New toy

[toast21602]

Let's see it.....

 

[Ski]

Technology has certainly made taking great pictures simple. You used to have to have some sort of training when exposures were manual and just loading the film was a project. I still have to stop and think when I'm trying to load a medium format camera.

 

But what the improvements have done are to force the playing field, so to speak (I hate the word "progress"). It isn't just a matter of hitting the exposure and getting a choice of a few in-focus frames, anymore, because everyone can do that. As an example, hockey used to be the toughest assignment we'd get, especially when we covered the International League (or whatever it is where the Springfield (MA) Indians play) and couldn't use flash unless they were ceiling mounted. And even the college and high school hockey is still tough----how many freaking teams have dark uniforms? The ice is three stops different than skin tones, but then the lighting is different at every point around the rink. So you have to pop a manual strobe and so you are zoning for distance. Vivitar 283's w/400ASA film would give you f16 at 4 ft; f11 at 10 ft; f8 at 20 ft; f5.6 at 30 ft...

 

Now we don't really have to worry about that stuff. We don't even have to bracket exposures because we can check them as we go.

 

Being a great photographer means always putting another layer into a photo, without going too far. Say you are taking a picture of a flower. Easy, right? Now make it great. So you spray it with mist. That's adding a layer. Then you wait until the sun drops down behind it and use some fill flash. That's another layer. Then, you drop your angle down and you luckily have a ladybug land on a leaf by the flower head. Another layer.

 

Every picture---even in sports---goes through this sort of process. Like great pics of Michael Jordan, where he may be dunking, but he also has his tongue out and you can see the sweat fly.

 

But the biggest mistake amateurs make is not stripping away the garbage in a photo, leaving too much clutter. Consider: a painter begins with a blank canvas and adds paint. A photographer begins with an image and his/her first chore is to remove and isolate the subject. Once you focus on the subject, then you add relevant layers of interest.

 

Amateurs with great gear can nail the first layer. Then comes the work.

 

About Jeff? I don't diss him...not til I start beating him again in ski races.

 

To me, photography has only been a means to an end. Ty has a book called "100 People Who Changed America" and although I long ago missed an opportunity to be on any sort of list like that, I went through it and realized I'd met and photographed 15 of them, including Wilma Mankiller, Ronald Reagan, and Jim Henson. And I've been to places no travel agent would ever book you to. Those things have always been more important than the pictures.

Edited July 10, 2006 by ski

[Stevo]

Toast, that picture is sweet! Yeah, it could have been better, but i think it's pure luck that you got that w/ a point and shoot (just assuming)- timing is a pain in the ass for lightning. (so i would think- never really tried it )

[nick malozzi]

Technology has certainly made taking great pictures simple. You used to have to have some sort of training when exposures were manual and just loading the film was a project. I still have to stop and think when I'm trying to load a medium format camera.

 

But what the improvements have done are to force the playing field, so to speak (I hate the word "progress"). It isn't just a matter of hitting the exposure and getting a choice of a few in-focus frames, anymore, because everyone can do that. As an example, hockey used to be the toughest assignment we'd get, especially when we covered the International League (or whatever it is where the Springfield (MA) Indians play) and couldn't use flash unless they were ceiling mounted. And even the college and high school hockey is still tough----how many freaking teams have dark uniforms? The ice is three stops different than skin tones, but then the lighting is different at every point around the rink. So you have to pop a manual strobe and so you are zoning for distance. Vivitar 283's w/400ASA film would give you f16 at 4 ft; f11 at 10 ft; f8 at 20 ft; f5.6 at 30 ft...

 

Now we don't really have to worry about that stuff. We don't even have to bracket exposures because we can check them as we go.

 

Being a great photographer means always putting another layer into a photo, without going too far. Say you are taking a picture of a flower. Easy, right? Now make it great. So you spray it with mist. That's adding a layer. Then you wait until the sun drops down behind it and use some fill flash. That's another layer. Then, you drop your angle down and you luckily have a ladybug land on a leaf by the flower head. Another layer.

 

Every picture---even in sports---goes through this sort of process. Like great pics of Michael Jordan, where he may be dunking, but he also has his tongue out and you can see the sweat fly.

 

But the biggest mistake amateurs make is not stripping away the garbage in a photo, leaving too much clutter. Consider: a painter begins with a blank canvas and adds paint. A photographer begins with an image and his/her first chore is to remove and isolate the subject. Once you focus on the subject, then you add relevant layers of interest.

