Artikel Core

Yes. An Easel.

<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/1600/805345/margolius%20easel.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/400/622096/margolius%20easel.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> by Barry F. Margolius An easel? I'm writing about an easel? I'm the ultimate techie. I love gadgets; I love electronics; I love anything that makes the daily grind easier...even if it takes a lot of work to learn how to make that grind easier. My friends would call you a liar if you were to tell them that I'm writing a posting about a gadget that's not electric and was probably invented over a million years ago. Well, here's my easel story. I'm not a "serious" photographer. I love it as a hobby, and I've been at it for forty years, and I've even been "serious" for brief periods of time, but I never stuck to it. I always lapsed into disinterest only to get re-excited at some later time. With the advent of digital photography, I've been on an interest-high for quite a few years now. A few years ago, digital printing really began to get interesting for the hobbyist. For well under $1,000 one could purchase a very nice Epson 1280 printer that printed really good quality 13x19-inch prints. I was hooked. I remember, when I was a kid, how I scrimped and saved for the $10 (in 1965 dollars) to get an 8x10 commercial lab print made. Now, for a couple of 2002 dollars, I can print a gorgeous 13x19 myself. Wow! Cheap instant gratification; who could ask for anything more? However, it became clear that it was very hard to evaluate/enjoy these prints. One day they looked great, the next day they looked very flawed. In a moment of inspiration, I walked down the block to the art store and bought an artist's easel: black aluminum, not ugly but not particularly attractive. I just stood it up in the corner of my living room. Now I can easily (no pun intended) display my latest print du jour. Then I could live with it for a few days and decide if I liked it—and sometimes even why I liked it. The time allows me to decide if I like a print enough to frame it, and how I want to frame it, and even where I might want to hang it. Recently I've purchased a couple of prints on this site from Mike. Once again, the easel is my friend. I put <a href="http://topprints.blogspot.com/2006/12/wisconsin-7.html">Wisconsin #7</a> on the easel for several days before deciding that I wanted to see it framed. I put it in a simple black frame I had lying around, and lived with it for a few more days. I'm liking the print more and more. I still haven't decided where to hang it, but I have the luxury of being able to live with the print for as long as I want to without actually driving a nail into the wall. I may even go out and buy a nicer frame for the print, although that plain black frame does seem to emphasize the wintry feeling of Wisconsin #7. Anyway, all this is essentially a long-winded posting advising you to buy an easel. I think you'll be surprised at how much it will improve the "viewing" side of your hobby. Posted by: BARRY F. MARGOLIUS Mike Comments: Barry has hit on one of the great secrets of improving your photography: a secret that's hidden in plain view, and will continue to be no matter what we say. My teacher Mark Power told me once that the single most crucial piece of photographic equipment is a "viewing board," which in his case meant a 4x8' sheet of homosote, painted white, leaned against the wall with a bunch of push-pins in it. Some people—including Ansel Adams, for one—use a viewing rail: a narrow shelf running the length of a wall to prop prints up on. You can use a cork board. You can even use tape or Blu-tak, I suppose. An art-supply-store easel is a new twist on the old theme for me, but it's a good idea too. Whatever you use, the critical thing is to look at the work. Your eyes have an intelligence that absolutely no amount of thinking and imagining can replace. It's incredible to me—literally unbelivable—how powerful a tool this is, and how few people know about it, and, of the people who do know about it, how few people actually take advantage of it. Do you?

Yes. An Easel.

by Barry F. Margolius An easel? I'm writing about an easel? I'm the ultimate techie. I love gadgets; I love electronics; I love any...

