This sunset is from high on top of a Mountain. The sun is set half way in the sky, shinning down on a vast sea of clouds, creating and effect of ocean waves constantly breaking at the surface.

The sun in this photo is in it’s last moments before setting, blacking out the foreground and causing an Erie yellow and orange reflection on the waters of this canal.

The sky reflects on the surface of a clear blue lake in Yellowstone National park as the sun sets in the background. As the sun sets the temperature drops causing, water vapor to form on the top of the lake and rise into the sky.

The day is coming to and end over this beautiful lake, as the water ripples the bright orange sun sits a top the tree line in the background.

A beautiful hawaiian sunset from the island of Maui. The sunset glistens on the surface of the water and creates and orange glow as the peaks the horizon.

This ocean inlet doesn’t look like much in the full light of day. But as the sunsets it creates a surreal landscape of glowing rivers, that are bright orange in color as the sun reflects of the calm ocean water.

A thick bed of water plants cover the surface of this swampy pond. As the water mists into the sky, forming fog as it rises from the surface of water, the sun beats down turning the fog into a burning cloud.

Small waves break on the beach. As the day turns into night, the sky is lite up in a bright reddish orange. Sailors take heed this beautiful omen is a sign of a big storm brewing.

This extraordinary scene is set on a wooden dock with amazing mountains in the background, just before dusk. The sun is setting and a brilliant reflection of oranges, yellows and blues unfold on the surface of the lake.

The sun perfectly aligns it’s self on the end of the beach. Almost as if it was a beacon, warning ships as they sail by.

This wonderfully shaped bonsai tree hangs over the sea, as a brilliant orange sun, sets in the west.

A desert and mountain landscape with tall prickly cactus, with the bright orange sun just about ready to hide it self, behind a vast mountain landscape.

High tide has just gone out as the rays of the setting sun, shines on the black sands of this rocky beach.

The sun plays with sky creating rich hues of color with in every cloud. As a lonely tree stands tall among the beautiful scene unfolding in the sky.

Fog rises from this marsh land, creating a thick and flowing cloud, that creeps low to the ground and as the sunsets it’s brilliant color reflects off the many ponds.

Beautiful grass filled plains seam to run right into the ocean as they cut through the sand dunes. The sun is setting and the blue, cloud filled sky is starting to turn a brilliant yellow.

It’s almost dusk and the dark night is starting to take over the rainbow colored sky as the sunsets in the distance.

The sun is setting on this tropical landscape, as the clouds hide the sun, it creates and amazingly colorful effect on the nights sky.

A beautiful sunset on a not so good looking glacier. As the thick and icey glacier has melted, it revealed a giant stunning mountain. That used to only have a small portion of the mountains peak showing.

A rocky beach sets the foreground, as the sun is just starting to break the surface of this clear blue lake. The sky is set a blaze and the blue is replaced by a stunning yellow, that expands across the horizon.

Heather Rodgers is an everyday mother of three busily attending to all the tasks mothering demands. She adores her children, fosters their originality with proud care, gets them to school and fed like all dutiful, loving parents attempt to do.  She’s a bold, brazen, self-doubting, talented artist. A camera fit into this dynamo’s hand like a fitted glove when photography summoned her as a child. Heather says, I have been taking photographs almost all my life. Any time I had a camera in hand I was always clicking, trying to catch people in the candid moment. I have been told I was rather annoying with it at times. My sister and I would get together and pose our doll babies using makeshift backdrops or we’d have each other pose this way or that.”  However, it wasn’t until the past ten to twelve years that she actually realized it was a passion that she wanted to pursue as a significant part of her life and an art for which she wanted to be known. Over the past eight years she has worked to make this dream a reality by photographing weddings, boudoir, senior portraits, and band promotionals while continuing to develop her conceptual and personal themes in the art as well as capturing those candid moments.

When asked why she was drawn to photography, Heather said, “Art has always been at the top of the list for me. I was drawing, doodling, painting, or writing since I was a small child …Both my parents are very artistic as well … I remember watching in pure awe of his ability as my dad would stand at his easel painting …My mother has been known to paint, draw and write as well. I come from a long line of artistic family ranging from musicians, writers, sketch artists, and painters, so my passion for the arts was inevitable.”

