A pink grasshopper with a genetic mutation known as erythrism, which causes a reddish discolouration. This species, the meadow grasshopper (Pseudochorthippus parallelus), shows a wide variation in colours from greens, browns through yellow and black to pink/purple. The rarer pink-purple form occurs in females.
‘With my ongoing fascination with the seaside this is a set of images taken with a telephoto lens, where I explore distant figures on the beach, usually with out of focus greenery in the foreground. Although each is an individual work, they become a fascinating grid when put together. This lens, with its ability to flatten and compress, has been somewhat shunned by the art world (with the honourable exception of Beat Streuli) so I was keen to explore what was possible’
Wolcott was another FSA photographer who documented wealth inequity and race relations during the period. “As an FSA documentary photographer, I was committed to changing the attitudes of people by familiarizing America with the plight of the underprivileged, especially in rural America,” she said. This image is known as Center of town. Woodstock, Vermont, “Snowy Night” from 1940.
Photograph: Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University. Gift of Michael and Sheila Wolcott
(Journal Photo by Amy Bickel.)
The Ranchland Trust of Kansas 12th annual photography contest opened May 1. The contest is open to professional and amateur photographers of all ages. Photographs entered will showcase the natural beauty of ranching and grazing lands across the state. The competition offers the chance to explore and capture the many activities, seasons and faces of Kansas ranching.
Photos submitted to the contest should express the mission of RTK: “To preserve Kansas’ ranching heritage and open spaces for future generations through the conservation of working landscapes.” Participants may enter up to five photos. The contest will be open through the summer and close on Aug. 31.
If you’re like me, you’re a fan of fine art photography PLUS you love to support local artists. That means you don’t want to miss the Photography at Oregon photo auction at the Dot Dotson Gallery.
Sandy Brown Jensen
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KLCC
This year’s auction features a wide variety of stunning photographs, from landscapes to portraits to abstract art. All proceeds go to support the Photography at Oregon organization, which promotes and sponsors photography exhibits and events throughout Oregon.
Let me give you three quick examples of what’s on offer and some artist’s insights into why photography can be difficult. Linda Devenow and Sandi O’Brien both work in infrared.
Sandy Brown Jensen
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KLCC
Linda’s image is of sheep in a white meadow looking like a fine pencil drawing. Linda says infrared is difficult because what you see in the viewfinder is so different from the final, rendered image.
Sandi O’Brien’s image is of that iconic stone staircase on the trail to Tokatee Falls. She says doing infrared is difficult for her because it’s about learning to see in a new way.
Sandy Brown Jensen
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KLCC
Greg Geisy is known locally as a bird photographer, which he says is difficult because birds live at such a different speed than humans, so they’re hard to catch. His auction image is of two swallows squaring off like sparring partners, one in mid air.
The concept is that you go see the art and find what you love. Then go to the auction website to bid, which is https://www.accelevents.com/e/PAO2023. Here are three reasons why an online art auction is fun:
This is Sandy Brown Jensen for KLCC.
Photo essay by Ernesto Gonzalez Diaz
HAVANA TIMES – Zoom burst is an effect that is achieved by zooming, either zoom in or zoom out, while taking the picture. For this, a camera of at least a mid-range is necessary and that offers the possibility of changing the lens or objective, because other cameras block the zoom at the time of taking the photo.
Another important element is that the shutter speed must be at least 0.5 seconds, in the case of the photos that we show, they all have shutter speeds close to one second, so that there is time to move the lens while zooming. This effect gives the impression that the same object or subject in the scene appears in more than one plane, precisely due to the movement of the lens.
One of the first photographers, of which there are references that used this effect, was Josh Adamski, an Israeli photographer who defined himself as an impressionist photographer, due to the similarity of this pictorial style with the photos obtained through this effect. These images could also be considered surreal due to their dreamlike nature.
This effect also exists in photoshop, that is, this effect could be digitally applied to an ordinary image, but it would never be the same result, neither artistically nor creatively, as when it is achieved by taking the photograph directly.
See more photo galleries here on Havana Times
Commercial photographer Andrei Duman aims to highlight the effects of climate change through a new personal project, Lake Powell: A 40-Year Visual Story of Water Crisis.
Duman traveled to Lake Powell, an artificial reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, to document depleting water levels. While climate change’s effects are wide-ranging and often difficult to appreciate fully, Duman hopes that his project’s simple and striking visual style will help viewers appreciate how climate change affects a resource near and dear to everyone’s heart — water supply.
“For me, the main purpose of this project was to try and highlight the depleting water level of Lake Powell through a unique visual medium,” Duman tells PetaPixel.
“I feel that we have all become numb to the headlines and statistics that we lose context of how far [water levels] have dropped over a span of a few years. This was a huge driving force for me. I wanted a single image that produces a powerful representation of the crisis that even if someone did not know the situation, they could easily understand it,” he continues.
