Pictures of the Week: October 26, 2012

From the wonderful Denver Post,see all the pictures in the gallery here

Muslim pilgrims climb a rocky hill called the Mountain of Mercy on the Plain of Arafat near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Saudi authorities say around 3.4 million pilgrims, some 1.7 million of them from abroad, have arrived in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for this year’s pilgrimage.

Chinese people walk down spiral steps of a newly-opened Apple Store in Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012. Apple Computer opened its fifth store in mainland China, and it is the largest in Asia.

Pictures of the Week is a Denver Post Plog that gathers the strongest photojournalism from around the world.

Pakistanis walk in a livestock market set up in a field, for the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice”, during sunset, on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Muslim pilgrims climb a rocky hill called the Mountain of Mercy on the Plain of Arafat near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Saudi authorities say around 3.4 million pilgrims — some 1.7 million of them from abroad — have arrived in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for this year’s pilgrimage. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Afghan refugee girl, Areeba Mohammed, 5, center, talks with a girl, not pictured, while she and her father, seen left pushing a cart, collect useful items from a pile of garbage left in a field next to a slum where they live, on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

A Muslim headscarf vendor arranges a mannequin as he waits for customers at his stall in a market in Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. Aceh is the only province in the world’s most populous Muslim country that implements Islamic sharia law. (AP Photo/Heri Juanda)

A young balloon seller leans on a parked scooter as he waits for customers near a fair ground in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Kashmiri Muslim women stretch their arms to receive blessed sweets outside the Shah-e-Hamdan shrine to commemorate the death anniversary of sufi scholar Mir Syed Ali Hamadani in Srinagar, India, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. Hamadani, who was born in Iran, visited Kashmir several times and played an influential role in the spread of Islam in the valley (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Chinese people walk down spiral steps of a newly-opened Apple Store in Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012. Apple Computer opened its fifth store in mainland China, and it is the largest in Asia. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

See the rest here

Best compact system camera 2012

Techradar has done a good job of pulling together a list of the best cameras in each sector, no mean feat considering the array of different camera types that now exist. The popularity of compact system cameras (CSCs), the sort of small mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses, has exploded over the last year, due to the quality images and flexibility of use they deliver. If you like to keep up with the latest advances in camera technology, you will have had your hands full for the past year, since the popularity of compact system cameras has resulted in even more new models being released and more manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon, including Nikon and Fuji. Although choice is generally a good thing, the vast array of CSCs on the market today can make choosing the right one a daunting prospect. See their full report here

Panasonic are pretty heavily into this type of camera and there are a number of Panasonic Lumix CSC typr cameras, have a look here to see the range and read reviews

This is the Amateur Photographer take on the best CSC cameras of 2012

and What Digital camera choose their best 5 here

 

Best compact camera 2012

There are hundreds of digital compact cameras out there, with advanced, superzoom and rugged camera options all being available.The right choice, of course, depends on what you want from your digital camera. Maybe you’re looking for a high-end compact camera or perhaps you want something more basic to help someone else get started in photography. The term compact camera covers such a wide range of camera types, Tech Radar have done a good job here in bringing together 33 recommended camera

I think it is always a good idea to cross reference reviews and here is a list of the cameras What Digital Camera recommend, as they say

Given that all the cameras we’ve listed here scored over 90% they earned a WhatDigitalCamera.com ‘Gold’ award – our equivalent of an Oscar award. Put simply they’re the best compact cameras on the market today. Go here for the full review

Another trusted source is Amateur Photographer, I think I first read this magazine when I was about 15, so decades ago follow this link to find their views

Finally Digital Cameras Top Ten Reviews have an easy to understand chart with links to fuller reviews, go here for their wisdom

Steve McCurry – A World of Prayer

Steve McCurry is one of the greatest living photographers he has many books here are a few

Nietzsche said about religion…
There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.

Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour

This exhibition features some of the colour photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson

Somerset House, The Strand, London WC2R 1LA

8 November 2012 – 27 January 2013
Daily 10.00-18.00 
Until 21.00 on Thurs 8, 29 Nov & 6, 13, 20 Dec
Terrace Rooms & Courtyard Rooms, South Wing
Free admission

It is well-known that Cartier-Bresson was disparaging towards colour photography, which in the 1950s was in its early years of development; his reasoning was based both on the technical and aesthetic limitations of the medium at the time.

Featuring 10 Cartier-Bresson photographs never before exhibited in the UK alongside over 75 works by 14 international acclaimed photographers, this extensive showcase will illustrate how photographers working in Europe and North America adopted and adapted the master’s ethos famously known as  the ‘decisive moment’ to their work in colour.

