you often get it.” Somerset Maugham

“The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance.” Ansel Adams

“I don't care if you make a print on a bath mat, just as long as it is a good print.” Edward Weston

“One photo out of focus is a mistake, ten photo out of focus are an experimentation, one hundred photo out of focus are a style.” Anonymous

“We can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision.” Gary Collins

“Photography is like art because, like painting, it seeks beauty.” Julia Margaret Cameron.

“Balance is the enemy of art.” Richard Eyre

“Much of modern art is devoted to lowering the threshold of what is terrible. By getting us used to what formerly, we could not bear to see or hear, because it was too shocking, painful, or embarrassing, art changes morals.” Susan Sontag

“Practice is everything.” Periander (Often misquoted as "Practice makes perfect.”)

“Perception is personal. We see what we see.” Richard Fahey

“There is no audience as far as I am concerned. I am the audience.” Joel Meyerowitz

“You know ... that a blank wall is an appalling thing to look at. The wall of a museum - a canvas - a piece of film -- or a guy sitting in front of a typewriter. Then, you start out to do something - that vague thing called creation. The beginning strikes awe within you.” Edward Steichen

“Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better.” John Updike

“If you just take a picture of what's there, it destroys the mystery, the magic.” Art Kane

“One's mind has a way of making itself up in the background, and it suddenly becomes clear what one means to do.” A. C. Benso

“It is imagination that gives shape to the universe.” Barry Lopez

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” Dorothea Lange

“With all art expression, when something is seen, it is a vivid experience, sudden, compelling and inevitable.” Ansel Adams

“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.” Henri Cartier-Bresson

“I am not interested in nature; I'm interested in my own nature.” Arnold Sisken

“If photography is allowed to stand in for art in some of its functions it will soon supplant or corrupt it completely thanks to the natural support it will find in the stupidity of the multitude.” Charles Baudelaire

“Vertical columns, such as those found in Greek and Roman temples, look parallel from the ground because they are wider at the top than at the bottom.” Joanne Kemp

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” Henry Ward Beecher

“Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.” Anna Freud

“To see an object in space means to see it in context.” Rudolf Arnheim

Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second. Jean-Luc Godard

“The more one looks, the more one sees. And the more one sees, the better one knows where to look.” Anonymous

“Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited and the wealth and confusion man has created.” Edward Steichen

“God is in the details” Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

“I don't know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets.” John Glenn

“Between the photographer and the subject there has to be a distance. The camera may intrude, trespass, distort, exploit.” Susan Sontag


“The magic of photography is metaphysical. What you see in the photograph isn't what you saw at the time. The real skill of photography is organized visual lying.” Terence Donovan

“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.” Diane Arbus

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Warren Kimble is a success at licensing his art

Warren Kimble is not a photographer but I admire his business sense. Kimble is a painter and proof that some artists can become rich before they die. When I look at his art I also see proof that the art does not have to be beautiful to sell.

Years ago Kimble was an antiques dealer in small-town Vermont and then he veered into painting in the primitive style. This style does nothing for me. I find it repulsive, childish and ugly. But, hey this is what millions of people have paid good money to own so what does my opinion mean? He is rich and I am struggling to feed my kids and buy them new shoes.

Here is what happened. Kimble was painting works one at a time and selling them one at a time just like most other painters. But then he made a change that meant big rewards. He learned to multiply his earnings by licensing his work to be mass produced not only as wall art but also to be printed on towels, potholders, aprons, tablecloths, rugs, plates and etc. He paints primitive versions of barns, cows, chickens and such. People love his work.

I entered Warren Kimble’s name in a google search and got 109,000 hits. A search for Warren Kimble items on Ebay came back with 369 items including cookie jars, plates, mugs, lamps and more. So he is popular and earning a comfortable living. I wish him well and hope to someday gain some achievements of my own.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Composition Lesson: Framing


A well-composed photograph is pleasing to the eye. There are a few rules of composition that when applied properly help you create outstanding images. A hint for composing an appealing photo is to frame the image. With landscape photography this is often done by including tree branches in the edges of the image. This can also create a sense of depth.

Besides tree branches other elements such as windows or doors can be used to frame the subject. While shooting in a church I noticed an arch painted on the wall and moved over a bit so the gospel singer was framed by this arch.

Recently I used balloons to frame the subject of a portrait. Not only did this add interest to to the photo, but it also adds some color.