Hey there blog readers (all 2 of you)
It's time for another installment of what I think of the things I read on the interweb. If you watch channel 44 TVS then you might have seen a show called CNET Australia, this is a great show for nerds and those who like their tech gear. They have a great team of people who review and rate the new gear on the market from cameras, computers, software and the fresh and interesting apps that are out today.
A good little website they reviewed this week was SmugMug. A photo storage website aimed at the pro photographer for less that $40 Aussie gold coins you get unlimited online storage space. Which is incredible value when you consider how many photos you have on your harddrive(s) I have well over 30,000 and if I lost those I would be a crying mess.
Check out the article and the SmugMug website and see if you like it.
http://www.cnet.com.au/get-serious-about-photography-with-smugmug-339336362.htm
http://www.smugmug.com/
Happy shooting.
Sean Ray.
Monday, 23 April 2012
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
The history of photography part 2. Jan Groover
Jan Groover who died on New Year’s Day 2012 was one of
the first people to blur the lines between art and photography back in the
1970’s.
She started out as a painter but soon moved towards
expressing her vision through her camera. She is noted for being one who paid
incredible attention to colour and film processes. And during her previous work
with art she gained knowledge of and frequently used strong compositional
elements with line and shape within her pictures
Her work with kitchen items and vegetables that were
taken in her kitchen in an almost traditional “still life” style were seemingly
boring to the uncouth onlooker but was a breakthrough in the art world showing
that photography had a real place in the contemporary art scene and was no
longer confined to sculptures and paintings. There was a very keen market to
support this movement which these days has been all but forgotten by modern
photographers who shy away from extreme modernism in favour of more emotive
portraits of humans.
It’s only when you look at the pictures that you realise
the art lies not in the object itself but in the shape and form of the photo,
the use of line and great attention to colour. Jan worked with colour and
shadow in a time where black and white was still king.
I personally enjoy her work due to the strong forward
thought that has gone into the composition and the clever use of line and
reflections within objects that make the boring “pedestrian” utensils seem
larger than life and exciting. Any person who can take a photo of a fork and
make it look interesting has a rare skill indeed. A skill that unfortunately is
lost these days with popular photography.
References:
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
New Canon "Astrophotography" camera
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/04/03/Canon-EOS-60Da-for-astrophotography
New gear for those start gazing nerds out there (like me)
Canon has released a new camera that is aimed at capturing the night sky with better details and low light capabilities.
For those of you that have an interest in photographing the night sky you will know that your DSLR has an inbuilt IR filter that stops you from seeing all the incredible details of the heavens above. This new camera has a modified infra-red blocker allowing more of the red from the astral nebula to be captured by the sensor, giving you a truly "out of this world" photo (I could not help the lame pun)
Other features include a variable angle flip-out screen with incredible resolution, this is very handy as you will be most likely aiming this at the sky on your tripod. So you are now saved a sore neck.
I will keep a look out for some sample/comparison images and post when I can.
For a nerd like me this is a pretty cool bit of kit for the amateur shooter as the previous method of taking such photos was to remove the IR blocker from the camera, which cannot be replaced easily and renders the camera useless in the daylight.
Happy shooting
Sean Ray.
Sunday, 1 April 2012
The History of photography. From 35mm to Digital
{Part one of three}
In my world the history of photography started with my
Aunt’s film SLR back in the early 90’s. I loved the way the steel body felt and
was fascinated by the sounds it made but in 2002 I got given my first camera, a
3.2 megapixel Sony and there were so many wonderful moments captured with it.
For me the passion for the art started with that digital camera and I have seen
incredible growth in technology since that analogue SLR to the latest 80
megapixel camera used by Ken Duncan.
But as for world history we must go back much further than that.
Eastman/Kodak brought photography to the masses making it simple for
people to capture what they saw in the world. 35mm film has shown us all some
amazing and unforgettable moments in time. We know the photo by Steve McCurry
captured on Kodak kodachrome film in 1984 of an Afghan girl in a refugee camp.
Kodachrome film was the standard amongst professionals and sophisticated
amateurs alike since it was released in 1935 till its death in 2010 after a
steady decline in sales due to its time consuming developing process and the surge
in digital technology. A surge that would eventually be the end of Kodak.
It’s little known that the first digital camera was created by Kodak in
1975 but it was not till the late 90’s that the technology became accessible to
the public and the developments since then have been amazing.
Swedish camera maker Hasselblad offer a 200 megapixel camera that’s
costs AU$43,000 while you can find spy cameras built into a pen on ebay for
$20.
These days almost everyone with a mobile phone will have a small camera
in the back of it and they can be up to 8MP that can instantly upload to
Flickr. But the new kid on the block is the Lytro “light field” camera. It does
not work with pixels but with light vectors and is literally the birth of a new
and monumentally mesmerizing technology. The future is most exciting.
So in conclusion.
Eastman/Kodak started it all in the late 1890’s and sadly they are now a
bankrupt company that failed to move with technology despite inventing an
abundance of it, the same can be said for Poloaroid, a fun and instant way of
taking a picture that is now seen as overly expensive and pointless with the
new generation. Even optics giant Olympus is having a very public battle with
the bean counters.
So will the Lytro camera make it in this new tech world? The film world
rejected the digital revolution and thus far the digital world is not warming
to this new invention. It remains to be seen but if history has taught me
anything it’s that if I don’t keep up with the ever changing utensils of the
trade I risk appearing out of touch with the world I have so much passion for,
luckily I’m a techno nerd.
References:
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Kodak/George Eastman website
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Lytro.com
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Hasselblad.com
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Ebay.com.au
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Stevemccurry.com
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Cnet.com.au
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Smh.com.au
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Personal conversations with Ken Duncan
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