Showing posts with label Lists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lists. Show all posts

Rivers: Every Where The Rivers Flow I Will Go.

Friday, June 21, 2013







Like "Skylines wherever I travel I try to photograph the uneasy relationship of urban environments with the bodies of water near them: oceans, lakes, waterfalls, etc. Many major metropolises are situated on famous rivers. Areas, regions, countries, continents are defined by the rivers that run through them. Whole civilizations exist because they developed on a river. Many have flourish, but some have perished. Agriculture, industry, transportation and technology have relied on their vagaries. Seasons and epochs have been measured against their ebb and flow. Art and romance and song feature them significantly. They are the arteries of our planet.

Each river I have visited is famous long before I arrived. Songs have been sung, myths have grown. Each has contributed in the history and growth of its region in such a way that the two are often synonymous.

    The river is everywhere.
                                --Hermann Hesse

    A river is alive. Day and night it flows. Every moment it grows and every moment it is gone.
                                --Manuel Bandeira, Life is a River


These are some of the most notable from my extensive collection:

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Music’s Homage to Photography

Friday, December 2, 2011








For most of its infancy & adolescence photography has been considered a "minor" art, an afterthought when measured against more traditional ones. But as civilization embraces its influence & contributions, we have seen how it has permeated into every crevice of societies.

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31 Street Photography Tips and Tricks: Part 2

Friday, June 10, 2011

 To read Part one of this series go Here...



"I only know how to approach a place by walking.  For what does a street photographer do but walk & watch & wait & talk, & then watch & wait some more, trying to remain confident that the unexpected, the unknown, or the secret heart of the known awaits just around the corner."
                                                    --Alex Webb

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31 Street Photography Tips and Tricks: Part 1

Wednesday, May 11, 2011



When my father was alive he used to tell me the hardest feat in sports was to hit a 95mph fastball.  I am not sure I agree but it certainly takes an immense amount of coordination.  The equivalent feat in art might be street photography; more difficult than painting, writing, dancing, even music.  Anyone can hit a single once in a while but it requires combining a lot of skills & techniques to “hit” for average as well as home-runs.

Photographing strangers is a challenging undertaking.  Being confronted with the moral dilemma of “stealing” a picture of someone without their permission or to engage them, alter the reality &, therefore, lose all veracity, is comparable to juggling several balls in the air.  At the same time trying to fashion a reasonable but provocative image, is almost existential.


"Street photography is an age-old tradition, and also a solitary undertaking. It has been elevated by such luminaries as Robert Frank, Gary Winogrand and Lee Friedlander.
Street photography is an active, confrontational art form where the objective is to see and react to life around you. It is ground zero. No rules".

Street photos are small, quixotic segments of a larger urban landscape.  They are bits of a city—metaphors.  You are developing small narratives with little beginning or end.  Equipment is usually minimal.  Rather it is the heart & mind behind the camera that makes compelling street photographs.  Traditionally we have seen examples by Robert Frank, Eugene Atget, and Andre Kertesz but a new wave is represented by Alex Webb, Martin Parr & Constantine Manos who have changed it forever.

The most adept have so many things to consider every time they point their cameras at something.  As said before it is like juggling.  Besides shutter speed & aperture, you are balancing light, composition, momentum, emotion, etc.  And as you get better you add more balls.

In many places there is a de facto “war on street photography”.  There is a lot more pressure on us.  It is a wonderful tradition but suspicious minds attach some kind of perversion to it.  So as practitioners we have to be more capable to deal with all these factors.


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15 Movies Every Photographer Should See

Wednesday, April 6, 2011



The early predecessor to modern films were similar to what we call stop motion today, stills fixed to a round drum and hand cranked to create an animated picture. It makes sense then that hundreds of films have been made paying homage to photographers and photography. This is by no means a comprehensive list and it is mostly based on opinion, so I'm sure people will have films they feel should be listed. So by all means add any films you think should be added in the comments.

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8 Causes Of Bad Photography

Monday, March 14, 2011



A pet peeve amongst veteran photographers, albeit condescending, is how many neophytes approach the craft expecting someone to paint an “X” on the ground where they are supposed to stand, instruct them what f/stop & shutter speed to use & exactly when to push the button. That is not photography. It is painting-by-numbers. Photography is a moving target. And it requires repetition similar to practicing piano scales. Therefore pundits talk ad infinitum about the lonely learning curve necessary for taking “better pictures”: composition, rules, technique, tricks, etc. But lost in the discussion remains all sorts of significant factors that conspire against you & keep you from making Good pictures. Nobody talks about that.

These “maladies” plague everyone: amateurs & pros. And they never abate. For our whole lives we have to fight them.

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SEVEN WONDERS of my WORLD

Monday, September 27, 2010


In my photographic life, I never set out searching for “wonders”.  I was just bitten by the travel bug.  This list is just a result of attrition.

A few years ago Morgan Freeman & Jack Nicholson made a movie.  Although with top tier stars & a huge budget it was not their best effort but it introduced a phrase into the American lexicon “The Bucket List”;  Places you want to go or things you want to do before you “kick the bucket”.  I think most people dream about it in one way or another.  For most of my travel life it has been foremost in my mind even though I have never given the slightest acknowledgment of death.

The ancients made up a list centuries ago: Seven Wonders of the World.  We memorized it in high school.  The man-made monuments are legends that have lost much of their significance but the concept still lingers:  Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus, Colossus of Rhodes, Lighthouse of Alexandria.

The idea seems a little artificial to me but it begs the question “what are the most amazing things I personally have seen before I die."  Hopefully it has evolved over time & I continually add new phenomena as I get older.

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50 + 1 of the Top Photography Blogs, Websites, and Magazines to Follow

Tuesday, November 24, 2009



Below is an assortment of some of the most popular sites & resources that all photographers of any level can benefit from following. This is by no means a comprehensive list or ranking of the best Photography websites. My thanks goes out to all the  people and photographers who put the extra work and knowledge into furthering and advancing our Photography Community.

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About This Blog

blog (blŏg, bläg) n. 1. short for Weblog 2. online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer 3. diary that is posted on the Internet 4. an experiment to verbalize my observations about the status of photography. It will be eclectic & deal with philosophy & practice of this universal art form. It will strive for periodic commentary about issues many photographers face, like ownership and the economy. It will also talk about pictures and what makes good ones and how to get them. No hardware. No software. No recycled clichés. No whining.