It’s the adventure to get to the destination that makes landscape photography so exciting for Chad Woodhouse.
A full-time MRI technologist who has been practicing photography for the last seven years, Woodhouse recently placed second in the Tennessee Wildlife Federation’s annual contest. His photograph of Laurel Fork Falls titled, “Feel the Power,” will be featured in the TWF’s 2024 calendar along with shots by other local photographers Michael Kaal and Ryan Rice.
It’s been a long road turning a dirt lot into an outdoor education area, but the Grace Lutheran Child Learning Center in Sahuarita celebrated the accomplishment Friday with a ribbon cutting and the first wave of kids putting the grounds to work.
Learning Center Director Laura Heiman found the new addition goes beyond a playground, providing the added benefit of outdoor learning, which she said is beneficial for children. The extra space is also a welcome addition as the center’s enrollment grows.
Uncover the remarkable versatility of a single light source as we venture behind the scenes of an engagement photoshoot in this helpful video tutorial.
In this behind-the-scenes video, Jiggie Alejandrino, a wedding photographer hailing from the Philippines, provides viewers with a glimpse into the art of using just one light source for an engagement photoshoot, offering several noteworthy takeaways for photographers of all levels. Strategic light placement is a central theme throughout the video. Alejandrino carefully positions the light source to complement the existing ambient light, creating a harmonious blend of artificial and natural illumination. This approach preserves the authenticity of the location while achieving well-lit subjects. Creative experimentation is also a recurring theme. His willingness to explore different lighting setups showcases the potential for diverse image outcomes. By making subtle adjustments to light direction and contrast levels, he demonstrates the value of creative exploration in photography. Altogether, it’s a great demonstration of how important the ability to mix natural light and artificial light is, and it’s worth a watch by any photographer learning how to light portraits. Check out the video above for the full rundown.
If you would like to continue learning about how to light a portrait, be sure to check out “Illuminating The Face: Lighting for Headshots and Portraits With Peter Hurley!”
MIDDLETON, Wis. (WKOW) — WayForward Resources organized its annual charity-driven Holiday Art Market this weekend.
Located on Parmenter Street, the market featured over 50 artists with a variety of crafted goods.
Over 20 percent of profits were directed towards the growing need for food assistance.
According to Dana Monogue, school superintendent and WayForward Resources board of directors member, there has been a “200 percent increase in families seeking food assistance.”
Monogue revealed that this has been the largest jump in demand that the organization has seen.
But for Monogue and the other organizers, the event is about more than just raising funds.
“It’s a wonderful way for us to promote what WayForward Resources does as an organization … at a time where we’ve seen unprecedented need,” she said.
For the vendors, the market is a great opportunity to feature their crafts in a meaningful way.
Betsy Nordstrom is a volunteer for ReMitts, an upcycling mitten brand. She discussed how shopping at the market not only supports the WayForward food pantry, but local artists as well.
“The smile you see on the vendor’s face … and the gratitude they have is worth it,” she said.
More information on WayForward Resources can be found on their website.
Photography by Diane Fleischman & Review by Janel Spiegel
WWE Live Holiday Tour
Saturday, December 2, 2023
7:30PM
PPL Center – WWE LIVE
ALLENTOWN!!! Allentown, PA. I’m proud of us. Tonight was quite a night. I wound up at the Allentown Christmas Tree Lighting which was beautiful. Lots of vendors, great food, the Marines were there, The Allentown Police Department, a variety of food vendors, live music, a horse drawn carriage. The horses are beautiful. So, then after taking the scenic route, I had to get to the PPL Center for the WWE Live Holiday Tour. Did you ever feel the energy and know it was going to a blast before you even arrived at the venue?! That’s how I felt tonight. I knew it was going to be fun. My awesome magical friend Paula went with me. This was her first wrestling event. I think she’s ready for table matches.
Thank you to Kayla and the PPL Center for always including The Valley Ledger. It’s a lot of work on all ends, and we all work together for everything to come to fruition. Tonight was just electrifying. Wrestling is something that tends to mean a lot to so many people. They played videos from the “Then” and the “Now.” I must say back in the day, “Back in the Day,” wrestling was awesome. You had some of the greats. You would hear a note of the entrance music, and people were HYPED, BEYOND HYPED. We sat in an awesome section. It was funny to see the grown-ups just as excited as the kids, if not even more excited. Kofi Kingston showed up, and had the crowd going wild. He brought the chairs, sticks, and tables out. Allentown can handle it. Some people were ready to jump in. Don’t worry.
