A presentation will be held in conjunction with the current show at the Dorris Rider Art Gallery in Trenton. The gallery is in the Frey Administrative Building on the North Central Missouri College campus.

Arts Alive will sponsor “Focus on Photography” on May 7th from 1 to 2:30 pm. The program will be free and open to the public. Jim Norris, with the art gallery, says photography from former Trenton resident Tim Reynolds has been on display for a couple of months.

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The exhibit will close on May 20th. There will be a reception that day from 1 to 2:30 pm, and those in attendance can visit with Reynolds.

Norris says Reynolds grew up in Trenton and graduated from Trenton High School in 1979. After a stint in the Air Force, Reynolds was an air traffic controller for the Federal Aviation Administration.

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Reynolds now lives in the Kansas City area.

Norris says the Dorris Rider Art Gallery is two levels, and the upstairs is like a balcony. There are about 35 photos on display, and every piece in the gallery is for sale.

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The art gallery’s regular hours are weekdays from 8:30 to 4:30. It is also open by appointment.

More information on the “Focus on Photography” show on May 7th, Tim Reynolds’s closing reception on May 20th, or the Dorris Rider Art Gallery, in general, can be obtained by contacting Jim Norris at North Central Missouri College at 660-357-6345. More information can also be found on the Dorris Rider Art Gallery’s Facebook page.

Photographer Michael Watson has spent the last decade traveling to small, independent wrestling shows capturing the brave men and women who put their bodies on the line night after night.

Some of Watson’s photos are bloody and brutal; almost difficult to look at. But he tells PetaPixel that pro-wrestling provides a dynamic and exciting subject matter.

“It’s this really bizarre blend of sport, real-life, and theater, ” he explains. “People dress up in crazy costumes or wear face paint, or bleed all over each other.”

“There’s literally no part of wrestling that isn’t visually interesting to me, then add in the people behind the performance and documenting them as human beings,” he continues.

“It’s kind of an endless well of moments that make for interesting photos. Wrestling shows being such intense and chaotic events also makes it a really fun challenge to photograph.”

Watson’s photos capture the high drama of in-ring action as well as glimpses of backstage and even home life of the wrestlers. His commitment to sports entertainment has landed him gigs with All Elite Wrestling (AEW), the second-largest wrestling promotion in the country.

“A lot of being accepted into these spaces is just a building of trust,” Watson explains. “Some of these wrestlers I’ve been shooting the entire 10 years I’ve been involved, so their peers see them comfortable with me being around, definitely with people letting their guard down a bit.”

Watson adds that reading social cues is an important part of the job and all wrestlers, just like regular folk, will react to the camera differently.

A Mix of Film and Digital

Watson uses Nikon DSLR and mirrorless cameras. “I like how the Speedlight looks more with the DSLR and the mirrorless works better with low light,” he adds.

But the photographer uses an analog Mamiya 7 II with an 80mm for portraits outside the ring and a 43mm with a cheal tomography flash for photos inside the ring.

“Sometimes I haul my [Mamiya] RZ67 with me,” he adds. “[I] always use HP5 and Portra 400, sometimes Cinestill 800t. I used to shoot a lot of Polaroids on a SLR680. I actually made two books of those portraits.”

Watson publishes an annual zine of his photos and is working on a magazine called Intermission that will feature his favorite portraits from over the years.

“Overall I’m documenting a really amazing niche subculture of incredible athletes and my hope is that some of my photos can help lend a small piece to the story of this era of pro-wrestling,” he adds.

More of Watson’s work can be viewed on his website and Instagram.

Image credits: All photos by Michael Watson.

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Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunities for Incredible Yellowstone Photography

Whether you’re hoping to get that perfectly-timed shot of Old Faithful erupting on a cloudless afternoon or you’re up early to see the sun’s first rays hit the surface of Yellowstone Lake, there are innumerable opportunites to photograph Yellowstone National Park’s natural splendor.

Hobbyists and freelance professionals alike capture amazing images of Yellowstone each year. If you intend to join them, there are a few things you need to know about making the most of Yellowstone photography.

