Three exercises to boost camera creativity

Reposted from: Resolve / Livebooks
Posted by Miki Johnson

Jennifer Pottheiser / www.pottheiser.com

Last month, liveBooks founder Michael Costuros challenged the liveBooks community to a little creativity exercise. After months of thinking and talking and worrying aboutmoney matters, we thought everyone could use a break to remind themselves why they got into photography in the first place. Michael shared his own creativity exercise on the liveBooks Community Facebook page and asked for more suggestions. Here are our favorite three. Join the discussion at the liveBooks Community page and become a fan to keep up to date with the latest from the RESOLVE blog, liveBooks free webinars, and special offers.

“One of my favorites is shooting without looking through the lens – thanks to Joanne Dugan for that one! Its a great way to shoot pets and kids and still actually see whats going on around you. I have gotten some tremendous shots this way, and it really takes the pressure off.”

Mark Wallace / www.markwallacephotography.com

“About a year ago my friend Craig was telling me how uninspired he was about his photography. He had his new 1D Mark III and was telling me that there wasn’t much to shoot. I challenged him to a friendly duel. I told him there’s always something to shoot and told him to grab his camera. We walked outside to a dreary drainage area and I proposed the challenge: 5 minutes in the pile of rocks, my iPhone vs. his fancy camera, may the best man win. Here is the complete story and results.”

Peggy Morsch / www.peggymorsch.com

“Lately, I’ve started going through Freeman Patterson’s book: Photography and the Art of Seeing. There are MANY exercises in there to get your judge off your shoulder and just start playing with the camera like a 9-year-old again. For instance: Walk 50 steps, click, 50 steps, click. Or while I’m walking the dogs, I make multi-exposure images of anything, just to see what it looks like. My judge stays home in the kennel! It’s given me a sense of freedom to know that I don’t HAVE to produce anything.”

NYTs Magnum: “a collection of prints like these will never exist again.”

By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: February 1, 2010

In the middle of December two trailer trucks left New York City bound for Austin, Tex., packed with a precious and unusual cargo: the entire collection of pictures amassed over more than half a century by the Magnum photo cooperative, whose members have been among the world’s most distinguished photojournalists.

It is one of the most important photography archives of the 20th century, consisting of more than 180,000 images known as press prints, the kind of prints once made by the collective to circulate to magazines and newspapers. They are marked on their reverse sides with decades of historical impasto — stamps, stickers and writing chronicling their publication histories — that speaks to their role in helping to create the collective photo bank of modern culture.

“The trucks had GPS, and I was so nervous, I was tracking every single second of the trip,” Mark Lubell, Magnum’s director, said.

Since Magnum’s founding in 1947 by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, David Seymour and William Vandivert, the prints have always been kept at the agency’s headquarters, which has moved around Manhattan. But like many other photo agencies Magnum began digitally scanning its archive many years ago, and in 2006, the cooperative’s membership voted to begin exploring a sale, whose proceeds would be used to help reinvent Magnum for a new age. READ ALL

Optimized Image Workflow | dpBestflow

more about “Optimized Image Workflow | dpBestflow“, posted with vodpod

In this demonstration, an entire shoot is captured, and downloaded to a laptop with an ingestion utility. Back in the studio, the files are transferred to a desktop workstation. The images are rated and adjusted, converted to DNG, archived, and added to an image catalog. A proof gallery is made and sent to the client. Once the client picks favorite images, master files are created and perfected. Delivery files are made and sent off, and the final images are cataloged and archived.

This workflow is appropriate for anyone who delivers Photoshop-optimized images, including corporate and advertising photographers, architectural shooters, and even fine art photographers.

CCSF PHOTO52 The Lecture Series

Spring 2010 (1 credit)
CRN 31765 – Sec. 591
CCSF Ocean Campus, CONLAN HALL, ROOM. #101
SIX MONDAYS 6:30 – 9:30 P.M
Instructor: Marshall Berman
To Register: www.ccsf.edu*

Feb. 1st, First meeting
During this important orientation we will review requirements, attendance, format, credit, discuss the speakers and accept “adds” for this course.

Feb. 8th, Sara Remington
Sara Remington shoots food…A lot..! In 2006 she was awarded “up and coming photographer of the year”. Now, 4  years later, she has 10 cookbooks to her name,  shoots for the N. Y. Times, Chronicle Books, Harper Collins, Travel and Leisure, William Sonoma and so many others. Her uniquely fresh approach  has currently propelled her client base far beyond food photography.

Feb. 22nd, Elizabeth Opalenik
“I believe that all good photographs are self portraits that lie somewhere between imagination and dreams”. The  poetic grace and movement that she  brings to her images is reflected in magazines and art galleries throughout the world, and her photographic workshops are sought after by students and professionals alike. She uses images as stepping stones that trace where the mind has been.

March 8th, Jim Karageorge
20 years of evocative imagery for agencies and designers..
How I work..! ?I want to know what you have to say…The story you want to tell and how you want to tell it. I want to know the tone, the meaning, the audience and the urgency. With over 300 annul reports to his credit, Karageorge, a graduate of Yale University, comments, “My work is always rooted in journalism and cinema”.

March 22nd, RJ Muna
Aside from the over 150 national and international awards he has won. Muna comments on the simplicity with which he goes about his extraordinary imagery. “I start with one light, determine where it comes from and have a well thought out concept for the underpinning of my work.I am always passionate about what I do..what I shoot”..

April 19th, Gordon Osmundson
“Black & white photography, if it is done well, has a special intensity about it that can be greater than that of the actual subject itself. I believe the job of being an artist is to express something familiar but in a new way. When I am shooting….. all of me is shooting”.

*Lectures are open to the entire public

NYTs: Documenting the Decade

Time Magazine called it the “Decade From Hell.” New York Magazine termed it “One Wild Decade.” We want to hear from you. Help us document the decade by picking five important moments from the last 10 years — possible subjects include news or political events, culture and entertainment, business, sports or technology. Send us photos that you have taken that help illustrate those moments, plus short personal essays that explain how they define your decade. Subjects might include signs of the recent recession in your community, an event such as the Sept. 11 attacks or the 2004 tsunami, yourself at the World Series or Olympic Games, or the impact of a recent technical invention on your life. Post your photos and story.

iChaos ?

Above is a demonstration of what a magazine might be like in the future. As Apple prepares to launch its rumored “i-tablet” device due out in January we ask “will this interactive format replace dying print media?” Fred Ritchin, author of “After Photography” blogs about it at http://afterphotography.org.

About “afterphotography.org”: Given the emergence of the digital, few appear to be exploring whether more effective and expansive media strategies can now emerge. This site is a forum on possibility, launched in conjunction with the publication of Fred Ritchin’s book After Photography in December of 2008.