Review: Parker, Edward. Photographing trees. Richmond, Surrey, England: Kew Pub., 2012. Print.

This is a beautiful book as much about the love of trees as it is about how to photograph them.  The author is a well-regarded photographer whose images have been published in many well known publications such as National Geographic. He has also written a book on ancient trees, and contributed photos to a survey of some of the most important plants in human culture.  Here he looks back on three decades of nature photography, offering a collection of some of his best images as well as tips on how you, too, can produce beautiful tree photographs.

This is not, however, a book for photography professionals, but more an every-man’s guide to making good photos and appreciating the beauty of trees.  Parker says that used correctly, the compact point-and-shoot can produce similar quality images to equipment costing thousands of dollars.

Examples of DPP Assignment Five

As the only stipulation for the assignment is to produce 10-12 images on a theme of choice, the variety of subjects is to be expected, but what is surprising are the variety of approaches.  Here we have a student who decided to limit his shooting to one location on one day.  His presentation is as bare bones as his approach.  At the other extreme, we have this student who spent fours months revisiting the same location, this student who has created a narrative with descriptions and poetry, and this student who seems to have curated her assignment from a 12-month collection of images.

Here are a few more at which I had a look:

     Link       Link       Link

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Perspectives on Trees

Myoung Ho Lee, from a gallery at NYTimes

Following on from my last post reviewing tips and techniques for photographing trees, I have found a few articles reviewing photographic projects focused on trees, two of them specifically in New York City.

Photographing Trees: A Review of Advice Found on the Internet

Having begun my project of photographing trees in my Dubai neighborhood, I was interested in advice from fellow photographers.  A search of the internet returned a number of articles offering much the same tips and hints, outlined below. Their implied approach seems to be creating beautiful images.  Not one of them considers the possible work of botanists or landscape documentarians.  The emphasis is on using trees to create aesthetic products, rather than learning about nature or the environment.  Only one of the photographers included here mentions learning something about botany, but is quick to remind readers beautiful photos can be made without it.  

Book Review: Pakenham, T. (2003). Meetings with remarkable trees. 1st ed. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Illustrated.

This is a lovely book, a collection of 60 photographs of the UK’s biggest and most ancient trees.  Each photo includes a brief essay with anecdotes about the tree’s history and current condition.  There is quite a lot of botanical lore, including how many of these species found their way to the British Isles.

I was looking at the text mostly from a photographer’s point of view to get ideas about my own project on trees in my Dubai neighborhood.  Some observations about the images here.  There appear to be three main compositions:

Assignment 5: Planning

I've been in touch with the tutor with several possible themes and he's given his approval to all, leaving the decision to me.  He did note, however, a preference for color to monochrome.

I live on Dubai's main thoroughfare, a 10-lane highway, and had thought to do a series on the billboards that take up huge amounts of space and flash commercial messages to the thousands of drivers flying past.  The idea was to Photoshop in oppositional readings in the form of graffiti.  I still like the idea, and while shooting the images will be fairly straightforward, the manipulation will take more time than I've got if I wish to finish this course before July.  I'm also afraid of having to force certain images in order to meet a deadline, instead of waiting for just the right bit of text to run with an image.

I've therefore decided to follow on with a series of tree portraits.  Some of the stronger images from Assignment Three were of trees and this has inspired me to carry on.  I would dearly love to drive around the country and shoot all kinds of trees, but because of time I'm going to focus on my neighborhood and the adjoining areas, places I can get to - and get back to - easily.  So far I"ve shot a couple of strong images, so I'm already on my way.

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Assignment 4: Reality and Intervention

Included in this blog post in reverse order are copies of three documents:  1) the original assignment report;  2) reflection on tutor notes;  and 3) revised assignment report.  

Revised Submission

Photoshop Training Examples

I've been on the course for three weeks, 2 hours a day twice a week.  Here are some examples of the skills and materials we have been working on.

Filter effects

I can't figure it out

That's what the man said as he was getting in his car. What are you photographing?

The tree, I said.

Is it so interesting?

That's what I'm hoping to find out.

And he drove away.

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Review: Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction: Ch 7: Photography in the age of electronic imaging , 4th ed, 2009

http://www.whattheduck.net/

Chapter author Martin Lister, professor Visual Culture at University of the West of England, Bristol (same institution as Michelle Henning, chapter four author on Photography and the Human Body).

