the daily flashkube

I found this hilarious comparison between film and digital photographs. http://fwd.five.tv/videos/challenge-blow-up-part-3

This video has some great tips for using available light for portraits. He even brings out his tilt shift lens. Love these Squeeze the LIME people!

January 9th, 2009 at 1:31pm

It may come as a complete surprise to you but I sometimes make pictures without using a flash. In fact, I do this quite often. Just before we gave our new house a complete make-over, we went to shoot there for a short shoot with professional model Sylviane. We had less than an hour to shoot the pictures and the video. That includes: a guided tour in the house, chatting and two wardrobe changes.

But for me (and probably most of you) this is the kind of situation that happens pretty often and then it’s back to basics to get some decent shots.

VIDEO

Quick Available Light Portraits by Bert Stephani from SqueezeTheLime.com on Vimeo.

via Squeeze the LIME – Learn Inspire Motivate Experience .
LIME004 – Quick Ambient Light Portraits from Lime Photography on Vimeo.

Tilt shift photography is a technique used to control, with pinpoint accuracy, which areas of an image are in focus. Typically, a special tilt shift lens is used such as the Lens Baby line. Their Composer model is one I considered purchasing myself. Although the technique is used in many different ways, the most recognizable tilt shift photographs are those of landscapes that appear to be miniature scale models. Click here for some examples. There is also a technique that will produce a similar effect using Photoshop.

This evening, I stumbled upon a website called TiltShiftMaker.com that allows you to upload a photo and instantly create this effect. Although it allows only limited creative control, it’s great fun to use and provides instant gratification. The photograph above was shot a while ago and was chosen only because it seemed the most conducive to this application. The original can be found here. All I can think of when I look at it now is Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

Maybe TiltShiftMaker or the Photoshop technique will get this style out of my system before I spend money on that lens.

I like to look through images made by other photographers on Flickr. Found this one in the Explore area.

 

In un mare di inchiostro on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Souza’s work should be fun to follow.

White House Photographer Souza’s First Obama Pix

 

The White House has released images made inauguration day by Barack Obama’s official photographer, Pete Souza. And they’re great…behind the scenes, informal, yet tinged with a sense of history. 

via State of the Art: White House Photographer Souza’s First Obama Pix.

I am using a few WordPress plugins to test cross-posting to Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve been into shadows lately. Not sure why. I shot this one yesterday as I was taking photographs of our house. We are putting it up for sale in the midst of a credit crisis and a failing real estate market. Maybe the shadows represent those that loom over us metaphorically. Or not. ; )

David Plotz called this portrait project “disturbing” on the latest Political Gabfest episode (30 minutes in). He thinks it was a stupid move, portraying the incoming administration as super heroes. While it may have been stupid in traditional politics, I wouldn’t exactly use the word disturbing. I would use the word refreshing. Refreshing that even before these people take office they are exposing themselves to us in some unusual way. I hope this is an early signal to the openness of Obama’s people. Read below about the feature and click the picture to view the images.

EDIT: Please also visit the artist’s website. His portfolio is a joy to flip through.

Interactive Feature: Obama’s People

By The New York Times

 

Click on above photo to launch feature. Photos: Nadav Kander

This fall, The Times Magazine asked the highly regarded portraitist Nadav Kander to photograph Barack Obama’s administration as it was being assembled. The result is “Obama’s People,” 52 full-page color portraits taken in mid-December and earlier this month in Chicago and Washington of the vice president-elect and the incoming president’s advisers, aides and cabinet secretaries-designate, along with the legislators who are likely to be key to moving the administration’s agenda along. In the online presentation of the portfolio, Mr. Kander and the Times’s director of photography, Kathy Ryan, discuss putting those portrait sessions together and what happened behind the scenes. Go to Feature

via Interactive Feature: Obama’s People – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com.

You must check out this artists site. He make new pinhole cameras for each project that he does.

CAMERAS MADE FROM REAL HUMAN SKULLS

 

If you follow me on Twitter, you likly already saw this from my morning tweet, but I couldn’t resist posting it here as well. It’s just too unbelievable not to share. This photo (left) is of a functioning 4×5 camera made from aluminum, titanium, brass, silver, gem stones and a genuine 150-year-old human skull.

Seriously.

via Chase Jarvis Blog.

 
No, it can’t. But this photography project is incredible. They have placed cameras near glaciers all over the world to document their recession. The image in the article below is part of a side-project to photograph the beauty of the ice. Check out the actual site that the blogger links to. The time-lapse videos are a must see.

Extreme Ice Survey News Update

 I’ve been reporting on the Extreme Ice Survey for a couple of years now, and there’s some nice new things to take note of right now. EIS is the brainchild of photographer James Balog, an old friend and intrepid artist and journalist. Back when climate change was something only Al Gore spoke about, Jim decided to take still cameras and place them in some of the globe’s most remote and forbidding places to record the melting of glaciers over time. The results, which you can see here, have been spectacular and spectacularly scary.

I just learned that Jim has received the Visual Arts & Design Award from the Aspen Environmental Forum. Congrats to him and the entire EIS crew.

There is also a NOVA documentary about EIS scheduled to air on PBS stations in March.–David Schonauer

via State of the Art: Extreme Ice Survey News Update.