Photography 24/7 » Master Photographer

Steve McCurry Talks About the “Afghan Girl” and Shows Outtakes

Thomas — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:38:53 +0000

If you like making great natural light portraits Steve McCurry is clearly one of the great masters to study. He is a master at capturing the unguarded moment and showing us the soul of his subjects.

In fact he published a book titled The Unguarded Moment in 2009, ten years after the brilliant Portraits published in 1999 (a must-have for portrait photographers).

Steve McCurry is of course best known for his “Afghan Girl” photograph, the beautiful Afghan girl with the stunning green eyes and a piercing gaze. After the photograph gained worldwide recognition when it was featured on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic Magazine, several attempts were made by McCurry to identify the girl during the 1990s. However the identity of the “Afghan Girl” would remain unknown for over 17 years.

In 2002 a National Geographic team travelled to Afghanistan and finally located the girl in a remote region of Afghanistan. She was identified as Sharbat Gula and determined to be around the age of 30, which means she was around the age of 12 when the picture was made. Incredibly Gula had not seen her own famous portrait until it was shown to her in 2003.

In this five minute video clip Steve McCurry talks about how he created the photograph and shows some of the few outtakes from what was a relatively short photo session:

In recognition of Sharbat Gula (“Afghan Girl”), National Geographic set up the Afghan Girls Fund, a charitable organization with the goal of educating Afghan girls and young women. In 2008, the scope of the fund was broadened to include boys and the name was changed to Afghan Children’s Fund.

You can donate to the fund by visiting this link: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/donate/afghan-childrens-fund.html

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National Geographic Photographer Bruce Dale: 30 Years of BAD Pictures

Thomas — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:49:59 +0000

Bruce Dale worked exclusively for National Geographic for 30 years. Bruce Dale’s assignments varied from undersea to aerial photography and from people to complex science subjects while working in over 75 countries.

With over two thousand photographs published by National Geographic, Bruce Dale’s vision and creativity twice earned him the title “Magazine Photographer of the Year.”

In 1989 he was named “White House Photographer of the Year” and more recently, his innovative work with digital imaging brought him honors from the Smithsonian Institution. In addition to many other awards, one of his photographs now journeys beyond the solar system on board NASA’s Voyager Spacecraft, as testimony about planet Earth.

One of his more memorable photos involved mounting two cameras on the tail of a Lockheed TriStar jumbo jet to make spectacular views of the big jet in flight. One, a 23 second time exposure, led to a three page gatefold in the Geographic – the other a cover on the magazine.

He considers his favorite images are those serendipitous moments totally alien to the well planned picture. “I actually plan on the unplanned picture in an attempt to capture the spontaneity and mood of the moment.”

Dale left National Geographic to pursue a blend of editorial and corporate and advertising photography. His book, The American Southwest, was published by National Geographic in January of 1999.

Watch this interview with Bruce Dale where he discusses some of his more memorable photos – includng his famous jumbo jet shot – from what is a very impressive portfolio spanning 30 years.

And then for a more relaxed presentation, sit back and watch this beautiful video by Bruce Dale titled “Aurora in Winter” (if you’re in the northern hemisphere this might just cool you down a bit in the middle of a warm summer).

For more on Dale’s work take a look at his website: www.brucedale.com.

In the Selected Photos section, you’ll find links to some interesting photos and how they were made.

You can find many interesting books and DVDs published by the National Geographic. Here are some of my favourite and recommended National Geographic publications:

P.S. For a full assortment of National Geographic products you might also want to have browse through the National Geographic Store.

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Sally Mann Revisited

Thomas — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:23:16 +0000

A little while back I reviewed the DVD What Remains which is perhaps one of the best photography documentary films I have ever watched. Heck, it’s worth watching even just for the music! It’s a great film. Anyway you can read the full review in this post.

Before watching What Remains I knew very little about Sally Mann. I had seen a few of her images but had never really taken any notice. That type of photography simply didn’t interest me much when I first came across her work. That has all changed proportionally with my interest in photography!

When I first started getting into photography I was interested almost exclusively in wildlife, nature and landscape photography. Now I’m head over heels in love with virtually all genres of photography. I’m also very interested in the history of photography and the master photographers who helped shape photography as an artform throughout the 20th century.

Anyway, so today the book Immediate Family by Sally Mann arrived from Amazon. This amazing body of work is discussed in great detail in the DVD together with Sally Mann’s new body of work titled What Remains which is also the title of the DVD.

