http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog exploring reality through documentary photography Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:10:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Preparing traffic lights for installation."][/caption] Asia is great for photography, especially photojournalistic photography. You can always find people on the streets and, from a Western perspective, there is always something interesting going on. Having just returned to the United States, I have to adjust to the new ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photographs/new-practices-in-the-new-world There are many aspects of photography, many different paths down which it might lead. My own path is a journey in pursuit of reality, or "true reality" as I like to call it (though I know how redundant that sounds), and with the potential of photography to freeze a moment ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photosophy/not-an-escape-from-reality My wife insisted I post this. I wrote all this in e-mails the past couple days trying to help a technologically-challenged sister buy a camera for her starting-out-photo-student brother, and they are in different countries, so cannot shop together. Here is the little background: because these suggestions are for a specific ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/faq/what-camera-should-i-buy-on-a-budget I have been challenged by War Photographer, a documentary film about the "anti-war" photographer James Nachtwey. As it points out, though he may have started out with at least a partial desire for the travel and adventure, he has become something of an anomaly: he is a quiet and hopeful ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photosophy/what-is-our-responsibility-as-photographers [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption=""Ooo, there's the REAL photographer!""][/caption] That is not false humility. It seems with every passing "serious job" I do, I realize how far I have to go. Sure, I took some pretty shots, but there were so many shots that I looked at and thought, "Hmph, that ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/software-equipment/so-far-to-go I think we are finally seeing the end to the megapixel wars...though I think we will still have some megapixel regional conflicts for many years to come. For years, few people have thought about sensor size, image quality, high ISO noise, or any other issues before they found out the ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/software-equipment/death-to-megapixel-envy I just read an excellent interview with Ami Vitale by The Adventure Life. The interview, thankfully, did not focus on gear or the technical side of photography, but instead gave us a good idea of who Ami Vitale is, how she works, how she survives, and a great feel for ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photosophy/ami-vitale-objectivity-truth I was digging through a box of  stuff a friend left—I find myself doing this fairly often here in China, we leave little traces of our lives all around the place—and found a Polaroid camera and one cartridge of film, or paper, or whatever you call it for Polaroid. I ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/software-equipment/a-la-polaroid [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="333" caption="Balloon Toss"][/caption] This was easily the brightest day I have experienced in a long time. In case you were wondering, I added very little contrast to this photo. Most of that is natural. So, with such a huge amount of light, I decided to zone focus. I have ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photographs/brightest-day-has-its-advantages You know that really groovy lens flare you see every once in a while? It make you feel like the photo just has that extra little something, as if by accident, but I am betting that a majority of the time, it is on purpose...well, with professionals, anyway. I gotta ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/picture-problems/aint-got-no-flare Serving to a Fault, Defaulting to Service. A life spent striving to be spent Poured out as an offering. A farm girl caught in a city life, Primal simplicity wasted not On the severed souls she helped. O, that we too could find simpleness. That we have, In the picture of love among us, Like the servant farmer before her, The ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/writings/full-life-empty-%e5%b7%b1%e7%94%9f%e4%b8%91%e7%89%9b [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Too Cool for Dancing"][/caption] Sometimes I am thankful I have an outdated, clunker for a camera. Well, that is how others see it, anyway. To me, the horrible noise if I raise the ISO above the minimum setting divulges the unique and unheralded character of the Nikon ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photographs/aloof Minor White, neither some funky musical chord nor a new character for Clue, was indeed a very well known photographer...though I will not pretend I knew that even a few months ago. However, I was immediately caught by a quote of his: "I photograph things for what they are and ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photosophy/the-ethereal-layers-of-a-photograph [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Cops Are On My Ceiling"][/caption] What is a camera obscura? I did not find out till too long ago myself. If you do not know, just go Google it if you want more answer than this: if you black out a room and allow light in ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photographs/my-first-camera-obscura-experience [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Scrap Iron Office"][/caption] This week, due to changes in the fire code, I have had to remove the wooden staircase from my coffee house and replace it with something non-flammable in order to obtain my fire permit. So, I have had several visits to this little metal-working ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photographs/scrap-iron-office Travel Photographer Rick Sammon wrote why he thinks we are so drawn to sunsets and sunrises. His meaning is our draw as humans, but being a photographer, he especially means why we are drawn visually as photographers. He proposes, with affirmation from a RIT professor of fine art, we experience ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photosophy/why-i-think-we-like-sunrises-and-sunsets I have finally moved back to Lilliput, as my Dad would say (well, I guess as Jonathan Swift would say). My family and I made it back to the little county of Sanjiang, tucked at the juncture of China's Guangxi, Guizhou, and Hunan Provinces. It is not much, but having ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/faq/it-just-feels-right The other day, a friend of mine was showing the photos from his daughter's wedding. Initially, I was only in the same room and enjoying some conversation with someone else, but then I started to realize how incredible the photos really were. I asked who had taken them, because the ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/picture-problems/why-do-i-never-get-perfect-light [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="June 5, 1989 (AP Photo/Terril Jones)"][/caption] There are photos that capture a moment. Some of those capture very important moments. And some of those become icons of history. This photo is taken moments before one of the most famous and recognized photographs of the 20th century. Everybody else ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photographs/moments-before-history-is-made I heard a snippet of this quote yesterday from photographer Duane Michals, and liked it so much, I found it online and will share it here. "The best part of us is not what we see, it's what we feel. We are what we see, we are not what we look ... http://www.chinacoop.net/photoblog/photosophy/duane-michals-thinks-most-photographs-are-extremely-boring