“When I was about ten years old I saw the painting of ‘the Girl with the Pearl Earring.’  I was hooked from then on. As I got older I started trying to imitate great pieces of art in history.” Because of this artistic background, her work is often inspired by different classic masterpieces. Heather continued to explain her passion for photography by admitting, “Because in all honesty I can’t paint, I’m not eloquent with words, and I can’t play an instrument to save my life …the desire to express my self in some artistic way was so deep that I had to find a way to create art.” This passion takes her to a wide variety of shooting locations that include clubs covering band’s live shows, lakes, ponds, fields, creeks, back yards, client’s homes, graveyards, swamps, city streets, schools, and pretty much any where the client wants or that tickles her fancy. Heather says, “I don’t ever want to be the type of photographer that puts limitations on when and where I can or will shoot.”

This photographic artist often chooses themes to shoot that she feels strongly about like her recent series focused on the issue of child abuse.  She says she doesn’t consider herself a philosophical photographer but you can find bodies of her work filled with ideas that contain messages close to her heart. And, although she is quick to disclaim a philosophical perspective, her statements about the core values in her work demonstrate otherwise. “Being a survivor of abuse, and a mother, I felt it was sort of my right and obligation to do my part in bringing awareness to the overwhelming issue of child abuse in the world. This is an issue very close to my heart and I wanted to contribute to the cause in one way or another.  So when a friend of mine approached me about the concept for an album cover for his band, “Horse Called War,” using a song they did about child abuse as the inspiration …needless to say I ran with it and I didn’t stop running.”

It is these images along with her series called “Creep Show” that have attracted debated attention.  When you look at some of the collections in her body of work, you might take her themes as dark and Gothic with a rebellious flare.  However, the foundation of her work goes deeper and touches upon the preoccupations and trends of society. Because she is not one to stand by and watch others suffer or be hurt, she defends the underdog, the disabled, and the young. The point of views expressed in her art can be bold but she doesn’t really consider herself a rebel, merely a “free-thinker.”  She says that “most of my somewhat rebel thinking and photography is based on a deeply rooted spiritual up-bringing. I just so happen to take those values and morals to a different level and they are often misunderstood or interpreted completely opposite of what my heart, mind, and soul meant.” 

The challenges of daily life can both detract and inspire her. With a compulsive nature, she can be bold at moments and then become reserved, reticent and uncertain. Handling her emotions means creating more art while simultaneously tending to the tasks of ordinary life. Sometimes her passion, doubts, and beliefs collide but in the end they make for ever growing art with depth and beauty. The power of the woman is in her heart and her eye and the two combined can make some powerful images. She says her “passion for photography is often bitter sweet, intimidating, and emotionally painstaking as well as (being) my air. I can not see my life without photography as a personal venue of expression. It is in a sense my therapy. It is an active, living part of who I am in this world.”  

When I last spoke to Heather, she was wrestling with her portfolio for presentation to local galleries.  Kind to others, murder on herself, the artist at times flaunts her heart and then runs for cover.  It’s a tough trade and a hungry passion that doesn’t die even when faced with rejection and misinterpretation.  Skill, passion and talent don’t always make for a lucrative career particularly when dealing with any of the arts.  But these are qualities that make for a well-lived life when combined with sincerity and intent.  Heather Rodgers is an inspiration to the world of everyday people with a dream.  Her life consists of many common tasks and chores that become an embracement of life when viewed from an artist’s perspective.  We could all learn from this point-of-view and aim to see our lives as living art.  We don’t have to take gorgeous photographs, weave magical melodies, or stand out as geniuses in order to be ordinary people living extraordinary lives. Heather currently resides in Oklahoma. You can see some of Heather Rodger’s work featured at this website gallery or contact Heather here.  All photos copyright and courtesy of Heather Rodgers.

Blake Zimmerman is a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design(where I goto school!!), from the Photography department.  He specializes in Food Styling and Food Photography.  Though he’s a versatile artist and isn’t limited by one interest, he also has the option on his webpage of viewing: Food, Landscapes, Still-Lifes, and Portraits

His Website: 

BLAKE ZIMMERMAN’S PHOTOGRAPHY

(Sorry to anyone that clicked the old link, this one works!)

