Today the new website dpBestflow went live which is in conjunction with a seminar being held in Washington DC this evening. The goal of the website is to provide a guide of every aspect of the digital workflow which is now common place for photographers.
More information about the website may be found in the following video:
The new gallery guide produced by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs is now available online in addition to galleries throughout Denver. Check out the Denver Gallery Guide and some of the many galleries located in the city of Denver.
You may have heard about the arts program at Edison Elementary located in Northwest Denver, and how a fundraising effort is in progress to raise $60,000 in order to save the program for the 2009-2010 school year. As Edison Elementary is located near gallery nrc, I thought I would mention some of the upcoming events and what you can do to help raise money to save the program.
Wednesday May 6th – 10% of sales are donated from the restaurants, Duo (2413 W. 32nd) and Red Trolley (2639 W 32nd)
Friday May 8th – Artists for Edison – Art Show and Silent Auction – 6-10pm. Namaste (3945 Tennyson Street)
Monday May 11th – 10% of sales are donated from the restaurant, Patrick O’Carroll’s (3961 Tennyson Street)
Wednesday May 13th – 10% of sales are donated from the restaurants, Shazz (4262 Lowell) and Bang (3472 W. 32nd)
Now until Friday May 15th – Optique of Denver (1580 Blake Street) will donate 10% of all sales
Wednesday May 20th – 10% of sales are donated from the restaurant, Venue Bistro (3609 W. 32nd)
Saturday May 23rd – Run at Sloan’s Lake – More Information coming soon.
Sunday May 24th – MADE Festival – The Oriental Theater (4335 West 44th)
Events are being added, so check out the Arts for Edison website for more information and how you may help.
This Sunday (May 3, 2009) at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds the only Denver photographic swap meet will take place with about forty to fifty vendors set-up offering new and used photo equipment. There is a $5 entrance fee, however you never know what you may find.
World Pinhole Camera Day is this Sunday April 26th 2009, and as I read about this event it got me thinking about trying this on my own. If you are familiar with pinhole photography you know it is one of the original methods for capturing images and even today people still photograph with pinhole cameras. Today you have the basic and complex portable models, as well as some photographers who turn their car or a room of their house to a pinhole camera. The premise of the pinhole camera is quite straight forward, as light goes through the hole it will project an image onto the back side of the camera or wall which is then captured on film or a digital sensor. You may have even seen this when a small amount of light is coming into your house and projecting on a wall. The smaller the size of the hole the sharper the image, however the perfect size hole depends on the distance between the hole and where the image is bring captured.
In creating a pinhole camera, my approach was quite easy. I purchased a couple of extra camera body caps and placed a small hole in the center. This “small hole” or pinhole allows light to come through the “lens” and onto the digital sensor. While there are advantages of using digital for a pinhole camera since you can see the result on the LCD and adjust as needed, there is also the issue of dust getting through the opening and onto the sensor.
Once I had the camera ready I tried it out around gallery nrc and in the parking lot. The following images were taken with the above set-up, and had some minor adjustments performed in Adobe Lightroom.
There is a lot of playing around you can do with this, and also experimenting with different size pinholes for your camera as it will provide different results as well. Lastly, I recommend using an older camera as of the issue with dust getting on the sensor and it could take a while to get it totally clean.
Do you have any pinhole shots you have taken recently, feel free to post a link in the comments.
The website A Photo Editor has an interesting post from earlier this month regarding the photograph on U2’s new album No Line on the Horizon. The title song of the album was inspired by the photographers work and he allowed it to be the album cover with the condition of no text may obstruct any part of the image, which something not really done. Additionally the terms of the usage was an artist to artist deal, meaning U2 could use the image and the photographer obtained rights to the song for his use in the future. More information of how this whole transaction came about may be found on the A Photo Editor website and his recent post Hiroshi Sugimoto’s No Cash Deal with U2.
I find this transaction interesting with the value of the work exchanged between two artists. While Sugimoto will receive the exposure by being on the front of the new album and likewise have his image show up on any iPod when music from the album is playing, which can be quite significant for a band like U2, for this the value exchanged are the rights to use the title song of the new CD, which was influenced by his images, in any project of his in the future.
Photographers should look at this exchange with interest as there is a common misconception of when it is alright to use music as part of a presentation or more so website without the proper license. I have been to numerous websites of photographers who have strong statements about stealing their images, but yet use pieces of music which are quite mainstream and most likely not licensed for commercial use. If we are trying to educate people on why it is wrong to take images from a website shouldn’t we respect the work of other artists?
As I was catching up on some of the blogs which I follow, I came across the following video from Atlanta Photographer Zack Arias. This was a timely video, as I have had some discussions with other photographers about how the winter brings out the worse in our fields and usually it shoots down motivation. If you are a photographer, check out the video and you will find after the first minute the content of the video suddenly changes. It just may be that kick you need this time of year and get back in the game for the spring.
If you would like to view the full screen version, you may do so at the following link.
Since the first of the year I have been working on gallery nrc and as I write this I am sitting in the location open for business today.
You may now visit the gallery nrc website to receive updates on upcoming shows and also subscribe to the e-mail list. By submitting your name to the e-mail list you will receive updates on upcoming events for the gallery direct to your inbox. Also on the website if you are a photographer you may find out some information regarding artist submissions to gallery nrc.
The official grand opening of the gallery is Friday April 3, 2009. Hopefully you will be able to make it to the opening.
This past week Adobe announced a series of free eSeminars for those individuals interested in Creative Suite 4 which was recently upgraded. These seminars cover the design suite and the multitude of items which are included within each product. With different offerings for professionals who are involved in Design, Video, Web, Photographers as well as Print it is bound to give you a good overview.
For photographers you may want to check out the following sessions
Earlier this month I rented a tilt shift lens and shot with it for a couple of weeks which included a trip out to California where I used it primarily in San Francisco. Look for some of those images to be posted in the next few days, but until then take a look at the type of effects the tilt shift lens can produce.