The first match was between Bayley and Shotzi. They were entertaining, and the crowd was just losing their minds. We also saw a match between the awesome Bobby Lashley, I was fortunate to meet Lashley a few years ago thanks to the incredibly talented Actress, creator, wrestling talent, mom of 10, and wife of the talented writer, Anthony Saint Thomas. I met Lashley through Monique Dupree who is heavily involved in the wrestling world. Lashey is part of All Mighty. We also saw Cameron Grimes, Charlotte Flair who is the daughter of the one and only, Ric Flair, his ICONIC WHOOO’s!!! echoed throughout the PPL Center all night, and made their way outside and well, I was WHOO-ing all the way home at this point. The impact that Ric Flair had on wrestling is undeniable. To see Charlotte Flair stroll out to the ring in her beautiful sparkly red outfit reminds you of Ric Flair’s out of this world, wild and creative antics. Karrion Kross came out with Scarlett. Odyssey Jones helped out Cameron. What a team. Solo Sikoa also appeared, he looked EXTRA serious, and Dragon Lee wrestled. This was so much fun. My friend had a blast. We made some new friends. Shout out to everyone who was chanting with us, yelling, and having a blast.
L.A. Knight and KO (Kevin Owens) the main event, and boy did they deliver. There is nothing more exciting and fun than wrestling. They wrestled against Solo Sikoa, and Jimmy Uso. We hope they come back next year.
Make sure to follow social media on tour and PPLE Center to learn all the amazing events coming up. Thank you, Kayla, The Allentown Police department for helping to keep everyone safe.
https://www.wwe.com/superstars
Smartphones are a staple of modern life and are changing how we see the world and show it to others. Almost 90% of Aussies own one, and we spend an average of 5.6 hours using them each day. Smartphones are also responsible for more than 90% of all the photographs made this year.
But compare the camera roll of a 60-year-old with that of a 13-year-old, as we recently did, and you’ll find some surprising differences. In research published in the Journal of Visual Literacy, we looked at how different generations use smartphones for photography as well as broader trends that reveal how these devices change the way we see the world.
Here are five patterns we observed.
Before the first smartphone camera was released in 2007, cameras were used more selectively and for a narrower range of purposes. You might only see them at events like weddings and graduations, or at tourist hotspots on holidays.
Now, they’re ubiquitous in everyday life. We use smartphones to document our meals, our daily gym progress, and our classwork as well as the more “special” moments in our lives.
Many middle-aged people use smartphones most for work-related purposes. One of our participants put it this way:
I often take photos of info I want to save, or of clients’ work when I want to then email it to myself to put on the computer. I feel like I’ve gotten a little slack on socially taking photos of friends … but in the day-to-day, I feel like I use it very practically now for basically work, grabbing a photo to upload it online somewhere.
Our participants only used their phone’s front “selfie” camera 14% of the time. They acknowledged the stigma around selfies and didn’t want to be perceived as narcissistic.
In years past, whether you had a bulky DSLR camera or a lightweight disposable, the “default” grip was to hold it with two hands in a horizontal way. This leads to photos in landscape orientation.
But the vertical design of smartphones and accompanying apps, such as Instagram and Snapchat, are resulting in more photos in portrait orientation. Participants said holding their smartphone cameras this way was more convenient and faster.
Participants made more images of people from farther away compared to getting close. Intimate “head and face” framing was only present in fewer than 10% of the images.
In one participant’s words:
I feel like my friends and I get frustrated with parents, when they’re zooming in a photo or they walk in really close. My mom would always get one like right in my face, like this is too close! I don’t want to see this. The zoom in, oh, it’s frustrating!
Teenagers in particular mentioned social media, especially Instagram, as influencing their visual sensibilities. Older adults were more likely to attribute their sense of aesthetics to physical media, such as photography books, magazines, and posters.
This aesthetic inspiration impacts what we take photos of, and also how we do it. For example, young people mentioned a centered compositional approach most often. In contrast, older generations invoked the “rule of thirds” approach more often.
One participant contrasted generational differences like this:
There seems to be a real lack of interest [by younger people] in say, composition, or the use of light or that sort of aesthetic side of getting an image. When my partner and I were kids […] our access to different aesthetics and images was actually very limited. You had the four channels on TV, you had magazines, you had the occasional film, you had record covers, and that was it, you know. Whereas, kids these days, they’re saturated with images but the aesthetic aspect doesn’t seem to be that important to them.
While technology is changing the way people see the world and make photographs, it’s important to reflect on why we do what we do, and with what effects.
For example, the camera angle we use might either give or take away symbolic power from the subject. Photographing an athlete or politician from below makes them look more strong and heroic, while photographing a refugee from above can make them look less powerful.
Sometimes the camera angles we use are harmless or driven by practicality – think photographing a receipt to get reimbursed later – but other times, the angles we use matter and can reinforce existing inequalities.
As the number of images made each year increases and new ways to make images emerge, being thoughtful about how we use our cameras or other image-making technology becomes more important.
About the author: T.J. Thomson is Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media at RMIT University. Shehab Uddin is Program Director of Higher Degree Research at Pathshala South Asian Media Institute. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. This article was originally published at The Conversation and is being republished under a Creative Commons license.
