Thursday, July 30, 2009

Annie Leibovitz being sued and some Nikon News


Annie Leibovitz: This past year has not been a very good year for Annie Leibovitz. I wrote a post back in the winter about how shes has hit serious financial turmoil. This was the second of two posts I wrote about her in the past year. Leibovitz makes more news Leibovitz made a bold move this year by selling off the rights to her work past, present and future. Now she is making more headline news in PDN PDN one of my favorite photo publications has a news article that discusses the Lawsuite involving Leibovitz. I truly feel bad for Annie. Over the past few years she has been dealt her share of misfortune. Now, things are harder than ever for the American iconic photographer. I have always been inspired by her work, photographs, and her life story. I watched a documentary this past year that showcases her entire life. From the begining of her career as a photographer and her days of shooting Rolling Stone up until the last book she published, I have been moved by her sucess. Now that she has hit these issues, I feel a little less than insipired. I can only hope that she will recover from these hardships.


Nikon News:
Nikon releases new cameras.

-Nikon D3000
-Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II
-Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II


As a Nikon user, I know that both of these cameras have the ability to make some great images. I always look forward to seeing what Nikon is putting out for cameras and lenes. If I was to suggest a camera to an amature, I would suggest the D3000. If I was to suggest a camera for a more advanced user, someone who knows their way around a DSLR, I would suggest the D300S. I have used the D300 and have seen some great results with it, so the D300s being a newer version only means that the cameras capabilities and features are stronger. Check them out!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Fuji Announces 3D Digital Camera: The future is emerging.

The pixel war has seemed to calm down over the past year. The HIGH ISO settings are getting increasingly better, as camera manufacturers keep pushing the boundaries when it comes to building better High ISO settings.  Grain and noise with High ISO are getting much smoother and better. So what are the next major and dramatic changes to be featured in digital cameras? Well, Pentax already has a good system with HDR (High Dynamic Range) capabilities being built into the camera. Soon we will see more camera manufacturers catching up with HDR in cameras. Until then, well, I guess we will just have to settle for 3D capabilities in digital cameras. For the better part of 3 years now I have heard little rumors here and there that manufacturers were thinking the next major change to come to photography was 3D technology. I was skeptical to believe it at first, but the more I heard rumors the more the idea has grown in my head. What will these images look like? So, over the past two years, I have been on and off again thinking about when we would see this new advancement.

By chance yesterday, I found a link to a new camera that Fuji is putting out. Fuji yesterday announced its new FinePix REAL 3D W1 digital camera.  This new little tech toy is home to 10.0 mega pixels, 3x Optical Zoom, 2.8-inch LCD screen, and ISO up 1600.

The new 3D camera is not yet available, but will be“tentatively”  available in the fall. I have not yet found a price for this cool little toy, but rest assured, I will be making the purchase as soon as it is available. I already have some interesting ideas of how I could use this new technology.

Past 3D technology: Looking into the history of photography.

3D technology maybe a new thing to digital cameras, but it is not fairly new to photography. In 1850 Stereographs and Stereoscopes  were invented by Sir William Brewster. Wikipedia on Stereographs

Stereograph

Stereoscope

 

Looking back into the History of Photography offers us a fresh and some times new perspective on approaching photography as medium. I am constantly reminded of something from the History of Photography when I view images now, use a digital camera, or one of my many manual cameras. Looking backwards doesn’t always teach us that history tells us not to repeat our mistakes or that history repeats its self, but allows us to find look backwards for a perspective. I am always looking into and researching the forefathers of photography for inspiration when it comes to some of my personal work.

How does the history of photography affect the future? Well the past is what sets forth the foundation for future. When I began studying photography in high school in 1999 I didnt even know that digital photography existed. We spent a year working with film, paper, and 35 mm cameras. Some work with medium and large format was done, but minimal at best. Digital photography was something I had not even thought of. All these years later, after going to school for photography, and learning all the most current digital photography trends, techniques, and well everything I can possibly know about digital photography, I can safely say, I anticipate the future of photography and what is next to come.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Lenshare.com is MOVING!: New Location…

Lenshare is moving

Thats right! Lenshare.com will be moving into a new location. This is the first public announcement that Lenshare will have a new home. This past June was the 1 year anniversary of Lenshare.com Due to a slight delay we were unable to move into our new location in time for the 1 year celebration. Our goal was to make it into the space, have the new site up and running and make a few other announcements. Over the next few weeks, Lenshare will be offering some new features. You can view the space that we will be working from by visiting this link: rgb plus grey header Studio RGB+Grey is the name of the soon to open Multi-Media and Digital Imaging Photography Studio in Holyoke, MA. This project has been 3 months in the making, with one month devoted to construction, and a business re-structuring. The future of Lenshare is still growing as we will be offering new services and publishing new content.  We hope that you are as excited as we are to be a part of something new. Please make sure to check back as we bring about the new changes.

