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Behind the Viral Photo of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Daughter
#editorial #news #spotlight #judge #judgeketanjibrownjackson #newyorktimes #sarabethmaney #storybehindthephoto #storybehindtheshot #viral #viralphoto
Behind the Viral Photo of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Daughter
#editorial #news #spotlight #judge #judgeketanjibrownjackson #newyorktimes #sarabethmaney #storybehindthephoto #storybehindtheshot #viral #viralphoto
Photographing Canyonlands in 1988: Land of Standing Rocks
In 1991, near the end of some book projects that took me on some lengthy photographic journeys through the American West by car for two years, I came up with the idea of creating posters of some of my black and white images for a few of our western National Parks.
My idea was to provide park visitors with a choice instead of the commonplace color posters. Some of those color posters were excellent but I felt there was a large audience who appreciate black and white. My idea, which I pitched to some of my favourite parks, was to provide the visitors with a "fine art" visual interpretation in black and white.
My original attempts were met with great interest by the various Natural History Associations. Most were already familiar with my photography because of various photographic projects such as magazine articles, gallery/museum shows, or word-of-mouth. I had completed a colour slide show for Capitol Reef National Park a few years before, and my black and white work was already known by some Natural History executives of Canyonlands and Death Valley National Parks.
In this series written for the ELEMENTS Magazine, I am discussing most of these posters. I'll give technical information where my memory serves me correctly, aesthetic considerations and some highlights of making the photographs on the scene. Please join me on this journey through the past!
Land of Standing Rocks. Canyonlands National Park, UT, 1988
In 1988 I resolved to make the journey into the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park. I knew it was a long, rough, daunting drive but my 1970 Ford Bronco was in good shape. I had driven the notorious Elephant Hill and S.O.B. hill years before and experienced difficulties (S.O.B. hill claimed a piece of my taillight) mainly due to my lack of "off-road" driving experience and carburetor issues, but now I felt I had better driving skills and the Bronco was up for the challenge.
My assistant Al Callju and I began our drive from the road near Hite Marina with a full tank of gas. The road from this direction goes through the famed and extremely rough Teapot Canyon but bypasses the fearsome Flint Trail and Golden Stairs. Our ultimate destination was the Doll House camping area and a hike into the "Fins." The difficult Jeep trail did not disappoint as it was slow going all the way from Teapot Canyon to the Doll House.
About five miles before the Doll House camp area, we were on a high ridge looking down at the maze of sandstone canyons to the north. On topographic maps this area is known as the "Land of Standing Rocks" and rightfully so; there are standing rocks or buttes near the road and in the distance. I noticed some thunderhead clouds in the distance which appeared to be directly above Candlestick Tower in the Island in the Sky district to the north. I decided this might make a good photograph but there needed to be another element in the sky. Fortunately, a curved band of clouds appeared to be moving from left to right. I recognized the potential for a good photograph here, but the clouds were moving quickly. Too quickly! In panic mode I focused my 4×5 view camera, attached a yellow #8 Wratten filter to my Schneider 121mm Super Angulon lens, calculated the exposure, and shot the image on Tri-X film. I turned over the film holder and made a quick, hasty duplicate exposure but then noticed a jet trail had already moved into the subject area. I really didn't know if the first exposure was good or if the second exposure recorded much of the jet trail.
Back home after developing the film, I found the first exposure was perfectly composed but about a stop too dense. After attempting to print that negative unsuccessfully I decided to treat the negative in Farmer's Reducer, hoping to cut down the high density and yield a more printable negative. It worked, but on a different negative I noticed how the reduction action of Farmer's Reducer was unpredictably quick. At least I had a better negative, but I never used that procedure again.
Because of the nature of this subject the print is very difficult to make. In order to satisfy my vision for the print I currently use a series of pin-registered film contrast masks. I use two Shadow Contrast Increase Masks, a type 1 Fog Mask and a type 2 Fog Mask. This is in addition to substantial burning and dodging as well as varying the paper contrast grade through the masking and burning steps.