Water levels in Lake Powell have significant repercussions for many people. It is the second largest artificial reservoir in the United States, behind only Lake Mead. However, ongoing droughts have significantly impacted both lakes.
In 2021, declining water levels forced officials to perform an emergency release of water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Last year, Lake Powell was at just under 23 percent of its capacity, its lowest water level since it was filled in 1963.
Earlier this year, the federal government finally recognized the threat facing Lake Powell. If water levels get too low, the lake will no longer be able to generate power at Glen Canyon Dam, and the lake could even reach “deadpool” status. This would mean the river is too low to get around, through, or under any dam.
“The dropping water levels have serious consequences not only for the surrounding area but also in faraway lands. We can all do more to help reduce the water levels dropping further. Northern Rockies and parts of Washington will likely see drought expand over the spring, and areas of extreme to exceptional drought are likely to persist across parts of the Southern High Plains. Oregon warns of a higher risk of water shortages and wildfires in the central part of the state, and places like central Utah, southeastern Colorado, and eastern New Mexico are still dealing with extreme drought. In California, like many other states, the prolonged drought will affect farmlands and decrease agriculture production, leading to higher prices across the country. This will have socioeconomic impacts leading to a reduction in the agriculture workforce and a knock-on effect on other jobs that support that industry,” Duman explains.
To help illustrate the urgency surrounding Lake Powell’s water levels, Duman worked with two departments within the Utah Department of Natural Resources, who told Duman that nobody had yet worked with them to try to creatively reflect Lake Powell’s decreasing water levels. He tells PetaPixel that he worked with the Utah Division of Water Resources for nearly a year on his Lake Powell project.
“When I initially presented the concept, I think it took them a little while to visualize it and truly understand what I was trying to achieve. I tried to find some references but could not find any. An early concept I had was to ‘light paint’ the lines contouring across the cliff walls using a drone. However, this became too much of an issue with it being a government-protected area,” Duman says.
He explains to PetaPixel that only a few types of drones would’ve been approved, and light painting would have required dim ambient light conditions, which would’ve been difficult while shooting from a boat on Lake Powell. It would have been a very laborious, time-consuming, expensive, and impractical option.
Duman ultimately decided to capture real-world images and combine them with digital lines added by retouching artists.
He was guided by boat patrol sheriffs for a couple of days, visiting areas he’d researched. Duman says he captured over 2,000 images, even though he knew he’d only use around six.
“I wanted to have the variety of the cliffs in terms of unique formations, height, and contour. It certainly was time-consuming to choose the images that made the final cut, with multiple passes and selects,” he explains.
Retouching required multiple revisions, and getting precise water levels for each image was important. To do so. Duman worked with the Utah Division of Water Resources, which provided accurate historical information.
Duman explains the red line on his visuals, “I also felt it was imperative to add the red line to represent the Minimum Power Pool which is defined as ‘The water elevation in the reservoir below which water can no longer produce power because the water does not reach the intakes for the hydropower generation.’ This is the line we all hope we don’t reach, and we are indeed dangerously close.”
“I truly hope that this project will help people understand the severity of the situation and the dire consequences we all face one way or another should we, as a human race, not make changes to avoid it. I hope it will spur someone to think about the water use in their homes and be more conscious about it,” Duman explains.
“I know we’ve heard this a million times, but we really do only have one planet, and water is such a precious commodity. Hopefully, this visual photography representation helps people remember the importance of water conservation for the sake of all of us,” he continues.
Andrei Duman’s Lake Powell: A 40-Year Visual Story of Water Crisis project is available on his website. Alongside this personal project, Duman recently shared details of his X-Ray series with PetaPixel. Duman’s commercial photography work is also available on his website and Instagram.
Image credits: All images © Andrei Duman
I’ve been a full-time photographer for almost 15 years now, and I remember the pain of swapping my part-time hobby to be my full-time career. Katelyn James looks at how, when, and why you’d want to do this and lists the three key steps to consider if you decide to go full-time.
Katelyn looks at the three main points you’d need to ponder when deciding to go full-time as a photographer.
It always worried me when changing my career if I’d have enough money to pay my household bills. I had a period of crossover from one career to my current career and I was still doing my previous job as well as taking on photographic jobs. I was an IT technical support contractor, and I was lucky enough to have lots of small contracts and people whose computers and businesses were my responsibility. Katelyn points out the things I was lucky enough to know when I transitioned from one career to another. These are things that, if you’re working for someone else, you might not have considered. Changing your mindset from “this is play money, as I have another full-time job to cover the bills” to “how do I make enough money as a photographer to cover the bills?” Her suggestion to have a buffer fund is a great idea and something I implemented at the start too.