An image that I really enjoy from his food works are the juxtaposing images of Candy in the wrapper, out of the wrapper, and cut in half.  I’ve attached one of them from his Dove Chocolate images:

This series uses composition as the key note, it’s all things that he, the photographer, has control over.  He set up the pattern they would be in and the framing of the shot, and the background, and the lighting.  It’s enjoyable to see what people create when they have the control over it.  But he also accepts the beauty there is in the natural world, and also the creepiness.

Here’s one of his Landscapes that has a dark ominous feel:

And lastly I’m just putting up this picture from his Savannah Bee Honey images.  They’re great photos, but I’m just putting one in here because they’re Tupelo Honey is incredible. 

I just wanted to share the artwork of an artist I find interesting.  He’s currently building his portfolio and working on upgrading his webpage.  He’s also doing some freelance work, and has aspirations to become a food photographer.  I hope to see his work in magazines in the future, and I hope you guys enjoy his work!  Thanks for reading!

Prime vs. Zoom

One of the most important differences between prime and zoom lenses is that prime lenses are fixed, which means you will have to physically move towards your subject if you want to be closer to it. Zoom lenses grant you the ability to zoom in without having to physically move closer to your subject (thus, the name).

Image IQ

The image quality of prime lenses is usually seen as better than that of their counterparts, the zoom lenses. Generally, prime lenses are thought to be sharper (crisper) when the photo is viewed at its full size. However, there are some zoom lenses that are just as nice as their prime cousins; so the rule about prime lenses being better than zooms quality wise does not always apply.

Price

Prime lenses are oftentimes thought of as being much more expensive than zoom lenses as well; however, the pricing is really about the same. Mostly it comes down to a few different factors such as branding, the speed of the lens; etc.

Take the Canon 50mm 1.8 prime lens. It’s one of the cheapest prime lenses you can find at around ninety dollars, and the image quality is very good for the price. Unfortunately, the body is made of a cheap plastic; this means that if you drop this lens, then you can kiss it goodbye due to the poor construction. Fortunately, there are better options. But they will cost you.

A better version of the 1.8 lens is the EF 50mm 1.4 for around three hundred fifty dollars. It’s still technically not a professional lens, but the build quality is of a higher grade. The price is around three hundred fifty dollars, and it is also a little faster than the 50mm 1.8. Also, the optics are better.

And then there is the professional 50mm 1.2 L prime lens. The cost for this lens is around sixteen hundred dollars. So the main reason for the price increase is due to the quality of the lens, the better optics, and the faster speed.

Weatherproofed lenses will also cost you a little more. These lenses will come in handy if you enjoy shooting wildlife or landscapes because you will not have to worry about your lens being ruined if it starts to rain. It also helps to keep out dust. Just remember that the lens is weatherproof, not necessarily the camera itself.

So what about a zoom lens?

A zoom lens, depending on the type, will cost more or less depending on the same factors as a prime lens. With one exception. The range of the zoom lens will more than likely affect the price to some degree. So if one zoom lens has a range of 12x and another is 3x, then the 12x zoom is probably going to cost more. But branding, optics, and the build quality of the lens will oftentimes play a bigger factor.

Prime and zoom lenses each have advantages and disadvantages to each other. No one lens is perfect for any photographer. In the end, it simply comes down to what you prefer.

But so caught up in fantasy are we; somewhere along the line we’ve lost the art of just looking up. As enjoyable as the special effects bonanzas are, they seem to have taken the magic and mystery out of just looking at the stars. Replaced them with hyperdrives, tentacles, and warp speed.

Along the way, though, it gets boring. Hollywood is running out of tricks. Thank Goodness for us, the Universe doesn’t. Floating just above our heads is a true miracle of technology, the Hubble Telescope. Just beyond our atmosphere, Hubble is (without CGI and special effects) Shrinking the universe for us, star by star. Clicking away with ever improving technology, bringing us images from unfathomable distances (even at warp speed).

Here, as a bit of a reminder, are a few of the miraculous shots Hubble has brought us. Remining us that as hard as the Hollywood geniuses try, there will never be anything more mind bending than reality. Because the universe says so.

