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Images From Death Valley Workshop

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Here are some first pass image selects from my recent Death Valley workshop. They won’t all make the cut, so this may be the only time anyone will ever see some of them. I’m really excited about the material I collected for composites.
We had such great locations, weather, and participants that I scheduled my Death Valley February 18-21, 2011 workshop today.
Find out more about locations in the Death Valley map we’re building right now.
Check out alumni Harry Sandler’s blog posts from the workshop.

Photography's My Favorite Form of Exercise

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Photographing. It’s my favorite form of exercise. You walk, climb, squat, bend, reach, stretch and more – much more. You lose track of time and how far you’ve gone. You just keep going. You always want to go farther. It’s exhilarating! At the end of it all, you feel great and you return with something to show for it. I recommend it to everyone.
This image shows me walking across Badwater during my recent Death Valley workshop.

Photography's Changed – Again

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Here’s an excerpt from my first post on Huffington Post.
“Photography’s constant move towards ease, speed, economy, and ubiquity continues today and it has recently reached a new critical apex.
In the first decade of the 21st century, Apple released the iPhone (2007) and a host of independent applications followed, designed to preview, make, process, enhance, and distribute photographs in seconds. Photography just got easier, faster, less expensive, and more ubiquitious …
When did you discover you can do this?
5-15 seconds     Make and save image
15-30 seconds  Process an image
15-30 seconds  Comment on an image and transmit it to others
15-30 seconds  Find other people’s images
15-30 seconds Comment on other people’s images or put them to other uses
In about a minute you can make, process, comment on, and distribute an image. It can take you a similar amount of time to do the same with someone else’s image.
If you haven’t done it yet, try it now. I just did. Doing this will change the way you experience and think about photography …”
Read the full post here.
I share useful links to posts on the history of photography, camera, and camera phone too.
Find iPhone Apps and Accessories I use here.

My New Column on Huffington Post

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I’ve started writing for the Huffington Post. Initially, I’ll be focussing on cell phone photography. It is a game changer. Did you know people win Pulitzer prizes and sell fine art prints with cell phone photographs? But they did this with traditional cameras too. What excites me most about cell phone photography are the many different things you can do with cell phone photographs – get a quick diagnosis, find out where you are, see someplace you want to visit before you get there, find the nearest store for items, compare prices, make 3D immersive images, help enrich 3D models on Google maps … the list goes on and on and keeps expanding everyday. Cell phone photography has really gotten my head thinking in new exciting ways! I’ll share my insights on Huffington Post.
The first is live now. More are scheduled for this week. Stay tuned!
You can find all my posts here.
Find iPhone Apps and Accessories I use here.

Color Is An Event

Color doesn’t exist out there. Color is produced inside us. Color is the human response to vibrations in a narrow part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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Color is an event. In any color event you need a light source and an observer – and often an object that reflects the light perceived. There is no color without an observer – just energetic vibrations.

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Our perception of color is complex; part physical, part biological, part psychological. Understanding more about our different responses to color and how they interact helps visual artists be more visually sensitive observers and more effective communicators.

Read more Color Theory.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

Identifying 3 Types of Color

There are essentially three kinds of color.

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Ideal
Ideal color (often thought of as accurate color) is produced when the color of objects is unmodified by temporal or atmospheric effects or enhancement. Forensics and product photographers favor this type of color.

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Ambient
Ambient color is produced when the color of objects is modified by time of day or atmospheric effects, like dust or fog. Landscape photographers often favor this type of color.

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Synthetic
Synthetic color is produced when the color of objects is transformed from its original color to another color. You can produce synthetic color before photographic color or afterward with digital enhancement. Graphic artists often favor this type of color.

It’s useful to distinguish between these three types of color. Doing this provides insights into how (what tools to use and how to use them) to adjust color in your images. It also provides insights into your color preferences and visual voice.

Read more Color Theory.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.