Edward Weston - One of the Grand Masters of Twentieth Century Straight Photography

Edward Henry Weston or Edward Weston was one of the most renowned and influential American photographers of the twentieth century. He was born on March 24, 1886, in Highland Park, Illinois. On Edward's sixteenth birthday, his father gifted him his first camera. This was the onset of Weston's love affair with photography.

As a beginner, he started clicking pictures in Chicago parks and his aunt's farm. In 1903, he exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute. Weston moved to California in 1906 to pursue a career in photography. He began by working as a door-to-door portrait photographer. For a formal training, he returned to Illinois in 1909 and attended the Illinois College of Photography. The same year, he married Flora May Chandler with whom he later had four sons. Weston opened his studio in 1911 in Tropico, California, where he operated until 1922. He was a huge success with his 'Pictorial Style Photography' and won many salon and professional awards. Edward even wrote a number of articles on the unconventional methods of portraiture for various magazines, like American Photography, Photo Era, and Photo Miniature.

An exhibition on Modern Art, in San Francisco World Fair, in 1915, greatly influenced Weston. He had grown restless with 'Pictorialism' and found it to be a mechanical manipulation of painting styles. He began experimenting with light, shadow, and soft focus. After meeting Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand, he was further convinced that photographs should record the true essence of the subject, dead or alive, living or non-living. On a visit to Ohio in 1922, he clicked some photographs of the Armco Steel Plant. These pictures mark his tilt from 'Pictorialism' to 'Straight Photography,' involving the emergence of a sharp focused style.

Anita Brenner's book "Idols behind Altars," published some of his photographs, which he clicked during his brief stint in Mexico in 1923, along with professional & romantic companion Tina Modetti, who later even posed nude for him. These photos, such as "Tina Reciting and Excused," showed his clear transition into 'Straight Photography.' In 1927, he made a series of monumental close ups for which he is best known. His subjects varied from the objects like seashells, vegetables (peppers and halved cabbages), landscapes, and nudes. Weston skillfully created sharp pictures, using a large format camera with a small aperture, capturing the real beauty of the subject. The photographer, along with his son Brett, opened up a new studio in San Francisco in 1928. Edward Weston became a co-founder of the f/64 group of 'Purist Photographers,' such as Ansel Adams and Willard Van Dyke, in 1932.

He was also the first recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Photography in 1937. In 1938, the photographer married his assistant, Charis Wilson, with whom he has been living since 1934. In 1941, Weston provided illustrations for an edition of 'Whitman's Leaves of Grass.' His work started being hampered, as he was struck with Parkinson's disease in 1946. The same year he and Chris divorced. He took his last photos at Point Lobos in 1948. In 1952, his Fiftieth Anniversary Portfolio was published with his images printed by his son Brett. Edward Weston died in Carmel, California, on January 01, 1958.

Annette Labedzki received her BFA at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. She has more than 25 years experience. She is the founder and developer of an online art gallery featuring original art from all over the world. It is a great site for art collectors to buy original art. Is is also a venue for artists to display and sell their art . Artists can join for free and their image upload is unlimited. Please visit the website at http://www.Labedzki-Art.com

Annette has bonus offers on her work only. Buy 3 small paintings of any size (maximum size 11x17 inches) and receive 3 small paintings of your choice for free (maximum size 11x17 inches) SHIPPING IS FREE.

Buy one large painting (minimum size 18x24 inches) receive 5 small paintings of your choice (maximum size 11x17 inches) FOR FREE. SHIPPING IS FREE.

Please feel free to subscribe to her newsletter at http://www.Labedzki-Art.com

Digital Photographic Mastery and the New Zone System for the 21st Century

Digital photography has made tremendous strides in the past several years. Photographic software has made it possible to alter photographs post capture and clean up defects, enhance lighting or color, and accomplish any number of effects. However, there are still some basics, especially regarding the dynamics of exposure, lighting and workflow that every photographer should fully understand and master.

A Brief History of the Original Zone System

Until Ansel Adams published his 1948 classic book, Camera and Lens, technical photography was confined to scientists who could make sense of extensive log scales and exposure tables. This technical data made it possible to optimize photo exposure beyond the standard "guestimating" used during the photo shoot, based on what was visible, the camera's view finder and the photographer's level of experience.

Adams took this technical data and devised a less complicated process to make photos as fully dynamic as possible. He called this the "Zone System". This system controlled and isolated the 10 distinct tones that make up a photographic exposure, making it possible for photographers to envision the results of an exposure and then execute a capture that could more closely mirror what the artist had in mind for the finished work.

Mr. Adam's Zone System attempted to simplify the complexities of the technical process of predicting and optimizing the exposure and then follow through with completing the project in the printing process. However, his system proved difficult to master and involved complicated procedures to generate the finished photographs.

In today's digital photographic sphere, the principles introduced by Adams can be used to produce results that go far beyond the non-digital methods of Ansel's era. Calibration and lighting tests can be accomplished in a fraction of the time required by the original zone system.

To make a 21st Century, Digital Zone System work, a photographer needs to know how his equipment will perform before the actual shoot. This requires a consummate procedure for calibration and testing to accurately predict the results.

New Digital Zone System Fundamentals

Remember, you want to be able to pre-visualize your results and cannot simply rely on the camera's view finder or LCD preview. Capturing images is about recording light-that means getting the exposure right. The following are some factors to bear in mind when understanding a new Digital Zone System that will take photographers into the 21st Century and beyond.

• The quality of light you wish to capture and communicate to a viewer
• A comprehensive workflow process that takes you from capture to print
• Post processing techniques to enhance the captured image
• Understanding light sources and their effect on color and contrast
• Exposure control to prevent highlight "clipping" and preserve shadow detail
• Use of a Zone Scale to pre-visualize tones in a print.

Digital photographic imaging is about fully comprehending the basis of photographic exposure. In order to achieve this kind of understanding you need to test the complete system used for capture: the camera, the lens and the lighting! The knowledge gained from proper testing procedures allows for more accurate exposures that guarantee the highest quality of image information. The mastery of this process will lead to the kind of photographs that separate the great photographer from the good photographer.

Lee Varis has worked in the field of photography for over 35 years and is widely known for his Hollywood movie posters and video covers. Lee´s creative imaging has been featured in National Geographic and Fortune magazines as well as numerous trade publications including: Photo-Electronic Imaging, Studio Photography, PC Photo, Rangefinder Magazine, Photo District News and Mac Art & Design.