Flicking through Immediate Family and experiencing some of Sally Mann’s famous images again together with many new images that were never shown in the DVD, I’m completely awestruck by this body of work. It’s some of the most engaging, intimate and thought provoking portraits I’ve ever seen. It’s riveting and enigmatic photography.

If I was ever to teach photography in any formal capacity Sally Mann’s Immediate Family would be compulsory for my students.

If you have the slightest interest in portrait photography Immediate Family is a must for your bookshelf. You’ll want to look through these photographs again and again and again!

Yes, there is some nude photographs of Sally Mann’s own young children in this book and this fact is of course controversial and is also being discussed in the film. It should, perhaps, be considered that Immediate Family was shot more than 20 years ago, but even so, for anyone to have been – or continue to be – offended by these photographs of innocent children is simply ludicrous. The absurdity of the controversy is amplified by the fact that Sally Mann never intended for the nude photographs to cause offense. Nudity was part of everyday life amongst the Mann kids, it was natural and innocent, it was part of growing up.

Enough said already. Do yourself a favour, get What Remains and Immediate Family today! You won’t regret it!

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DVD Review: What Remains

Thomas — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:18:07 +0000

As I have written before I’m very interested in the creative process of photography. It’s not that I don’t like the ‘how-to’ aspect of photography, because that’s interesting too, but at a certain point as you become better technically, it’s the artistic process that becomes more interesting. At least so it is for me.

To me, what’s interesting about a good image is not so much how it was conceived technically, but rather how it was conceived creatively.

In the DVD What Remains director Steven Cantor follows Sally Mann at her family farm in Virginia over a period of five years, and the viewer is given unbridled access to the many stages of Mann’s work and gets a rare glimpse of an eloquent and brilliant artist.

What Remains is all about the artistic process, so if you’re like me, you’ll absolutely love this DVD.

I have to be brutally honest, though, and admit that before buying What Remains I knew very little about Sally Mann.

For example I didn’t know that Sally Mann was described as “America’s greatest photographer” by Time Magazine.

I had come across her name once or twice in the past and I remember having seen a couple of her photos in the past (including the one of Jessie with a candy cigarette shown below), but none of it really stuck with me at the time for some reason. Probably because this was back in my ‘how-to’ days.

Not so now. After watching What Remains (a few times now) I have fallen completely in love with Sally Mann’s work, in particular her Immediate Family which is a series of photographs of her children that brought Sally Mann to international attention in 1992 for the first time.

What Remains is easily one of the best photography documentary films I have ever seen. I also really like Born Into Brothels but let’s save that for another time. What Remains is absolutely brilliantly put together by the talented director Steven Cantor, and the musical score is both incredibly beautiful and strangely moody, setting an amazing atmosphere throughout the film.

The New York Times wrote this about What Remains when it came out in 2006:

“One of the most exquisitely intimate portraits not only of an artist’s process, but also of a marriage and a life.”

To me Sally Mann embodies what a true artist is. She recognizes simple every day events and has the ability to transform these events into amazing works art. She lets life inspire her.

Mann gives a perfect example of this in the film when she describes how Immediate Family started:

“I just was responding to things that appealed to me. One day Jessie came home with a gnat bite on her face and it was all swollen up. Actually it had bruised. It really looked like she’d been beaten up. Up until that point I’d thought that the children were snashot material. But she was so striking that it occurred to me that right here, right under my nose was a picture – I mean a real picture. And I just put her up against the wall and documented it. So that’s how I started.”

Straight after seeing Sally Mann telling the story of the photograph of Jessie’s gnat bite, director Steven Cantor clips to the next scene which took me in a slightly unexpected direction. The next scene simply reduced me to tears (yeah, yeah, I know, a grown man crying is not the best look for the macho image, but hey, I’m just telling you the truth here).

Tears just streamed down my face as I watched how Sally Mann directed her other girl, Virginia, into what looks like a small swimming pool so that only her head is above water. She then asks her to pull her hair out into a circle and Virginia, innocently, does her best to pose for her mother.

Sally Mann then creates one of the most wonderful pictures I think I’ve ever seen. It’s just a very, very moving photograph, and seeing how it was created made it all the more moving. The photograph is as pure a mixture of innocence and beauty as you can get I think.

Mann was unaware of the media attention she would attract with Immediate Family, and more so the controversy that her work would stir up. To her, the photographs were little more than tender, maternal photographs of her children.