Here are the things every photographer, regardless of skill level, gear quality, or experience, should think about regarding Yellowstone photography.

1. Safety is Crucial to Successful Yellowstone Photography

We all want that perfectly focused shot that makes your audience feel up close and personal with Yellowstone’s wildlife. Fortunately, there are a variety of techniques and pieces of gear you can use to achieve this effect without actually approaching animals.

Entirely too many people, some photographers included, treat Yellowstone like a theme park. It isn’t one — it’s wild, and the wildlife will respond if they feel threatened.

Always view animals from a distance of at least 25 yards. For grizzly bears and wolves, maintain a safe distance of at least 100 yards. Never approach wildlife in your Yellowstone photography work.

Instead, let zoom lenses do the work for you.

If you’ve never worked in bear country before, don’t take it lightly. Bears, especially grizzly bears, can seriously injure or kill you if provoked. Always carry bear spray, and take the time to review these bear safety guidelines before you visit Yellowstone.

One more safety note: Use pullouts to park along highways. There’s already enough congestion on Yellowstone’s roadways, and abruptly stopping on the shoulder — sometimes, even in the middle of the lane — only contributes to this growing problem.

Keep your safety and that of your fellow motorists in mind, no matter how alluring or fleeting the photo opportunity may be. While you’re at it, if this is your first time visiting Yellowstone, have a look at these important recommendations for driving inside Yellowstone National Park.

2. Leave It the Way You Found It

Yellowstone was established in 1872 as the world’s first national park in order to preserve and protect this incredible area, its natural beauty, and its wildlife. Preservation is still at the forefront of the National Park Service’s approach in Yellowstone, which is why you’ll see minimal infrastructure throughout the park.

Yellowstone is wild, and park administrators aim to keep it that way. You can help by minimizing your footprint.

Stay on trails and boardwalks, especially in thermal areas. Leaving the trail contributes to erosion.

Thermal areas are fragile, especially the bacterial mats that give sites like Grand Prismatic Spring their astonishing colors. Stepping into these sensitive areas can cause irreparable damage, sullying the experience for other visitors.

As you pursue your Yellowstone photography, remember that every park visitor has a responsibility to do their part in preserving Yellowstone. Stay on trails and boardwalks.

In addition, leaving the boardwalk in thermal areas is a safety risk. You could fall through the thin, brittle ground in these areas and be seriously injured — or worse — by the scalding, incredibly acidic water right beneath the surface.

3. Ditch the Drone

Fortunately, this one doesn’t require much explanation.

Drone use is prohibited in Yellowstone National Park. 

You can’t launch them, land them, or operate them. Period. Desperate for an overhead view of Yellowstone? Try Google Earth.

4. Engage in Yellowstone Photography with Your Fellow Visitors in Mind

We’ve touched on this point already, but it deserves its own section.

You’ve rearranged your schedule, traveled a long way — likely at considerable expense — and worked hard to prepare for your long-awaited Yellowstone photography opportunity.

The thing is, so did everyone else.

As with all things, Yellowstone photography comes with trade-offs. It’s not a zero-sum game, either. Don’t be pushy, be considerate of the people around you, and pack your patience.

Remember, we all share Yellowstone National Park, and it’s every visitor’s responsibility to help the people around them enjoy their visit.

At a minimum, don’t detract from the Yellowstone photography of others. Don’t hog a prime spot for too long, and if there’s no room, don’t force your way in.

In general, simply follow the golden rule: Treat others the way you’d want to be treated.

There’s been so much attention given to the fantasy worlds created in AI art recently that it’s refreshing to come across a reminder of how powerful photography still is when it comes to creating truly magical imagery. And how it can create stunning fantasy scenes.

Some of the South African photographer Tarryn Goldman’s photographs look like optical illusions. At first glance, you would think they were paintings, but look deeper and you see that the image comprises entirely real people and objects (see our pick of the best cameras if you want to try to recreate your own favourite artwork).