Gas Pillars in the Eagle Nebula (M16): Pillars of Creation in a Star-Forming Region

A Perfect Storm of Turbulent Gases in the Omega/ Swan Nebula

The Eagle Has Risen: Stellar Spire in the Eagle Nebula

Half-Size Version of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Saturn October 1997

A picture of a black hole!

A butterfly emerges from stellar demise in nebula ngc6302

Stephan’s Quintet

Collision leaves giant Jupiter bruised.

Image of Eta Carinae

And these are but a few. For hundreds more, visit the Hubble websight; you may find yourself their for hours. I did.

Image via Wikipedia

First of all know what your camera can and cannot do, and how to activate each function. Many cameras have automatic features that simplify operations but no camera is fool proof. Know how to use all the features. You should get good results by following these suggestions.

1. Study photography books of subjects you might want to photograph, people, seasides, mountains, rivers, and fields. Note the composition and lighting.

   

   Image via Wikipedia

2. Experiment with scenes, settings and subjects. Make lots of pictures, remember practice makes perfect. You can always delete those you don’t want.

3. Avoid times and places with harsh glares of sunlight or dark shadows.

4. Plan a wide variety of close ups, mid distances, and far away. Avoid the monotony of too many pictures at the same distance.

5. Vary the position and angle from where you take the picture. stand up, kneel down, lie down, or hold the camera high above your head.

6. When taking a picture from a distance, include something close up on one side , such as a tree to give depth and proportion to the picture.

7. When taking pictures of people capture them at an interesting angle, not just standing and posing.

   

   Image via Wikipedia

8. Avoid red eye by having subjects turn their heads slightly from the camera.

9. Watch for surfaces that may reflect a flash and avoid them.

10. Practice on subjects close to home and keep an eye on lighting and composition. You will soon be getting interesting shots to share with friends and family.

Related articles:

How To Paint with Acrylics
How To Make a Bead Necklace

Image Credit

It is probably best to start with an image of the photographer herself.  Unlike some, Lange did not interpolate herself actively in her photographs – those that we have of her show her usually on her own in very much a framed composition.  This shot from 1937 shows her in the field with one of her cameras, rather coquettishly positioned atop of her car.  Short dark hair and a feminine yet somehow boyish dress sense, the beauty of this shot lies in the baseball boots she is wearing.  Her job was not, after all, one that required heels on any sort so why bow to the fashion dictates of the time?

Image Credit

This remarkable image looks so clear and modern, as if a young woman from 2009 – with the figure to which so many aspire, has taken to a little game of dress down for the day.  In fact this young Texan mother had travelled thirty five miles each way to pick peas.  For the five hours each worked they earned – in total – $2.25.  With two young children to feed, how far would that go?  Her figure is more likely down to the sacrifices she had to make rather than a diet.  Lang’s best work is in portraiture and this is little surprise.  When the Great Depression came Lange was already an established portrait photographer but the severe economic downturn led to her focusing her attention away from the studio. 

Image Credit

Lange took to roaming the streets taking pictures of homeless and unemployed people and this very quickly drew the admiration of local photographers.  One thing led to another and she found herself employed by the rather harshly named Federal Resettlement Administration, later to become the Farm Security Administration (FSA).  He job was to capture the lives and times of those affected by the Depression and to pass these images on – free of charge – to newspapers and magazines.  The remarkable image of an ex-slave above was taken in 1938.  Just over seventy years separates this shot and the Investiture of President Obama.  One wonders if this woman – if informed of this future news by some errant time traveler – would choose to believe the shape of things to come.

Image Credit

It wasn’t entirely all doom and gloom, however.  Even poverty is overcome by joie de vivre on occasion.  Whether these kids could afford the goods from the shack/shop atop which they ebulliently wave to the camera is of course another question.  Yet the FSA did need some happy shots – the clothes of these children are testament enough to the wealth of their families.  The FSA was set up to try and combat rural poverty in the USA.  It was committed to buying up submarginal land owned by poor farmers and to resettle them on group farms with better land.  It may sound a little like socialism to our modern ears – and it is true – the FSA was hugely criticized.  Many saw it as an attempt – a la Joseph Stalin – to collectivize farms. 