Yet to some, they were child pornography, and the mark of an irresponsible mother. The controversy that Immediate Family stirred up has been described to be a direct reflection of the times in which the photographs was produced, and says more about the adult viewer than of the child subject.

While Immediate Family propelled Sally Mann into the hall of fame, she clearly indicates in the film that she could have been without all the controversy and that it took her completely by surprise.

The title What Remains relates to Sally Mann’s same-named series on the myriad aspects of death and decay. A series of photographs which may very well be regarded as yet another controversial body of work by some. However once again Sally Mann draws direct inspiration from a dramatic event that unfolds right on her farm, and then goes on to create a whole series of fascinating pictures as a result of this event which director Steven Cantor – and the viewer – follows from conception to completion.

If you’re interested in being given an exclusive and intimate look into the artistic process of one of America’s preeminent photographers, then I can highly recommend that you buy yourself What Remains right now. It is an outstanding photography documentary film.

You won’t regret it, promise!

What Remains runs for 80 minutes.

The DVD also includes several special features including Steven Cantor’s 1994 Oscar-nominated documentary Blood Ties which was shot during the creation of Sally Mann’s Immediate Family series.

Enjoy!

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Interview with Tony Sweet

Thomas — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:55:38 +0000

Tony Sweet is one of my all time personal favourite photographers and he has been a huge inspiration for me when it comes to image design. When you view his images you will notice that each one of them are meticulously composed with careful attention to detail.

I have been fortunate enough to be able attend two of Tony’s online photography classes a couple of years ago: Image Design: Revealing Your Personal Vision and Fine Art Flower Photography which he still teaches over at BetterPhoto.com and I can highly recommend both of these two courses. Tony’s teaching style is straight to the point, yet very caring and encouraging all while he shares a wealth of knowledge with his students.

I’m very grateful that Tony was kind enough to take the time for this interview in between conducting on location workshops, teaching online photography classes, writing magazine articles and running his general nature photography business!

So, get yourself a good cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy this in depth interview with Master Photographer Tony Sweet.

After 20 years as a professional jazz artist, Tony Sweet changed careers and directed his creative juices towards nature photography. Tony is a ‘Nikon Legend Behind the Lens’, a member of ‘Team Nik’ (NikSoftware) and a ‘Lensbaby Guru’. His fine art prints are exhibited in private and corporate collections throughout the United States, and he is represented by The Getty Picture Agency. Today, Tony’s work is published on greeting cards, calendars, post cards, posters, annual reports, catalogs and various electronic mediums.

1. Tony, first of all thank you very much for taking the time for this interview! For those who might not know you, could you describe your style of photography and perhaps also briefly touch on the moment when you first realised you would make photography a career path?

It’s very difficult for one to describe ones own style of photography. In general, I look for color and graphic interest in most cases, however I’ve recently began looking for more sparse subjects for black and white renderings. We are all in a constant state of flux in any creative endeavor. Despite how people love to pigeon hole photographers styles, there really is only two kinds of photography: good and bad. Initially, I began photographing musicians in night clubs and portraits in my house in Cincinnati. When my first mentor, Tony Gayhart, showed me a nature slide, I decided immediately to pursue this as a career path. I also immediately swapped all of my fast, low light glass for lenses better suited for nature photography (20mm, 35-70mm, 80-200mm, and 105mm macro).

2. You have referred to Pat O’Hara and Tony Gayhart as your mentors and influence, but if you look back in the history of photography what other photographer’s work do you admire and why?

When getting started, I read all the books by John Shaw, Galen Rowell, Rod Planck, Larry West, John Netherton, Jim Zuckerman, Freeman Patterson, and Pat O’hara. I just read everything that I could get my hands on. The styles that appealed to my innate sense of design and photographic viscera were Freeman’s and Pat’s. After years of learning from reading the aforementioned authors to get a firm foundation, I began gravitating to the more impressionist, non representational photography, exemplified by Freeman, Pat and others.

3. A photographer’s day and week can be long! I know that you are often up extremely early, work through the day and often also shoot again around sunset. How do you manage your shooting time, admin work and personal life and get some rest at the same time?

Fortunately, I love every aspect of this business now. Interestingly, digital photography and software expertise has grown together and have inextricably merged to where some software expertise is essential in modern photography. Time management is more a function of how facile one is on the computer and in various software. The faster one can get through image editing and optimization, the better. I know what and where I like to photograph, so I’m not guessing as much and, therefore more effectively managing my shooting time, especially before and after workshops. I also can get by with little sleep, which has it’s drawbacks, but does enable me to get a lot done. Personal life?? Sure, I try to play music once a week with friends when home. I also try to get in a few poker games a year with old friends. Sue and I work and travel together. [Note: Tony's better half Sue aka Susan Milestone is an equally amazing nature photographer with some incredible work as well].