A 3rd night: Adding to the two night portfolio.

Yes, that is right a 3rd night shooting. A 3rd night taking a break from work to do, well more work. Me and Tim spent about an hour shooting some very interesting pieces of stairs against a building in Holyoke. Here is another mini photo essay and images that can be included into the mini 2 night portfolio.

It was a very warm night. The aromatic pleasure of food was carried very heavily through the air by a slight breeze. Cars passed, people walked the streets in search of a cure for their boredom, mischievous youths ran the streets, yet, no one had a clue as to what we were doing. Our shutters opened and closed in 30 second intervals. Occasionally a flash went off as new ideas were executed. Small talk was made between us as we composed our next exposure. Every few images we would call one another over excitedly to see the previous shot. Quick critiques were made as new ideas were formed. Try this, or shoot from this angle, what about trying this location? These were the types of conversations we had as we looked up, searching the night sky, the buildings, the elements around us, all while trying to find the next money shot…

Photographs by: Jeffrey Byrnes

 Stairs_1  stairs_3 stairs_4 stairs_5   stairs_8 stairs_7stairs_6Tim_1

Photographs by: Tim Lastowski

tim_5 Tim_1 Tim_2 tim_3 tim_4

More to come…

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Photo Essay: Shooting a portfolio in 2 nights

This past Thursday and Friday night we had violent down pours in our area. Working very late these past few nights, we had a chance to see Holyoke in a rare calm. The down pours kept people from wandering the streets. Most nights the streets can be covered with a variety of different types of people. But the rain kept most people sheltered of in their homes. We took two breaks from the work were doing in our studio to take a few minutes to make some photographs. Thursday night we just happened to take a break by chance and grabbed our cameras to see what we could come up with. I started out by making photographs with the intentions of converting them to black and white during post-production. However, I decided, why not use the in camera black and white setting to see what I can come up with? So I set my camera to black and white and started making photographs of the elements in the street. I was concentrating on how the light was playing off the street with the rain. Making photographs after the rain has just fallen or while it is still coming down can make a huge impact on the quality and the visual elements of a photograph. Just image how much more different these photographs would like if it was completely dry outside. They wouldn’t have the strongest impact.

 

11 (8)  1 (3)   1 (4)  1 (5)1 (2) 1 (6) 1 (7)  1 (12) 1 (13)1 (11)1 (9) 1 (14) 1 (15) 1 (10)

The very last image was made very quickly. I shot this on Thursday night. We were both startled by some commotion on the street behind us. His expression is one of fear and unknowingness. The lack of people on the streets kept us from including portraits of people passing by. So, we used each other as a way of making some portraits using the ambient light from the windows of buildings, the street lights, and the light reflecting off rain covered elements of the street.

On Friday night, I started shooting still images of the vehicles passing by to produce video clips of the rain falling and the cars passing by. I will be uploading those later today. This essay and mini portfolio are just one example of how a project doesn’t have to be long at all. We did not have any intentions of creating a portfolio out of two nights worth of rain and thunderstorms. It just happened to be a chance coincidence that allowed us to make these photographs.

More to come…

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Ruining a photograph: Unexpected guests…

Over the weekend me, my business partner, and an amateur photographer photographed a small Wedding. There are a number of cons when it comes to photographing a small wedding. Such as, the clients do not expect a lot of images or they do not expect a high level of professionalism. And well as far as the quality of the images, some times  the do not care about this either. Now, I am not saying all small Weddings are like this. What I am saying is that some times you find clients that do not care about what they get as long as they are getting something. This rings more true when the Bride and Groom were unaware of the fact that there would be 2 pro photographers and an intern  photographing their wedding. We were contracted and hired by one of the brides maids to photograph the wedding as a surprise gift to the Bride and Groom.

Now, its not every day we are contracted to do a wedding of this caliber, but hey, why would anyone pass up on providing a couple with some beautiful images of their wedding? We arrived early to get set up, check out the area where the ceremony was going to take place, and figure out our positions. By the time the ceremony began, we were all set, all in place, and had our plan for photographic success.  One thing we were not accounting for was the presence of a very rude guest who took it upon himself to walk into the view of the entire ceremony and place himself directly into our shots. Below are three out of the numerous images that we came across while editing down our load during our work flow. This man presented himself in quite a few of our images without any regard for the ceremony or the fact that he was ruing our shots.

IMG_9812

DSC_0046

 IMG_9809

How does a photographer prevent such a travesty from occurring? Well, there are a few things one can do.

1. You can quickly reposition yourself in order to get the person out of your view. However, repositioning yourself may disturb the guests or even block their view. This is something you have to do quickly without causing a distraction. For us, this man was a distraction to our work and the guests who were in attendance of the ceremony.