Image Credit

The FSA was doomed to failure, but at the hands of the farmers rather than the Government.  The farmers wanted full ownership of their new land – Americans could, after all, still dream.  As soon as the Conservative Coalition became the dominant force in Congress in 1937 its days were numbered.  Lang’s photographs show that she had a good understanding of irony, such as this 1937 shot of a bill board advertising the good life in California where life for farmers was anything but.  However – and it remains true today – there are always some who benefit from recession.  This remains a rather idealized portrait of American family life in the nineteen thirties but still is a poignant reminder of the aspirations of its people. 

Image Credit

This is Lange’s most celebrated and iconic portrait of American family life of the thirties and an image that stays in the mind for a great deal of time, such is its power.  The subject is Florence Owens Thompson and the name of the photograph is Migrant Mother.  In Lange’s own words ‘I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.’ 

Image Credit

Some of this has been slightly disputed by Thompson’s son but the image remains a portrait of strength in adversity, of a moment of quiet, desolate thought in a desert of hopelessness.  That description became a little purple, to be frank, but you get the gist.

Image Credit

A startling juxtaposition of migrant workers and a billboard advertising the American Dream which had gone so wrong for so many.  As the men trudge towards San Francisco, carrying possibly everything they own, the poster exhorts them that next time they should really consider taking the train.  A photograph taken ten minutes later would have, one hopes, have shown the billboard in flames.  It is this sort of imagery though, that married with the written works of Steinbeck, Evans and Agee created the image of the USA during the Depression that we still associate with it today.

Image Credit

The older people that Lange photographed open up, in the faces, times past.  This is Bob Lemmins, taken in Carrizo Springs in 1936 at about the age of eighty five.  His is a story of those times.  He arrived in Carrizo Springs with his then master and others during the American Civil War.  The only African-American in the group, they were looking for new ranges for their cattle.  He settled there in 1865, the same year Lincoln was shot and the civil war came to an end.  Whether or not he was being completely truthful o was using the hyperbole of old age, Lemmins maintained that he knew Billy the Kid personally – as well as many other reprobates of the time.

Image Credit

With their film star looks and insouciant demeanor this couple might just as well be two actors taking a break from filming a Steinbeck novel.  In fact it is an unemployed lumber worker and his wife en route to the 1939 bean harvest.  They look relaxed and healthy – but were likely exploited as migrant laborers and paid a pittance.  No doubt either before or after this shot was taken they were interviewed by Paul Schuster Taylor.  He was Lange’s (second) husband and was an Economics Professor at Berkeley.  He was a source of much information to Lange, socially and politically and shaped her views.  Professor Taylor interviewed many of the subjects of Lange’s photographs – which is why we have information about them – and gathered up data about the sharecroppers and migrant workers which is still referred to today.

Image Credit

Two children peer out of the wooden shack that they call home.  It is quite possible that these two tiny subjects are still alive, though each would be in their early eighties.  It was taken in early 1940 near the tellingly named Weedpatch.  The rent for a week was $2.75 plus electricity.  Take in to account that a short time before the woman in the first picture and her husband together earned twenty five cents less than that for a whole day’s work and you soon begin to realize how this particular cycle of poverty was close to impossible to escape.

Image Credit

The real Grandma Walton.  Although her name is unknown we do know that she was seventy when this picture was taken.  Instead of enjoying a comfortable retirement she found herself a migrant worker together with her sixty eight year old brother and her sister and nephew aged sixty five and thirty respectively.  What became of her will never be known.  One can only hope that life became kinder for her towards the end of her days.

Image Credit

The Depression affected the very young as well as the old.  This perfectly framed   Taken in Maricopa County, Arizona; this shows a migrant cotton picker and her child.  This image is particularly affecting as it shows that hope – like new life – springs eternal.  The household is at the very best rudimentary but this woman has managed, despite everything, to keep herself and her baby clean and healthy.  The smile directed at the child rather than the camera shows the sublime and enigmatic happiness of a mother facing hardships many of can only imagine.

Image Credit

From Memphis, Tennessee to a plantation in Arkansas these young women can look forward to some desperately hot and hard work when they reach the cotton fields.  They look as if they have had enough before they start but one manages a smile for the camera – despite the fact it looks very much like something quite sarcastic may have been coming out of her mouth at the same time.  The young man on the right takes in angry and curious simultaneously.

