Wednesday, October 07, 2009

A Photographic Legend Passes

My favorite portrait of Pablo Picasso by Irving Penn.
"Irving Penn, a grand master of American fashion photography whose "less is more" aesthetic combined with a startling sensuality defined a visual style that he applied to designer dresses or fleshy nudes, famous artists or tribal chiefs, cigarette butts or cosmetics jars, many of them now-famous photographs owned by leading art museums, has died. He was 92." For more from the Los Angeles Times article click here.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

CCD Inventors Win The Nobel PrizeI In Physics!

Willard Sterling Boyle and George Elwood Smith, who co-developed the first charge-coupled device (CCD) for image capture, have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. They share the honour with physicist Charles Kuen Kao, who won the prize “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication”. For more info click here.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Nigel Parry Followup

If you get a chance to snag a copy of "Sharp" do so. Some of Nigel Parry's most interesting images are reproduced in this beautiful book. Well worth the original price but I found a "like new" on Amazon that I can't tell from "new" and at an incredibly low price and when I say low, the shipping cost more than the book.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Epson Kicks It Up A Couple of Notches!

The long awaited Epson Stylus Pro 3880 has finally arrived and with some noticeable improvements over it's older brother the 3800. Check it out by clicking here.

Canon Announces The 7D

Yep, the rumors were true. The Canon 7D is an 18-megapixel semi-pro DSLR that shoots 1080p video in 24 or 30 frames per second for $1899 or less and it doesn't stop there. Canon made several "upgrades" to it's 5D predecessor based on customer surveys, unfortunately they made one downgrade, it's not a full sized chip! What! Read more at Gizmodo by clicking here.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Eight Exceptional People Remembered - A Repost

It's hard to believe that 911 was eight years ago. I want to share with you, once again, the story of eight people who perished that Tuesday; eight exceptional people, Joe Ferguson, (photo), Ann Judge (photo), James Debeuneure, Rodney Dickens, Sarah Clark, Asia Cottom, Hilda Taylor and Bernard Brown. This is their 911 story.

"Two staff members of the National Geographic Society, along with three Washington, D.C., teachers and three students they were traveling with, were among the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States on Tuesday, officials of the Society announced on Wednesday.

Ann Judge, director of the Society's travel office, and Joe Ferguson, director of the Geography Education Outreach Program, were accompanying the three teacher-student pairs on an educational trip to California.

They were all killed along with the other passengers of American Airlines Flight 77 after it was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon at about 9:45 Tuesday morning.

Teacher James Debeuneure and student Rodney Dickens were representing Ketcham Elementary School; teacher Sarah Clark and student Asia Cottom were from Backus Middle School; and teacher Hilda Taylor and student Bernard Brown were from Leckie Elementary School. All the students were 11-year-old sixth graders.

They had been selected to participate in a program at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary near Santa Barbara, California, as part of a Society-funded marine research project known as Sustainable Seas Expeditions."

"Through our educational outreach program, Ann and Joe were going to make geography and the environment come alive for these committed, talented teachers and their star students by putting them into the field with scientists and researchers," said John Fahey Jr., the Society's president and CEO.

"The D.C. School District has lost six extraordinary people, and we at the Society have lost two treasured colleagues," he added.

Today our thoughts and prayers are with all the victim's families, and this commitment we make to them, we will never forget.It's hard to believe that 911 was seven years ago. I want to share with you, once again, the story of eight of the 3000 people who perished that Tuesday; eight exceptional people, Joe Ferguson, (photo), Ann Judge (photo), James Debeuneure, Rodney Dickens, Sarah Clark, Asia Cottom, Hilda Taylor and Bernard Brown. This is their 911 story.

"Two staff members of the National Geographic Society, along with three Washington, D.C., teachers and three students they were traveling with, were among the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States on Tuesday, officials of the Society announced on Wednesday.

Ann Judge, director of the Society's travel office, and Joe Ferguson, director of the Geography Education Outreach Program, were accompanying the three teacher-student pairs on an educational trip to California.

They were all killed along with the other passengers of American Airlines Flight 77 after it was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon at about 9:45 Tuesday morning.

Teacher James Debeuneure and student Rodney Dickens were representing Ketcham Elementary School; teacher Sarah Clark and student Asia Cottom were from Backus Middle School; and teacher Hilda Taylor and student Bernard Brown were from Leckie Elementary School. All the students were 11-year-old sixth graders.

They had been selected to participate in a program at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary near Santa Barbara, California, as part of a Society-funded marine research project known as Sustainable Seas Expeditions."

"Through our educational outreach program, Ann and Joe were going to make geography and the environment come alive for these committed, talented teachers and their star students by putting them into the field with scientists and researchers," said John Fahey Jr., the Society's president and CEO.