Lee's expertise offers the pinnacle of digital photography techniques for the intermediate and advanced photo imager seeking to increase his or her competence level. His books: Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies-just released in its second edition and "Mastering Exposure and the Zone System for Digital Photographers" are essential additions to the libraries of photo-technicians everywhere. To receive a FREE, exclusive, 2-part PDF tutorial guide that will introduce you to essential photo techniques that will make your photos shine with expertise, visit: [http://www.varis.com/DigitalZoneSystem/VarisLanding.html]

Mr. Varis conducts nationwide seminars on the finer points of digital photography and maintains close relationships with numerous top hardware and software companies including ongoing consultation services on beta testing programs. He is also the president of LADIG (Los Angeles Digital Imaging Group) To see Lee's newest photo tips, projects and photographs visit: http://www.blog.varis.com/

Exposure Basics

Exposure, it's not exactly misunderstood, but there's more to it than meets the eye. By understanding exposure, or at least what the meter on your camera is doing, you'll get better and more consistent images.

Incident readings, reflective readings, 18% grey, centre-weighted, spot metering; what does it all mean and how does it effect your photography?

In a nutshell, your camera's metering system, or a hand-held light meter, assumes one thing: that the world is 18% grey. Middle grey, as it is also known, is halfway between black and white and has a reflectance of 18% or, put another way, reflects 18% of the light falling on it.

Whether it's a moonless midnight sky on a starless night or a snow covered ski field at midday on a sunny day, your camera's meter thinks it's looking at middle grey. What's more, it is designed to give you an exposure reading that will make that assumed middle grey appear middle grey in the photograph, whether it is or it isn't.

Why middle grey? Well, by being halfway between black and white, it's the median point and allows room for brighter and darker areas. For all intents and purposes, it works pretty well. But it's not perfect.

When metering a scene, many photographers use a grey card: a purpose-designed grey coloured card that reflects 18% of light falling on it. By placing the grey card within the scene, or close to it and under the same lighting conditions, and taking a reading from it, you get a very accurate 'average' exposure for the conditions.

Modern on-camera meters (that meter through the lens) are a type of reflective meter, ie they meter the light being reflected from the scene before it. Another type of meter is an incident meter, the hand held meters you often see studio photographers and cinematographers using.

An incident meter measures the light falling on a scene and is used by placing the meter at the subject and facing it back towards the camera. In a way, an incident meter assumes it is a grey card and tells you what your exposure needs to be in order for it to appear mid grey. Once again, an incident meter gives you an accurate 'average' reading.

Most cameras nowadays, especially SLR's, give the photographer a few metering options. These are generally spot, centre-weighted and matrix. With a very small (often a 1? field), spot meters can measure very specific parts of a scene. By measuring the darkest part and the lightest part separately, for example, the photographer can expose halfway between the two or anywhere towards either end of the scale, depending on their vision of the final print. And we just took a step towards Ansel Adams' well-known 'Zone System' that I won't go into any further here.

Centre-weighted meters were the standard for years and in many photographers experience offer the most consistency. They work by giving preference to the central part of the image area as seen through the lens.

Their consistency is due to the meter measuring enough area to give a balanced exposure without getting tricked by large areas of light or dark.

Matrix metering arrived in the late 80's and has gone from strength to strength. It works by dividing the scene into segments, measuring each and then giving what it calculates as the best exposure.

A good test to help with understanding exposure is to zoom in and out while looking at a scene and keep an eye on the exposure readout. As you zoom, the given exposure will change; as the lens widens, more variations in the light occurs, as you zoom in, less.

The light falling on any particular part of the scene isn't actually changing. The exposure readout changes as the meter averages the reflected light before it. As you zoom out, you may bring more bright sky into the image; as you zoom in, it might be towards a fairly dark part of the scene. If that's the case, two very different exposures will be given, even though the light on the scene hasn't changed.

Say, for example, that there are some trees in the middle ground that will be in the final image regardless of whether you zoomed in or out. The light falling on the trees hasn't changed at all, yet they will be rendered quite differently depending on which of the two exposures you use.

Something to think about is whether your chosen framing is predominantly dark or light; in other words is it noticeably either side of an 'average' (equal amounts of light and dark).

If the scene contains predominately bright areas (snow, sky, reflections on water etc) your meter will want to pull that brightness down to replicate middle grey. You will therefore need to compensate by giving one, two or even three stops more exposure than indicated. If the scene contains a lot of dark areas (shadows, dark colours etc) your meter will want to bring it up so you will need to give less exposure.

Naturally, the instinct might be to underexpose in bright light and overexpose when it's dark but remember that your meter is trying to find that middle (grey) ground.

Those two examples are also perfect situations where you could take a reading from a grey card or, if spot metering is an option, meter the brightest part followed by the darkest and expose halfway between (or slightly to either side).

When in doubt, you can always bracket your exposures (take additional images above and below the indicated exposure). As useful as it is - and we've all done it - bracketing is something of a cop out. Better to understand exposure and apply what you've learned by shooting a few tests. Your photography will be the better for it.

Matthew Smeal is a photographer and journalist from Sydney, Australia. To contact Matthew or to view his work, visit his website at http://www.matthewsmeal.com

To Frame or Not to Frame - That is the Question

Is this worth framing?

If you like it, if it gives you enjoyment, if it has sentimental value, then frame it and enjoy it. Don't judge it, and don't let others judge it either.

A few years ago I owned and operated three picture frame shops/art galleries. The number one question I used to get was, "is this worth framing?" My answer was always, "Yes, of course it is."

I would get customers carrying in snap shots, children's artwork, prints from the free calendar they got from their insurance company and just about any picture or print that you can imagine from a number of sources. Yet, the answer is always the same. What makes an item worth framing is what it is worth to you, and no one else. The vast majority of that value has nothing to do with dollars and cents. It has to do with its intrinsic value that no one else can appraise or appreciate.

I especially encouraged parents to frame children's artwork. Now obviously this can get a bit expensive if the child is cranking out 3 or 4 a day in a school art class. However, framing selective pieces can go a long way towards encouraging a budding future great master or just building self-esteem in general.

Vacation snap shots are also worth framing. The more time that passes the more you will be glad you made the investment. With all the new computer technology, it is easy to touch them up. You may be surprised to find you have a little more "Ansel Adams talent" in you than you thought.