4:49 AM

The Afghan Girl

<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/1600/998293/sharbatgula.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/320/163635/sharbatgula.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" /></a>For collectors who might be interested, you can currently purchase a signed inkjet print of the famous Afghan Girl picture <a href="http://www.nytstore.com/ProdDetail.aspx?prodId=2552">from the New York Times Store</a>. Steve McCurry's picture of Sharbat Gula originally appeared on the cover of National Geographic. A minor sensation was created, along with a television documentary, when <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0311_020312_sharbat.html">Gula was found again</a> after nearly twenty years and she graced the cover of National Geographic for a second time. (Fittingly, her identity was positively confirmed by using biometric matching on the irises of her eyes.) She is the inspiration for the National Geographic Society's <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/donate/afghan_girls_fund.html">Afghan Girls Fund</a>, a charitable organization devoted to furthering the education of Afghan women. The picture has continued to increase in fame and stature—National Geographic has called it the most recognized picture in the magazine's history—and it has become one of the iconic images of the era. If you can't quite afford the original, I've mentioned before that the best reproduction I've seen (suitable for framing, if you can abide bibliocide) can be found in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FSteve-McCurry-Looking-East-Portraits%2Fdp%2F0714846376%2Fsr%3D1-1%2Fqid%3D1169042808%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks&amp;amp;tag=theonlinephot-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325" style="font-style: italic;">Looking East</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=theonlinephot-20&amp;amp;amp;l=ur2&o=1" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON

The Afghan Girl

For collectors who might be interested, you can currently purchase a signed inkjet print of the famous Afghan Girl picture from the New York...

8:35 AM

An Interview With Stephen Perloff

Editor, The Photo Review and The Photo Collector <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/1600/166293/perloff.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/320/763714/perloff.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" /></a>By Michael Jason, Manhattan Arts International Stephen Perloff is the founder and editor of The Photo Review and editor of The Photograph Collector. He has taught photography and the history of photography at numerous Philadelphia-area colleges and Universities and has been the recipient of two grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for arts criticism. His articles have been reproduced in dozens of other journals and he has been called on as an expert to comment on the state of the photography market for publications such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.... <a href="http://www.manhattanarts.com/readingroom/ezine/People/Jason_Perloff.htm">READ ON</a> Posted by: DAVID EMERICK <div style="text-align: left;"><form method="LINK" action="http://www.smcm.edu/~dnemerick"> <div style="text-align: right;"><input value="David's Site" type="submit"> </div></form></div><div style="text-align: left;">Photo of Stephen Perloff by Judith Harold-Steinhauser </div>

An Interview With Stephen Perloff

Editor, The Photo Review and The Photo Collector By Michael Jason , Manhattan Arts International Stephen Perloff is the founder and editor ...