I made a mock-up of this image and presented it to the Canyonlands NHA. Fortunately, they liked it and it became a poster to represent the Maze District of the park. I grew to like the image more and more over the years and I feel that it's a good representation of the great American West.
The article courtesy of ELEMENTS Magazine. The ELEMENTS is the monthly magazine dedicated to elegant landscape photography, insightful editorials and fluid, clean design. Inside you will find an exclusive and in-depth articles and imagery by the best landscape photographers in the world such as Bruce Barnbaum, Christopher Burkett, Chuck Kimmerle, Christian Fletcher, Charlie Waite, Rachael Talibart, Erin Babnik and Freeman Patterson, to name a few. Use the PETAPIXEL10 code for a 10% discount off the annual subscription.
About the author: Lynn Radeka’s professional photography career spans more than 50 years. Influenced in his early work by Ansel Adams and Wynn Bullock, both of whom critiqued his prints, he continues to pursue a technical and aesthetic mastery of the medium of photography. His love of the grand landscapes and intimate details of the American West was born on his first trip to Death Valley in 1966.
#spotlight #analog #canyonlands #elements #elementsmagazine #film #filmphotography #fineartlandscapephotography #landscape #landscapephotographer #landscapephotography #lynnradeka #storybehindthephoto #storybehindtheshot #travel #utah
A Lucky Photo of an Unlucky Duck
I should go out and buy a lottery ticket. Last week, I took advantage of Nikon’s 10% off sale on refurbished gear to get a great deal on their 500mm f/5.6 PF lens. Did I need it? No. But I’ve been lusting over its compact size and light weight since it came out, so finally pulled the trigger and bought one.
Yesterday afternoon I wanted to try it out with my two Nikon teleconverters, the 1.4x and 2x (which would give me 700mm at f/8 and 1000mm at f/11), so headed to a nearby lake to see if I could find some birds.
While sitting there waiting for a cormorant to do something, this happened: an adult bald eagle swooped in a grabbed a ring-necked duck from the water.
I can’t tell you how many miles and hours I put into photographing eagles last year, and this was 20-minutes from my house. Nothing like being lucky!
I was using my Nikon D500 and that lens with the Nikkor TC-14e III teleconverter for this photo, which gave me 700mm of focal length. As usual, I was in Aperture Priority with an ISO of 250, and 1/800 second at f/8 and EV 0.0.
If I’d had any idea I’d be shooting fast action, I would have raised my ISO for a higher shutter speed (the shots of it grabbing the duck from the water were blurred). I guess I’ll have to get the eagle to come back and do it again! Of course, finding another duck to play the same role will probably be more difficult.
About the author : Reed Hoffmann is a professional photographer and photography educator based in Kansas City. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Hoffmann's career spans 30 years, and his clients have included USA Today, Getty Images, The New York Times, The Associated Press, One Ocean Expeditions, NBC, Children’s Mercy Hospital, EPA, Reuters, Nikon, Lexar, Lowepro, Eco-Challenge, and Mark Burnett Productions. You can find more of his work on his website, Facebook, and Instagram. This article was also published here.
#features #duck #eagle #lucky #reedhoffman #rightplacerighttime #storybehindthephoto #storybehindtheshot #wildlife
Dunes and Clouds: Photographing Symmetry in the Desert
In 1991, near the end of some book projects that took me on some lengthy photographic journeys through the American West by car for two years, I came up with the idea of creating posters of some of my black and white images for a few of our western National Parks.
My idea was to provide park visitors with a choice instead of the commonplace color posters. Some of those color posters were excellent but I felt there was a large audience who appreciate black and white. My idea, which I pitched to some of my favorite parks, was to provide the visitors with a "fine art" visual interpretation in black and white.
My original attempts were met with great interest by the various Natural History Associations. Most were already familiar with my photography because of various photographic projects such as magazine articles, gallery/museum shows, or word-of-mouth. I had completed a color slide show for Capitol Reef National Park a few years before, and my black and white work was already known by some Natural History executives of Canyonlands and Death Valley National Parks.