I have a good friend that lives in a beautiful home surrounded by a golf course community that boasts of residents that include NFL Football stars and professional golfers. She is retired now, but at one time was a rather large art dealer specializing in paper art. Her home is beautifully decorated, as one would imagine an art dealer's home to be. I can't begin to tell you the huge amount of artwork she has had the opportunity to chose from, many of them very valuable.

Yet, walking through her entryway into her home, the very first piece of artwork you see is a small but gorgeous, professionally framed and matted print entitled "Ted". I sell it in my eBay Store for .00, http://stores.ebay.com/FrameHouseGallery/.

When I asked her of all the beautiful prints and originals (not that this one isn't beautiful) that she had to chose from why was "Ted" picked to be the first piece one sees when they enter the home, her answer was simply, "Because I like it!"

So if you like it, it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks. Frame it, hang it and enjoy it!

No permission is need to reprint or distribute an unedited copy of this article as long as the about the author information including links are included.

Floyd Snyder owned and operated three framing galleries for nearly 20 years. After selling his business in the late 80’s he has returned to the business he has always loved and missed. He has established an eBay Store at http://stores.ebay.com/FrameHouseGallery and his own online store at http://www.FrameHouseGallery.com. He can be reached at Floyd@FrameHouseGallery.com.

Great Decorating Ideas For Home and Office With Inexpensive Artwork

When you are trying to decorate your house or apartment on a dime, the best idea is to start looking for an inexpensive print with one of those ready-made frames. There is no question the price you pay for a collectible oil painting or watercolor can be pretty high for an average wage earner. Artists and their dealers are aware of this and that is why they make a poster or print is so very affordable. The selection of well known artwork is enormous. You can find a reproduction of almost anything you've seen in a museum but that is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a huge assortment of modern art by modern masters, noted photographers and talented unknowns too.

Right now we are in a golden age of art production. Art material and supply stores are selling their products to artists so they can make more art of all kinds like never before in history. The better artists have managed to attract a loyal following of well heeled patrons to their original works. Lucky for everyone else this output of their imaginations is also available as posters which are inexpensive. When they are framed pieces they look their best so you can enjoy and show them off.

You can look for and buy posters of all the great masters in art history. One of the most popular choices from the 20th century is Salvador Dali. The melted watches in his Persistence of Time paintings and several of his landscapes remain very popular. Dali is just one of the many artists you may want to search for. Other well known artists like Picasso and Monet can also be found easily. For example with Picasso you can select from his famous Blue Period or the simple drawings of birds and peace symbol doves. There are so many popular Monet landscapes; it may be difficult to select just one.

Some of the other established artist names that you can find include Cezanne and Andy Warhol. There are even posters from Leonardo da Vinci's notebook drawings. The great thing is all of these artists have their own unique and memorable styles. No matter what type of art you like or how you want to decorate your living place, you will likely find the right combination of color, artistic style, and subject matter for a perfect fit.

Don't forget the posters from photographs that are readily available to decorate your home or office. If you want Ansel Adams' landscapes in black and white you will find plenty. He is probably the most famous but there are many more talented photographers that also have color cityscapes and sports action pictures in poster sizes. Whatever you are looking for, there is an inexpensive print or poster that can save you a fortune. You will get exactly what you were looking for, and the final result is a stunning addition to your living environment.

The best way to hang a poster or a print is to frame it without spending too much money. For one thing, you will want to protect the paper and printing so it will look nice for a long time no matter how often you move it around. Framing also helps to showcase artwork so that it looks its best.

So why not purchase some nice posters to decorate? The quality of the art is great, you can select from photography color and black and white. The choices can even seem endless which may make it difficult to choose just one or two. The good thing is they will showcase your tastes and interests, serve as conversation starters or even lift your mood to a creative place. Then you can add a frame to protect them and show them at their best. This is certainly one way for you to decorate an entire home or office at a relatively small cost that it might otherwise require.

There is lots of art to see at DougsArtGallery.com with many other articles on Dazzling Landscapes as well as travel destinations. Check us out at http://www.dougsartgallery.com and discover some great artwork.

Photography as a Fine Art

Compared to most art forms, photography is a relative newcomer. Having been around for less than 200 years its place in the art world is still being established. Interestingly, there have been many arguments against photography being considered art, one of which is that the camera is a 'machine'. However, one must ask if a camera is any more a machine than a musician's instrument, a sculptor's chisel or a painter's brush?

Another argument is that because of the nature of photography, endless prints can be made from the one negative. While true, it is for this reason that many photographers will produce their work as limited editions just as screen-printers, etchers and wood-block artists will. Some photographers have even been known to destroy their negatives after they have completed printing the edition. However, the ability to produce numerous prints is usually considered part of photography's uniqueness.

Historically, many photographers themselves once considered photography a lesser art form. Called 'Pictorialists' these photographers produced work using soft focus, and often, poor quality, lenses hoping their work would look like Imressionist paintings. Although the Pictorialists won a small battle in having photography recognised and given wall space, they certainly didn't help win the war of photography being recognised purely on its own artistic merits.

There is a great quote that states: "There is no art, only artists." Very true words, as there are many great artists who use photography as their chosen medium. It would be very hard for people to argue that the landscape and nature work of Ansel Adams; the natural world, nudes and still life's of Edward Weston; the abstract forms and textures of Brett Weston and the compositions of Paul Strand are not art.

Because of the passion and extremely high quality work produced by these and other American photography pioneers, the American public and those within art circles could no longer deny that photography was a valuable and expressive art form. Oddly, Europe never seemed to have any trouble accepting photography as art. The work of Henri Cartier-Bressen, Brassai, Latrigue and others has always been held in the highest esteem.

The modern-day ease of photography has also led to a lot of very poor photographic work being passed off as art. Automated cameras have also lent considerable weight to the argument that it's the camera doing the work, not the so-called artist. It is little wonder that many gallery owners are reluctant to give wall space to photographs. It must be remembered that the camera doesn't make a good photographer any more than a piano makes a good pianist or a brush makes a good painter. An artist is an artist no matter what the medium.

Where Photography Becomes Art

What constitutes a fine art photograph would be quality: quality in composition, quality in the negative and quality in the print. Edward Weston once said that, "composition is the best way of seeing." Like other mediums, how the image is composed is of vital importance regarding how the print will be viewed. The photographer then needs to be able to put onto film what he or she is seeing and 'visualising' for the final print. Lens choice, film choice, aperture and shutter speed relationships, what to exposure for and which filters to use (especially for black and white film) all play a vital part in what the final print will look like. Finally, the photographer needs to bring that 'feeling' and expression out in the 'fine' print using a very demanding darkroom technique.

