Saturday, July 31, 2010

There is Shooting and then there is Shooting

Digital cameras are reasonable versatile and almost everyone has one.  I am seeing more and more great shots by people as they use their camera's more.   Not that many years ago if you shot a picture you would have to complete the roll of film, take it to be developed and then see your results.  In many cases it might be years before you take your film for processing.  I recall when I had a dark room processing as many as 30 rolls at a time.  Not that I took that many pictures at a time, it was I had let them build up over a year or so.  Then there is the expense.  It was at least 3-6 dollars to get a roll of film developed and even the dark room had expense.  Now we shoot see the results and adjust and keep moving.

I spoke with a person who went on vacation to Europe and had taken over 1000 photos in only 7 days.  This isn't necessarily bad if you have tons of time to review them and edit them.  In this case the individual ended up with about 140 shots they liked and kept.   I define this a "Persistence" photography.  You just keep shooting hoping you get a good shot.
Then there is "Lucky" photography.  I have some of these.  You see a shot at the right time and right place, there is no particular planning it is just there.  You grab it and  you got lucky.  You wont take as many shots this way and you will always have to be prepared with your camera to get these shots.  Certainly this is still photography and you can capture some great shots and photography can be more challenging....
Then there is the "intentional photographer'.  This is where you fully integrate the understanding of your camera, photography, and lighting to take the picture you choose when you want it.  You understand terms like f-stop, apeture, shutter speed, white balance, and more.    And know how to use your equipment to achieve your desired results.
Many people are happy to stay in the Persistence mode and that is fine, as is staying lucky.  I find the biggest challenge is to move into intentional photography.   I am finding more time is spent studying, my equipment, lighting, and sun location at different seasons and times of day.  The photograph becomes the result of a reasoned disciplined approach.   It is the ultimate photographic challenge.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Artrageous July 2010

One of the more unique galleries in the Mid West Pure Gallery is dedicated to art photography
only. Currently 11 artist are presenting with Todd Shelly and Piet Van Waarde as the guest artist... The opening was attended by over 200 people (lost count around there).
I is worth the ride and worth the time to check it out. Pure Gallery 504 E Broadway Columbia, MO I enjoyed it immensley

Friday, July 9, 2010

Editing your photos, Storing your photos

I am finding more and more folks who are wanting to share their photos, store their photos, and edit their photos and are lacking good basic software to do so.
If you store your photos on your hard drive it can crash as mine did the other day.  Fortunately I had my 33,000 pictures backed up in multiple places.  I use Mozy as well as two external hard drives.  I was disappointed with Mozy for  a couple of reasons.  First they had a list of files I could up load by name, I had to request a down loadable copy which took about 2 days.  Then it was a long list of files with no specific name a down load number each took hours to down load then more time to unzip,  very arduous.  Second they wanted amost 100 dollars to put my files on a DVD and send it to me.  
Originally I tried backing up my files to CD's or DVD's , this works well but even the best Cd's and DVD's stop working over time.  The basic CD life is about 5 years the high quality can be longer.  Archival can be even longer and can be expensive.  And they are on site, so if  you have a fire or lose them you are burned.
In the mean time, I am finding more and more folks that are wanting to do more with their photos, and Light Room or Adobe CS5 is out of their budget.  Simply put they are looking for basic help with storing, editing and maintaining their pictures.  
I have a possible Solution.  First let me be clear this is for the average person not a photographer.  For the professional the answers will be different.
Mozy is nice but not my favorite,  I will use them until my contract is up and move on.  I understand, but have not checked out Carbonite, they have a new live on line view of your files this may bee cool.   I have found that Google offers some good help here.  In two areas under the same name.

Picasa,  photo editing software, can be down loaded into your computer for free, it gives you almost any editing you might want to do to your family pictures,  for free.  Google has provided up dates and it is respectable.

Picasa Web albums.  Google offers 1 gb free space to place your pictures on the web, actually in the Google Cloud, you can buy 20 additional gb for 5 dollars per year, this will hold a lot of pictures.  You can keep your pictures private, or you can make them public or you can share them with only those you want to share them, by invitation.  A really reasonable service and great way to share pictures.

One trick.  When you up load your pictures for Picassa, it will default to a smaller sized picture for the up load.  This can limit the size you can print or enlarge the  picture.  When you check to upload choose keep original size and it will do so.  I have some rather large pictures uploaded to Picasa.

I am sure there are others.  I know HP has a site, as does many other groups.  I personally trust Google to do a good job.  Check it out.