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Every photographer, from amateur to professional, will take pictures of Christmas Decorations because these are beautiful, eye catching, and most of all, memorable.
From the view of the entire Christmas tree, to close-ups on simple and sophisticated decorations, it’s all sparkle and lovely. For the shots, remember to have a tripod and a remote controller.
For the first Christmas tree picture, my friend Tudor used flash (with -2 exposure) in rear mode, in low light. Picture was taken in “Program” mode.
The second Christmas tree picture has +3 exposure, no flash, and low light environment. Longer exposure time in this case: 20 sec.. Picture was taken in “Shutter Mode”.

The white balance in case of such photographs is better set to “auto” since the colors from the lights differ from the environmental light and other lights coming from nearby. After all, the multitude of colorful lights is what makes Christmas beautiful.
Now let’s see the close-ups: the most simple setting scheme is: “Program” Mode, rear flash, adjusted exposure (differs from scene to scene), tripod and remote control or 2 seconds shutter delay. For brighter scenes you can put the flash off and increase ISO.

On most of the photos, on post-processing, I added a warm filter to make the tree have a yellowish green, and to make the red color stronger.

To promote rural tourism, in Romania, many photographers go from village to village to take pictures of local habits and activities, local activities and clothes, objects, houses.
During the late summer of 2008, I choose to go in a wonderful village in the Apuseni Mountains on a specific day: the first day of the “Love Festival”, on the “Chiken Mountain Pick”.
I wanted to keep distance from people in order to capture instants of their live, not well prepared portraits. In order to do so, I used a tele-ob.: Tamron 70-300 mm.
Here I show you an old man playing a local musical instrument.

This is an instant portrait of on old lady covering her eyes from the burning sun.

Children are dancing on local music.

Since it was the “love festival”, here’s a portrait of the girl who won the contest for “perfect marriage country girl”.

Here is how the houses looked like in the old times in this area of my Country.

On the same topic, I have some older photos to illustrate the Romanian traditions.

In a Circus Show there are many factors different from any other kind of photography type. For example, the white balance does not matter too much, and you should also not worry about having too much noise: sure you will since the lighting environment is poor and the use of flash will only ruin the magic of the show.

The magic of the show is mostly based on motion and secondly on clothes. As a result, try to capture motion blur in your picture, but remember: slow shutter speed is not needed: fast motion in poor light is easy blurred at relatively fast shutter speeds. Try to capture the most expressive moments. In a show, the performers will always stop in a fixed position critical for the show, moment when they expect clapping. Be ready to shoot at this point of time.


I made these photos during the Aquatic Circus (from Italy) performance in my birth town. The main point of interest (for children more of all) were the aquatic animals. The gear I used is a Nikon D40x with Tamron 70-300mm lens. Tripod is not necessary.

The most important thing to remember when photographing a circus show is TO BE FAST. Prepare and test your gear before in such way that you will not have to change the lens or settings too often. There will be short breaks between different parts of the show, time to make some changes if needed.

Circus bring acrobats that move their body forming curves that look great in photography. Here is such a series. The difference of colors between the images is given by the lights used in the show.

Final note: remember these tips for concert photography too.

December Selection

Making Simple Borders for Your Photographs
Tilt Shift Photography Using Google Earth
Photography Gift Guide
Photography Tips by Karen Rusten
Bird Photography – Birds in Flight
The Bill of Rights for Photography Competitions
The Secret to Success in Photography
The world through a lens: Photo etiquette
Sunset Photography: How to shoot memorable sunsets
How High-speed Photography Works
Classic Beauty of Black and White Nature Photography
Top 15 Photography Tricks and Tips
Microstock Photography for Graphic Design – Low Cost Images for Designers
The World From Above: The Beauty Of Aerial Photography
Photography – Exposure – Getting it right
8 Tips For Capturing Family Gathering Candids