How a Fine Art Photographer Prints

Ansel Adams was fond of saying that the negative is like a musician's score and the print is like their performance. Good photographers will know how to do both very well: photograph to produce good negatives and then make an expressive print that conveys what they saw and felt at the time of exposure.

A photographer will go through a few stages before arriving at the fine print. This begins with making a 'proof print' of the negative and evaluating it to determine how best to properly print from it. The photographer then moves through a series of 'work prints' as he or she fine-tunes the print exposure, cropping and contrast. More often than not, certain areas of a print will require more or less exposure than other areas. Giving more exposure to specific parts of the print, 'burning', will darken those areas. Holding back exposure on specific areas or 'dodging' will lighten them. When the photographer believes that the print is as expressive as possible, they will make a 'fine print' using their (often) extensive notes regarding dodging, burning and contrast.

Most fine art black and white photographers will use fibre-based paper for their fine prints. Fibre-based paper tends to have the edge over its cheaper cousin resin-coated paper. Fibre-based paper also has more archival permanence, however, modern resin-coated papers claim to be the same. Fibre-based paper is harder to print on successfully, however, generally looks better, is preferred or demanded by museums and galleries and is also somewhat demanded by photographic tradition. Good photographers will have no qualms about this and would feel as though they were cheating if they produced their work on resin-coated paper.

There are myriad other variables in fine art photography that include: choice of film developer, choice of paper brand, choice of paper developer and whether to tone the print. All affect the look of the final print and it is the experience of the photographer to know how best to pull all these together to produce a print worthy of being called 'art'.

Matthew Smeal is a fine art black and white photographer and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. His work can be viewed on his website at http://www.matthewsmeal.com

His Most Famous Photograph - Pepper 30 by Edward Weston

Ace photographer Edward Weston was born on March 24, 1886, in Illinois, USA. In 1932, he co-founded the influential 'Group F/64,' with Ansel Adams and Willard Van Dyke. His famous works, mostly done with an 8" X 10" view camera, included a series of landscapes, nudes, and still life. His interest in still life, especially certain vegetable, as evident in his "Pepper #30," was rooted into the initial years of his career, which started more as a hobby. After being gifted a Kodak camera in the year 1902, Weston began photography in the public parks of Chicago and at his aunt's farm.

Edward had an uncanny ability to bring out sensuality even in the vegetated life. His frames covering the ordinary peppers (vegetable) formed a complete body of work, with over 60 different photographs. The picture that earned him highest acclaims belonged to this series, titled "Pepper #30," which was taken in the year 1930. It is a black and white shot, closely focusing on a curved pepper. Weston was highly fascinated by the shapes and curves of this vegetable, which, according to him, carries an analogy to the human body. A careful and well-prepared shot of these peppers also gave an impression of magnificent abstract sculptures. One glance on "Pepper #30" makes it look like a picture of a well-carved figure, with an underlying voluptuousness. Only a closer examination reveals the object as an ordinary vegetable. Weston was a master of the use of light in all his works, especially the still life. The mesmerizing power of "Pepper #30" is greatly attributed to the effect of light. The source of light is placed transverse above, such that it illuminates the frontal portion of the vegetable. The frame can be divided into two portions - the upper one with pitch-dark background and the lower one, which is partially lit. The brightly shining upper half of the pepper remarkably stands out against the black background, whereas the lower half is demarcated only by its own shadow.

Edward Weston took a great care in capturing the frame from an angle that portrays the pepper in three dimensions, rather than as a flat image. Deciding upon the darkness of the original print is also challenging for images that thrive upon the interplay of lighting. Weston's rich experience is demonstrated from "Pepper #30," the 23.97 cm X 19.05 cm print of optimum strength that underscores the sensuality and the mellowness of the picture. The prodigious appreciation of an isolated piece of an otherwise common object is what makes Edward's this work, an epitome of artistry!

Annette Labedzki received her BFA at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. She has more than 25 years experience. She is the founder and developer of an online art gallery featuring original art from all over the world. It is a great site for art collectors to buy original art. Is is also a venue for artists to display and sell their art . Artists can join for free and their image upload is unlimited. Please visit the website at http://www.Labedzki-Art.com.

Annette has bonus offers on her work only. Buy 2 paintings of any size and receive 1 painting of your choice for free of equal size and value. Shipping is free in Canada and the US on smaller items. Please feel free to subscribe to her newsletter at http://www.Labedzki-Art.com.

Vintage Photos Are Here to Stay

Vintage photos are making a big comeback these days or maybe not. Maybe it's us getting older and thinking about the good ole days and as the Baby Boomers age and become vintage photo collectors, the numbers are rising. Regardless, old photographs of family members scenes of locations, automobiles, technology from the past strike a reminiscent chord with everyone.

In the beginning, photos were in monochromatic tones of light and dark in dark brown sepia tones, dark gray tones and in black and white. The quality of the images was murky at best. As photography evolved in cameras, film and processing, the images had more definition and photography was becoming an art form.

Black and white photography flourished for many years because even 50 years ago, color film, processing and printing was a lot more expensive than black and white. Basically, color reproduction in books and magazines did not really progress until the early 1980s. During that era we've seen brilliant black and white photography from Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, and Alfred Eisenstaedt just to name a few artists who mastered composition and light with contrasting shadows to achieve their final product.

Today in the world of digital photography, black and white can be achieved through the camera but probably the best method is through a digital rendering through a photography computer application such as Photoshop. But even with new technology nothing can replace old New York City photos or other locations that are long gone, the victims of progress.

It is still a pleasure to take a look at the past through the original lenses and technology of that time. Vintage photos are here to stay.

Bill White Photos (http://www.billwhitephotos.printroom.com/) is a site has numerous memorable, mostly pre-World War II, old New York City photos, New England photos and Minnesota photos, made by Hubert W White, also made many old vintage train photos.
Billings Farnsworth is a freelance writer.

Canvas Bags - Cool Slogans to Add to Your Bag

Walk down any street and you'll come across many plain, boring looking canvas bags. We can thank bag manufacturers for that problem. Initially they thought for the bags to sell it had to stand-out, so they designed bags in many bright colors. Today people are moving away from the bright looking canvas bags and getting a little bit more creative in their tastes.

