Global Update

Photography podcast #73 is all about landscape photography and how to improve your landscape photography. Many newbies and advanced amateurs consistently wonder if their landscape photography is any good. This podcast offers up a fair pile of tips to help get your landscape photography to the next level. Some of the things we talk about include; lighting for landscapes, the background and the foreground, what makes landscapes interesting, exposure and landscape photography, filters in landscape photography, tripods and post production.

Yosemite Valley, Winter 1940 by Ansel Adams

Note the points of interest in the foreground, background and midground, note the full range of tones and note how skillfully our eyes are being guided. This is no accident, it’s the result of great planning (the light) execution (exposure/filters/composition) and finishing touches (darkroom post-processing – done these days using a graphics program).

Fishing spot by Kat

Kat has a great handle on the range of tones, exposure and composition here and I really like this shot. It’s missing just a little something of interest IMO to get the big “WOW!” Perhaps if a large rock was dropped in the midground with moving ripples that would have done it…. this shot is so close it just needs a hint of something “extra”.

Fly with me…across Australia (part of a series) by Mad Aussie

This one contains the “Wow!” factor for me. Great colour, range of tones, exposure and composition. Note the reflections in the foreground, the rocks in the midground and that awesome sky in the background. I love how the midground and background seem to meld into one another.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

The Ansel Adams gallery
Darwin Wiggett – Fabulous landscapes
Rule of thirds podcast
Histogram podcast
October’s “Scary-Mysterious-Halloween” assignment on the Photography.ca forum
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feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to  jacklabel, and Kent Wilson who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

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There are only 3 days left to visit Le Mois de la Photo (Translation: photo month) in Montreal. Le Mois de la Photo is a photography event that takes place in Montreal every second year. I’ve been going to this event regularly in Montreal for about a decade. There is always a HUGE variety of photographic styles (from photographers from around the world) in this event and most exhibitions (especially this year) are what I would call ‘alternative’.

From Hand to Mouth, 1993. Installation view, The American Center, Paris, 1995. Photo: Jeff Guess. Courtesy of the artist

The above photograph (and this is one of the many exhibitions that I personally visited) is a great example of ‘alternative photography’ and  thinking outside of the box. The goal of this exhibit is not simple, it requires thought; active thought. People will experience this exhibit in a personal way. Some will like it, some will hate it, and others will scratch their heads and go “Hmmmm”. Personally, I dug it big-time. I like things that are different. I like to think and feel. I’m not into McDonald’s and their freakishly annoying mainstream clown.

Here’s the ‘official website’ write-up on Guess’s exhibition:

With From Hand to Mouth (1993), a 22-metre long photographic series, Jeff Guess treats viewers to an original visual experience. The piece takes the form of a circular panorama hung from the ceiling of a darkened room. The artist assigns a particular place to viewers, who are invited to step into the centre of the installation. Without a privileged viewpoint that would make it possible to take in all the images at once, the work invites viewers to move about, to circulate. From Hand to Mouth is shown with a single, isolated photograph, Fonce Alphonse (1993).

This exhibition is just one of many that make up this year’s Mois de la photo. So get your shoes on and get out there this weekend to see the work before the exhibition is over. Bring an open mind, your brain but leave your cash at home. The exhibitions and mental stimulation are free.

We’re in the digital age, so why mess with a good thing by setting up an ancient darkroom? Well, setting up a dark room offers so much ‘hands on’ knowledge; it’s far more practical for learning photographic printing than you may think. The principals and tools of Photoshop were partially based on how photographers worked in the darkroom. Curves, levels, cropping, sharpening, multiple exposure printing, dodging and burning are just some of the things photographers have been doing in darkrooms for generations.

Here’s 4 reasons why darkroom printing rocks;

1 – There’s that special ’something’ that comes from doing the majority of the work with your own hands. It is far more satisfying to produce a print in the darkroom than by pressing the print button on your printer. Ask any good darkroom printer that has done both, they’ll tell ya. It’s true that darkroom printing takes longer and its precision is less accurate than digital; and yet it’s still more satisfying.
2 – Since everybody is going digital your work will stand out if you stay traditional.
3-  YOUR work will never be doomed to spending its life on a hard drive or on a few websites, you’ll always have beautiful prints to hold and show off.
4 – I have a sneaking suspicion that darkroom prints printed today will be more valuable than the same image printed digitally. Why? Because every darkroom print is somewhat unique and traditionally, unique items have more value than mass produced ones.

If you decide to set up a darkroom here’s a few things to be aware of. Before you start your darkroom make a floor plan of the room so you can more or less know how to layout the wet side and the dry side.  Will you be processing b&w and/or color? Colour printing is more complex (and requires a different enlarger) than b/w printing so it’s probably best to start with black and white. A good exhaust system is highly recommended as the chemicals you’ll use (unless you buy a processing machine) are toxic.

What’s great to know is that because everybody and their uncle has gone digital, there are amazing deals on used darkroom equipment. Ebay is your friend!So get your feet wet! Enjoy a getaway from the digital everyday…More on darkrooms here in our photography forum

Yesterday I went to see the Underdog photography exhibition in Montreal. It’s a gallery specifically opened to sell beautiful prints of shelter dogs AND have dogs there at the gallery (from shelters across Montreal) that are available for adoption. The photographs are by photographer Jaime LeBlanc and they are well done indeed. All the money from the sale of the images goes to shelters. This image was taken at the exhibition yesterday with my cameraphone.

Today was supposed to be the last day until 7pm at 4922 Sherbrooke W. (514) 969 3376
BUT the response has been so amazing that they are continuing the exhibition for a short while.

So you are into your DSLR or SLR, and cannot imagine using another camera… especially a point and shoot camera, right? Well they are often a good thing to have on hand in addition to your DSLR .

Point and shoots (P&S) aren’t ideal for learning photography. In fact they are a bad choice. Why? Because you can’t do many important things on most point and shoots (like change lenses, learn to manually focus a lens, manually meter easily, change shutter speeds easily etc.) that are essential when learning photography.

But – for someone that already knows photography, a point and shoot is very convenient due to its way smaller size. Many photographers want to have a camera with them at all times because there are always photographic possibilities around us.

Would I ever bring a point and shoot to a paying gig?  Maybe as a 3rd emergency backup. The cliche about not bringing a knife to a gunfight holds true for paying gigs and cheap cameras. But when I’m not shooting, I want to relax without all the gear. I still need to carry protection (the P&S ) though, just in case.

Which point and shoot should you get?  There’s way too many out there to list. One that I have my eye on that seems like it may be tasty treat is the Canon PowerShot G11. It’s supposed to be out in October. Buying/ordering through the B&H link above helps support the site. Thx.