Further details are available here

Cecil Beaton Theatre of War

An exhibition of photographs by Cecil Beaton at the Imperial War Museum

For much of his career, Cecil Beaton worked as a photographer, cartoonist and writer for Vogue, one of the world’s leading fashion and lifestyle magazines. His relationship with the magazine was strained at times but his contributions were always eye-catching and memorable. During the Second World War, Beaton juggled his role as an official war photographer with his work for Vogue.

Starts 6 September 2012 Ends 1 January 2013

Admission Adult £8, Concessions (student, senior) £6, Children (aged 15 and under) Free. Friends of IWM go free.

There is a review of the exhibition here

There is a book from the exhibition get details here

Landscape Photographer of the Year 2012 Exhibition

The exhibition associated with this competition is on show at The National Theatre London from November 12th to January 12th.  Over 100 photographs of some of the most beautiful landscapes in the UK will be on display, from entries to this popular annual competition, now in its sixth year.

Free exhibition. No tickets required.

Open during building opening hours
Mon – Sat: 9.30am – 11pm
Sun (when open): 12 noon – 6pm

Winter field, Stirlingshire, Scotland by Robert Fulton

Tarns Hows in autumn, Cumbria, England by Malcolm Blenkey

Enchanting skies over Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, England by David Webb

The Dark Square Mile, London, England by Howard Kingsnorth

For further details visit the National Theatre web site here

Here is the book from the exhibition

Photography links, tutorials and great images

From those diligent chaps at Lightstalking we get this

Toad Hollow Photography has been working very hard all week searching the internet for the links to tutorials, great photography and interesting blogs to share with everyone.  This week’s comprehensive list features some great photography and blogs dedicated to the craft.  We hope you enjoy perusing this list as much as the Toad did in bringing it to you.

The player by Kerekes János Csongor, on Flickr

Check out the Toad’s latest feature blog post “Resurrecting Our Heritage” that discusses a wonderful old heritage church on Vancouver Island that was almost lost to developers.  A local art enthusiast has just purchased this beautiful church with plans to convert it to a community art center.  A happy ending, indeed!

TUTORIALS

A Brush of Warmth – Behind My Eyes – Jim Denham delivers an in-depth look at new features delivered in the latest versions of Lightroom and Aperture.  The newly included white balance filters now give the artist complete control over the white balance in a scene, helping to create images that appear more natural looking in nature or giving the artist extra tools to create the vision they were going for.  This is a very well written piece by Jim that features example images and screenshots to walk the reader through the concept.

Life Before Photoshop: Microsoft – this article contains some great insights into how to compose and technically work on that perfect shot without the aid of post-processing.  Joe Baraban delivers an article here that adds so much value, even if you do a lot of work in the digital realm post-processing as most of us do these days, as it will enhance your technical abilities and tools.  This will, I believe, result in better imagery.

How to Use Bracketing in Your Photography – this is a great article that discusses the technicalities behind bracketing in photography.  The post illustrates the points presented with some great example photography, allowing the reader to instantly understand the concept.  This is a well written and easy to understand piece.

GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY

Chasing The Ghosts of Gettysburg – this extensive collection of photographs by A.D. Wheeler features the site of Gettysburg and the items on display there.  A.D.’s spot-on compositions bring all the inherent drama and mystique of a place that must surely be haunted.  Each image is easily seen as a masterpiece and the collection as a whole is enchanting beyond proper description, you just have to see it yourself.

Click Here: So Many Cool Photography Links That Your Eyes May Bleed

Magnum Photos

You probably know about Magnum Photos or if not you will have heard of some of the photographers who are associates of this world important photo agency.

As the Magnum website says: Two years after the apocalypse that was called the Second World War ended, Magnum Photos was founded. The world’s most prestigious photographic agency was formed by four photographers – Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David “Chim” Seymour – who had been very much scarred by the conflict and were motivated both by a sense of relief that the world had somehow survived and the curiosity to see what was still there. They created Magnum in 1947 to reflect their independent natures as both people and photographers – the idiosyncratic mix of reporter and artist that continues to define Magnum, emphasizing not only what is seen but also the way one sees it. If you would like to read more of the history go here

Henri Cartier-Bresson said of the starting of the agency: “Back in France, I was completely lost,” legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson explained in an interview with Hervé Guibert in Le Monde. “At the time of the liberation, the world having been disconnected, people had a new curiosity. I had a little bit of money from my family, which allowed me to avoid working in a bank. I had been engaged in looking for the photo for itself, a little like one does with a poem. With Magnum was born the necessity for telling a story. Capa said to me: ‘Don’t keep the label of a surrealist photographer. Be a photojournalist. If not you will fall into mannerism. Keep surrealism in your little heart, my dear. Don’t fidget. Get moving!’ This advice enlarged my field of vision.” We are so lucky he didn’t end up working in a bank.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

FRANCE. Paris. Place de l’Europe. Gare Saint Lazare. 1932.