4. As a teacher and instructor you are known to be ‘positive, enthusiastic, generous, encouraging, approachable and energetic’. What motivates you to teach photography as passionately as you do?

Quite simply, I love sharing information and like working with people. As I think back on my life, I’ve always been a teacher, regardless of profession (musician, magician, photographer).

5. Can you talk a little bit about how you challenge yourself creatively and how you choose your subjects (or do they choose you)?

Without getting too abstract, I don’t really challenge myself, per se, but function in the moment, not unlike playing jazz music. I rely on my subconscious to perceive a subject area. Once that happens, I look a bit closer for specific subjects. My challenge is keeping up on creative software use by practicing as often as I can.

6. A great deal of your work is made on the East Coast of the US and is often somewhat more intimate nature and landscape images. However you have recently also been shooting more grand landscapes in areas like the Badlands and I know you have also recently completed another long road trip. How do you feel about photographing in new locations versus much more familiar locations to you like the Smokies for example? And do you approach the grand landscapes differently than the more intimate landscapes?

It takes a while to get past the snap shot stage at new locations and to be able to move to the more personal and more abstract stage. This is why I love revisiting the same locations year after year, not to get the same shots, but to shoot deeper and deeper, getting images that were unattainable on initial visits. When first visiting a new site, I go to the visitor’s center to look at books and post cards to see what’s there and get to locations at pre dawn and/or late afternoon for the after glow, like everyone else. The more we return to an area, the more and deeper we “see.”

7. You have embraced HDR photography and even produced an instructional DVD on the subject. You tend to lean up against the more ‘super real’ images. What captivates you about HDR and do you see a commercial market for it?

HDR is not new, being around since about 1937, but it’s new to the general photographic world. And the world has been flooded with a lot of HDR images, good and bad. I find that HDR is essential to get some scenes to work and can be another way to interpret a scene in a new, fresh way. Commercial market? Many video games have HDR style backdrops, architectural photographers use HDR (paying careful attention to processing the scene to record it as it is), stock photography (although the super real look is not a favorite, yet), and of course for book and article illustrations.

8. We all get stuck in a creative rut sometimes. What advice can you give to someone who is lacking inspiration and needs to get their creative juices flowing again?

Go to a new place
Use a Lensbaby
Try HDR, even on a single image!
Try camera movement / multiple exposures
Use a fisheye lens

9. I think it’s fair to say you have been successful in the stock photography market. How important is stock photography to your business today and what’s your thoughts on the emerging microstock photography market?

For snap shot life style photography, stock will remain viable for a time, but it’s on the way to a whole new paradigm. The younger generation are populating the stock agencies and with that comes the younger approach. The Getty stock agency is trolling for images and may have purchased at least a part of Flickr! So, anyone who adequately key words their images on Flickr has a chance of being approached for an image sale by Getty. However, I wouldn’t get my hopes up as stock prices have plummeted in recent years to the point of no longer being a substantial part of our income, dwindling more each year.

10. How about fine art prints? I know you have recently purchased an Epson 7900 printer, do you produce a lot of fine art prints? Are fine art prints an important part of your business? Are you represented by any art galleries? Do you work with interior designers?

Our business plan is to enter the print market in the coming year. We have a couple of print agents and interior designers we have worked with and will be taking portfolios around to galleries looking for representation during our winter break, in addition to limited web sales.

11. To me some of your stock photography images could as well be fine art prints. How do you make the distinction between a stock image and a fine art image, or do you also offer fine art prints of your stock images? Is any of your fine art prints offered in limited editions?

I’m not sure what fine art is, but I do a little research for stock and noticed the more abstract, movement / blur images and extreme macros / conceptual images are viable. These types of images can be seen as being “fine art.” In general, I just send in what I like and let the agency pick what they like. But, please remember that for a great many photographers, stock is no longer a viable source of income.

12. Finally, what was the most recent photography book you bought for yourself?

I buy photography books all the time, the most recent being, “Badlands of the High Plains” by Chuck Haney.

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Tony Sweet teaches several online classes at BetterPhoto.com and conducts his “Visual Artistry” photography and digital printing workshops from March through October throughout the continental United States and Canada.