 

Amateurs with great gear can nail the first layer. Then comes the work.

 

About Jeff? I don't diss him...not til I start beating him again in ski races.

 

To me, photography has only been a means to an end. Ty has a book called "100 People Who Changed America" and although I long ago missed an opportunity to be on any sort of list like that, I went through it and realized I'd met and photographed 15 of them, including Wilma Mankiller, Ronald Reagan, and Jim Henson. And I've been to places no travel agent would ever book you to. Those things have always been more important than the pictures.

 

 

Very well put ski. In my photographic imaturity i could not manage to express it as well as you. Bottom line is the equiptment that is out now-a-days makes takeing good pictures easy. To be a pro you have to be able to take good pictures and make them great.

My boss always says "it's easy to take beautiful pictures of beautiful things, try taking beautiful pictures of ugly things." Something we deal with everyday at work when dealing with people. Lets face it, there are some ugly folks out there... shit i'm one of em.

I meant to burn some of my work to a cd today at work so i could post some of the shots i've gotten, but i got too busy printing stuff for my portfolio. So maybe tomorow i'll have something to post. I sorta feel like i need to put my money where my mouth is.

[Ski]

Very well put ski. In my photographic imaturity i could not manage to express it as well as you. Bottom line is the equiptment that is out now-a-days makes takeing good pictures easy. To be a pro you have to be able to take good pictures and make them great.

My boss always says "it's easy to take beautiful pictures of beautiful things, try taking beautiful pictures of ugly things." Something we deal with everyday at work when dealing with people. Lets face it, there are some ugly folks out there... shit i'm one of em.

I meant to burn some of my work to a cd today at work so i could post some of the shots i've gotten, but i got too busy printing stuff for my portfolio. So maybe tomorow i'll have something to post. I sorta feel like i need to put my money where my mouth is.

 

I'd like to see some...

 

I'm in a pretty odd position for a photographer, since the majority of my work is shot on film and I FedEx the undeveloped rolls to my company in Philly and never see my work. Sports photography is a lot about luck, especially when it comes to portfolio shots...you just never know. So since Ty was born and we moved up here, I'm like a ski racer that never sees his times. I had to come to grips with the idea that my work was simply about making money...now I'm happiest collecting absolute snapshots for our family albums; simple, clear recordings of events, with nothing fancy.

 

I like what your boss said and totally agree: my personal favorite picture is my shot of a woman with leprosy.

http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/index.p...ype=post&id=664

And it's one of the reasons I liked to work in war zones and shoot in b&w. Kind of the opposite of that spectrum is a website I sometimes lurk called http://www.glamour1.com/

 

Here's a fairly typical thread: http://www.glamour1.com/forums/main-commun...8-waitress.html

 

It's a bunch of photogs and models that use each other and they post results and tips. It's kind of the soap opera of photography, but interesting. And lots of nudes, which are cool.

[nick malozzi]

I'd like to see some...

 

I'm in a pretty odd position for a photographer, since the majority of my work is shot on film and I FedEx the undeveloped rolls to my company in Philly and never see my work. Sports photography is a lot about luck, especially when it comes to portfolio shots...you just never know. So since Ty was born and we moved up here, I'm like a ski racer that never sees his times. I had to come to grips with the idea that my work was simply about making money...now I'm happiest collecting absolute snapshots for our family albums; simple, clear recordings of events, with nothing fancy.

 

I like what your boss said and totally agree: my personal favorite picture is my shot of a woman with leprosy.

http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/index.p...ype=post&id=664

And it's one of the reasons I liked to work in war zones and shoot in b&w. Kind of the opposite of that spectrum is a website I sometimes lurk called http://www.glamour1.com/

 

Here's a fairly typical thread: http://www.glamour1.com/forums/main-commun...8-waitress.html

 

It's a bunch of photogs and models that use each other and they post results and tips. It's kind of the soap opera of photography, but interesting. And lots of nudes, which are cool.

 

Yea i've been on glamour 1 before. My boss used to use it to get in touch with models a few years back. His passion is fashion photography. So he had me take a look. I am a portrait person myself. I like the interaction with the subject. I've also been getting more and more into nature photography though. My all time favorite thing to shoot though are my friends. I like just sitting quietly with a group of friends over a beer, on a hike, on the hill, or wherever and just snipe them with a long lens. They turn out to be portaits due to the longer lens (given i can isolate one person in the frame), but you catch a snap-shotty essence with it. Get to see the person for who they are, not how you want them to look while u have them under studio lights.