6:26 AM

Easter Egg Number Two: Pentax's Green Button

by Carl Weese The Green Button, like Digital Preview discussed last time, won’t be new to long-time Pentax users, but it’s an interesting feature that addresses a larger issue that might not seem immediately apparent. The Green Button sits next to the shutter release on the K10D, and it performs different functions depending on which mode the camera is in. What I want to talk about is the way it functions in “Hyper Manual.” First, a little background. 35mm cameras from the first Leica onwards have offered a shutter speed dial located near the shutter release, and an aperture ring on the lens. I grew up with this set of controls, starting with the first serious camera I bought back in 1964 (instead of using my Dad’s Speed Graphic and Rolliecord)—a Pentax H3. I moved on to M-Leica and Nikon cameras (F2, F3, F4). When automatic exposure came in with the F3 I experimented with it but found I preferred to stay with manual exposure. Same with the F4. My most recent Leicas are M6s which have a meter, but no automation, which is fine with me. With the “analog controls” of shutter dial and aperture ring, you can keep a tactile connection to the settings as you wander around, constantly adjusting for ambient light conditions almost as a reflex, often without even looking at the camera. Your hands learn how to open up two stops as you move from sun to shade. I wrote about this in an article for Photo Techniques magazine called “The Leica Mystique” back in 1995 that <a href="http://www.phototechmag.com/shop/shopdisplayproducts.asp?Search=Yes&sppp=10">you can still get as a back issue</a>. When I first got a good DSLR camera, in 2004, I quickly found that manual exposure had become completely non-intuitive. The control was there, at least in theory, but you had to use two blank, unmarked control wheels that have no endpoints to their travel. The only way to know what you’ve adjusted is to look at tiny digital readouts of speed and f-stop on the top plate LCD or in the finder. It just isn’t the same. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, it just doesn’t work—except for controlled situations like studio lighting or tripod shooting. I decided I would have to learn to work in automatic modes, usually aperture priority or full program, with the camera’s custom menu set so that I could override the automatic exposure just by moving a control wheel, without having to hold down a second button. After a few thousand exposures and analysis of them, I got pretty good at guessing when the camera would need to have exposure compensation dialed in with the front control wheel, or when the program should be shifted to favor fast shutter or deeper depth of field with the rear control wheel. I still missed manual exposure, though. In a situation with a long tonal range, if you want to make a number of slight variations in framing, using auto-with-override is a real pain because you may have to change the amount of override each time you tweak the framing. <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/1600/594706/weesenaugatwat.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/400/121141/weesenaugatwat.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>The Naugatuck River, Waterbury, Connecticut, 1/14/07 </div> (If the camera is set in any mode of automatic exposure, a different amount of override will be needed for even the slightest change in framing a picture like this. Here, –2/3 stop worked. But it would be easier to set a manual exposure that just holds the sky values. Then the framing could be changed at will without bothering about the exposure.) Increasing a bright sky area from 15% of the frame to 20% can require 2/3 stop change in the override. If the camera had been set to a correct manual exposure in the first place (the most exposure that retains tone in the sky), you could change the framing all over and keep shooting at that correct exposure. This is where the Green Button comes in. With the K10D in manual, it works as awkwardly as any other dual-control-wheel DSLR manual exposure system, until you invoke the magic green button. If you point at a possible picture and hit the Green Button, the camera momentarily reverts to Program mode and sets the shutter and f-stop as it would in program. Then it lets go and you have full control with the rear wheel running the f/stop and the front wheel running the shutter speed. (For some reason this is still counter-intuitive to me, though the Olympus E-1 I’ve used for several years also sets the wheels this way in manual. If I had my way I’d have the front wheel do the aperture and the rear wheel do the shutter.) Now, instead of overriding auto exposure for a particular framing, you dial in some up and down marks on the in-finder exposure scale to set an absolute exposure for this particular scene. If there’s time, use the Digital Previw to get RGB histograms to review, tweak as needed, then go ahead and shoot any framing changes you want without constantly fiddling to compensate for whatever error the automation would introduce with each new framing. This is seriously cool. I don’t think it’s as good a manual system as classic shutter speed and f-stop controls, but it’s a really imaginative workaround that I’m finding quite useful. <div style="text-align: left;">Posted by: CARL WEESE <form method="LINK" action="http://www.workingpictures.blogspot.com"><div style="text-align: right;"><input value="Carl's Blog" type="submit"> </div></form></div> Carl's Pentax K10D Thought Process to Date: Part I: "<a href="http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/12/on-buying-camera.html">On Buying a Camera</a>" Part II: "<a href="http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/12/less-is-more.html">Less is More</a>" Part III: "<a href="http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/12/on-testing-new-digital-camera-steps.html">On Testing a New (Digital) Camera, Steps A and B</a>" Part IV: "<a href="http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/12/weese-on-anti-shake_22.html">Weese on Anti-Shake</a>" Part V: "<a href="http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/12/anti-shake-pt-ii-or-shake-reduction-as.html">Anti-Shake Pt. II, or, Shake Reduction as Virtual Tripod for Nature Work</a>" Part VI: "<a href="http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2007/01/camera-manual-easter-egg-hunt-pentax.html">The Camera-Manual Easter Egg Hunt: Pentax Digital Preview</a>" Part VII: "<a href="http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2007/01/to-delete-or-not-that-is-question.html">To Delete or Not, That is the Question...</a>"

Easter Egg Number Two: Pentax's Green Button

by Carl Weese The Green Button, like Digital Preview discussed last time, won’t be new to long-time Pentax users, but it’s an interesting fe...

5:50 AM

To Delete or Not: The Coda

A brief metacommentary from Mike: we've gotten into some intense discussions in the comments to the "To Delete of Not: Computer Expert" and "OS Obsolescence: a Rant" threads, but I just want to direct people to Dave New's "ADDENDUM," which I just added to the former. There, he's summarized his recommendations for "best practices" concerning safe card usage. <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/1600/26630/sandiskextremeiii1gig.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/200/870025/sandiskextremeiii1gig.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" /></a>Personally, I'd like to thank Carl, Dave, and Josh and the various other commenters who have weighed in on this issue of how best to handle flash memory use and avoid problems, both technical and procedural. It has forced me to re-evaluate my own practices and change over to a more disciplined, rationalized approach. I bought several new cards and will be following a stricter protocol from now on. And an incidental note regarding that last sentence: when I first bought a Sandisk Extreme III 1-GB CF card, I bought it for $150—used. Granted the III is no longer the latest version, but the same cards <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FSanDisk-SDCFX3-1024-901-Extreme-CompactFlash-Package%2Fdp%2FB0007876PC%2Fsr%3D8-5%2Fqid%3D1168901141%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Delectronics&amp;tag=theonlinephot-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">now retail for $45 each, new</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=theonlinephot-20&amp;amp;l=ur2&o=1" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON

To Delete or Not: The Coda

A brief metacommentary from Mike: we've gotten into some intense discussions in the comments to the "To Delete of Not: Computer Ex...

