sophie_holding_flower_and_leaf.jpg (JPEG Image, 1000x1157 pixels) - Scaled (70%)
Something about this is appealing to me right now. I have been doing a lot of real pano's with tripods and all that goodness. But I think I may have to go back to the David Hockney-ish way. But with a bit of this kind of narrative in mind.
YouTube - The Vendor Client relationship - in real world situations
"Yeah, you see, we didn't budget for this...."
When I hear those words, I reach for a bottle and a gun.
This is a "technique" group, and the technique here is regarded by some as insanity. For we are the reckless folks on flickr that enjoy the abstract, chance, generative, physical photography that results from throwing our cameras into the air (most often at night in front of varied light sources). It is about trading risk for reward in the pursuit of art. It is not about being a photographer, it is about enabling the photography that happens naturally when you let go of the process, give up control, and add a hell of alot more variables. It is about physics, gravity, angular momentum, acceleration, direction, chaos, and timing... most of which you have tenuous control of at best!
This is pretty cool actually. The nagging Art Scholar says, 'decorative' but who gives a shit. It sounds and looks like a fun time.
So a lot of photo buffs on the interwebs are linking to thisEssay: Slow Photography in an Instantaneous Age. And I can't help but kinda laugh at it. There is a tendency in photography for people to define there work by the gear they use to make it and I just think that is a cop out. I do exactly what he does digitally and I have shot with hand held 4x5 pressboxes over my head with strobes to get action. This romantic association with gear is something that just seems like a lack of vision on the part of the artist. If you want to shoot slowly and take your time, shoot slowly and take your time. Don't let your gear frame your art. The gear is there to serve you not the other way around.
Here is a Pano I tool on the ride the other day with the Canon G9. I really enjoy the look of that bridge coming out of the trees. Then the fishermen and sunbathers just add that summer touch.
Really been enjoying my mornings in the garden here. Here is a pic of some of the veggies I planted the other day.
Been thinking about killing the original pixelrust photo page as it is almost redundant now. I really like the new wordpress engine running this part better then that one, but I like the single image post as well. It's just clean and simple. So screw it, I'll keep both running simply because it amuses me.
This here pic was taken with my trusty Canon G9. The macro on that thing is fun as all get out. I have a fancy idea of doing a trypdich of these three images (two links there, fyi.). But I have not laid them all out yet. I like these as a sun flare series though.
(I can hear that little voice in my ear going, "Decorative art! BAH!" and I have stabbed it with a rusty swingline stapler.)
Run for your lives!
Megan Fox Photo Shoot with Red One Video Camera - Esquire
Have you watched that enough times yet? You probably noticed there's something different about this Megan Fox cover tease for our next issue: It wasn't shot with a camera. At least not a still camera. For the first time in Esquire's history (and, we imagine, magazine history in general), a cover image was shot as a video. Using the RedONE, a video camera that captures images at four times the resolution of high-definition, photographer-director Greg Williams (see below) recorded ten minutes of loosely scripted footage with Fox — getting out of bed, rolling around on a pool chair, inexplicably lighting a barbecue.
Soon the AD will put a video camera on a tripod and edit from the frames?
Discovery Channel - Deadliest Catch on the Behance Network
Global Key Visual created for Discovery Channel and one of their top shows Deadliest Catch.
Very cool to see the pieces used to make this awesome looking piece.
My work has been very technical as of late which I am finding odd as I like to think of myself more in the vein of the imaginative worlds. But the simplicity of an object has been very relaxing and satisfying to capture. I think my ideal project would take elements from Joel Peter Witkin, Kim Cheever, Lucas Samaras, The early Starn Twins and a touch of Crewdson. But that is a high hill to climb and the fall is quite long.
The table top work has been really nice in that it helps me with learning to work on that scale with lights. It's really simple and commercial, not super challenging, but a obtainable goal for an evening. I am working my way towards breaking the bond between photography and illustration, where the camera supplies the source files for the final composition. And this is a nice break to just focus on the craft of photography and lighting.
