Julia Margaret Cameron

       Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer well known for her portraits usually of celebrities of that time. She started taking photographs when she was around the age of 48 when her daughter gave her a camera as a present. Starting her photography Carree where just after a year she became a member of the Photographic Societies of London and Scotland. Cameron was born in Calcutta India. She was considered an ugly duckling compared to her sisters and other well known celebrities in her family. Such as her great niece Virgina Woolf who said this when asked about her aunt. "wrote in the 1926 introduction to the Hogarth Press collection of Cameron's photographs, "In the trio [of sisters] where...[one] was Beauty; and [one] Dash; Mrs. Cameron was undoubtedly Talent"." ( look to the bottom of the page for the link to the website where all my information was collected at). Cameron was then married in 1838 to Charles Hay Cameron a man twenty years her Senior. He was also a jurist and member of the Law Commission stationed in Calcutta.

      Since Cameron's sister ran a scene for the artistic in Little Holland House Cameron had access to very famous people of the age. People like Charles Darwin, George Frederic Watts, and Ellen Terry all got their portraits done by Cameron. Cameron also did posed pictures which looked like oil paintings. In these paintings Cameron never hid the background even if the person she was depicting in her photograph was supposed to be a literary work.

       Here is some of her work I found breathtaking!

Pictures:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Julia+Margaret+Cameron+Photography&Form=IMGCOL&col=79ec4cd960795f13d355

Information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Margaret_Cameron

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Bresson is well known for his "Street Photography". Bresson was born on August 22nd in 1908 in Sein-et-Marne at Chanteloup. By 1923 he developed an interest in painting and certain parts of Surrealism where he studied under Andre' Lhote. In 1931 he started to really focus on photography. By 1935 Bresson was in New York experimenting with film with Paul Strand. Bresson as then working on a few shows until 1940 when he was taken prisoner by the Germans. He later escaped in1943 where he took pictures artists and writers and was a part of an organization called MNPGD which helped people who escaped or were at one time prisoners. After in 1944-1945 he was working as a part of a team called photographs the Liberation of Paris which was a documentary on on the prisoners of war and detainees. As his life goes on Bresson continues with his photography until 1974 where he starts to concentrate on his drawing. As the later years of his life are focused on his drawing art he dies peacefully on August 3rd 2004 in Montjustin, Provence

Someone who really understood what it is Henri Cartier-Bresson was doing in his art is
Zorkikat who wrote the qote below which just sums Street Photography up so nicely.
      "The common misconception is that street photography is so simple that there is no need to set rules for it. A lot of people with cameras (as opposed to true photographers :) ) think that the 'street' is the genre for them, after perhaps encountering failures and frustrations in other photographic genre like portraiture, still life, or even landscape where there seem to be a lot of "rules". The notion that the street is open, spontaneous, and non-static leads to the belief that the photography used in it should be as 'free' as well- no rules, no standards, and even no composition or graphic consideration!
"Finding one's voice" is difficult if that voice cannot speak in a manner that is comprehensible. Doing nothing but trial and error will lead to hits or misses- more misses likely. And of the hits, they can be best described as accidental: the creator had little to do with it, and thus he is unlikely to recreate the 'success' which his unintended hit had, if he had no grip on its method of creation in the first place."

Here are some of Bresson's work

Here are some links where I got my information:

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2011/08/22/10-things-henri-cartier-bresson-can-teach-you-about-street-photography/

 http://www.henricartierbresson.org/hcb/HCB_bio08_28_en.htm

Post Shutter Speed Priority

       For my shutter speed priority pictures I was fortunate to have some people jump in my photograpghy class. The hardest part of this assignment was to get the person in motion without getting them blurry and having all hands and feet in the frame. When we were trying the flying or levitating I was having trouble finding the right angle to shoot up from in order to make my subject appear to be flying or floating.

Shutter Speed Priorty

Shutter speed priority is when you take a picture of an moving object. Which is the objective of this assignment. In order to get your subject in the position you want you have to set your camera to multiple or continuous shooting. This can be done on most cameras on the arrow pad. You can also change your ISO and White balance in the same location just a different arrow.

