Recently in Photo Blogs Category

James DiGiorgio recently highlighted a new and interesting blog StudioMarcotte.com by Bob Marcotte, a photographer in Fresno, California. With his latest article When Your Best Is Not Good Enough (Part 1), Bob has turned me into a loyal reader. Go and read his article, and I am sure you will become a loyal reader too.

Regardless of our methods and techniques, we’re all striving to create a soul in our images. So it would seem to be an easy task to shoot a town filled with souls. It would seem…

California is filled with millions of souls and personalities. Most of the world only hears about the fruits, flakes and nuts that make up the Granola State. I would like all of you to know that there are heroes who live here, too. They don’t get headlines. In fact, I couldn’t get these pictures or this story published by the one major newspaper or the two local magazines in Fresno. Anti-heroes get press, the story of these volunteers wasn’t considered news.

The souls I refer to are the pilots, doctors, nurses, translators and volunteers of an organization called the Flying Doctors of Mercy. I was fortunate to fly with the Fresno chapter. The short version of their story is that the first weekend of almost every month, private pilots fly their own planes filled with volunteers and supplies to impoverished towns in Mexico. Planes fly from San Diego, Los Angeles, Fresno and other cities to adopted towns deep inside Mexico … far from prosperity and medical expertise.

Just wait to you see his picture that accompany the beginning of his article. They drip with soul. I especially love the photograph of the husband and father with his child and wife.

My photograph of Jasper National Park is hosted at Flickr. If you click on the picture, you will be taken to my Flickr account where you can see more pictures.

As a follow-up to my prior post on photographer James Nachtwey, I encourage you to view the video by XDRTB.org.

Thank you to James DiGiorgio, also known as JimmyD, for bringing James Nachtwey and his cause to my attention.

I highly encourage you to visit James Nachtwey over at I, Shootist blog by James DiGiorgio, also known as JimmyD.

Photographer James Nachtwey is considered, by many, the greatest photojournalist of the past three decades. Many of his images--disturbing, poetic, often haunting--shame us. Leastwise, they should shame us. They should shame us because the moments they so artfully capture depict the worst of humanity: From the human toll of war to the ravages of disease and famine to the misery of poverty and the atrocious consequences of intolerance.

JimmyD has posted a terrific video that lasts for about twenty minutes and that leaves us with a question as to what James Nachtwey will announce on 3 October 2008.

I would post that video in my article, but then you might not visit his blog to read his article. That would be wrong. JimmyD is both a gifted writer and photographer, and I urge you to visit his blog and make it part of your normal reading experience.

I wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year 2008. I hope everyone enjoyed their festivities last night and arrived home safe and sound.

As those who regularly read my blog know, I usually comment on business and finance. I expect 2008 to be rather interesting. While there are a lot of economic headwinds as we enter 2008, I expect that the housing crisis will dominate the investment landscape for at least the first half the year. For the latter half, I am not sure. From an investment perspective, the year 2008 promises to be more volatile and exciting than recent prior years.

Earlier this last year on Saturday, 15 September 2007, I photographed the picture above of Lake Louise in Banff National Park, which is located in Alberta near the Alberta and British Columbia provincial border. I believe the top of the mountain in the picture is on the continental divide, which is also the border between Alberta and British Columbia. In Banff National Park, the rivers on the British Columbia side flow west to the Pacific Ocean, and the rivers on the Alberta side flow east to the Atlantic Ocean. There might be some rivers from Banff that flow north to the Arctic Ocean, though I am not sure. The Athabasca River begins in Jasper National Park, which is to the North and shares a border with Banff National Park, and does flow to the Arctic Ocean.

This picture itself is a composite of two pictures. When I originally photographed this scene, I bracketed my exposures. I took one photograph one ƒ stop below exposure, one at proper exposure, and one photograph at one ƒ stop over exposure. I did not use the overexposed photograph. I used the sky from the underexposed photograph and used the remainder from the properly exposed photograph. Out of the camera, the photograph had a slight bluish cast, which I have tried to remove. In more technical speak, the original white balance had too much blue. The sky has been darkened, and the rest of the scene has been slightly manipulated as well, mostly contrast adjustments to bring out the detail better. Lake Louise itself has a magical color in that the fine silt from the glacier runoff produces this amazing bluish turquoise color.

In making these adjustments on the photograph, I used some of the techniques that I learned from Chromasia Photoshop Tutorials. I tremendously enjoy his photoblog and his tutorials, so I am happy to promote his site.

On a somewhat related note, I am still working my way through my Flickr challenges. I will have more to say in a few days. For now, I have restored some of my photographs on Flickr and my weblog. I still have much more work to do, however.

The above picture is hosted on Flickr. If you click on the picture, you will be taken to my Lake Louise picture on Flickr. Almost all of my Banff and Jasper National Park pictures are missing, because I have not had an opportunity to reload them yet.

David J. Nightingale, who provides those beautiful pictures on my favorite photoblog Chromasia, has written excellent Chromasia Photoshop Tutorials. I thoroughly enjoy viewing David's pictures on his photoblog and have often wondered how he creates such stunning pictures. After many requests, I am sure, he is now providing tutorials for those interested in learning more. Although his curves tutorial is free, his other tutorials are fee based. If you enjoy photography and use Photoshop, I highly recommend that you visit his photoblog and read his tutorials.