In Goldman’s ‘Painted Girl’, painting and photography collide with surreal results. The photographer painted her model, set and props using an impasto technique, building up layers to create depth and shadow to make the photograph look like an oil painting (see some backstage footage in the post above). 

It’s an interesting play on the concept of art capturing reality. For a moment, we think we’re looking at a 2D photograph of a 2D painting of a scene, but actually, it’s a photograph of a 3D scene made to look like a 2D artwork.

The Painted Girl was shortlisted for the Africa Photo Awards back in 2020, and Goldman has continued to create magical images, including pieces of digital collage that place her models in fantasy worlds. And many of these have a depth and beauty that generative AI art simply can’t compare with.

You can see more of Goldman’s work on her website (opens in new tab) and her Instagram account (opens in new tab). 

If you’re looking to develop your own photography work, see our pick of the best website builder for photographers. We also have some top photography tips, iPhone Pro camera tips and a piece on how to use photography in design.

This shot was taken in Istanbul a year into my work on Hafiz, the photo series that would launch my career as a photographer. Between 2017 and 2021, I travelled across Turkey documenting the lives of young Muslim schoolgirls enrolled in religious Qur’anic schools and studying to obtain “hafiz” – an ancient rite of passage that requires the memorising of all 604 pages – or 6,236 verses, or 77,430 words – of the Holy Qur’an.

Hafiz, which translates as “guardian” or “memoriser”, is a custom following in the footsteps of the prophet Muhammad, who – between the 6th and 7th centuries, when most people in the Arabic world were illiterate – spread religious scripture by word of mouth. Still today, thousands of students study to memorise the holy book. From the age of 12, my twin sister and I began the process, too. Every day we woke at 5am with the morning call to prayer, before chanting lines alongside 600 classmates at Qur’anic school. In the afternoon we attended secular school. There were moments of freedom at home, when we watched TV, ate what we liked and were normal teenagers. But in those moments I found myself missing hafiz school, and in particular my classmates. They became my sisters, too.

And 20 years later, while creating the Hafiz series, the girls I met travelling across Turkey quickly became my best friends. They embraced me, knowing I am one of them. This photo is one of the most arresting in the series because of the unexpected contrasts: the black veils against the pink rollercoaster; a symbol of serious, religious observance next to a site of pleasure and youthful abandon. It deliberately undercuts the viewer’s expectations. For me, it was important to photograph the girls outside of their studies: at picnics or funfairs – moments of joy and recreation. For this shot, Seyma, Nehir and Sare became my creative collaborators. They patiently waited for me to capture the moment with the low-flying plane.

There are thousands of single-sex Qur’anic schools in Turkey alone, with the tradition mostly being upheld by girls. For those who follow the practices of the faith, a hafiz should be owed the highest respect by their community. It is forbidden to cross one’s legs or raise one’s voice in front of a hafiz – a rule that applies even to the men of any household. It is a rare example of when women and girls can have elevated status in certain Islamic countries.

Before becoming a photographer, I studied international trade and finance at the Istanbul Bilgi University. I wrote my thesis on Muslim women and the “subaltern” – a frequently used term in postcolonial thought for those designated as lower status in society. And as an extension of my academic work, my photography seeks to capture the hafiz schoolgirls in a nuanced and empowered light. I’m paying respect to the hafiz-in-training for their religious devotion and commitment. But as an artist and a woman, I’m also paying respect to all Muslim women. I wanted to counter the demeaning representations of Muslim women in visual culture, both in the east and the west. In film and TV, they often appear as secondary or servile characters – marginalised without a critical role or voice.

I want to show that these women and girls are not simply bound to the oppressive structures surrounding them. Beyond the school walls and their veils, their interior worlds and lived experiences are colourful, rich and rebellious. I’m honouring sisterhood and solidarity.

Since pursuing photography professionally, I have only worked on medium-format film, using a Hasselblad camera. I’m self-taught but have strived to learn everything I can about the medium. I choose not to work with digital cameras because it disturbs my creative process; I prefer a slower approach, with film that gives the texture I see in other art forms. In general I find myself more drawn to painting and poetry than photography: artists such as Andrew Wyeth, El Greco, Van Gogh, Caravaggio and Chagall.

