Category: Inspiration & Showcases

Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

By Ray Davis
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I mentioned the Travel Photographer of the Year in a previous post because it had some very deserving winners this year (it you haven’t already go look!). Well, now another fantastic UK-based competition is open for entries. The Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year has thousands of pounds of cash up for grabs in fifteen different categories for adults and one category for under-17s. I made it through to the semi-finals last year and will definitely be trying again this year! To make it even easier you can enter digital images online or send prints by mail. The deadline is 31March 2008 for online submissions and 24March 2008 for entries by mail so get out there and find some wildlife!

… Continue reading Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The making of a “simple” snapshot: a photo essay in four frames

By John Watson
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Last night, as she tucked our son into bed, my lovely and talented wife came into the office in search of the camera. Our conversation went something like this:

Wife: “Where’s the camera? I need to take a picture of your son. How do you get this thing off the tripod?”

Tripod head

Me: “Wait a second. You’re going to need some light.”
Wife: “This is supposed to just be a quick snapshot.”
Me: “Do you want a blurry mess or do you want to be able to see what’s in the photo?” (Set flash to TTL BL, +1 EV, on-camera, oriented to bounce off ceiling and adjacent wall. Camera set to ISO 200, P mode, +0.7 EV)

SB-800 Speedlight

Me: “Oops, you’re going to need some film.”
Wife: Grrr.

Flash memory

Me: “There you go.”
Wife: *Click!*
Me: “Hey, presto!”

Snapshot

Scene and composition: The Lovely and Talented Wife
Camera setup: Me

… Continue reading The making of a “simple” snapshot: a photo essay in four frames

Anatomy of a photo: The silly faces project

By John Watson
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The silly faces projectI recently published this photo on Flickr (click here to view larger) and it received a lot of interest so I thought I’d share how I made it. Taking 64 photos like this may look like a lot of work but it can actually be done quite easily. Here’s how I did it.

First of all, I used two flashes for lighting. An on camera SB-800 with diffusion dome pointed up and back and an off-camera SB-600 bounced into an umbrella to the right of the camera. You can do this without fancy lighting equipment. The important thing to remember is simply that the lighting must be consistent from shot to shot.

… Continue reading Anatomy of a photo: The silly faces project

Airsick: Short film from 20,000 still images

By John Watson
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Airsick

As part of its Earth Hour feature, The Toronto Star is hosting a short film created to highlight human impact on the environment and specifically on the air we breathe.

Twenty days. Twenty thousand still images. A single message. Toronto Star photographer Lucas Oleniuk captures the issue of global warming in a video created entirely by using still images.

Because it was made with still images, the entire film consists of time-lapse sequences. It’s a beautiful example of time-lapse photography. Photojojo recently did a good tutorial on time-lapse you should check out if you are interested in giving it a try.

Watch video

… Continue reading Airsick: Short film from 20,000 still images

Ice Cold Photography

By Ray Davis
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npsmall.jpg I spent this past weekend in Chicago and, as you may know, it was FREEZING in Chicago this past weekend. But since a mere 6 months ago I was living in Alaska I know that extreme cold doesn’t mean I can’t take my camera out and I now have some lovely photos of very cold Chicago dwellers. For those of you that have never yet ventured out with your camera at 25 below but think you might be brave enough this winter here are a few tips:

Use A UV Filter
They are a hell of a lot cheaper to replace than a lens. Extreme cold makes glass more brittle, last winter I was out shooting at -30F, put my camera down, gently, and the UV filter simply shattered. But it cost ten bucks to replace so I didn’t have to be too worried!

Get A Good Camera Bag and Heat It!
A decent camera bag is a worthwhile investment anyway but especially if you do a lot of outdoor photography. In the cold it’ll offer some protection by itself and you can make it even better by padding around the camera with hand or foot warmers (they cost about $2 at sports stores).

… Continue reading Ice Cold Photography

De-clutter Your ‘pictures’ Folder.

By Ray Davis
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As part of a Christmas present I recently found myself spending a sizable chunk of my evening searching through seemingly endless folders on my laptop trying to find photographs of a friend’s son. In the end I just downloaded the photos from my Flickr account. My computer filing system is a mess, to say the least!

For those of you out there who may be similarly organisationally-challenged here is a brief guide to a simple work flow to help prevent the image chaos I’ve ended up with. It’s going to be my New Year’s resolution to try and stop just dumping DCIM folders onto my desktop and actually implement something like this!

1. Edit as you download.This requires a little bit of brutal honesty towards your photographs. The idea is to get rid of the shots you are never going to look at again before they even begin to take up space on your desktop. Keep photos of family and friends (even the technically bad shots might prove useful for blackmail in the future!) but be selective about other shots. Ask yourself if you aready have a better shot of the same view/landmark/object.

… Continue reading De-clutter Your ‘pictures’ Folder.

Digital Imaging Contest Winners

By Elizabeth West
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pix.jpgIf you would like to be inspired by photographs, take a look at the winners in the PDNOnline Digital Imaging Contest 13. I was surprised not only at the variety of work displayed there, but also at how appealing many of the images were.

PDNOnline is a monthly magazine for professional photographers, and I feared that all the images might be just ads or promotional pieces. However, photographers competed in a number of categories:

  • Advertising Campaigns
  • Portraits/Celeb/Music
  • Travel/Lifestyle
  • Fashion/Beauty
  • Personal Work
  • New Talent

    • … Continue reading Digital Imaging Contest Winners

    Vintage Baseball Images

    By Elizabeth West
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    The New York Public Library Digital Gallery has half a million digitized images from the library’s collection. This is a fascinating resource, and I drop by every so often to browse through their holdings. Now that baseball season is behind us, those having an interest in the sport might enjoy visiting “America’s National Game,”a collection of early baseball photographs from the collection of Albert G. Spaulding. Many of these show 19th century portraits of players.

    The Collection Guide gives a brief history of the collection, but it is the images themselves that caught my fancy. Click See all images to see the entire collection.

    … Continue reading Vintage Baseball Images

    DSLRs, sensor dust, and NASA

    By John Watson
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    If you haven’t seen these photos from a recent Shuttle mission you should definitely check them out. Spectacular. But, me being who I am, I couldn’t help but notice the sensor dust defects in the fifth photo. You can tell it’s dust on the sensor because it shows up again in the same places on the seventh photo which is also shot at a high f-stop (where sensor spots are more likely to appear) (and you can tell it’s a high f-stop because everything in the frame is in sharp focus.).

    NASA dust

    I should probably get out more.

    I can’t wait until it’s feasible for private citizens to go on Earth orbit “safaris.” I’ll definitely make sure my sensor is clean before hand. 😉

    … Continue reading DSLRs, sensor dust, and NASA

    Digital Photography Podcasts

    By John Watson
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    PodcastsHere’s a roundup of some good photography podcasts I’ve noticed recently. These podcasts cover the gamut from photography lessons, to gear reviews, interviews, Photoshop tutorials, discussions of fine art, and a lot more.

    What’s a podcast, you ask? In a nutshell, they’re internet radio programs that you can subscribe to for free and listen to on your computer or mp3 player. Click here for more information about podcasts. You can subscribe to these using iTunes or other podcatching applications (I use Miro) or even just your normal RSS feed reader.

    I’m a regular listener of Tips from the Top Floor and The Digital Photography Show. They’re both great shows and are fun to listen to.

    Leave a comment if you know of other photography related podcasts that you think are worth listening to.

    … Continue reading Digital Photography Podcasts

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