In Focus: AP Photog Recounts Terror and Hope in Oklahoma
On Tuesday, the world awoke to the photographs of Associated Press staff photographer Sue Ogrocki. Based in Oklahoma City, Ogrocki documented rescue workers carrying injured children from the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School in the town of Moore; her images appeared on the cover of many of the world’s leading newspapers, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. She later talked with Time LightBox about what she witnessed—a scene of devastation and raw humanity. “This is probably the worst,” said Ogrocki, who has cover other tornadoes. “I’ve never seen a school hit.” Go here to read her story at AP. Read the full Story >>
Industry News: Olympus To Drop Budget Point and Shoots
The end of the point-and-shoot era got closer when Olympus announced recently that it would be discontinuing its V lineup of low-cost compact cameras. “With high-tech smartphones and numerous photo apps making it harder to convince people that they need point-and-shoot cameras, it’s no surprise that…Olympus…is shifting focus away from that market,” notes the Wall Street Journal. The company anticipates a steep decline in its camera business, with sales this fiscal year expected to be about 2.7 million units, down from 5.1 million units last year. Read the full Story >>
Trending: Mall Cop Vs. Photographers, The Viral Video
Yesterday we mentioned that more and more airlines are banning photography on flights; today the Photography Is Not A Crime blog reports on one mall cop who got testy about picture taking. The episode began when a truck plummeted into a ravine nearby the Ohio Valley Mall in St. Clairsville, OH. An “Officer Adams” began demanding the onlookers discontinue taking pictures and erase the images. Naturally, the raging cop was caught on video, which went viral. Private companies increasingly seem to be banning photography on their property ... just because they can. Read the full Story >>
Agenda: New Exposure Photography Competition Returns
New Exposure, a photography competition sponsored by Bottega Veneta and Vogue magazine, is back for its second edition. The talent contest aims to help young photographers break into the business: The winner, to be unveiled during New York Fashion Week in September, will take home a $10,000 cash prize, as well as a year-long mentorship with the Art+Commerce agency and another one with Vogue photo director Ivan Shaw. Go here for more info on how to enter. Read the full Story >>
How-To: Shoot Day-To-Night Time Lapse with Bulb Ramping
A transitional time-lapse from day to night can be a challenge … unless you’ve got the right tools for the job, says PetaPixel, which features a video from photographer and “timelapse connoisseur” Joel Schat. His secret: Using a Promote Control—an all-in-one remote control for Canon and Nikon DSLRs—for “bulb ramping,” or modifying exposure settings on a camera in order to maintain a desired exposure value while the camera is in Bulb mode. “Upon choosing a composition and an appropriate aperture, the Promote will do the brunt of the work,” notes PP. Read the full Story >>
Final Frame: Photog Joe McNally Honors "A Wonderful Teacher"
Who was the person who made you a photographer? For noted photographer Joe McNally, it was Fred Demarest, who taught a college photography class that McNally, until then an indifferent Syracuse J-school student, was required to take. At his blog, McNally engagingly describes how his outlook and future took shape under Demarest’s guidance. “There were other profs more dashing and charismatic, to be sure. But none approached his skills at refining a young photographer’s intentions,” he says of Demarest, now 88 and retired. Must read. Read the full Story >>
Let's Continue the Conversation ...
Please contact me (button at top) to let me know about any books, shows, or projects you’ve got going. If you "Like" the Pro Photo Daily Facebook page, you'll get updates of stories that don't make the Daily and shared stories from others. And of course we hope you will give us your opinions on some of the issues we address. You can find an archive of Pro Photo Daily posts at http://www.ai-ap.com/prophotodaily/. Follow me on Twitter @davidschonauer. Read the full Story >>
In Focus: David Burdeny's "Drift," Inspired by Rothko
Canadian photographer David Burdeny’s exceptionally beautiful “Drift” images capture motionless bodies of water in the style of color field paintings. Inspired by the work of Mark Rothko, Burdeny began the series as a study in landscape and space, using seasonal color and the horizon as the basis of the project. Feature Shoot explains how he created the work using a Roundshot panoramic camera that “modified” film internally while the body remained motionless. This technique created a horizontal “smearing” of any stationary objects in the frame. Burdeny found that shooting in areas with strong lighting and heavy contrast produced the best results. Read the full Story >>
Trending: Airlines Banning Photography on Flights
Some airlines, including American Airlines, are now forbidding passengers to shoot pics or videos of airline personnel or other passengers, reports npr, which notes that United Airlines recently kicked a travel blogger off an international flight for camera use. The reasons for the in-flight photo bans seem to be arbitrary, but Jeff Hermes, director of the Digital Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center, says the airlines are nonetheless within their rights to tell people to put away their iPhones. Your opinion? Read the full Story >>
BTS: Watch Michael Grecco On a Shoot for Men's Health
Yesterday we featured photographer Blair Bunting’s BTS account of a portrait session with L.A. Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw. Today you can watch L.A.-based photographer Michael Grecco working on a two-day shoot for Men’s Health magazine. The video follows Grecco as he plans set-ups and explains what he is attempting to do, and you’ll come away with a thorough understanding of how balances strobe and ambient light. And if you want to learn more about how to do that, Fstoppers has a separate tutorial. Read the full Story >>
Future Photo: Elle Launches First Google Glass App
If you wear nerdy Google Glass, there is a 100-percent chance you will lose friends, warns Fishbowl NY. Nonetheless, the imaging world is preparing for the future of wearable cameras and Internet. For instance: Hearst’s Elle magazine is launching the first app for Glass. Apparently the app will let Glass wearers read online articles and bundled photos and videos … and also take pictures of merchandise they want to buy. Anyway, do you think that somebody who wears Glass really cares about having friends? Read the full Story >>
Insight: Garry Winogrand and the Art of the Opening
The photographer Garry Winogrand, subject of a revealing exhibition at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art, was the first photographer to realize how much juicy comedy could be squeezed out of New York’s art and literary scenes, notes Richard Woodward at the Paris Review. Winogrand showed how such “grip-and-grin” events can be turned into enduring art. “Everyone and everything seems false or imbecilic in his party pictures, his eye exposing secret acts of disintegration within rituals of supposed public glee,” writes Woodward. Must read. Read the full Story >>
Let's Continue the Conversation ...