Although I never completed schooling to be a hafiz, the experience is instilled in my artistic practice and outlook. I continue to wake at five every morning to pray, before beginning my work as an artist. The intensity of religious schooling gave me discipline and ignited my creative impulses: I escaped into my imagination, dreaming about the world beyond, or what the future might hold. Now, more than three decades later, my work is rooted in the past – a sense of nostalgia for this time of religious ritual, daydreaming and girlhood.

Hafiz by Sabiha Çimen is at Kunsthal Rotterdam until 7 May.

Sabiha Çimen’s CV

Born: Istanbul, Turkey, 1986.
Trained: Self-taught.
Influences: “Painting, poetry.”
High point: “Winning the Paris Photo-Aperture first photobook award with Hafiz.”
Low point: “My lowest point is also my highest point – because it challenges me to make better work.”
Top tip: “Never compromise your photographic vision.”

The Office of University Relations Photography Studio invites faculty and staff to schedule a free session to update your professional headshot. 

Marquette University uses professional staff and faculty headshots in various vehicles, including Marquette Today, Marquette Magazine, news releases and social media, among other outlets. It’s helpful to keep these photos up-to-date, high-quality and standardized across the institution. 

After your headshot session, participants will receive a copy of their chosen photo for their own use as well. OUR recommends sharing your photo with your department for website updates and updating your LinkedIn profile.  

Use the online scheduling tool to schedule your appointment. Once you have selected a day and time, scroll down on the screen to add your name, email and Marquette department or organization. Click “Book” to secure your day and time. More dates and times will be added throughout the summer and into the fall semester. 

Headshot sessions are held in the OUR Photography Studio in Zilber Hall. Your session will be 20 minutes in duration and will include time for you to be photographed and to view and select your final image for further editing. After creating an appointment, you will receive a confirmation email with a calendar invitation, both of which include helpful details to prepare you for your session. A reminder notification will also be sent. 

If you have any questions, please email OUR.

LED light wands, or light sticks, provide an effective (and relatively affordable) alternative to a photographer’s flashgun or a videomaker’s stand-mounted lamp. Photographers don’t need to sync a light wand with their camera’s shutter button as a wand emits a continuous light source. Thanks to a light wand’s internal battery photographers and videographers are free to shoot in a variety of locations without being tethered to a mains power supply (plus light wands are lightweight and portable compared to traditional video lighting kits). 

The continuous light source emitted by an LED (light emitting diode) wand can bring out the shape and form of your subject, change the mood of the scene using multiple colors and even add special animated lighting effects to video footage.  Like LED light panels, light wands are packed full of dozens of light-emitting diodes. Though unlike LED panels they are arranged in a more narrow ‘light sabre’ style column. Each diode can change color, often independently from the other diodes in the wand. This is the key to providing a range of creative and practical lighting scenarios for photographers and videographers. 

Many of the light wands in this guide can be controlled remotely via Bluetooth and a smartphone app. So you can trigger animated lighting presets with a single tap (such as a flashing police car’s light), or dial in a specific color temperature to complement your location’s other light sources. You can also change the hue, saturation and brightness of most of the featured light wands more quickly than the traditional method of clipping colored gels to a lamp’s barn doors.

The light wands in this guide range in cost due to their size, the strength of the light emitted, and other factors (such as Bluetooth connectivity).  Some models will suit portrait photography while others are more suited to providing special lighting effects for video sequences. There’s even a wearable mini LED that switches from a stick to a bracelet, which is perfect for creatively enhancing a sports or fashion shoot! 

The 6 best light sticks for photography 

The Zhiyun Fiveray F100 is an upgraded model from the Fiveray FR100C, so it boasts more LED chips (324) compared to its predecessor’s 256. The newer model also sports a set of barn doors so that you can control the spread of light more easily. You can dial in a range of color temperatures or adjust Hue, Saturation and Lightness for a more creatively colorful output. 

