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Mar 09 Where it's all headed

Apr 30 Recent Photo News

Adobe Releases Beta Version of Lightroom 5

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 beta is available immediately as a free download on both Windows and Mac at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom5/. Customers can submit feedback on the community powered feedback site: http://feedback.photoshop.com. Customers can also connect with the Lightroom team directly on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lightroom), via Twitter (www.twitter.com/lightroom) or on the Adobe Lightroom blog (http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal). For Lightroom how-to videos, visit http://www.youtube.com/lightroom.

When Mobile Photography Beats Traditional Photography

For most photographers, the lens on a smartphone is a fun toy. It provides a way to capture a moment — a moment to which they hadn’t brought their DSLR — and it lets them share those snaps with friends and family. But it’s not a real camera. It’s not a device that they would use to shoot for a client or to create the kind of art that they’d expect to see in an exhibition or hang in a gallery. For other photographers though, an iPhone or Android is more than a telephone with some basic imaging capabilities; it’s their main tool, their go-to device for capturing landscapes, people and scenes… and the device they use to create the kinds of pictures that end up on gallery walls and win cash prizes in prestigious competitions.

Read the article at photoprenuer.com

Feb 06 Bill Ray Looks Back at Watts

Life Magazine photographer Bill Ray says:

In the mid-nineteen-sixties I shot two major assignments for LIFE in southern California, hard on the heels of each other, that involved working with young men who were volatile and dangerous. One group was the Hells Angels of San Bernardino -- the early, hard-core San Berdoo chapter of the gang -- and the other were youth who had taken part in the Watts riots the year before.

I did not try to dress like them, act like them or pretend to be tough. I showed great interest in them, and treated them with respect. The main thing was to convince them that I had no connection with the police. The thing that surprised me the most was that, in both cases, as I spent more time with them and got to know them better, I got to like and respect many of them quite a lot. There was a humanity there that we all have inside us. Meeting and photographing different kinds of people has always been the most exciting part of my job. I still love it.

Two big differences in the assignments, though, was that I shot the Hells Angels in black and white -- which was absolutely perfect for their gritty world -- and "Watts: A Year Latter" was in color. Also perfect, because Watts had a lot of color, on the walls, the graffiti, the way people dressed -- and, of course, my group of bombers who liked to practice making and throwing Molotov cocktails (see slides TK TK in gallery).

Those two assignments documented two utterly marginalized worlds that few people ever get to see up close. There was no job on earth as good as being a LIFE photographer.

You can see Bill's photos of Watts here.

Bill Ray's book on the Hell's Angels can be ordered here.