Image Credit

Lange did not restrict herself completely to the countryside.  This was taken in 1939 in the Minna Street area of San Francisco.  Back then we are talking skid row – today the area is becoming quite chic.  As the Salvation Army did, a semi-circle is formed so that the crowd will position itself as a natural audience around them.  War is coming – perhaps may of these young people found themselves wearing another uniform a few years after this.  Look at the man in the right background – his filthiness shows the reality of poverty at that time.  Something was coming, though.  War.  Lange would go from highlightimg one injustice to another.

Image Credit

Lange’s images remind us of days gone by which bear still some resemblance to our own.  Many of the issues she highlighted – particularly that of poverty – remain unsolved and possibly insoluble.  They remind us that although we have come far in the intervening years we still have some way to go in so many ways.  She went on to a position at the first fine art photography department at CSFA – the California School of Fine Arts and founded a photographic magazine, Aperture, in 1952.  Lange died in 1965 and was inducted in to the California Hall of Fame by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2008.

Postscript

Image Credit

War did come – and with it Lange found a new subject.  Horrified by the treatment of Japanese-Americans she recorded their rounding up and forced evacuation to camps.  The picture of children pledging allegiance to the American flag before they were interned is one which dramatically brings home the wrongs done to the majority of those taken away from their homes and businesses.

Image Credit

A large sign reads ‘I am American’ outside a store at 13th and Franklin, San Francisco.  This was taken five months after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor and was a response to the knee jerk response of many Americans to the presence of people of Japanese descent in their midst.  The store was closed and its owner, a Berkeley graduate was interned away from the west coast for the duration of the war.

Image Credit

Lange’s images of the internment of Japanese Americans were considered so provocative that the army impounded them until the end of the war.  Here, two children await evacuation by bus. The sandwich one is holding is a gift from a woman from a local church.  Although many condemn the relocation program, it was done far more harshly to another ethnic group in contemporary Europe.

First up, we must ensure we have what it takes:

1. Camera
2. The pen and paper (or laptop for those who are afraid of paper)
3. A friend or not afraid to talk about their own
4. Be prepared to plan for the future – the cost is not knowing what you need
5. Photoshop or equivalent application for publishing our masterpiece

Start with the camera – check if the battery is charged with 100% juice. If not, put it into the jack that connects to a wall and let the baby recharge while we sit down with paper and pencil. Write a cool concept – do not let real life to you again – nothing is impossible at this point. At present, you are Annie Leibovitz and the world is your oyster. Your imagination is your limit. Shit, I’m starting to look cheap “life coach” in the tape cassette stuck in the garage. But in reality, only your imagination is the limit here. Leave it. If you need inspiration to think about contrasts – a giant in the classroom or the colors of the leaves of a black and white. Do not fall to the temptation to surf the web. The Web is now your enemy – you can specify non-original? Do not feel bad if you can not, I just make a comment. There are gazillions of similar images on the web and you are not in the industry add to the list and become a gazillion one. Let the concepts grow if you take a piece of paper and use it to draw figures, see the potential of the angles of the image. Try another – is it better? Cool goes with it. Call a friend – a friend who is willing to help without pay. Tell him your idea. Have you the answer you want? If not, invite a friend to help ideas.Good, May you now (in the spirit of your eye) a football team on Rhino cleaning online buy soft drinks, High noon, Bossy of a little girl with freckles and Leia hair straight.
(Amazing how that all exactly huh?) Do you think I should draw you with your crazy concept? I do not. We will use this example to see how it could be done.
In this picture, I would like to use:

• 1 camera with a full glass
• 1 masquerade mask into a rhinoceros head (a little money on top if you give them the right to use the photo only once in the store)
• 1 football dress
• A suburb in the summer
• A girl with long hair (camera facing her, on his shoulder where we see the table of lemonade and sex)
• A table with a bowl of lemons and a launcher.
• A tripod