I've always admired war photographers, but i'll admit that i don't have the balls to do it. You've had that image posted before, it is creepy yet amazingly beautiful.

I shoot almost 95% digital. However i really only do that because i have access to high quality ink jet printers, and i don't have easy access to a dark room. So it us just more finacially forgiving for me to shoot/print digitally, and as a college student i'm broke as it is. I do however bust out the film camera every now and again. I have a Canon Rebel 35mm (for sale if anyone is interested), and the ultimate junk medium format camera, a Holga. Speaking of Holgas though it brings up the point of equiptment. It REALLY does not matter what gear you have. I have produced some amazing stuff with my 25dollar holga and a roll of fuji medium format. It just takes a good photog to know his limitations, push them, and even break past them.

I'll post some of my stuff as soon as i get a chance to grab my stuff from work and resize all of it so it dosen't take an hour to upload.

[Ski]

War photography used to be the ultimate, but the rules have changed and there's no way I'd do it now. Press used to be off limits to bad guys, but now they cut your head off. F*cked up stuff. And there's not a lot of glamour in being embedded and having to go by US military rules...too much like being a PR guy.

 

Typically, we'd accept an asignment and sign a contract with a news agency like Black Star or Sigma News Photos...they'd cut you a press pass and credentials from them, then you'd take care of shots, visas, and transportation. Then you'd simply fly into whatever country, find a good base motel or rental, then sign into the government press relations office. They'd usually give you credentials with a photo ID. But sometimes, if the government was hostile to you, you'd just fly in on a visitors visa and work quietly.

 

My all-time favorite movie is "Under Fire" with Nick Nolte, which was about the original overthrow of the Somoza government by the Sandanistas in 1979...I believe the movie came out in '83. In 1985, I was sent to Nicaragua to cover the continuing war between the Sandanista government and the Contras (the US backed the Contras, who, ironically, were actually the former Somoza government national guard bad guys that had escaped to Honduras).

 

But the current state of the world just sucks so bad. Being an American anywhere is dangerous, even for backpacking around Europe, let alone war zones.

[nick malozzi]

War photography used to be the ultimate, but the rules have changed and there's no way I'd do it now. Press used to be off limits to bad guys, but now they cut your head off. F*cked up stuff. And there's not a lot of glamour in being embedded and having to go by US military rules...too much like being a PR guy.

 

Typically, we'd accept an asignment and sign a contract with a news agency like Black Star or Sigma News Photos...they'd cut you a press pass and credentials from them, then you'd take care of shots, visas, and transportation. Then you'd simply fly into whatever country, find a good base motel or rental, then sign into the government press relations office. They'd usually give you credentials with a photo ID. But sometimes, if the government was hostile to you, you'd just fly in on a visitors visa and work quietly.

 

My all-time favorite movie is "Under Fire" with Nick Nolte, which was about the original overthrow of the Somoza government by the Sandanistas in 1979...I believe the movie came out in '83. In 1985, I was sent to Nicaragua to cover the continuing war between the Sandanista government and the Contras (the US backed the Contras, who, ironically, were actually the former Somoza government national guard bad guys that had escaped to Honduras).

 

But the current state of the world just sucks so bad. Being an American anywhere is dangerous, even for backpacking around Europe, let alone war zones.

 

Yea i certainly wouldn't want to have anything to do with it now-a-days. I would love to find some sort of paid posistion though that could send me around the world, or even just this country for a few months to take photos. Just have to find the right place.

[Ski]

What about a job with a travel magazine???

 

Travel mags often use contract writers but stock photography. If you can build up a decent stock photo portfolio, then you'll be better off than a staffer that 'has' to go where they tell you.

 

Not a bad job...travel the world to remote places...see the world and get paid without having to join the military.

[DHarrisburg]

 

Not a bad job...travel the world to remote places...see the world and get paid without having to join the military.

 

And you don't have to shoot anybody, either.

 

Well, not in the military sense.

[nick malozzi]

What about a job with a travel magazine???

I actually applied for an internship with Backpacker Magazine at the begining of the summer, but they weren't looking for a photog or graphic designer.

I like where i work now, and will more then likely end up there after school. I'm going to try and figure out a way to still work there and travel around takeing pictures in some way shape or form.