The Lazy Rule of Thirds | Whimsical Fashion Photography
To find the real story behind the “rule of thirds” we need to go back in time, not to the renaissance, not to the Greeks, and not even to Adam nor Eve… even further. We need to go to the creation of the universe, why is that? Well I’ll tell you why. There is a number that determines how a sunflower’s seeds grow, it determines the path a hawk takes when diving at it’s prey, it is echoed in the breeding habits of rabbits and it even determines how the spirals in a spiral galaxy are laid out. It’s all very simple in it’s beauty and best of all, it’s all true. If you want to wrap your head around it further then I highly recommend the book The Golden Ratio by Mario Livio
Danish Photoshop Debate Leads To Disqualification
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (April 13, 2009) – Ethical questions surrounding photojournalists' use of Photoshop in image processing is not a controversy confined to the American market. Currently the embroilment rages in Denmark, where at least one photojournalist has been disqualified from a contest because it's been determined that his image manipulation went too far.
I agree wholeheartedly with this call. His images are super tweaked out in a HDR program and fall well outside what I consider right for Press footage. This is heavy, heavy tweakage to the image.
That and super hdr images done poorly look like flickr trash....
PhotoshopDisasters: Agent Provocateur: Provokes A Tear
I don't really like the idea of linking to Photoshop Disasters, it's kind of like the LOLcats of photography. But this particular image is astoundingly bad.
1. Determine whether your work even belongs in the commercial end of things: Many artists who want commercial galleries are conflicted about what is commonly discussed (at least in many art schools) as the corrupting or irrelevant influences of the commercial art market. Personally, I have no qualms about artists who eschew the art market...in fact, I find it highly impressive if done for the right reasons. I know many artists who like to think that way about their work, though, who will just as happily sell work if it doesn't cost them anything personally. (I think of a certain neo-Marxist who attacked me at a panel discussion for being the source of all ill in the art world because I'm a commercial art dealer only to confess over vodka that he too had sold work and liked doing so.) All of which is my long-winded way of saying start off doing a bit of soul-searching. I don't agree that the commercial side of the art world is automatically corrupting. Too many amazing artists were all too happy to work within it and/or work to improve it. Still, there's no reason to assume you need a commercial gallery just because you're an artist. You may not. It should be something you choose because it fits in with your vision of your career.
Good read on getting into galleries, something I have dabbled with over the past, hell, 20 years? Well I have learned that it's not for me. But for people interested in it this is a good read. I do like that he calls it "commercial" and makes no bones about. The gallery world is the same as any other business and I think this is something a lot for struggling art students fail to understand. Art for arts sake does not exist once you contact a gallery. You are marketing a product.
Now, there are no value judgements going on here on my end, so don't get your panties in a bunch. It's just being honest. And this article will help you achieve those goals if you choose that road.
VIA Conscientious
Testing out the wordpress app for the iPhone. This is a shot from Monday up on mt tabor. Nice bike ride...
As a young student, I often wrote Chinese characters in sumi ink. I loved the nervous, precarious feeling of sitting before an empty white page, the moment just before my brush touched the paper. I was always excited to see the unique result of each new brushing.Once your brush touches paper, you must finish the character, you have one chance. It can never be repeated or duplicated. You must commit your full attention and being to each stroke. Liquids, like ink, are elusive by nature. As sumi ink finds its own path through the paper grain, liquid finds its unique path as it moves through air.
Remembering those childhood moments, of ink and empty page, I fashioned a large 'brush' and bucket of ink. I get the same feeling, a precarious nervous excitement, as I stand before the empty studio space. Each stroke is unique, ephemeral. I can never copy or recreate them. I know something fantastic is happening, "a decisive moment", but I can't fully understand the event until I look at these captured afterimages, these paintings in the sky.
Simple and yet amazing.
Vicki DaSilva Format Magazine Urban Art Fashion
Vicki DaSilva’s photography is bright, bold and undeniably complex. She’s not only behind the camera, but in front of it, carefully crafting the light installations which serve as the subjects for most of her pictures. Though based in Pennsylvania, much of DaSilva’s work was influenced by the time she spent in NYC during the rise of graffiti and hip-hop culture.What makes her work fascinating is that the effort isn’t apparent, only the skill. Most of her locations are outdoors and they suggest a consciously formed clash between the natural and the artificial, the dark and the light. She uses the words ‘light graffiti’ and ‘light painting’ to describe her work and the terms couldn’t be more fitting. She doesn’t just break through that invisible fourth wall; she leaves her tag all over it.
Using 4ft and 8ft tubes to light paint on a area.
Taringa! - Experimentando con fotografias en movimiento
But I Like It.