Photoshop

Put a guy (like a friend, you always help the movement, but never had time to help you move is the prime contractor for this work) in the gear mesh and football. Get the table and lemonade loan if it would be. Walk around holding the camera or the thumb and index finger in a box until you find the angle. Turn the camera on the tripod. Make that sucker wind and hurricanes with a big stone or something. Direct your assistant (which is the first friend that you called – May you need to call her “creative director”, but it is cool) to put things when you want. Now that you’ve carefully placed the camera in manual mode and find an exhibition that works across the image. If the sky is in the image, you can take just a “ok” for the exposed and let the sky be too exposed in the rest. But keep the “sky” frame! Take a picture of “before” Rhino, where he met quietly with a coin in the hands of girls and takes his glass of lemonade with his other tasty tease far before it pays. Make sure your satisfied with the framework, because it is more important. After that, your friend Rhino to step back and a new form then one step back, and so on until you have a long queue of very hot (as in hot) Rhino is in the queue. Give the guy in the pizza costume, thanks girl, unpack your table and go back to where you keep your computer. Open RAW files in Adobe Camera Raw (or your choice of application processing RAW) and make the same “development” in all images.

Then open them all in stock in the same Photoshop file. Insert the first image (with Rhino player pieces) at the base, take the second year in a row and place it in an opacity of 50 – and the beginning of masking around the bottom layer. When the worm is of high level layers of 100% opacity again. Hold until you have several award-winning image. Mask potential sky frame. Made. the total cost? Not more than $ 70. And you have a winning photo. The actual cost would have been 25 guys in Rhino / football gear. With Photoshop it eliminates the need, but exactly the image we want. There is no cost to develop the image – you only need your brain, your hands, and little time for field practice in the mirror before the costume workshop.

It’s awesome and beautiful and I love it very much

The plan with this… is to go out and get lots of sunset/sunrise photos and play with some long exposures, since those are the things my digital camera struggles with somewhat (always lose a lot of the colours in the sky and the less said about it’s ability to do long exposure the better).

On a less cheerful note: The Ilford Sportsman, unfortunately, turned out to have a broken film winder I couldn’t fix. It’s sat on a shelf looking pretty and slightly broken.

 “Assumption is the mother of the screw-up.”
~Angelo Donghia

An agency I work with was offering a too good to pass up deal on an updated photo. I was leaving town for a couple of weeks but planned to schedule an appointment with the company photographer  immediately upon my return.

As I was getting ready to head out, the photographer called and said in what I perceived to be a slightly demanding tone that he wanted to take my picture later that week. I explained that since I would be on vacation, this week was out. The tone of his voice told me that my need to postpone the appointment was somehow an inconvenience to him. With a sigh, he said he’d try again next month to schedule a time. I hung up the phone thinking he’d acted like kind of a jerk and wondered what his problem was. The brief conversation left me feeling almost guilty for not cancelling my plans to meet his needs.

 Two weeks later when I returned home, there were two phone messages left on the same day from the photographer. In that familiar, slightly impatient tone, he said he’d like to schedule a time to shoot my picture, I felt I felt like I’d done something wrong by not be available to take his calls. I called him back right away to defend myself and explained that I had just gotten back into town. I made my appointment for later in the week

“One of the nice things about problems is that a good many of them do not exist except in our imagination.” -Steve Allen

I was concerned that if his phone demeanor was any indication, he might be difficult to work with. I told myself it would be wrong to make such an assumption as I would only be setting myself up for a negative experience.

I felt a little uneasy as I drove to his studio.  I reminded myself of my tendency to jump to the often wrong and worst conclusion. I made the decision to leave any attitude about this person who in reality I knew absolutely nothing about at the door.

When we made eye contact for the first time, I offered the most genuine smile I could muster.  He reciprocated and we got on with our business.  As the session continued he explained that some of the other talent he has worked with was not good at making their appointments or following through on selecting a photo for the agency. In other words, when he first contacted me he was coming from his own place of frustration and was perhaps making his own assumptions about what would happen during our encounter.

I quickly began to rethink my opinion of what kind of a person this photographer was. As it turned out I actually liked him and enjoyed our conversation and just as or more pleasantly surprising, I think he thought I was okay too.

“I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.”

 -Arthur Rubinstein

My dreaded meeting with the photographer with the alleged attitude turned out to be not only a positive experience but a bright spot in my week. When I make a decision to not get caught up in my head with negative assumptions, I am reminded that my life is what I make it and I do indeed create my own reality.