Tony has also produced several really excellent books and DVDs which can be purchased from the store on his website or at Amazon.com.

I’m also very excited to announce here on Photography 24/7 that Tony Sweet has just released a new DVD titled “Visual Artistry: The Art of Pre-Visualizing in Modern Digital Photography” (it’s literally being pressed as this interview goes live).

Shot in the springtime, Tony works in a variety of locations from historic downtown Charleston and Drayton Hall, to the magical landscapes of Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. Visual Artistry is filled with compositional techniques, tips and tricks from Tony s many years as a professional photographer and workshop leader.

You can purchase the new DVD directly from Tony Sweet’s website or at Amazon.com.

I own all of Tony’s DVDs and have watched them several times and find them a good source of photographic inspiration each time, so check them out if they are not already in your DVD library.

You can watch a small video in clip from Tony’s Visual Literacy DVD in this previous post: Tony Sweet Nature Portfolio.

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The Life of a (Cowboy) Photograph

Thomas — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:37:53 +0000

In this post I wrote about Sam Abell’s great photo book The Life of a Photograph.

In this video Sam Abell talks about his book and the picture that his peer photographers most admire. The picture in question can be found on page 11 in the book. It is an amazingly complex – yet superbly constructed – photograph of the annual branding and castration of cows at the Ken Rosman Ranch in Utica, Montana. There is a lot to learn from this single photograph, even for the very seasoned photographer.

The Life of a Photograph is quickly becoming one of my favourite photography books and I can highly recommend it to anyone interested in photography.

Hop on over to Amazon.com and treat yourself to a gift today! When did you last purchase a photography book?

Oh, and I say, good split-second decision to leave the red bucket in the cowboy photograph! You’ll see what I mean when you watch the video. Enjoy!

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The Life of a Photograph

Thomas — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:00:32 +0000

I have just started reading The Life of a Photograph by Sam Abell and it’s an amazing photo book. Sam Abell has done more than three decades worth of fieldwork for National Geographic and is an excellent visual storyteller.

In this post I wrote about taking your time to explore different viewpoints. The Life of a Photograph illustrates this point beautifully. The book displays many side-by-side images where Sam Abell points out how subtle differences in point of view, framing, timing and perspective lead to significant photographs.

To give you a little teaser of the great text that accompanies the many excellent photographs let me quote this part of a paragraph from the first chapter “Seeking the Picture”:

Once again something had stopped me. I’d taken it in, composed and waited, then photographed. These small sequential acts amount to a transaction between two lives – the external life of encountered experience and the imaginative inner life of the individual photographer. It is at this intersection of the inner and outer worlds that the life of a photograph begins.

It was these remarkable couple of lines of words that captivated me straight away along with the photography and print quality of the book. I can highly recommend this book as an addition to your photo book shelf.

To view more details about The Life of a Photograph click here.

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Pete Turner: Empowered by Color

Thomas — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:21:17 +0000

Bold color and striking compositions are at the core of Pete Turner’s extraordinary vision. Critic A.D. Coleman wrote of Turner’s work, “A dramatist’s sense of event, intense and saturated coloration, and a distinct if indescribable otherness are omnipresent in Turner’s images.”

In 1959, an expedition from Capetown to Cairo was a turning point in Turner’s career. In 1967, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York exhibited “The Giraffe” from a 1964 expedition. A controversial image for the time, the giraffe, silhouetted against a brilliant red sky, illustrated his growing interest in treating color as a graphic element. A master colorist, he broke all the rules in a pre-computer era.

Watch this video to learn more about Pete Turner and view some of his outstanding imagery:

You may also want to consider a couple Pete Turner’s books (I own “The Color of Jazz” myself and it’s a beautiful book filled with many Turner’s great images):

The Color of Jazz

African Journey

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André Kertész: The Polaroids

Thomas — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 02:54:12 +0000

André Kertész “The Polaroids” is, perhaps, the best photo book I have ever purchased, deserving of nothing less than a feature review here at Photography 24/7.

It might be small in format (measuring just 7.2 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches) but it is huge on emotion! I cannot remember any other photo book that have moved me as much as this one. It is simply deeply touching.

Robert Gurbo, curator of the Estate of André Kertész, introduces us to The Polaroids by chronicling André Kertész’ life and his somewhat troubled carreer in a brilliant and interesting fashion. This introduction takes up the first 28 pages of the total 128 pages, the rest is filled with Kertész’ “poignant, beautiful and sometimes haunting photographs.”