A trend that first started on t-shirts and is now been applied to bags involves the use of slogans. Eye catching slogans are either painted or printed onto canvas bags. What works even better is the use of environmentally sensitive slogans which attracts a re-action from people. How many times have you passed an eye catching phrase on a person's t-shirt the same policy can be applied to canvas bags. I've done some research and come up with a list of my favorite slogans that could transfer your boring canvas bag in to a trendy item.

• There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all, Robert Orben.
• Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find, source the Time.
• We never know the worth of water till the well is dry, Thomas Fuller, 1732
• Your grandchildren will likely find it incredible - or even sinful - that you burned up a gallon of gasoline to fetch a pack of cigarettes! Paul MacCready, Jr.
• Newspapers: dead trees with information smeared on them, quoted Horizon, "Electronic Frontier"
• They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers, James G. Watt, 1982.
• The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun, Ralph Nader, 1980.
• Economic advance is not the same thing as human progress, John Clapham, 1957.
• Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them, Bill Vaughn.
• For 200 years we've been conquering Nature. Now we're beating it to death, Tom McMillan, 1990.
• It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment, Ansel Adams.

There are heaps more slogans and sayings that you could place on canvas bags these are just some of my favorite environmental quotes. The time is now to act on the environment and we can all do out part. Regardless of the slogan you choose for your canvas bag the main thing is that we're getting the green message out to the masses.

James has recently moved to New York and he loves the city. He's a strong supporter of all things relating to the protection of the environment and wishes New Yorker's used less plastic and paper shopping bags. He recommends the full range of products at R.A.G. including the canvas bags.

Adding Images to Your PowerPoint: Public Domain, Royalty-Free, and Rights Managed Photography

The Internet makes it incredibly simple to beef up a
presentation with images on just about any subject. There
are many stock photo websites offering images,
illustrations and vector-based art for a price. Other sites
display "free" photos for anyone to use, with or without
restrictions. Here are three types of copyright restriction
every presenter should know.

Public Domain:
Artwork placed in the Public Domain simply means the
person who created that image has decided not to enforce
any copyright protection. It could be an individual who just
wants to share the work with others, or it could be artwork
created by a government body with public funding. An
example of the latter would be the images of Earth taken by
NASA astronauts. Because the funding for space
exploration came from the Federal Government, NASA
releases their images for public use.

An exception to Public Domain "freedom" is that an image
featuring people or products still have limitations attached. A
photo of a Coca-Cola bottle may find itself into a Public
Domain collection, but the shape of that bottle remains a
trademark of the Coca-Cola Company. Likewise, unless a
model release is on file with the photographer, images with
identifiable people (clear or close-up faces) should be used
with care. Imagine how you would feel if your own image
appeared in a presentation about foot fungus or bad breath!

There is a big difference between something being public,
and Public Domain. It is not legal to use a photograph from
any website just because it is viewable by "the public." Even
a picture of Granny's 80th birthday has the same copyright
as the works of Ansel Adams or Dorothea Lange. If you find
an image from an individual's homepage using a search
engine, it may be as simple as asking permission to use
the file in your show. You might be surprised how many
people would be flattered they had taken a useful shot and
give you the go ahead. Especially for a low profile
presentation in a classroom or a small business meeting.

Royalty-Free:
RF images are generally released for use in any project -
presentations, printed works, and multimedia - and for
extended periods of time. They are often priced by the size of
the image, with larger images costing more than smaller
ones. Restrictions may still apply, especially when it comes
to how the images will be distributed to third parties.

Many websites offering Royalty-Free images combine the
portfolios of numerous artists to create a larger database of
photographs. These artists agree to the Royalty-Free terms
in exchange for compensation, making the website a sort of
middleman to the PowerPoint user. The copyright for an
image is retained by the photographer, and is "loaned" to
the end user for their presentation.

Rights-Managed or Rights-Restricted:
Managed artwork pricing is based on a variety of factors;
length of use; the delivery method; how many people will
see it (impressions); who will see it (public or private), etc.

A photo shown in PowerPoint during a small town church
sermon would cost significantly less than a photo used in a
presentation during the press conference of a new
automobile.

As with Royalty-Free images, the copyright is still held by the
photographer in most cases. A photographer shooting a
specific assignment for a client, or on the payroll of a stock
company may turn over those rights based on
predetermined agreements with the end-user or agency
involved.

Large and notable websites like Corbis and Getty Images
built up their businesses on Rights Managed photography.
Both now offer Royalty-Free options as well. Many of the
smaller Royalty-Free websites, known as "micro-stocks,"
thrive on low prices and high volume.

When using any image in a PowerPoint presentation, it is
important to understand the restrictions involved. When in
doubt, talk it out. Contact the person or agency offering the
photos and know your rights!

Gary Lewis is a graphic designer with over twenty years of experience in television production, post production and presentation design.

For creative, Royalty-Free backgrounds and stock photos (and plenty of free samples!) visit Pro Background Art today!

Crooked Horizons in Your Photos? - Here is a Five Minute Digital Fix

Remember the good old photography days?

Film camera in hand, you would see that perfect landscape, seascape or sunset and shoot off several shots.

Perhaps a couple of weeks later, once you had returned home and finally finished that 24 or 36 exposure film, it was off to the photo-lab to get the film processed.

You eagerly open the packet of photographs, looking for that superb seascape you took, knowing that it would almost certainly be taken up by National Geographic for their monthly magazine spread.

What do you find?

A not too bad photo, but the seascape horizon is crooked, here's your excuse, I hear you say.. "Well when I took the shot I was standing on the side of a sand dune and quickly trying to get that perfect shot while the little sailboat was still in view".

Does this sound familiar to all you budding Adam Ansels and/or Lord Snowdons?

The photo is relegated back to the packet never again to see the light of day.

I had many of those packets of not so perfect photos until the digital photography age arrived.

The Digital Darkroom has arrived

The advent of the digital camera and in fact, before that, computerized image manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop has completely revolutionized the way we can now resurrect a stunning image from what at face value might have appeared to be just one of those snapshots to be relegated to the shoebox under the stairs.

What I'm going to show you in this article is just one method of taking a mundane snapshot and producing a great shot in as little as five minutes.

The example I'm going to use, is one that I have seen so many times, and have already mentioned above, namely, shots that have crooked horizons, whether this be a landscape, seascape, sunset or whatever.

The source of the image may have come from a scanned negative, scanned print or digital camera image all converted to an image format (most probably .JPG pronounced "jaypeg") that can be opened in your image manipulation software.