2. You can creatively crop out the person in post production.

3. If you can not move yourself from the position in which you are standing, you might be able to get an assistant or another guest at the wedding to move the person who is in your shot.

4. If all else fails just keep shooting and hope the person realizes what they are doing and moves out of your view before they continue to ruin your shots.

Hopefully this is something that does not happen to a lot of you who do photograph weddings. We were very surprised to have been witnesses to this kind of blatant rudeness. It did make for a few laughs and this great post however. 

Monday, July 20, 2009

Some HDR vidoes

I find that searching youtube.com is a great resource for finding some informative video tutorials about photography. I was doing some research today about HDR (High Dynamic Range Photography). I was reading an article posted on a blog that I follow, and the article went on to desrcibe the fact that HDR is here to stay. This is very true. HDR is becoming more widely accepted as a new digital photography industry standard. I have been seeing more and more HDR images pop up in publications. Not just photography publications, but all types of publications are now expierementing with these new types of photography post processing techniques. I have made a numerous posts about HDR over the past year. I found a few great videos that I would like to share. I think these videos do a great job of explaining and showing what HDR is and how to achive the surreal look that is gaining a lot of attention. Enjoy!



Sunday, July 19, 2009

Self Portraits: Arno Minkkinen

I am not usually a big advocate of self portraits. In fact self portraits have to be executed in very creative way before I find them to be visually appealing. Arno Minkkinen is one such photographer that has made some outstanding self portraits. Arno utilizes the elements within his environment and within the composition of the photograph to produce self portraits that give the viewer a very dynamic image to interpret .

I have spent some time looking up Arno’s photography. Out of the images that I have seen so far, this image below is amongst the top in his portfolio that I admire the most. I enjoy the simplicity in the composition, the use of his surroundings, and most of all the quality of light that is in this image.













This past February I stood in the MFA for about 10 minutes just looking at one of Arno’s photographs. (image below) I stood there just reading the image, trying to understand what he was feeling when he chose this particular location. The location that he has chosen is a seemingly familiar image. The feel of the wood on my feet, the sand against my body, the sounds of the waves crashing, the feeling of the coastal breeze blowing against my skin are the thoughts that came to my mind as I was standing there just reading this photograph. One of the most appealing qualities of this image is the use of textures. The soft sky and water meet the texture of the wood with Arno’s body in a horizon line. Unless a self portrait can make me feel this way, or I find myself standing there reading the image as thoroughly as I did with Arno’s, I do not find self portraits to be to appealing. Most of the self portraits I have seen are snap shots. Where as Arno’s photographs are fine arts self portraits that convey a use of environment and the elements in the composition.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Adobe Light Room and some Nikon News…

Nikon News This comes as a shock to me. Nikon Service Advisory: Some D5000s Fail to Power On Take a moment to read this if you have recently purchase the Nikon D5000. The reason I am shocked, is because Nikon has always made great cameras. I have never had any issues with the Nikon cameras I have owned or used. This seems like quite a major issue that Nikon will have to tackle. The above link can provide you with all the necessary information needed to take care of the problem, if you are experiencing  that is.

Adobe Light room is a very effective photo program. The key feature that I find to be the most useful and interesting: Non-destructive, local collections. That and the batch processing tools make for a much easier workflow. Check out a few tutorials below. I can guarantee that there will be something in these tutorials that you will find helpful.

Adobe Light Room: Dodging and Buring

 

Adobe Light Room Local Adjustments: Non-Destructive Edits

 

Adobe Light Room: Camera Calibration and Camera Profiles

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Big Bang Glorious: A photo/video exploration.

In conjunction with the post below about Big Bang Glorious, this is a video clip that shows people interacting with what they are viewing. I am and have always been curious about how people interact with their surroundings. As a photographer I find myself increasingly interested in people. Whether they are in their natural environment or interacting within the environment we are both in. People make up a large percent of my photographs.

If you watch this clip closely, it will give you a sense that you are watching the people in the exhibit as they are watching you. Their interactions are very interesting. As I was viewing the exhibition, I felt as if my photography was contributing to the atmosphere as people moved in and out of the frame. This is the first time that I have ever edited my photographs into a video clip. There shall be more to come.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Quick Post

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy 4th of July. For those outside the U.S. well I hope you had an amazing weekend also. This week I have a few great posts and such lined up. It has been a few days since I have made a post, but that is due to the amazing weekend that I had. I was gone most of weekend. Now that a new week is here it is back to the chopping blocks. The next two weeks have quite a few surpises in store. Some of which you will have to wait the two weeks to see and some, well they will come a little faster than that.


Until then, enjoy this image by Garry Winogrand