It’s a hardcover book with a jacket and the inside of the ‘jacket’ begins as follows:

“Emotionally and physically exchausted after the loss of Elizabeth, his wife and lifelong companion, André Kertész was admittedly a broken man who had lost his direction. His remarkable recovery began when he was inspired by a small glass bust and he embraced the new Polaroid SX-70.”

This sets the stage for the book and for the beautiful and often moving images, all of which were made in Kertész’ apartment, just north of New York City’s Washington Square. Many of the photographs were shot either from his window or in the windowsill.

It’s truly inspiring to think about how Kertész, in his 80s, could muster the strength and inspiration to create such a significant body of work after having been ill himself and after having lost his wife of 58 years to lung cancer. As he started working with the Polaroid SX-70 “he was on fire, delighted once again to be in a heightened state of creative awareness.”

“I began shooting slowly, slowly, slowly. But soon, going crazy. I worked mornings and late afternoons. With the morning light the sky is nice, and in the late afternoon, full of variation. I would come out in the morning and shooting, shooting, shooting; no time to eat. I discover the time has gone, and now breakfast. The same in the afternoon… I forget my medicine, losing pain, losing hunger, and yes losing sadness.”

The image above is a third interpretation of what was originally his 1933 wedding photo. However in the 1960s Kertész severely cropped the original version to only include Elizabeth’s face and his hand on her shoulder. He claimed the sixties crop was a visual metaphor for the Hungarian saying “my better half.” In the Polaroid version above titled “January 1981″ Kertész returned to this image one last time and created a still life in which he placed a crown of thorns over his own hand.

There is a strong sense of personal loss, grief and longing in many of Kertész’ images in The Polariods which is what makes it such a deeply moving book. There is a new movie out these days about the boxer Mike Tyson’s life where many of the movie reviews open with the line “when a troubled champion is brave enough to bare all, an American epic is born.” Well, in The Polaroids André Kertész bares it all which has resulted in an epic photo book.

The Polaroids is also a striking study in still lifes by one of the great masters of 20th century photography. André Kertész was excellent at still life photography and perhaps one of his most famous pictures is a black and white photograph of a fork resting on a white plate in a fairly tight crop.

The book also includes some excellent studies of New York City in winter, including a few photographs where the Twin Towers appear as a subject and therefore become examples of how historical photographs can take on new meanings over time, with completely different emotions attached to them.

André Kertész was a brilliant photographer and The Polaroids is more evidence of his abilities. The book is filled with amazing photographs through which Kertész reveal a lot of himself to us. Who would have known that the simple study of form and shapes could convey such emotion. The photographs are not only beautifully arranged and injected with lots of emotion, they also display a masters delicate appreciation of light and color.

If you have any interest in the history of photography or still life photography – or I’m inclined to say any interest in photography in general – well then The Polaroids is a must buy. I’m sure you will enjoy it.

All images above are published with the kind and generous permission from the Estate of André Kertész and Higher Pictures.

You may also wish to consider other books about André Kertész such as: Photofile: André Kertész and On Reading.

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Hear It From the Man Himself

Thomas — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:30:22 +0000

Make yourself a nice cup of tea or coffee, get comfortable in your chair and enjoy watching this short video with one of photography’s most legendary photographers within the landscape genre. It’s a great little interview and includes a mini biography on the great Ansel Adams.

Here are a couple of books with Ansel Adams that live on my bookshelf and which I can warmly recommend:

Ansel Adams – 400 Photographs

Ansel Adams – Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs

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Tony Sweet Nature Portfolio

Thomas — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:11:49 +0000

Tony Sweet is one of my all time favourite photographers and he has been a huge inspiration for me when it comes image design.

When you view his images you will notice that each one of them are meticulously composed with careful attention to detail. In this video Tony Sweet shows images from his portfolio and discusses how he achieved them.

After 20 years as a professional jazz artist, Tony changed careers and directed his creative juices towards nature photography. Today, Tony’s work is published on greeting cards, calendars, post cards, posters, annual reports, catalogs and electronic mediums.

The video in this post is a clip from Tony Sweet’s excellent DVD called Visual Literacy which I can highly recommend to anyone interested in nature and outdoor photography. I have watched it several times and it is virtually impossible not to be inspired each time you watch it. Buy it here!

Tony Sweet also teaches some excellent online photo classes over at BetterPhoto.com which I can highly recommend. When I first started out in photography I attended 8 different classes over at BetterPhoto.com and they all helped propel my photography forward. Check them out.