Please contact me (button at top) to let me know about any books, shows, or projects you’ve got going. If you "Like" the Pro Photo Daily Facebook page, you'll get updates of stories that don't make the Daily and shared stories from others. And of course we hope you will give us your opinions on some of the issues we address. You can find an archive of Pro Photo Daily posts at http://www.ai-ap.com/prophotodaily/. Follow me on Twitter @davidschonauer. Read the full Story >>
Agenda: An Expedition (And Exhibition) Across the East River
This month the inventive curators at United Photo Industries, the org that produces the Photoville pop-up art event at Brooklyn Bridge Park, is launching “Drawn to Water,” a four-month-long series of photo exhibitions that will be mounted … on East River Ferry vessels. Commuters will be able to contemplate man’s relationship to bodies of water through three different bodies of work: National Geographic’s photographer David Doubilet’s underwater imagery, Joni Sternbach’s tintype portraits of surfers around the world, and Stephen Mallon’s images of NYC subway cars tossed into the Atlantic to form new coral reefs. Read the full Story >>
Industry News: Yahoo to Buy Tumblr
Is Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer about to make a game-changing acquisition? asks Adweek. It appears so: Yahoo's board voted yesterday to acquire the photo-GIF-and-video-driven social-blogging site. Price: $1.1 billion. While its revenue is modest, Tumblr has positioned itself as the domain of the young, cool ,and creative crowd—not currently a Yahoo sweet spot. Tumblr has more than 108 million blogs. Read the full Story >>
Insight: Photog Blair Bunting Shoots Pitcher Clayton Kershaw
Blair Bunting has photographed his share of star big-league pitchers—from Justin Verlander and Cliff Lee to Josh Beckett and Felix Hernandez—but his recent session with L.A. Dodger ace Clayton Kerhsaw for a Muscle Milk ad campaign was a standout. Bunting describes his planning, preparation, and execution at Fstoppers: All went well, until Kershaw stepped onto his mark … and realized he’d forgotten his glove. An emergency trip to a nearby sporting goods store was the solution. In photography, it’s all about problem solving. Read the full Story >>
Follow-Up: New Yorkers Threaten Suit Over Apartment Photos
Last week we noted that artist Arne Svenson’s peeping-Tom pictures of his NYC neighbors had raised some critical concern over privacy issues. Now the New York Post reports that the neighbors themselves are concerned, and furious, and threatening to sue the photographer. “You can argue artistic license all you want, but that’s really not the issue here,” says one of the residents of the luxury Tribeca highrise that Svenson aimed at. The series of images, called “The Neighbors,” is now on view at Chelsea’s Julie Saul Gallery. Read the full Story >>
Dept of Ideas: Spectacular "Focus-Stacked" Photos of Bugs
Photographer Nicolas Reusens says he has always been interested in insects, so when he purchased his first DSLR three years ago, he immediately dove into macro photography. By using the technique known as focus stacking—combining several images taken at different depths of field—he has generated some eye-popping photos of bugs from all over the world, declares PetaPixel. Using Zerene Stacker software, he combines two to 200 exposures, which, he says, would be “physically impossible with normal imaging equipment.” Read the full Story >>
Discoveries: Photos Show the Final Days of the Romanovs
Photos recently discovered in a remote museum in the Ural Mountains are giving historians an intimate look at the last days of Tsar Nicholas II and his family before their execution by Bolsheviks in 1918, reports Discovery.com. Taken by the Tsar or his children, the 210 photographs were put together in a modest album by Nicholas himself while in exile with his family in western Siberia between 1917 and 1918. One of the most touching photos shows Anastasia Romanov, then 15, enjoying a cigarette at the urging of her father. Read the full Story >>
Let's Continue the Conversation ...
Please contact me (button at top) to let me know about any books, shows, or projects you’ve got going. If you "Like" the Pro Photo Daily Facebook page, you'll get updates of stories that don't make the Daily and shared stories from others. And of course we hope you will give us your opinions on some of the issues we address. You can find an archive of Pro Photo Daily posts at http://www.ai-ap.com/prophotodaily/. Follow me on Twitter @davidschonauer. Read the full Story >>