Correcting a crooked horizon

The human eye is remarkably perceptive at picking out features in a photograph that are made up of essentially straight lines and that those lines are not parallel, either horizontally or vertically, with the overall print itself.

These straight lines may well be the horizon, but they may also be an object in your photo that has straight lines such as buildings or walls etc...

I will be using Adobe Photoshop CS, but almost all other image manipulation software packages have similar tools so the method described should be repeatable with your own software package.

The method used will employ a little known relationship between two Photoshop functions, the Measure tool and the Rotate Canvas command.

Step - 1

Open up your image in your image editor (in our case Photoshop) and select the Measure tool which if not visible on the Photoshop toolbar can be found by hovering your mouse over the Eyedropper tool and "left clicking".

Watch the other options window "fly-out" and select the Measure tool.

Step - 2

Interestingly enough, we are not actually going to measure anything in the real sense of the word, nor use the Measure tool as it is usually used (i.e. measuring the distance between two points within the photograph).

With the Measure tool active, "left click" and "hold" on a spot on the left hand side of the photo (remember our example is a seascape) where the horizon meets the sea.

While still "holding down" the left mouse button, drag to the right hand side of the photo and find a corresponding point where the horizon meets the sea and then release the mouse button.

What happened? .. Well you will see that a white line has been drawn on top of the photo with what looks like little "+" anchors at each end. The line is parallel with our crooked horizon.

Step - 3

Now the marvel begins!! Select the Image->Rotate Canvas->Arbitrary ... command and the Rotate Canvas pop-up window will appear.

What you will notice (in the case of Photoshop anyway) is that it has "pre-filled" the pop-up rotate options with the exact rotation information to correct the crooked horizon, 1.5 degrees counter-clockwise in our example on our web-site. Click OK and see what happens ..

The photo has been magically rotated the right amount to correct the crooked horizon!

Step - 4

All that is required now is to do a tight "crop" on the overall photograph and save it.

And there you have it!!
Less than five minutes of digital image manipulation to take that mundane snapshot into a photograph that is very pleasing to the eye.

If you find the steps taking are a little hard to understand in this text based article, you can click on the link at the end of this article to see the same method explained on our website with the aid of example graphical images.

© Gary Wilkinson 2005 - All Rights Reserved

You can see this correction method complete with example images at Correcting Crooked Horizons in Photos

Feel free to re-print this article provided that all hyperlinks and author biography are retained as-is.

Gary Wilkinson is a photographer, photographic restorer and the owner of a photographic retail business.

He is also the publisher of the http://www.restoring-photos-made-easy.com website, where other methods of correcting common photographic restoration problems are discussed.

Photography - Bainbridge Mat Board

When it comes to framing and matting supplies for your artistic photographic images, quality is everything. Your images may be the finest taken since Ansel Adams turned his camera toward the spectacular mountain ranges of California and the Pacific Northwest, but without the proper photography frames, matboard and other framing and matting supplies, your prints will not only look cheap, they'll deteriorate very quickly as well.

It Starts With Matboard

There are multiple techniques that can be used for mounting your photographic prints, and the one you choose will depend on various factors:

1. The storage or display environment; whether it is humid or dry, if there are wide temperature variations, and if pollutants are an issue.

2. The durability of the medium; are the photographic images reproduced on high-quality papers and with the best dyes? If not, it may be necessary to increase the amount of protection for the images.

3. Your budget: like many other aspects of photography, there is a wide range of costs depending on the quality and nature of the materials used. (Fortunately, framing is not the most expensive part of photography.)

4. The complexity of the method used; less experienced photographers may prefer to use simpler framing methods.

A Quick and Easy Way

Once you have chosen and obtained your framing and matting supplies, one of the simpler methods for mounting your print is to affix, or hinge the photo directly to the photo mat board. This is best accomplished with the use of adhesive hinging tissue, which is similar to double-sided adhesive tape designed especially for this purpose. This can create some problems in the future should you choose to change the picture mat at some future date, but it will definitely hold your print securely in place.

Other methods you may wish to consider:

o Hinge the matboard to the mount board, sandwiching the print between them

o Use photo corners affixed to the mount board. This has the advantage of allowing you to mount the print without having to apply adhesive to the photo paper, and the photo corners can be hidden with the use of photo mat board and/or proper sized photography frames.

o Glue or spray adhesive: this is probably the most economical method, but caution should be exercised, as such substances can damage the surface of the photograph.

Choose Your Mat

One question that is frequently asked is "What is the best picture mat to use?" Again, your choice of these particular framing and matting supplies depends on several factors. If you are inexperienced at cutting matboard , you may wish to use pre-cut mat board, although this will limit your options as to how your photo will be displayed. If you are looking for archival quality, bainbridge mat board is the only real choice; made from special acid-free mounting materials this is one of the best framing and matting supplies available, and will preserve your prints in museum condition for many years.

Susan Slobac is an avid photographer. Susan believes a picture frame is more than just fashion; it's a safeguard for something you love.

F8 and Be There

I came across a great quote recently: "F/8 and be there." It's not a new quote and is attributed to the photojournalist Weegee. Apparently when asked how he takes such interesting pictures, Weegee was fond of saying "F/8 and be there." Oddly, this quote has brought with it some conjecture: "Why f/8?" some people ask. "Is there some mystical relationship between that aperture and not others?" "Why did Weegee not say "f/5.6 and be there or f/l6 and be there?" "Why is no shutter speed mentioned?" and so on.

Photographers are great ones for scrutinizing each other's camera gear, technique, film, chemicals, memory cards or whatever, in order to glean some morsel of information that we think might make us that little bit better. In doing so we often miss the most important point. If we take a step back from Weegee's quote we may find that the point has a lot more to do with the second half than the first: all technicalities aside, you've got to be out there doing it.

Weegee worked primarily at night - with flash. Speed is often the key in photojournalism and working with flash bulbs and, despite the name, a 4x5 Speed Graphic, having a seamless and speedy workflow is crucial to getting the shot. Simplicity is therefore the answer to a lot of potential problems. If indeed Weegee did stick pretty much to f/8, my opinion is it's because he found that f/8 gave him a good basis to work from and allowed him to be within the subject-to-flash distance he preferred. In other words, he found what worked best for his needs and perfected it. This is a critical point in photography - any type of photography.