Six photographers who, by working on assignment for publications such as the New Yorker, Esquire, and the New York Times Magazine, bring their distinctive “take” on contemporary portraiture to a broad audience.
Location: The National Portrait Gallery is conveniently located at Eighth and F Streets, NW, in Washington D.C., above the Gallery Place–Chinatown Metrorail station (red, yellow, and green lines).
Museum Hours: 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m. daily. Closed December 25.
Admission: FREE

National Portrait Gallery, November 26, 2008 – September 27, 2009

Katy Grannan
Since receiving her M.A. from Yale in 1999, Katy Grannan has been exhibiting her photographs throughout Europe and America to increasing critical acclaim. The Massachusetts-born Grannan produces distinctive, haunting portraits, often using the mundane particulars of everyday lives to heighten our sense of her subjects’ individuality.

Kathleen
Katy Grannan
Chromogenic print, 2007
Published in New York Times Magazine, March 18, 2007
Collection of the artist, courtesy Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York City; Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco; Salon 94, New York City
© Katy Grannan

Jocelyn Lee
Jocelyn Lee approaches her photographic subjects looking to reveal not simply the individuality of those who pose before her camera. She also wants to convey something deeper about how her subjects confront the place where they live and the situation in which they find themselves. This interest in the psychological dimensions of character is emblematic of her portraiture— whether she is working on an editorial assignment or on an independent project.

Untitled (Jocelyn with moth)
Jocelyn Lee
Chromogenic print, 2002
Collection of the artist
© Jocelyn Lee

Ryan McGinley
Ryan McGinley’s contribution to “Feature Photography” includes a select group of photographs taken at several concerts headlined by Morrissey between 2004 and 2006. Capturing the varied expressions and moods of the fans in attendance, these portraits suggest the enthusiasm shared by many for this charismatic English musician. McGinley also has acknowledged his own admiration for Morrissey, especially in the way in which his music addresses pertinent issues for him and for many other young people.

Untitled (Morrissey 25)
Ryan McGinley
Chromogenic print, 2006
Published in UOVO, April/June 2007
Seth O. and Mandy W. Lax
© Ryan McGinley

Steve Pyke
Steve Pyke readily admits that his life in photography has been propelled largely by his fascination with the face. Born in England and now based in New York, Pyke first won notice for his distinctive close-up portrait style in the 1980s, with editorial work for the music press and magazines such as Britain’s popular “style bible,” The Face. In the intervening decades, Pyke’s photographs have reached a wide audience through their publication in major magazines around the world and their exhibition in museums and commercial galleries.

Rem Koolhass
Steve Pyke
Gelatin silver print, 2005
Published in the New Yorker, March 14, 2005
Collection of the artist, courtesy of Flowers Gallery, New York City
© Steve Pyke

Martin Schoeller
Martin Schoeller has exhibited his portraits internationally and has received numerous awards. His photographs have appeared in many prominent magazines, including the New Yorker, Gentleman’s Quarterly (GQ), Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone.

Angelina Jolie
Martin Schoeller
Digital C-print, 2004
Collection of the artist, courtesy Hasted Hunt, New York City
© Martin Schoeller

There’s much more to being a professional photographer than simply taking great pictures. Today’s self-employed photographers must have marketing savvy to spare. This guide from a widely known and respected industry insider provides that-and much more. In Successful Self-Promotion for Photographers, freelance photographers learn what they must do to improve their skills after the pictures have been developed. Featuring sections such as “Focus Your Image,” “Sharpen Your Client Focus,” “Identify Your Market,” and the ever-important “Spot Trends,” here are dozens of surefire strategies for selling services, staying on top of the latest market trends, and winning enough high-paying work to survive and thrive in this very competitive business. For any photographer looking to make it big behind the lens, this indispensable reference shows how to get the right exposure every time.

