Those of you who are interested in stock photography might want to read more about Lise Gagne, a freelancer who recently set a new record for stock photography sales. Lise has sold more than half a million photos to iStockPhoto.com. To learn some of the secrets of her phenomenal success, read this interview with her. Although she credits much of her success to a background in Web/multimedia design, most readers will also be impressed by her strong work ethic, her analytical abilities, and her sense of fun. Perhaps it is this latter skill that makes her scenes appear so happy, natural, and relaxed, attributes mentioned by several of her clients.
Tag: Grab bag
The American Experience | The Wizard of Photography
By
John Watson
As part of the film Wizard of Photography, the story of George Eastman, PBS created a timeline of the history of photography that you can view on their website. It’s covers a lot of important events in photography between 1826 and 1992.
The American Experience | The Wizard of Photography | Timeline
… Continue reading The American Experience | The Wizard of Photography
70-hour exposure?
By
John Watson
Talk about a long exposure! I’m not sure I believe it but they say this is an airbrushed painting representing 70 hours of work—not a photograph. If it is genuine, I am at once amazed by his talent and amused that he didn’t just pick up a camera. Is photography art? Is art imitating photography art? 😉
Painting of Tica by Dru Blair
Sorting the wheat from the chaff
By
John Watson
When I return triumphantly from a shoot I always run excitedly up to the office and begin downloading the photos. The first step in my process is to download everything and then sort them into bins depending on what I plan to do with them. Here’s my system:
Unfortunately, here are the usual contents of the “Perfect” folder:
Sigh. There’s always tomorrow, I suppose.
The Things I Carry: Tips for the Traveling Photographer
By
Blogger
It’s that time of the year again. When nature and landscape photographers all over get the itch to hit the trail and gear-up for the spring shooting season. So much to photograph, so little time. Not to say that winter can’t be a good season for outdoor photography. It can be as long as you’ve got some good, clean white snow to work with. But late winter in the Midwest has a tendency to be a bit dreary and challenging for the creative eye that seeks color, contrast and lively subjects. It seems that the first signs of spring always brings a sense of excitement and renewal for those of us who pursue our passion for image-making.
As I’m writing this entry I’m preparing for my first field outing of the spring season – a weekend of nature, landscape and Civil War battlefield photography down in dear old Virginia, specifically the scenic Shenandoah National Park and at least four major battlefields with the historic town of Culpeper serving as my base of operations.
Perhaps it’s my background from serving in the military, or maybe it just comes from experience,
… Continue reading The Things I Carry: Tips for the Traveling Photographer
Too Many Tripods to Choose From?
I was browsing through nikonian.org a few weeks back and found a great offering for folks like me, who want to upgrade from a rickety tripod to a more stable one. As soon as I began looking, I felt the strong urge to take a nap; I was overwhelmed by the number of choices.
Help arrived in the form of James Geib’s “Tripod Comparison Spreadsheet,” a compilation that lists more than 100 tripods and their specifications. The chart arrives as an Excel spreadsheet and lists makes and models, prices, maximum load, tripod weight, maximum and minimum heights, as well as folded heights. What makes this particularly useful is that the columns can be sorted. If price is your deciding factor, sort by price. However, if maximum load really matters, you can sort that way.
To get a copy, write to James_Geib (at) yahoo (dot) com. My copy arrived quickly and was automatically updated after the author found an error.
Original forum post at Nikonians.org
The “Beauty Function” For a More Beautiful You
By
John Watson
You just can’t believe anything you see these days.
Researchers from Tel Aviv University have created a computer algorithm that “beautifies” a photograph of a person’s face by making subtle adjustments to ratios that correlate with an objective definition of beauty. As a photographer, you are probably familiar with some of these mathematical formulas (The Golden Ratio) although you may not have thought of applying them to human faces.
It’s inevitable that software like this, for better or worse, will find its way first into products like Adobe Photoshop as a plugin and then eventually into digital cameras. One day, you may even ditch your old-fashioned glass bathroom mirror for a self-esteem boosting all-digital model.
Check out the before and after photos and read the full article at Israel21c.
… Continue reading The “Beauty Function” For a More Beautiful You
Nick Tosches’ Search for Autumn
By
John Watson
Vanity Fair ran a fascinating photographic detective story day before yesterday about the author’s year-long quest to discover where a photo used for Windows XP desktop wallpaper was shot and who the photographer was. The seemingly trivial task quickly became an obsession for the author and a small group of volunteers who were blocked by an impregnable wall of secrecy surrounding the origins of the photograph.
Read the full story at vanityfair.com.
Nick Tosches: Autumn and the Plot Against Me: On The Web: vanityfair.com
Make your photos pop out of the page
By
John Watson
Photojojo, the site with the oddly familiar name and really cool DIY tutorials, has a swell tutorial for making your own Photo Pop-Outs. All you need is a little bit of foam core, some tape and a knife, and a photo. Super easy to make and very cool. These look like they’d make great gifts.
Creating a 3D effect with image editing software
By
John Watson
Instructables, a site that lets you share “what you make and how others can make it,” has a neat tutorial by Andrew546 describing how to create a 3D effect (pictured right) with your own photos. I’d say this tutorial is for anyone who knows the basics of layer masking (or who really wants to learn more about it). The 8-step tutorial is easy to follow with pictures describing each step.
Creating a 3D effect with image editing software [Instructables]
… Continue reading Creating a 3D effect with image editing software
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