Other photographers who had similar practices are well known. That other great photojournalist, Henri Cartier-Bresson, was apparently fond of using a shutter speed of 1/125 second and a 50mm lens. HCB liked to capture particular moments in time, what he termed 'the decisive moment'. A shutter speed of 1/125 second would give him that while also giving him a good range of apertures to work with for his usual subject matter in daylight (i.e. no flash). The 50mm lens gives a 'normal' perspective, similar to the human eye. Perhaps HCB wanted to capture exactly what he was seeing.

Ansel Adams, being a founding member of Group f/64, wanted, as the name of the group would indicate, as much in sharp focus as possible. To do so, Adams and others working in the 'straight' style, use the smallest f/stops on their lenses to attain the maximum depth of field. Edward Weston, another founding member of Group f/64, even once made a smaller aperture for one of his lenses that didn't stop down far enough (if my recollection of his 'Daybooks' is correct). Using cumbersome 8x10 view cameras and heavy tripods to support them, photographers like Adams and Weston found sharpness and a full tonal scale as the best way of realising their vision.

Interestingly, Edward Weston's son Brett, was never one to talk too much about art and technique, he was too busy out there doing it, or perhaps I should say, too busy 'being there'. This brings me back to my point; the greatest technical aptitude isn't worth a damn if you're not out there actually doing it.

Weegee simply found a method that worked for him; the important part was he was there. Adams and Edward and Brett Weston found what worked best for them individually and developed that. Weston's other son, Cole, who never did anything that remarkable with black and white - other than printing - for which he was a master, found his form, and how, when he started using the colour film Kodak sent his old man. Cole Weston became a wonderful and well-renowned color photographer, again, finding what worked best for him.

The photographic historian Nancy Newhall once said of Henri Cartier-Bresson, "He puts on his Leica as another man would put on his coat." It sounds like HCB spent a great deal of time 'being there'. So the moral of this little ditty is simply to get out and take some pictures, find what works for you, develop your style and keep at it. Perhaps we could adapt the quote to "whatever works best for you, and be there".

Matthew Smeal is a photographer and journalist, and occasional photojournalist, from Sydney, Australia. Please visit his website at http://www.matthewsmeal.com and blog at http://matthewsmeal.blogspot.com

ADD-ADHD Or Just a Super Smart Kid?

Since there really is no definitive way of diagnosing this so called affliction, the psychiatric profession has seized on a series of standardized, and highly subjective questionnaires to determine whether or not a child has ADD/ADHD. Observations from parents and teachers are also used in reaching a conclusion. Hardly a scientific process

Think about it. As a child, were you ever reprimanded for any of these?

• Nonstop talking.
• Dreaming: Sitting at your desk and staring into space.
• Not paying attention
• Being easily distracted. Trouble staying focused.
• Not listening when spoken to.
• Difficulty in remembering things and failing to follow instructions.
• Problems with staying organized, planning ahead, and finishing projects.
• Frequently losing or misplacing homework, books, or other items.
• Constant fidgeting and squirming.
• Leaving your seat often when sitting quietly is expected.
• Moving around too much, running, or climbing inappropriately.
• Always "on the go." Blurting out answers without waiting to hear the whole question.
• Difficulty waiting your turn.

You have? More than eight? Well land sakes, you've got ADD/ADHD!! Who says? Why the "experts" at the American Psychiatric Association who are very "expert" at hanging labels on anything and everything that has anything at all to do with human behavior. So just go ahead now and sit in the corner with a few of your peers:

• Bill Gates
• Lindsey Wagner
• Albert Einstein
• Eleanor Roosevelt
• Michael Jordan
• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Dustin Hoffman
• Terry Bradshaw
• Ansel Adams
• Ann Bancroft
• Alexander Graham Bell
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Abraham Lincoln
• Whoopi Goldberg
• Tom Cruise
• Elvis Presley
• Bill Cosby
• John F. Kennedy
• Prince Charles
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Napoleon Bonaparte

The list can go on to fill a nice fat book of fine print. So it would appear that ADD/ADHD is a gift, not an affliction!

WHY ARE CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH ADD/ADHD? AND HOW?
The number one reason for diagnosing a child as afflicted with ADD/ADHD (and the subsequent drugging of the child) seems to be for the convenience of parents and teachers. Their mental capacity often exceeds that of their elders who are frustrated in their inability to deal with it. These kids in turn feel frustrated because they lack the life experience, the acquired knowledge and education, and the motor skills required for matching their actions to their minds. They are growing asymetricallymentally as well as physically. It's something we all do in the process of maturing. It's no reason to drug a child!

ALTERNATIVE PHYSICIANS STRONGLY OPPOSE DRUGGING CHILDREN
Researching the issue, revealed very quickly that not a single alternative physician surveyed, among those who have demonstrated success in treating ADD/ADHD, has ever found it necessary to put a child on Ritalin to control this disorder. Instead, they have looked at, and identified the factors surrounding the symptoms producing the misdiagnosis of ADD/ADHD. These include, but are not limited to:

• Hearing & vision problems
• Learning disabilities
• Gifted child who might be bored in school
• Disgraphia, difficulties in writing
• Mental retardation
• Personality conflicts (with teacher or other students)
• Depression
• Childhood psychosis
• Oppositional defiant disorder
• Tourette's syndrome
• Autism
• Pervasive developmental disorder
• Instability at home (Illness, death of a family member, frequent moves, divorce)
• Seizures
• Lead poisoning
• Iron deficiency
• Medications
• Allergies
• Zinc deficiency, particularly in boys
• Chronic disease
• Thyroid disorder
• Substance abuse
• Sleep disturbances, or not enough sleep

ADD/ADHD A PHONY DISEASE
Reviewing this abbreviated list of possible causes of conflicting behaviors in children seems to definitively establish that ADD/ADHD is by and large a pseudo disease invented by interests intent on profiting from it. And it's no coincidence that expenditures for Ritalin and related drugs are up 122% over the past four years. These numbers will increase, possibly exponentially, every year, unless parents take control! The symptoms of this pretty much phony disease are generally simply a bunch of normal childhood behaviors labeled as a "disease" by psychiatrists either too myopic to see the real issue, too self seeking to care about over medicating kids, or simply too stupid to understand the underlying problem.

ONLY IN AMERICA!
What is also interesting is that ADD/ADHD is a purely American phenomenon, with 85% of the world's supply of Ritalin being used on American children, who are no different from children in other countries! In the opinion of Dr Julian Whitaker, one of the nation's leading alternative physicians, " Pediatricians, psychiatrists, and other doctors who are putting children on mood and behavior altering drugs are more dangerous to our society than illegal drug peddlers. They are destroying our children, robbing their souls, and mortgaging our future."