The F100 also has a collection of six animated lighting effects which video makers can use to enhance their creative projects.  It has a 1/4in threaded hole at the base for tripod mounting (though you’ll need to supply your own tripod). 

In our tests, we loved the stick’s combination of power and portability when it came to lighting subjects for photo or video shoots, and it’s easily one of the best video lights despite its size.

The Sirui Dragon B25R is marketed as the world’s first ‘bendable’ LED (though we also feature the bendable the KYU 6 Light Bracelet in this guide).  The Dragon enables you to create a curved field of light thanks to a series of 9 hinged LED panels.  This curved light source is more effective at lighting close-up portrait or product shots rather than more distant subjects. It has two 1/4 inch threads (at the base and the back) so you can mount it on a tripod (not supplied).  As well as the ability to change color temperature and hue, you can trigger a generous 16 different lighting effects via a well-designed Bluetooth-connected smartphone app, making this what we think is a particularly desirable light stick for creative videographers. 

Nanlite produces a collection of PavoTube LED light wands that differ greatly in price. Despite its relatively low cost, the PavoTube T8-7X boasts features found in more expensive LED wands such as the PavoTube II X-Series. These features include animated pixel effects such as ‘Driving’, which mimics the effect of passing street lights illuminating your subject’s face.  You can trigger these animated effects via the Nanlink smartphone app, as well as performing the usual LED wand adjustments to color hue and temperature. 

At under $100 / £100 it won’t break your budget. We love that you can get your subject to wield the T8-7X light (light saber style) for creative in-shot light streaks, or mount it on a tripod to add fill light to portraits. 

As Nanlite are a prolific maker of LED wands it’s no surprise to see another PavoTube gracing this guide. The four foot long PavoTube II 30C is the upgraded version of the Nanlite PavoTube 30C that we have previously reviewed. The MK II version is 20% more powerful than its predecessor so gives you a brighter light source and more color-accurate key lighting in a photography studio or help a video presenter stand out from a background on location.  

The older model lacked Bluetooth connectivity, but we are very pleased the PavoTube II 30C now has this essential feature, enabling wireless control of the LED wand’s colors and effects via the Nanlink smartphone app. The newer model also boasts 15 special lighting effects compared to Mark 1’s miserly 5.  A supplied clip enables you to mount the PavoTube II 30C on a tripod. 

This kit comes with two mini LED light wands that transform from a rigid light stick shape to a wearable bracelet in a snap. In bracelet form they are perfect for adding light streaks to slow shutter photography or pools of color to portrait shoots.  The two light wands in the kit have slightly different features. The RGB light bracelet has a creative color scheme that can emit primary colors. It also has a collection of animated lighting sequences such as a flickering fire or flashing red and blue cop car. The kit’s Bi-Color bracelet can emit light across the Kelvin scale (from a daylight 600K to a tungsten 2700K) so is able to match other light sources. It has a different collection of animated effects including Stroboscopic and Explosion.  You can buy either of the light bracelets individually to save money or go for a six-pack for more complex lighting scenarios using the KYU-6 Filmmakers Pro Kit.

The Godox TL60 RGB tube light can work alone just like the other wands in this guide. However, some photographers and videographers may require a larger LED set-up where multiple light wands can work independently or be synced together to emit identical light effects.  

The four TL60 light tubes in this kit can be physically linked together via supplied cables. You can then set one light as the master and the others as slaves. The three slaves will then follow any lighting presets that you set on the master tube light. 

You can control the wands via the Godox app, though this kit also comes with a handy dedicated remote control unit. Each TL60 RGB wand can emit a range of HSI colors and has a color temperature range of 2700-6500K, plus a collection of 14 animated presets (including the ubiquitous Police Car effect).  There are also 40 digital gels that you can apply to change color. The four-wand kit is expensive but you can also buy the TL60 RGB tube individually. 

Read more:

• Best LED panels for photography
• Best lighting kits
• Best ring lights
• Best reflectors for photography
• Best portable backgrounds for photography
• Best light stands