For the first 10 to sign up, I am offering "It is Not the Camera" photo excursion taking pictures of the fall Colors the second and/or third weekend in October. The event will be in and around Columbia, Point and Shoot Cameras are great for this event. The class is hands on, taking pictures using your camera with help from Jack. Sign up today, The cost of the class is $95 per person...We will have some fun, and learn a lot. I suspect we will end the day at a winery in the area to look at the pictures we have gotten....The person with the best shot will win $100.
Look forward to seeing you...
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Photo Excursions
The last few art shows I have participated, I have found a real desire to learn to get better pictures. In the Zona Rosa Show I spoke with over 100 people interested in getting better pictures. Some thought they needed new camera's. In almost every case it is not the camera it is the use. So I will be scheduling some "It is Not The Camera" photo excursions for groups up to 10 people. The goal will be to group people that have similar goals. For example, if you want better pictures of your kids or grand kids, we would have a day of hands on taking candid shots of kids and people with different lighting and I would teach you to use your camera to get the best possible shot. OR if you want great scene shots or sun set or sun rise we would work a group. And then I suspect we should look at a 10 day photo excursion to Italy.
The one day excursion will be $95 per person, I will hold one in St. Louis, Columbia, and Kansas City, possibly Chicago. If you are interested let me know soon. The Fall Colors could be a great excursion in the next couple of weeks...
Jack ....
The one day excursion will be $95 per person, I will hold one in St. Louis, Columbia, and Kansas City, possibly Chicago. If you are interested let me know soon. The Fall Colors could be a great excursion in the next couple of weeks...
Jack ....
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Polorad Swinger
The Polorad Swinger.
When I was 15 I purchased a Polarad Swinger, it was $19.95 which sounds cheap today, at that time I was working for $1.00 per hour. (1968). It was the beginning of my love of photography. I traveled around the highschool hangouts and took pictures., Mostly candid shots of friends and acqaintances, my friends liked the shots for the most part and I began for the first time to consider taking pictures. For those of you who are younger the Swinger was a black and white camera. The original swinger did a print about 2.5x3 inches. And the print developed instantly on the paper. For me, the camera represented more than just taking pictures, it quickly became my itentity point with many acquaintences. To the point that in just a few weeks of using my Swinger, when we had the Year Book Staff meeting, I was elected to be the yearbook photographer. A huge step for me in that it put me in contact with M. Geary our highschool English teacher, who came from a family of photographers. I will talk more about that relationship in future blogs. The point is that this $19 dollar investment, sparked an interest, that has followed me all my life so far, specifically for 41 years. Each level I have moved up has engendered a greater love for what I can capture with the camera. And the range of expression it allows me to share a part of how I see the world with the people around me. The Polorad Swinger. The beginning of one of my life long passions....
When I was 15 I purchased a Polarad Swinger, it was $19.95 which sounds cheap today, at that time I was working for $1.00 per hour. (1968). It was the beginning of my love of photography. I traveled around the highschool hangouts and took pictures., Mostly candid shots of friends and acqaintances, my friends liked the shots for the most part and I began for the first time to consider taking pictures. For those of you who are younger the Swinger was a black and white camera. The original swinger did a print about 2.5x3 inches. And the print developed instantly on the paper. For me, the camera represented more than just taking pictures, it quickly became my itentity point with many acquaintences. To the point that in just a few weeks of using my Swinger, when we had the Year Book Staff meeting, I was elected to be the yearbook photographer. A huge step for me in that it put me in contact with M. Geary our highschool English teacher, who came from a family of photographers. I will talk more about that relationship in future blogs. The point is that this $19 dollar investment, sparked an interest, that has followed me all my life so far, specifically for 41 years. Each level I have moved up has engendered a greater love for what I can capture with the camera. And the range of expression it allows me to share a part of how I see the world with the people around me. The Polorad Swinger. The beginning of one of my life long passions....
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Dreaming about Pictures
There seems to be a dry spell in finding or seeing photographs I actually like. I am sure it is my camera simply not taking good pictures. Or is it my own perception. At any given time taking good pictures is certainly effected by the equipment (about 10%) and 90% based on your perception and attitude. I find that to be true and false. To take a good picture you have to see it as you take it. Or see the potential, this requires an open mind. It does not require a specific mood. For example if you are in a down mood take pictures, you may come up with a poignant result., if you are up take pictures, you may well find a product that is up lifting. If you enjoy finding just the right picture, it requires two things, 1. pick up the camera, 2. take time to look for and take pictures. These are the two things I have not done enough lately. And the sole reason I have not found the pictures I want. So today I will pick up my camera and shoot. How about you?
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Art Shows..
I am preparing for the fall round of art shows. It would be most helpful if you checked my website and posted in the comments your favorite pictures, that is the ones you would be most likley to want on your wall. I am trying to reduce my work to only the very best.. If you don't like anything comment on that as well. www.jackartphotography.com
Friday, July 10, 2009
Computers
I have had a couple of questions about computers specifically the new net books. I am not a computer expert and yet I am still a geek. My youngest son is an IT guy so I guess this qualifies me somewhat.
If you are considering the net books keep a couple of things in mind. They are not just smaller lap tops. They are net books. Many have limited memory and limited computing capability. They will run some basic software (if there is enough memory) however they will be slow. So here goes.
There are two types of drives available. Flash drives (built in) usually under 50gb drives they are solid state, no moving parts. These are lighter and smaller than the ones with a regular hard drive. The response time is a bit faster, but I haven't been convinced it is worth the extra money.