Lister notes that in this book’s many editions this chapter has been most heavily edited, reflecting the rapidly changing nature of digital imaging technology.  When digital first arrived there was some question as to how it would affect photography.  Today digital is the norm, completely supplanting analog, while film has become a niche practice.  Among the changes he observes:

The Syngenta Photography Award

Putting this here to remind myself:  http://www3.syngenta.com/global/photo2014/en/open-competition/Pages/open-competition.aspx

Review: BBC: Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny's Pictures? (2013)

Maier, Self-portrait

A 70-minute introduction to the life and work (of what is so far known) of the American-born, French-raised photographer who left behind 100,000 negatives and who in her lifetime never published or exhibited.  In fact, almost no one ever saw her photographs until she was near dead and she wasn’t recognized as an auteur until she was. 

Joel Meyerowitz observes that not publishing her work is after all not so surprising.  He believes that after years of regular practice, capturing images for oneself is enough.  This is the way one comes to relate to the world and the opinion or praise of outsiders is no longer necessary.

What remains so remarkable and fascinating is the commitment to visual documentation, to day after day, year after year, seeking out the world’s detail, not only in the world where she found herself, but in far flung locations she sought out. In my own work it sometimes seems difficult to raise the energy to get out there for another day of shooting.  Perhaps Vivian had those days, too.  Her perseverance is inspiring.  

So, too, is her independence.  She apparently never married, but in her job kept surrogate families.  It seems what she may have valued most was her freedom, the ability to move around, to have a relationship, but also to walk away.  

The film can be viewed online here:  http://www.veoh.com/watch/v70590131KFPFjY7N

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Review: Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction: Ch 5: Photography and Commodity Culture , 4th ed, 2009, CONT

From Posner's Spray It Loud

Ramamurthy reviews Barthes on denoted and connoted messages.  Denotation is the most obvious reading, the surface reading, the fact of the photo.  The connotation is inferred, is symbolic, and is also, for the advertiser, the more important level of meaning.  Stuart Hall (1993) reflects on how messages are encoded and decoded, observing that for images to be successful, producers and consumers have to share a common frame of reference, a similar schemata.  This is why corporations most always craft their advertising locally, in order to be able to speak to consumers effectively.  Ramamurthy cites Posner’s Spray it Loud for examples of oppositional readings (trying to find a copy of this now).

Notable: Dude, Who Took My Photograph? Curating Automated Photography

New technology is coming that will allow individuals to wear cameras that can record an entire day's worth of activities.  The job thereafter becomes one of curating, of picking out what might be interesting, and then perhaps of editing, of enhancing the images.  Is such a person still a photographer?

http://petapixel.com/2014/05/01/dude-took-photograph-curating-automated-photography/

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Review: Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction: Ch 5: Photography and Commodity Culture , 4th ed, 2009

Chapter author Anandi Ramamurthy is a lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, Central Lancashire University.

Starts with a great quote from Debord (1967):

In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles.  Everything that directly lived has receded into a representation. 

Media messages present a glamorous world of sensual experience crafted to minimize conflict.  The camera and photography support the global economic order in two ways:  through creation of presentation of spectacle, and as a tool for surveillance.  Images prod
uce a ruling ideology.  The freedom to consume these images is imagined as freedom itself.   (Sontag 1979: 178-79)

Cites Tagg (1988) on development of portrait photography as part of the development of commodity culture.  The mid-19th century boom in portraiture tapped into the desire to emulate the wealthy and eventually spread across all levels of society.  The demand for portraits possibly stifled creative use of the camera.  President Lincoln used a carte-de-viste as a campaign tool and credited it with his electoral success.

Photo:  Mathew B. Brady. Abraham Lincoln on the day of his speech at the Cooper Union, February, 27, 1860. Carte-de-visite photograph. James Wadsworth Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (046) Digital ID # al0046

Photographer Mathew Brady took this portrait of Abraham Lincoln at his studio in New York City on the same day that Lincoln gave his now-famous Cooper Union address. Brady retouched the photograph, smoothing facial lines and straightening his subject’s “roving” left eye. The effect was striking, and what Lincoln jokingly referred to as his “shadow” later appeared on hundreds of campaign buttons, posters, and small printed cartes-de-visite. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lincoln/the-run-for-president.html