In this four-part series written for the ELEMENTS Magazine , I am discussing most of these posters (Read parts one and two). I'll give technical information where my memory serves me correctly, aesthetic considerations and some highlights of making the photographs on the scene. Please join me on this journey through the past!
Dunes and Clouds
The third poster I made for Death Valley is Dunes and Clouds. This was the second dunes image that was made into a poster. The Park thought my first image did not show the expansive range of the dune environment, so I proposed making a new image. I got up before sunrise at the Stovepipe Wells campground, drove a short distance, packed up my 4×5 camera which I routinely fit into my backpack for short to medium distance hikes (with the front and rear stages disconnected to fit), set my heavy Bogen tripod across the top, hung my trusty viewing cut-out card from the tripod head, and trekked into the dunes.
Shortly after sunrise I found this interesting symmetrical composition. The dunes were not sufficient to make this an expressive image but the clouds, filling the sky with patterns contrary to the foreground sand ripples, and even some clouds echoing the sand ripples, immediately made this the image I had to make. My records indicate I used a graduated ND filter in the lens shade hoping to reduce the brightness of the sky and clouds, bringing them under control in the negative. I made the exposure on TMax 100 film just as a slight breeze got up. I decided to expose a sheet of Ektachrome 4×5 color transparency film. Just as I finished the color exposure, the wind became fierce, whipping sand into my face and onto the camera. I hastily put the camera into my backpack, which was no easy task in the now raging sandstorm! I could barely see, squinting to prevent the sand particles from getting in my eyes. On the way back to the car I had to lean against the blowing wind and sand to maintain my balance.
I developed the negative N+1 (over-develop) to increase contrast, knowing that the graduated neutral density filter would prevent the clouds from blowing out and losing detail. I was surprised to see minimal dust spots on the film, and the exposure was excellent! All the desired image values were recorded well on the film. Even so, this was a difficult print to make. The values were uneven, so substantial burning and dodging had to be done to achieve a well-balanced clean image (something I feel is necessary for a symmetrical composition like this).
I showed a mock-up to the Park personnel and was given the "thumbs up" for a sand dunes poster. Fortunately, the poster was relatively easy to print. Using a high-density black ink and pms409 grey ink (which the printers nicknamed "Radeka Grey"), on glossy paper, it was mainly a matter of printing with enough black density to yield a visually satisfying image. My trilogy of posters for Death Valley was complete!
The article is courtesy ofELEMENTS Magazine. ELEMENTS is a monthly magazine dedicated to elegant landscape photography, insightful editorials and fluid, clean design. Inside you will find an exclusive and in-depth articles and imagery by the best landscape photographers in the world such as Bruce Barnbaum, Christopher Burkett, Chuck Kimmerle, Christian Fletcher, Charlie Waite, Rachael Talibart, Erin Babnik and Freeman Patterson, to name a few. Use the PETAPIXEL10 code for a 10% discount off the annual subscription.
_About the author: Lynn Radeka’s professional photography career spans more than 50 years. Influenced in his early work by Ansel Adams and Wynn Bullock, both of whom critiqued his prints, he continues to pursue a technical and aesthetic mastery of the medium of photography. His love of the grand landscapes and intimate details of the American West was born on his first trip to Death Valley in 1966.
Lynn Radeka’s Black and White photography has been featured in eight National Park posters and is represented by several galleries throughout the United States and Europe. He also has the honor of being a featured photographer in the recent book publication "World's Top Photographers: Landscape." Lynn Radeka currently leads photography workshops in Death Valley, Utah and New Mexico with many more locations planned for the near future._
#inspiration #analog #deathvalley #desert #elements #elementsmagazine #film #filmphotography #fineartlandscapephotography #landscape #landscapephotographer #landscapephotography #lynnradeka #storybehindthephoto #storybehindtheshot #travel
Moon Over Zabriskie Point, or: Seeing Photos in a New Light
In 1991, near the end of some book projects that took me on some lengthy photographic journeys through the American West by car for two years, I came up with the idea of creating posters of some of my black and white images for a few of our western National Parks.