The other drive is a regular hard drive like in many lap tops. These will have more memory, be slightly slower in response time and usually are cheaper.
I have a Dell net book purchased from Sams for around $300. I tried to work with Out Look through a vpn and it was ardously slow. It works much better accessing email via web mail. This seems to be true of all the net books (as my son says "hence the name net book") It handles word processing and basic features ok yet slow. My computer has a 160 gb hard drive. Which is very handy.
The coolest one I have seen so far is the Sony net book. very small very cool and very expensive (around $900)
Battery Life : be sure to check the battery life of what ever computer you are considering a good measure should be about 2.5 hours or longer. Some of the net books with flash drives have a very long battery life.
So what do net books have to do with photography. As I travel I find my net book is excellent for additional storage, and viewing of files, (raw is a problem yet) and connecting to the web and email. That is about it. It is also light and easy to carry. I can view and edit files and it is a useful tool.
I have not heard favorable things about the Acer net books, but have heard good reviews of most of the HP, Sony, Dell ect.
My basic advice would be unless you absolutely need a net book don't, the current deals on lap tops are great. HP, Sony and Toshiba make some pretty good lap tops or notebook computers for around $600 and they are much faster and more versitile, and yes a bit heaver.. I would go with a minimum of 3mb ram, Core 2 duo processor, preferably intel, and the size screen that best fits you. Comp USA has some good deals on both net books and laptops. Don't get carried away with High Defninition laptops unless you are gaming or watching a lot of movies, for most work applications the High Definition is not necessary. The other good thing about a full lap top is you can run Photoshop on them and fully edit on the move.
As for operating systems, Be sure what ever you buy will allow you to up grade to Windows 7 when it is released. I am working on a pre released version of windows 7 as I write and will tell you it is much more stable than Vista ever could be. Windows 7 should be released in September. If you don't want to bother with upgrading later you could wait until then to get a computer with windows 7 already loaded.
Disclaimer, I have purchased 100's of comtputers for my former company over the last 15 years. I have opinions but they are mine. If you note I have trouble with the gb and mb designations. One is for hard drives and the other is for the ram. I never get those quite right. In a net book you need at least 1 gb of ram.... I hope this helps.....
Jack
If you are considering the net books keep a couple of things in mind. They are not just smaller lap tops. They are net books. Many have limited memory and limited computing capability. They will run some basic software (if there is enough memory) however they will be slow. So here goes.
There are two types of drives available. Flash drives (built in) usually under 50gb drives they are solid state, no moving parts. These are lighter and smaller than the ones with a regular hard drive. The response time is a bit faster, but I haven't been convinced it is worth the extra money.
The other drive is a regular hard drive like in many lap tops. These will have more memory, be slightly slower in response time and usually are cheaper.
I have a Dell net book purchased from Sams for around $300. I tried to work with Out Look through a vpn and it was ardously slow. It works much better accessing email via web mail. This seems to be true of all the net books (as my son says "hence the name net book") It handles word processing and basic features ok yet slow. My computer has a 160 gb hard drive. Which is very handy.
The coolest one I have seen so far is the Sony net book. very small very cool and very expensive (around $900)
Battery Life : be sure to check the battery life of what ever computer you are considering a good measure should be about 2.5 hours or longer. Some of the net books with flash drives have a very long battery life.
So what do net books have to do with photography. As I travel I find my net book is excellent for additional storage, and viewing of files, (raw is a problem yet) and connecting to the web and email. That is about it. It is also light and easy to carry. I can view and edit files and it is a useful tool.
I have not heard favorable things about the Acer net books, but have heard good reviews of most of the HP, Sony, Dell ect.
My basic advice would be unless you absolutely need a net book don't, the current deals on lap tops are great. HP, Sony and Toshiba make some pretty good lap tops or notebook computers for around $600 and they are much faster and more versitile, and yes a bit heaver.. I would go with a minimum of 3mb ram, Core 2 duo processor, preferably intel, and the size screen that best fits you. Comp USA has some good deals on both net books and laptops. Don't get carried away with High Defninition laptops unless you are gaming or watching a lot of movies, for most work applications the High Definition is not necessary. The other good thing about a full lap top is you can run Photoshop on them and fully edit on the move.
As for operating systems, Be sure what ever you buy will allow you to up grade to Windows 7 when it is released. I am working on a pre released version of windows 7 as I write and will tell you it is much more stable than Vista ever could be. Windows 7 should be released in September. If you don't want to bother with upgrading later you could wait until then to get a computer with windows 7 already loaded.
Disclaimer, I have purchased 100's of comtputers for my former company over the last 15 years. I have opinions but they are mine. If you note I have trouble with the gb and mb designations. One is for hard drives and the other is for the ram. I never get those quite right. In a net book you need at least 1 gb of ram.... I hope this helps.....
Jack
Sunday, July 5, 2009
At a recent art show, I had an early visitor. A man and his son about 8-9 years old. He was looking at my display and pulled the print below out. He looked at it intently for a bit and then asked me to tell his son what this was about. He had tears in his eyes and his voice was broken. I explained that in war sometimes soldiers died and lost their dog tags and we did not know who they were. This tomb is to honor those soldiers who are not identifiable, and the guard who gards to tomb to show honor to this soldier is unknow since his back is to us and the child's hands is unknown. And I hoped that child would not have to see or make such a sacrifice. The man asked me how much, and handed me the money for the print. I thanked him as I wiped the tears from my eyes and was thankful for the opportunity to take such a shot.
Jack
UnKnown....
Jack
UnKnown....
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