Always make sure you check your white balance and ISO. If it is sunny you might use at the most a ISO of 400 and have a sunny white balance. If you are taking a picture on a cloudy day then you would normally want a higher ISO and a white balance that is for cloudy days. That Is the usual but that does not mean that it is set in stone. Don't be afraid to change your white balance to shade or your ISO a little higher or lower to fit your location and time of day.

    While taking shutter speed priority pictures you would not hold the camera still like with subjects that don't move. If your subject is running to the right then you want to first focus your camera at the middle and then turn your body with the camera fst enough to f\get the subject running stuck in a position without being blured.

If you have someone who is jumping and you want to catch them in mid air then you would want to be at a lower point then where they are jumping from andkeep the camera at a angle so they appear to be floating. You do not move the camera for this type of picture.

Up Close Post Imogene Cunningham

During this assignment we were focusing on an object up close while bluring out the background. I noticed that for me personally I prefered the up close photograph style so I enjoyed this immensely. I do believe that I am getting better at figuring out what my ISO has to be at and what my white balance should be placed at. Here are some of the up close pictures that I took please tell me how they came out.



Extra Pictures

Here is where I will put any pictures I take that I don't really have an assignment for.



Alfred Stieglitz Pre-Assignment

     Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer who was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the year 1864. He was a student in germany until he returned to the states in 1890. His goal was to show people that photographs could have as much artistic expression as a painting or suculpture. He believed that photography did not need to be put in to a box that dictated that photographs had only to be about war or to capture a time in history but could be works of art that could be displayed for enjoyment.
   While in the states Stieglitz was an editor for a journal by the name of Comera Notes of Camera Club.The whole association was made up of amature photographers enthusiasts who also believed in Stieglitz's oppinion of photography. When the Camera Club began to become troubled by Stieglitz's restrictive editoral policies, Stieglitz and the other participants with the same mind left the Camera Club to start a group called the Photo-Secession in 1902. The group was mainly focused on every aspect involved in photography.
    Stieglitz was also an editor of a publication by the name Camera Work from 1902 to 1917. He also organized exhibitions with the help of Edward J. Steichen ( to learn more about this photographer look for a post labled Edward J. Steichen). As time progressed Stieglitz and his associates changed their view on photography and showed support for photographers such as Paul Strand (for more on Paul Strand look to Earlier post) and charles Sheeler who helped to make the new approach to photography more solid in the art community. As his feelings changed Stieglitz even changed the feel in his photographs. Such as his much celebrated portrait of Georgia O' Keefe. Keefe was once one of his photo subject between 1917 and 1925. Hundreds of pictures were taken of the painter Keefe who later, in 1924, became his wife.
    Much like many modern ideas at the time Stieglitz refused to present a single image of his wife with her whole personality because it was widley believed that a personality just like the outside world is always changing and should not be put on hold just because the camera, or new instruments were invented. Leaving people with the relization that a photograph is as much an expression of the photographer's feelings for the subject of the photo as they are a reflection of the subject depicted.
    In Stieglitz final decades of his life he devoted most of his time to running his gallery Anderson Galleries, 1921-25, The Intimate Gallery, 1925-29, An American Place,1929-46. His Looking Northwest from the shelton photographs taken out of his gallery window making Alfred Stieglitz the most significant figure in American Photography.

   

Pre- Imogen Cunningham

     Imogen Cunningham is a photographer that is know for her close up pictures which is what our assignment is about this time. When taking a picture the subject should be clear while the background should be blured out using the camera ( The name of the camera is in a earlier post) at the to there is a little wheel that has a bunch of symbols and abrivations on it. You want to set the wheel on AV which adjusts the aperature for you to blur out the backgropund when you get close enough to the subject.

   Imogen was born in portland, Oregon in 1833 and lived in Seattle, Washington. Where she went to the University of Washington and got her major in in chemistry. After she finished collage she worked in athe Seattle portrait studio of Edward S. Curtis. Who is the same person who produced the twenty volumes of  "The North American Indian". In this studio she learned the techniques of platinum printing. Later she married a guy named Roi Patridge. Of which she had three sons. The oldest was named Gryffyd. And the twins were Rondal, and Padraic. She and Roi ended up divorced and she passed away June 23, 1976 at the age of 93.