Weissberg’s book is divided into 10 sections. Each addresses a unique issue in building, marketing and promoting your business. At the end of almost every chapter is a list of “dos” and “don’ts” as extra tips. The first two chapters mainly outline solid start up points for amateurs. Chapters three and four give in depth coverage of winning strategies behind building on the desires of your market by showing how you can provide everything they want through ads and portfolio’s. Weissberg takes the time to describe how this can look different in a variety of markets including magazine, fine art, fashion and design. Chapters five and six will give you fresh perspective. Weissberg sets you on your way with practical skills with creating a marketing plan based on your tastes, your budget, and your clientele market.

Chapters seven through ten wrap up with other fantastic marketing ideas especially for photographers: from gaining recognition through portfolio review, to designing sourcebook ads, mailings, and understanding your client’s language.
Not only a great resource, but also an engaging read that wont leave you with anything less than dozens of ideas for expanding your photography business and your own marketing techniques.

From a talk given at the Museum of Modern Art, London, by the senior lecturer in art, publishing and music at Oxford Brookes University.

Fashion photography is carried out in order to sell clothes; it is a part of the wider advertising industry and exploits desires and aspirations through reference to lifestyles. As such, it is an unapologetic appropriator of styles and techniques. This poses questions about the meaning of street photography ­ if it includes fashion photography ­ and about its place, too, in the canon of art photography. While you might at first see fashion photography as different because it is commercial, perhaps it is rather a good example of the need to contrive in all photography. Looking at fashion photographs we wonder to what extent other, apparently spontaneous, photographs were contrived. The idea that fashion photography represents a debasement of the medium must be challenged at a time when the visual language of advertising has permeated “high” art. In any case, the “captured moment” in its diversity and manipulation, is the basis for all photography.

Perhaps categories of photography exist not only because of context or subject but because of the need for definitions within a medium that has been widely employed by amateurs, technicians and professionals in many fields. Bourdieu sees that problems of definition in photography place it outside the cultural hierarchy. The “uneducated” consumer ­ his phrase ­ feels able to view and judge photographs without having to acquire the kind of specialist knowledge necessary for mainstream art. His view that photography falls outside the “consecrated arts” does not prevent those inside attempting to appropriate and/or marginalise it. Fashion photography falls between art and commerce. Donovan, Klein and Tillmans have worked in the fashion business. Donovan, although his work was not confined to fashion, worked in the commercial world. Klein and Tillmans have moved between the commercial and art worlds. Klein’s preoccupation in the 1950s with intervention ­ in relation to his subjects and during processing ­ can be seen in his fashion and street photos. He got into the action and later, during processing, bleached and cropped his images for a highly contrasted, grainy effect. That he was influenced by documentary photo and cinéma vérité is clear, but, in the fashion shots, vérité has given way to cinema. He actually acknowledged being influenced by Cecil Beaton.

Even the greatest and most original of photographers must respond to the commercial imperative. Klein’s extremely and obviously contrived fashion photos have a formality that is not seen in Tillmans’ images. Tillmans, like Klein, has done a lot of fashion work and, according to Russell Ferguson, “all of his various types of photos can be shown together producing an over-archingly structural view of urban life. He has been working through the past decade at the same time as certain fashion photographers have aimed at a particular realism that reflects aspects of urban life.” Corinne Day’s photographs of Kate Moss caused a sensation in the 1990s ­ they were too realistic, even though carefully staged and no more “real” than Mike Leigh’s films.
The acceptance of photography as part of the art world took place in the 1960s and, since then, it has come to displace painting. As a result, artists such as Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall can now bring narrative into fine art photography. Their styles are very different: Jeff Wall building a kind of realism and Cindy Sherman working within a fantasy world. We can see both approaches mirrored in contemporary fashion photography. So I seem to be coming down on the side of fashion not being separate from mainstream photography; how can it be otherwise when Tillmans won the Turner Prize last year? Fashion may be regarded as a category of photography, but it has had a symbiotic relationship with art photography, both through its practitioners and as a reflection of movements and styles.
An article by Catherine Atherton

Nikon has announced the D3X, its latest high-resultion professional DSLR. Sporting an imaging sensor with double the number of photosites of the popular D3, the 24.5 megapixel D3x includes similar features such as a 3.0″, 920,000 dot LCD monitor with Live View, 51-point autofocus, EXPEED image processing and HDMI output. To keep up with the demands of stock photography the camera produces 50MB 14-bit RAW files that can be processed to produce 140MB TIFFs. It also supports Nikon’s wireless system and is compatible with Nikon’s new GP-1 GPS unit.