KIDS ARE KIDS AND ACT LIKE THEM. SHOULD THEY BE ANY DIFFERENT?
Kids get colds. They get tummy aches. They misbehave. Didn't you? But that's no reason to put them on drugs! Alternative medicine is swimming in safe, natural therapies for common childhood conditions that do not expose our children to life altering pharmacological substances.

The American College for the Advancement of Medicine has many doctors on its roster who successfully treat ADD/ADHD and a host of other chronic illnesses with safe, natural methods. By paying a visit to their website, anyone interested in finding an alternative physician in his own area can find one without cost or obligation, simply by consulting their roster. Visit LeQuadrillage.com for a direct link to the ACAM website and for more, accurate information on ADD/ADHD and a host of other largely misrepresented disorders.

How To Purchase A Camera For Professional Photography

Aspiring Steve McCurry or Ansel Adams? If you love photography, and want to make a career out of it, it takes a lot more than inspiration and an eye for creating fabulous photos. It takes solid training from a professional photography school and the right camera. This article helps prime you to choose the best first professional camera for your photography career.

Research, Research, Research.Your first step is to learn about everything you can regarding your subject: in this case, the best first camera for your photography career. Of course, take into consideration the top brands and prices, and read up on online reviews, and ask around to formulate the best working framework to start searching for a new camera within. No matter what you do, or how well you know how to bargain shop, this will be an expensive purchase, and thus, the more initial research you can do, the better off you will be. Treat it with the same respect you would offer a new car- after all, it will be the most significant tool of your career - apart from your talent, of course.

Immediate Needs. Next, consider your immediate need for this professional camera. Is it something that you want to play around with, need for photography school, or as your first career camera? Deciding what and how you will be using this camera for will help you consider what kinds of specific features, elements, and capabilities it should require.

Manual or Digital. The first of these camera considerations should, of course, be the most fundamental. Do you want a manual or a digital camera, or a camera that uses both technology? Almost all photography schools and professional positions will require that you have manual capability in your camera in order to understand beyond the automatic nature of our immediate photo-capturing world, how a picture becomes the picture that it does. Digital, on the other hand, allows you to easily and conveniently manipulate and print photos taken. Your best bet, if you can afford it, is always a hybrid manual/digital camera for any professional photography situation.

Features. Whichever kind of camera you choose, will determine what features you need to look for in order to get the best professional grade photos for your career. As a professional photographer, one should always remember in purchasing equipment for their career that as many options should be afforded to you in the rendering of a photo -no matter your type of photographer. You want your talent to shine through, and thus, you want to be able to control light through aperture, color temperature through manipulation, and use focus/movement technology to capture fast action shots to blurry movement. Aside from having these options, you always want to be able to have high resolution ability. For digital, this means lots of megapixels. For manual, this means the right lens.

Options. Aside from these basics in brand, price, features, function, and kind of camera; as a professional photographer (pre- or post-photography school), you should never buy cheap quality or nix options that will be imperative in your ability to shoot the best in photographs. This doesn't mean you have to have the best and most expensive camera on the market for photography school, or as a novice; but that you should always choose better lens material quality/brands, have protective carrying cases and gear, and include precious extras such as high resolution, high grade light filters, and focus features. Remind yourself as always that this is your career in photography, and to deliver prize-winning photos that compel-you require quality equipment and your camera is the most imperative piece in your toolkit.

Bierstadt Prints

Albert Bierstadt prints make great choices for those who love the North American countryside and wish to add it to their own homes. This article covers the works of this famous American painter in full and discusses why his art makes such a suitable choice as print for art consumers.

Bierstadt's prints and paintings cover the North American landscape in great detail with his charming touches of class that lifted him to the peak of the Hudson River School set of artists. Whilst they remain regular topics of study, with the likes of Church and Moran, it is Bierstadt whose career stands out tallest. To have Bierstadt mountain named after him in respect of the achievements and legacy of his career show quite what he managed to do through hard work and his natural passion for this subject.

The best works from a career which output around 4,000 paintings in total include the likes of Storm in the Rocky Mountains (Mount Rosa), Looking Down Yosemite Valley, Alaskan Coast Range, San Francisco Bay, Passing Storm over the Sierra Nevadas, The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, Gosnold at Cuttyhunk and Indian Canoe.

The colour schemes and exceptional detail used by Bierstadt make his paintings suitable as art prints and stretched canvases as few get the chance to see his works in person at the various key collections currently housed in Cleveland, Seattle, New York, Boston and Vermont. The considerable number that the artist produced ensures that anyone can find an exact painting to their taste, be it with specific countryside and weather and lighting effects.

You can read more about Bierstadt prints at bierstadtprints.com.

If you prefer handmade reproductions, then enjoy these Bierstadt paintings at the Oil Painting Shop.

Commercial Photographer - Click To Clique

Ansel Adams, the renowned photographer from America, famous for his black and white photographs, had said, "Negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance". And the performance of a commercial photographer is best judged by the response the client gets on any advertisement he places in any kind of medium. By response, we mean the acceptance and the action taken by the target audience, to whom the ad is directed.

The work of a commercial photographer is different from other kind of photographers in the same fraternity. And this difference arises chiefly due to the fact that the work is meant to impress a target audience. The entire work of a commercial photographer is surrounding the target group which is basically a group of consumers or potential consumers for a particular product. Each product, service or any idea has a particular set of target customers which differs from product to product or service to service.

What commercial photographer shoots is basically meant for promoting this product or service or idea to the people who form the target audience for it. Although this form of photography involves similar equipments and has similar elements as compared to the other branches of photography, yet there is a big difference in the work of a commercial photographer and that difference is that he shoots to impress people while most of the others shoot to impress themselves, satisfy their desire to capture moments from life, to inform or to promote the institution of photography.

Life of a commercial photographer is quite challenging but it is also full of rewards. And these rewards are more in monetary terms than mental satisfaction of the professional. If your clicks clique well with the target group, you can expect more work, more projects and therefore more money flowing in.

Jack White is a specialist in Advertising photography and other kinds of photography. He has worked in close coordination with many an expert commercial photographer of UK and other countries. In his works he is presenting some of his observation on the role of commercial photographer in advertising photography.