One of the hardest things is managing time. I get it. Writing at 2 am. Editing at 7:30 am. You have to consider the time you spend giving attention to your new business. It’s always going to be difficult in the beginning, and Katelyn discusses the right approach. I personally prefer to work when I need to. I am never going to be a 9-5 person.
This, for me, is the main reason why I became a full-time photographer. I didn’t like the 9-5, and often, I worked past 5 pm to get things finished and was still expected to be in at 9 am the next morning despite working late. The great thing about working weddings is that while it’s a full day’s work, you can (in most cases) rest the next morning. Katelyn does her best to advise you that “it’s not all rainbows and unicorns,” and I have to agree
This is an important video to watch if you are transitioning to being full-time at photography or thinking you might like to go full-time. I’d definitely recommend a watch.
Invented in Europe, in 1839, photography was quickly embraced in the United States. This should come as no surprise. Photography was a democratic medium for a democratic society: accessible, unpretentious, utilitarian, inexpensive. “The smallest town now has its Daguerrian gallery,” Frederick Douglass declared in an 1861 lecture. “The farmer boy gets an iron shoe for his horse. And a metallic picture for himself at the same time. And at the same price.”
“Daguerrian” refers to daguerreotypes, one of the two originating formats for photography. Paper prints was the other. Daguerreotypes were more popular in America. Like them, tintypes were printed on metal (iron, actually, not tin). The process was patented in 1856. Less expensive than daguerreotypes, tintypes soon surpassed them in popularity. They were at their most popular in the 1860s and ‘70s, though “Painted Tintypes: Photography for the People” includes examples from the late 19th century and into the early 20th, as well as one from 2007.
There are 50 tintypes in the show, which runs at the Museum of Fine Arts through Oct. 15. The MFA’s Anne Havinga and Michael J. Bramwell curated. In a winning touch, the show also features a tintype ticket. It entitles the bearer to 10 tintypes for $2.50. No date is given, but let’s assume it’s from 1865. In that case, the ticket would cost $46 today. Less than $5 per image? That’s a bargain.
As its title indicates, a particular version of tintype is the show’s focus: ones that had been tinted by hand. Tintypes were black and white. Coloring was a way to make them look more natural. Coloring also allowed whoever did the tinting a degree of creativity in the process that the camera’s objectivity did not allow for.
Most of the tintypes are portraits, whether of individuals, families, or some other grouping. A few of the images stand out because of their atypical subjects: a baseball player, firemen, a Dalmatian, a pair of boxers, a group of soldiers from a Union regiment. The Civil War gave an enormous boost to the popularity of the tintype. It was an inexpensive and readily available way to record a loved one heading into harm’s way — or, conversely, for soldiers, a keepsake of home.
To give a sense of how much tintypes cut across society, there are many images of women and people of color. That emphasis on the social aspect of the images makes sense, though the wall text does tend to belabor this, keyed more to uplift than specific insight.
One example: “As an invaluable collective force, women from all walks of society raised whole generations, fought for political and racial equality, made major scientific breakthroughs, and nourished and kept families together.”
It’s hard to imagine now, but color in photography didn’t become respectable in “serious” photography until the 1970s. One of the chief agents of that change was the photographer Joel Meyerowitz. “It describes more things,” Meyerowitz said of why he switched from black and white to color.
Paradoxically, with painted tintypes this greater descriptiveness, instead of making the images appear more lifelike, has a distancing effect. They seem slightly unreal. That is, any photograph is unreal. It’s two dimensions doing the work of three (four, if you include time). But here that unreality gets exaggerated. The addition of color doesn’t so much heighten reality as deflect it. The miracle of photography is how it arrests time. These painted tintypes seem to be outside of time. They summon up neither the sitter’s then nor the viewer’s now.
You can almost feel the painted surface come between you and the subject. Applying color counters the lustrousness, precision, and sense of immediacy that are among the tintype’s chief characteristics. The color is like candy-coating. Many of the tintypes look like pastels or lithographs. Weirdly, there’s a stylistic resemblance in several to the tintypes to the painting of Douanier Rousseau. This is rather beguiling. It’s even more disorienting.
The few tintypes in the show that haven’t been tinted have far more force — they look more “real, or far less “unreal” — than the tinted ones. They’re so much more direct and affecting. It’s especially true of the late David Prifti’s “Shawna.” That’s the tintype from 2007. The image could hardly be simpler in appearance. A young Black woman with a marvelous sweep of hair behind her is seen in profile in front of a grayish corrugated wall. That’s it. Yet the tintype has a vividness and emotional heft unlike anything else in the show.
In part, that’s a tribute to Prifti. In part, it’s a reminder of the aptness of a remark the great French film critic André Bazin once made: “photography does not create eternity, as art does, it embalms time.” Here the embalmer’s skills, rouged cheeks and all, come to the fore.
PAINTED TINTYPES: Photography for the People
At Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., through Oct. 15. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.org
Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com.