     These are some of the photographs that I felt a connection to that Imogen took and would like to share with all of you. Most of these are not the close up flowers that she is known for but neither are they of any less quality.



Post Paul Strand Assignment

These are some of my Paul Strand style photos. I was not able to upload all of my photos at my house so the rest will be added on monday. I found that while I was going out to take pictures or looking for something that captured my fancy I would gravitate more toward nature and landscapes. Even though I did try for some shadow play and man made objects they just did not compete with some of the pictures that I am and going to display in this post. I hope when you are looking at the photographs below have the same vibbe as that of Paul Strand in that the picture is telling you a story like in a silent film. So in following that focus I asked myself these questions about each photograph. Is the picture exciting for the eye even with the apsence of color? Does the picture flow between the back, middle, and fore ground? Is my subject odvious or do you have to guess? Can you tell what the subject is? Of course for me that is what I do after the picture is already taken. What usually runs through my mind when I go out for a photo shoot is the first assignment that my class did. Which is called a Light Walk ( for more information on what a light walk is look to an earlier post called chasing the light). I also looked for things that I found appealing, or weird to the eye. Once I found something that looked good I would take atleast four or five of the same picture just from different angles so that when I made the photos black and white I could find that one money or magic shot. Which was not always easy because something that I struggled with in this assignment was finding the right lighting for different subjects. Also known as exposure is the biggest issue that I have to work on since alot of my pictures are to light or to dark.



Working in Black and White Verses Color

When working in black and white there is a difference in the way you take pictures. For instance in color when you want something to have a glow around a object you would use a brighter and stronger light. This is going to lighten everything in the surrounding areas of the subject. But in black and white if you have to bright of a light then you will get a much darker subject so that you can tell the difference between the subject and the background. The only way to learn what it is you are looking for in the terms of a mood is to practice different types of light from different positions of the same subject. Never be afraid to over shoot because this give you more selections to choose that desired affect.

Bad Photo Objective

The objecive of the bad photo challenge is to create a one of a kind bad photo that look cool due to the
1. Wrong Exposure ( To light or to dark)
2. Subject Blur ( Everything else but the subject is in focus)
3. All Over Blur ( Camera shake)
4. Bad Composition ( the Ssubject is only half in the picture or something is in the way of the subject)
5. Wrong White balence ( Too blue, too yellow)
This may seem weird but it is easy for someone to take a decent photo the hard part is making something that is usally a mistake a work of art.

Before Paul Strand Assignment Assessment

My class and I are learning about a man called Paul Strand. Who is a very famous photographer that lived from 1890- 1976 and changed the way we view pictures or photography today. We were given an assignment to take pictures in the Paul Strand style. Which basically is  how the components are arranged and the different values of contrast in any given photo. Also known as straight photograpghy. In his pictures he makes a clear path for the eyes to follow by making sure that all the pieces of importance move diagonally throughout the picture. Kind of like a set of stairs that can be gone up or gone down. Even though the components in the pictures never move each picture is like a silent movie or a beautiful painting making you want to stare off into their magic forever never to miss color again. Each pictures has some sort of meaning behind it so that you feel as if you know the person in the picture or that you are actually standing where the picture was taken. For instance there is a picture that he took that is of a senery and in the foreground there is a boat that is dark with lighter contrast buildings creating a middle ground makeing your eyes slowly drift from the front view toward the sea and out to the horizan giving the picture more depth. So while I am Following through the assiagnment I am mostly going to stick toward close up of man made and nature items with some shadow play and senery thrown in.

Paul Strand Pictures.


Wall Street
I enjoy looking at this photo because of all the people who came out so sharpe like a movie that has been paused.

This picture strikes a cord in me thogh I don't fullt understand why. It's as though I have known her my whole life. Like she is looking at me with something other than her eyes.

I just love the weirdness of the look and how Strand maserfully used his lighting to have all the different shades of gray and black.