Key features:

• Nikon FX-format CMOS sensor with 24.5 megapixels

• Wide sensitivity range starting at ISO 100, ending at ISO 1600

• New EXPEED-based image processing, which was designed to minimize noise occurrence, achieves this without interfering with other factors, including hue.

• High-speed performance meets the most rigorous professional demand: It delivers a continuous shooting speed of approx. 5 frames per second in FX format (36 x 24) or 5:4 (30 x 24), and 7 frames per second in DX format (24 x 16)*2*3.

• Realizing reliable auto control: Scene Recognition System

• AF system employing high-density 51-point AF

• Superior durability

• High-resolution 3-inch LCD monitor with approx. 920k­-dots (VGA), 170° wide-viewing angle and reinforced glass

• Two Live View modes available

• Picture Control System: Choose from Auto, Extra High, High, Normal, Low or Off setting prior to shooting.

• Electronic virtual horizon

• UDMA-compatible memory card double slot

• GPS Unit GP-1 (optional)

Other features

• Lateral chromatic aberration reduction creates images with a clear periphery using original image processing technology to significantly reduce color aberrations

• Vignette Control effectively prevents reduction of light at the periphery

• Optical viewfinder achieves approx. 100% frame coverage and 0.7x magnification in FX format

• Three sensing areas: FX format (36 x 24), DX format (24 x 16), and 5:4 (30 x 24)

• Customizable function button

• Choice of black or white letters for shooting information display

• AF fine adjustment with professional standard of accuracy

• Compliant with HDMITM for high-definition image playback

• Lets you shoot up to approx. 4,400 frames on a single battery charge

Merry Christmass to all my readers!!! A brilliant New Year all!!!

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Kenna’s work is really stunning as he captures some beautiful landscape imagery from some of his favorite photo destinations in which he frequents and as you can see, they definitely yield some amazing photographs.
Growing up in Lancashire, England, Michael Kenna entered a seminary school at the young age of eleven. With art as his strongest subjects, instead of becoming a priest, he applied to an art school, advancing onto studying photography at the London College of Printing. Though it wasn’t until the mid 70′s when Kenna moved to the US and started to discover that he could make a living from his passion for photography. Known for his breathtaking black and white landscapes, Kenna prefers to revisit his photo locations rather than simply going from one place to another. Among them are China, India and perhaps most importantly Japan, where he travels regularly.

“Imagine being out at night, alone, under starry skies. Listening to silence, watching the world slowly move, all senses alive, thinking, imagining, dreaming. The camera is recording, creating, documenting, seeing what the eye cannot see – cumulative time. Or the sensation of being in a field as the snow falls on a single, exquisite tree. White all around, just the sound of snow falling.”

Check out Michael Kenna Photography

AWARDS:
2003 – Honorary Master of Arts, Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara, California, USA
2000 – Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, Ministry of Culture, France
1996 – Golden Saffron Award, Consuegra, Spain
1989 – Institute for Aesthetic Development Award, Pasadena, California, USA
1987 – Art in Public Buildings Award, California Arts Council Commission, Sacramento, California, USA
1981 – Imogen Cunningham Award, San Francisco, California, USA

The list of PUBLISHED BOOKS AND CATALOGS is very impressive. From it, I mention he’s “A Twenty Year Retrospective” publication from 2002. Publishers: Nazraeli Press, USA (English edition) and Editions Treville, Japan (Japanese edition). Reprint of 1994 Treville book. Essay by Ruth Bernhard. Introduction by Peter C. Bunnell. 130 photographs.