"The D.C. School District has lost six extraordinary people, and we at the Society have lost two treasured colleagues," he added.

Once again our thoughts and prayers are with all the victim's families, and this commitment we make to them, we will never forget.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Panasonic Kicks It Up A Notch!

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 sounds too good to be true! 12 Mega Pixels with a Leica DC VARIO-ELMARIT 27-486mm Zoom! That's not a typo 27-486, wow! You can zoom in and out while shooting AVCHD HD movies and it has Macro capabilities as well. All for $399.95! My buddy Steve Burger told me that a student in his last Grand Canyon workshop had one of these and the files were "awesome". For more info click here.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Check Out Nigel Parry!

Saw some of his work online and ordered one of his books "Sharp". Will follow up after it arrives, in the meantime check him out by clicking here.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Check Out Oleg Dou!

Talk about a guy who is out there! I really like his work but it seems that people either love it or hate it. Click here to check out the images.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Happy Birthday America!

When in the course of human events... thus begins one of our most cherished documents. I remember as a small child enjoying the 4th of July holiday with all of my cousins and other family members at my Uncle's home in rural Missouri. Towards the end of the day, before the fireworks, (yes fireworks were legal back then), my Uncle, seated at a picnic table in his enormous back yard, began reading the Declaration of Independence aloud with everyone gathered around. Everyone was quiet and respectful and at the end he smiled and said "Happy Birthday America"! Yesterday before going to my family's home for dinner and fireworks and celebration I took the time to read again this amazing document, I highly recommend it. Oh, and my favorite part, the last fourteen words. To read the Declaration of Independence click here.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Give Us Those Nice Bright Colors...

Give us the greens of summers... makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah... I got a Nikon camera... I love to take a photograph... so Mama don't take my Kodachrome away! Well, Mama didn't but today Kodak announced the official "retirement" of Kodachrome film. While I do love digital... Kodachrome and Tri-X were and are to this day my favorite films. I first began shooting Kodachrome as a student in the photography program at Phoenix College in the fall of 1971, seems like yesterday. Yes, I'm aware that it was a black and white film with color added in processing, I don't care;
It's amazing color palette and longevity make it, at least in my mind, the greatest "color" film of all time. Farewell old friend, we will miss you.


Monday, June 15, 2009

Stumbled Upon This Article In Smashing Mag

Photo by Chan Chen
For 24 more beautiful examples of Macro Photography click here

Check Out Jeremey Cowart!

I really like this guy's work! To see more click here.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Honoring Fallen Warriors

"Today I fly the flag for those I knew well and those I did not know who fought and died so long ago and so far away." Memorial day is a tough day. For me it brings to mind memories of young men I served with who gave their life in service to their country. Time has done little to fade those memories and on this Memorial Day, like every other, I want to honor the warrior without honoring war and these quotes seems appropriate...

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. " John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"I hate war as only a soldier who lived it can, only as one who has seen it's brutality, it's futility, it's stupidity." Dwight David Eisenhower

Friday, February 13, 2009

Check Out George Fulton!

Copyright George Fulton

Beautifully crafted images by a photographer with a unique sense of humor.

DigitalRev Tests The Canon 5D Mark II - Check It Out!

A 21 meg pixel still camera that shoots HD video with decent sound? Sign me up! Check out the short film "Lumiere" but be sure to click on "watch in HD" so you can see what the camera is capable of even with YouTube compression.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Imaging USA Comes To Town!

Just in case you've been living in a cave for the last couple of months... Imaging USA and Professional Photographers of America are in Phoenix in a BIG way! Join fellow photographers at the big show January 11th - 13th. With 500,000 sq ft of trade show and a class for everyone this show is being billed as the largest in North America for 2009. Several companies with outstanding products will be at the trade show and we hope you'll visit their booths. They are:

Bay Photo - Booth 1146

Epson - Booth 1115

Nik Software - Booth 1540

Lensbaby - Booth 332

As always Visualville receives no compensation of any kind from any of these companies we just think their products rock! For more info on the big show
click here.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Portraits of Tombstone Photoshop Seminar!

If you ever wanted to photograph Tombstone and do it right don't miss out on this opportunity!

The Friends of Arizona Highways has a great workshop coming up "Portraits of Tombstone" February 16th - 19th offers you a chance to work closely with two great instructors. Photographer, and former Arizona Highways Picture Editor, J. Peter Mortimer will help you find wonderful light to capture "period personalities" during prearranged and spontaneous portrait sessions.

You'll also have the opportunity to work in a casual classroom setting alongside one of the best print makers and Photoshop teachers in the Southwest, Steve Burger. I've known both of these talented men for many years and they get my highest recommendation.

A chance to capture great images in one of the West's most romantic destinations and leave with a great print! Photo workshops don't get any better than that! For more info or to sign up click here.