2:35 PM

Michael Kenna at the Banbury Museum

by Ailsa McWhinnie <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/1600/465161/kenna3.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/400/958705/kenna3.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>Ailsa McWhinnie, Michael Kenna at Banbury Museum </div> What: Michael Kenna: A Retrospective When: January 13th–March 4th, 2007, open Monday to Saturday 9:30–5; Sunday 10:30–4 Where: Banbury Museum Spiceball Park Road Banbury Oxon United Kingdom OX16 2PQ Tel. 01295 259855 How Much: Free A number of black-and-white landscape photographers working today have a style that is characterized by gentleness and delicacy, coupled with minimalist compositions resolved within the square format. You’re also talking long exposures—sometimes up to several hours— taken either overnight or at the beginning or end of the day. The result can mean glass-flat seas and cotton-soft skies. Most of these photographers do what they do extremely well, and have rightly gained recognition for their work, but there’s one who stands head and shoulders above the others (not just because he’s immensely tall), and that’s because he pioneered this style. It’s Michael Kenna. And, until March 4th, 2007, people living within striking distance of Oxfordshire, in the U.K., have the all-too-rare opportunity of seeing a selection of his prints in person. There’s no better way of learning just why he's been so influential. With the simple title, "Michael Kenna: A Retrospective," the exhibition comprises work that dates from the mid-1970s to the present day. Even his early photographs show strong indications of the signature style that was to develop so assuredly—not to mention the master printer he has become. A case in point is the quartet of pastoral scenes printed on the late, lamented Kodalith paper while Kenna was still a student at the London College of Printing some thirty years ago. However, to my mind, it’s on seeing his most recent work from Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island—comprising such photographs as "Fifty Fences" against a snow-covered hillside, or "Sunflowers" (as you’ve probably never seen them before)—that you come to realize this is the place where Kenna and his camera were destined to end up. "I didn’t go there last winter, and I really missed it," he said at the exhibition’s private view on the evening of January 12th. That's why he is heading back there in early February—while the snow still lies thick on the ground—for a month. When asked what he plans to do there, he replies, "Visit a few old friends—you know, trees…" and he laughs. The Banbury exhibition has been produced in conjunction with HackelBury, the London gallery that represents Kenna’s work. Kate Stevens, director of HackelBury, says she hopes the exhibition will tour other U.K. venues, with a very definite aim: "He’s so well known in America, in Japan, in France and the rest of Europe, and yet few people recognize him in his own country." There is a poignant coda to the timing and location of this exhibition. It was originally conceived in order to give Kenna’s elderly parents the opportunity to see his photography in a gallery near their home town. Sadly, they both died in the months before the exhibition opened. Posted by: AILSA McWHINNIE

Michael Kenna at the Banbury Museum

by Ailsa McWhinnie Ailsa McWhinnie, Michael Kenna at Banbury Museum What: Michael Kenna: A Retrospective When: January 13th–March 4th, 200...

7:07 PM

Random Excellence

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/1600/754983/bealton2small.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5406/570/400/526150/bealton2small.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>Photographer Unknown: Union General W. H. French Standing in Front of Tent, Bealton, Va., October 1863 </div> I was going to try to make this into a print offer, until, too many hours past bedtime, the awful truth snuck up on me: nobody would want a print of this except me. Well, me and, perhaps, one Civil War buff from Poughkeepsie. Still, I think it's a charming old picture, of a pompous old fellow. I like how he stands there stoutly, swimming in that sea of bokeh, and I like the damaged edges of the plate, and that luminous hand. And by the bye, I don't think the idea of print offers as a regular thing is going to fly. I will still make one once in a while, however, when it seems like a good thing to do. Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON

Random Excellence

Photographer Unknown: Union General W. H. French Standing in Front of Tent, Bealton, Va., October 1863 I was going to try to make this int...

6:28 PM