My idea was to provide park visitors with a choice instead of the commonplace color posters. Some of those color posters were excellent but I felt there was a large audience who appreciate black and white. My idea, which I pitched to some of my favorite parks, was to provide the visitors with a "fine art" visual interpretation in black and white.
My original attempts were met with great interest by the various Natural History Associations. Most were already familiar with my photography because of various photographic projects such as magazine articles, gallery/museum shows, or word-of-mouth. I had completed a color slide show for Capitol Reef National Park a few years before, and my black and white work was already known by some Natural History executives of Canyonlands and Death Valley National Parks.
In this four-part series (originally written for the ELEMENTS Magazine), I am discussing most of these posters. I'll give technical information where my memory serves me correctly, aesthetic considerations, and some highlights of making the photographs on the scene. Please join me on this journey through the past!
Moon Over Zabriskie Point
In 1980, there was hardly anyone else at Zabriskie Point, a high spot on a hill overlooking the fantastically eroded mud hills including the landmark Manley Beacon, when I arrived before sunrise. The intense moon was slowly descending over the Panamint Mountain range and the entire scene had a lunar-like feeling. Although there was a considerable amount of haze, I set up my 4×5 Super Cambo view camera hoping to make an interesting composition of the moon and the mud hills.
By the time my camera was set up, and I had taken some basic meter readings, the sunlight had already begun hitting the crest of the Panamint Range. My visualization changed, as now there was a different brightness element in the scene. I decided to wait for the sunlight to bathe the mountain range. Fortunately, I made the exposure just in time before the sunlight touched the mud hills. In addition, moments – literally seconds – after the exposure, the clouds began to cover the moon, obscuring the clear intensity of the bright, detailed lunar surface. There was no point in making a duplicate shot. I had already realized the decisive moment!
After returning home I developed the Tri-X 4×5 negative in Kodak HC-110 and examined a proof print. I wasn't happy with the horizontal composition thinking it too cliché, so, using cropping "Ls," I decided to make a print with a vertical crop instead. I lived with this vertical print on my home gallery wall for many months but could not talk myself into liking it. I considered the image a failure and filed the negative away, erasing it from my mind.
Then in 1990, I had a discussion with Esy Fields of the Death Valley Natural History Association. She was interested in my desire to produce a black and white poster for the Park (still a National Monument at that time). She said she needed posters of Zabriskie Point, and possibly a series including the Mesquite Sand Dunes and the Racetrack. My assistant, Al Callju, reminded me about the moon image I had shot a decade earlier, which I had forgotten about. I located the negative, looked at it with fresh eyes and no preconceived notions, and immediately saw new and exciting interpretations of this perfectly exposed negative. Thanks to various new contrast control tools I had learned in recent years, and more printing experience in general, I approached this image with newfound enthusiasm.
I was able to make a good 16×20 print to be used for the scanning process. I brightened the sunlit mountain range, making it more intense than one would see at the scene. I was after the aesthetic effect, something that would separate this image from the commonplace dull or overly contrasty "documentary style" renditions often seen in black and white. I kept the foreground relatively middle key with enough local contrast to enhance the tactile quality, yet not so much to compete with the brilliance of the sunlit mountains and the smooth, darkened sky. The moon had beautiful detail and still glowed against the rest of the image. It tied in nicely with the lunar-like landscape, creating a visual metaphor. Further, I noticed the alternating horizontal bands of bright and dark and attempted to accentuate that. The photographic print was a success! The poster, on the other hand, posed difficulties.
The first poster run of this image proved to be another learning experience, to put it mildly. By this time, I had chosen pms409 as the "grey ink" color (a slightly warm brownish-grey) and a glossy paper. The color was fine but the blacks in the image were very weak. I learned afterward to use a high-density black ink (instead of Process Black) which allowed for better black values. In addition, I had to ask the pre-press people to lighten the mid-tone range of the curve, which meant having them remake the film used for the presses, so we had leeway in pushing the black ink down for greater density (in press terminology it meant "coming up with the black").
