Picture Stories by Stephen Alvarez

Tornado, Sewanee Tennessee -using the camera you have-

We had a tornado last night. Even though it passed right in front of my office I missed it. My friend Ben Beavers, however, was standing on the front porch of his restaurant and made a series of photos as it passed. 

Luckily no one was injured, though there is extensive property damage in Midway. Ben made the pictures with his s90, the same one that I reviewed a couple of month ago (here). I am glad that photographically Ben took my advice to heart. The camera in his pocket worked a lot better than my cameras locked inside my office.

-Stephen Alvarez
 
 

Guest post by Glenn Campbell Band aids in Bangkok! from the f8 Workshop

I thought it would be interesting to get a student's perspective on the f8 Workshop led by Mike Yamashita, Ira Block and David Alan Harvey. Thanks to Glenn Campbell for weighing in.

-Stephen Alvarez

Band aids in Bangkok!

by GLENN CAMPBELL - 

Bangkok day 3 © Glenn Campbell 

The opening riff, 3 national Geographic photographers, over 30 years experience each...thats around 100 years of pointing cameras at some of the most extreme, beautiful and confounding places on earth, only 3 other photographers have as much experience, 2 are semi retired and the other spends his time underwater.

Rob Shone Guest Post: Deep Impact

Recently I ventured underground following a group of students from Oxford University Caving Club (OUCC) to an area of The Picos mountain range in northern Spain called Ario, north of Los Lagos.

daybreak

Here is a photo I took of a friend who was visiting for the 4th. It was a rainy Sunday morning, the sun just beginning to rise, and the light started spilling through the windows into the room. I silently pulled out my camera and snapped this photo while my friend, along with the rest of the world, soundly slept.

Lexi Namer

Guest Post from Glen Campbell putting up a new web site

A post from my friend Glenn Campbell in Darwin, Australia about selecting photos for his new web site. It really is a great one.

-SA

In putting together a portfolio for the first time in a long while, I have found myself  paying far too much attention to my own pictures of late, so much so that I am frankly, heartily sick and tired of the sight of them and every frame screams at me “You’re kidding aren’t you? Are you really going to put that old junk up? YOU HACK!”

REVISITING CHAOS by April Alvarez

Chaos

Photographs by Josef Koudelka/Magnum Photos

Notes by Robert Delpire

Phaidon Press Limited, London, 1999

"Those who are alive receive a mandate from those who are silent forever. They can fulfill their duties only by trying to reconstruct precisely things as they were and by wrestling the past from fictions and legends."   

- Czeslaw Milosz, from Nobel Lecture, 1980

[Note:  Struck by the coup de foudre of Prague68, the book I intended to analyze, Stephen asks me, “Why don’t you write about Chaos?” So that is how the large, flat, and impeccably edited and ordered Chaos with begins to take residence in my head. AA]

 

"Your Work, Your Rights" Seminar by Maureen Dilg

Thanks to Maureen Dilg for writing up rights seminar write up

-SA 

I recently attended a short seminar on creator's rights presented by John D. Mason, ESQ a principal with the The Intellectual Property Group, PLLC based out of Baltimore and DC (he gave me permission to include his email: artlaws2@aol.com).  John gave one of the most easy-to-digest presentations on this topic that I have heard.  He really knows the business, and was able to explain it in a way that the artists in the room could easily grasp.  In short, he gets mad props for breaking it down, as does the Art Director's Club of Washington DC for hosting this free event.

Guest Post by Rob Shone: Colosuss, Crete

My friend Rob Shone has guest posted here before. Rob is an excellent photographer and one of the few people shooting pictures underground who gets the difference between taking a photo of a cave and making a photo that feels like the place. He is off to Borneo next month, Canon EOS 5D Mark II in hand. Can't wait to see what he comes back with.

-SA

 

Somewhere high up in the White Mountains on the Greek island of Crete, under a barren scree slope lies a colossal 150m deep shaft that has only recently been explored to a depth of -213m and remains wide open.

            

Part 2 Canon 5D Mark II review by Ira Block

This is part 2 of Ira Block's review of the new Canon 5D Mark II. For part one go here. To read about making movies with the camera go here. Ira is a long time National Geographic Magazine photographer and is the first working professional to review the camera who isn't being paid by Canon. All I can say about Ira's results are "wow when can I get one" but look and read for yourself.

-SA

As I usually don't shoot at high velocity speeds like 3200 or 6400, I only tested the new Canon 5D Mark2 at ISO 1600 the other day. I was blown away by the incredible file quality - I remarked that it looked like the original 5D at ISO 400. Under pressure from friends that haven't yet obtained the 'sacred' camera due to Canon's small shipments, I went out on the streets of New York again with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the 24-105mm zoom lens to test the big numbers.

Canon 5D Mark II review by Ira Block

Here is a review of the new 5D Mark II by Ira Block. Ira is a long time National Geographic Photographer. He's one of the shooters they turn to when difficult photo problems need to be solved. Ira has forgotten more about cameras and photography than I will ever know.

-SA

UPDATE see part 2 of Ira's review HERE   Read about making movies with the camera here

I got my hands on the Canon 5D Mark2 on Monday and have been playing around with it the last couple of days. It feels and acts just like the original 5D, so I didn't have to learn much. I was able to shoot without going into the instruction manual And of course it does video, which is another world - it's fun to shoot but prepare yourself for some serious computer time to edit. 

 Many of the new things in this camera, 14 bit color, live view, and sensor cleaning have already been incorporated into other Canon cameras. But what's wonderful about this camera is the high ISO ability and that it shoots in 14 bit, The end result is that I'm getting fantastic looking files at ISO 1600. I haven't really done much at 3200 or 6400, but 1600 looks incredible, it looks like IS0 400 on the original 5D. The 14 bit really gives great tonal range, and the camera seems to have a better range of highlights and shadows than any other camera I've worked with. The camera also has a highlight tone priority setting (again a feature in other Canon cameras) which will keep your highlights from blowing out. However, I never really saw this feature work too well in my 1Ds Mark 3.