Finally, in 1994 I began using Photoshop Version 2.5. I could work with the black and grey duotone curves to tweak everything myself, but because of different results from different printing facilities, there was still some trial-and-error involved. In the end, my most recent printings are the most satisfying.
Part one of this four-part series can be foundhere.
The article is courtesy ofELEMENTS Magazine. ELEMENTS is a monthly magazine dedicated to elegant landscape photography, insightful editorials and fluid, clean design. Inside you will find an exclusive and in-depth articles and imagery by the best landscape photographers in the world such as Bruce Barnbaum, Christopher Burkett, Chuck Kimmerle, Christian Fletcher, Charlie Waite, Rachael Talibart, Erin Babnik and Freeman Patterson, to name a few. Use the PETAPIXEL10 code for a 10% discount off the annual subscription.
_About the author: Lynn Radeka’s professional photography career spans more than 50 years. Influenced in his early work by Ansel Adams and Wynn Bullock, both of whom critiqued his prints, he continues to pursue a technical and aesthetic mastery of the medium of photography. His love of the grand landscapes and intimate details of the American West was born on his first trip to Death Valley in 1966.
Lynn Radeka’s Black and White photography has been featured in eight National Park posters and is represented by several galleries throughout the United States and Europe. He also has the honor of being a featured photographer in the recent book publication "World's Top Photographers: Landscape." Lynn Radeka currently leads photography workshops in Death Valley, Utah and New Mexico with many more locations planned for the near future._
#inspiration #analog #elements #elementsmagazine #film #filmphotography #fineartlandscapephotography #landscape #landscapephotographer #landscapephotography #lynnradeka #storybehindthephoto #storybehindtheshot #travel #zabriskiepoint
Google Buys Photographer’s Shot of Seagull Chomping on a Fry
You never know when one of your photos may catch the eye of one of the largest companies in the world, but social media services these days help bridge the gap between photographers and brands. That's how one amateur photographer recently caught Google's eye with a snapshot of a seagull eating a fry.
Hannah Huxford is a 46-year-old car saleswoman in the UK town of Cleethorpes by day and a hobbyist photographer on the side. Back in 2011, she was visiting the coastal town of Bridlington when she and her husband, Edward, encountered a "greedy" seagull while eating a meal.
Huxford shot a series of photos of the seagull eyeing the couple's meal, and when it finally got one of their fries, Huxford managed to capture a shot with her iPhone 3 of the bird flipping the fry into the air and chomping on it.
The photo then went viral, was featured by the BBC (and a TV show and numerous publications), and was licensed for the front cover of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival brochure.
Fast forward to March 22nd of this year, and Huxford decided to pull the shot out of her archives and republish it on Instagram.
[
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Hannah Huxford (@dreamwalls)
The photo received less than 100 likes, but it caught the eye of a creative agency that works with Google. That agency, Uncommon London, then pitched the photo to Google, and the tech company -- one of the top 10 largest companies in the world by market capitalization -- loved it.
"[I] was contacted via my Instagram just after [I posted the photo on March 22nd]," Huxford tells PetaPixel , "[and] at first thought it was a joke, but they tracked me down."
Google ended up buying a license from Huxford to use the photo for an advertising campaign across England and Ireland. According to the terms of the deal, the image can be featured for 30 days on billboards and for 12 months online.
"The photographer, who studied the subject at college and has continued to develop her skills as a hobby, cannot reveal what she was paid for the image's use," BBC News writes.
Huxford and her husband are now enjoying the surreal experience of seeing her photo featured on giant billboards across her country.
"I never progressed further [in photography] due to lack of confidence," Huxford tells PetaPixel. "But over last decade I have just used my iPhone to snap pictures and [am] always asked to make calendars and prints etc. My dream would be to make an inspiring coffee table book with my photography."
You can find more of Huxford's work on her Instagram.
Image credits: All photographs by Hannah Huxford and used with permission
#culture #news #advertising #billboard #google #licensed #seagull #storybehindtheshot
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