The list of great photographers encompasses the very best in the world

Abbas,  Christopher Anderson,  Eve Arnold, Olivia Arthur, Micha Bar Am, Bruno Barbey, Jonas Bendiksen, Ian Berry, Werner Bischof, Rene Burri, Henri Cartier-Bresson Chien-Chi Chang, Antoine D’Agata, Bruce Davidson, Carl De Keyzer, Raymond Depardon, Thomas Dworzak, Nikos Economopoulos, Elliott Erwitt, Martine Franck,

Stuart Franklin, Leonard Freed, Paul Fusco, Cristina Garcia Rodero, Jean Gaumy, Bruce Gilden, Burt Glinn, Jim Goldberg, Philip Jones Griffiths, Harry Gruyaert,

Philippe Halsman, Erich Hartmann, David Alan Harvey, Tim Hetherington, Thomas Hoepker, David Hurn, Richard Kalvar, Josef Koudelka, Hiroji Kubota, Sergio Larrain,

Guy Le Querrec, Erich Lessing, Herbert List, Alex Majoli, Constantine Manos, Peter Marlow, Steve McCurry, Susan Meiselas, Wayne Miller, Dominic Nahr, Trent Parke,

Martin Parr, Paolo Pellegrin, Gilles Peress, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Mark Power, Raghu Rai, Eli Reed, George Rodger, Moises Saman, Alessandra Sanguinetti ,Lise Sarfati,

Ferdinando Scianna, Jerome Sessini, David Seymour, Marilyn Silverstone, W. Eugene Smith, Jacob Aue Sobol, Alec Soth, Chris Steele-Perkins, Dennis Stock,

Zoe Strauss Mikhael Subotzky Nicolas Tikhomiroff Larry Towell Peter van Agtmael John Vink Alex Webb Donovan Wylie Patrick Zachmann Cornell Capa

Robert Capa, Inge Morath,

If you would like to read more about any of these photographers go here

Magnum are good at showing their work and the website is a joy, I would definitely bookmark this and go back there regularly to see what is new, I visit their site at least once a week, go here to see what is on offer today

Magnum also publish excellent books and I would recommend any of them, these are some of my favourites

This special and important photography book presents, for the first time, the very best contact sheets created by Magnum photographers. Contact sheets tell the truth behind a photograph. They unveil its process, and provide its back story. Was it the outcome of what a photographer had in mind from the outset? Did it emerge from a diligently worked sequence, or was the right shot down to pure serendipity a matter of being in the right place at the right time? This landmark publication provides the reader with a depth of understanding and a critical analysis of the story behind a photograph, the process of editing it, and the places and ways in which the selected photographs were used. For anyone with a deep appreciation of photography and a desire to understand what goes into creating iconic work, Magnum Contact Sheets will be regarded as the definitive volume. With 435 illustrations in total, 230 in colour, including over 3,600 frames on 139 contact sheets.

Here the photographers of Magnum, 50 years after the legendary group began its documentary mission, address the world following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989; a period which has seen the triumph of US capitalism at one extreme and the resurgence of ancient blood feuds at the other. The book is built around photo-essays selected and introduced by the photographers, many shot especially for the book. From Henri Cartier-Bresson to Magnum’s newest recruits, each photographer navigates the issues of history in their own way – some tackling the dramatic changes in the world head-on in the traditional manner of the “concerned photographer”, others choosing subjects and aesthetic viewpoints which are entirely personal. The result is an album of contemporary photography about the world today. “Magnum” is introduced by historian, broadcaster and cultural commentator Michael Ignatieff, linking the substance and pace of change in the post-Cold-war world with the historic role of the Magnum witness and image-maker. This is a book about history and humanity, journalism and art, and revealing the photographers of Magnum entering a new era.

Founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Magnum Photos is an iconic international photographic cooperative whose members have captured the major historical events of their times, as well as private and intimate moments. A year’s worth of these images is offered in this beautiful book that features full page reproductions organized to reflect what Cartier-Bresson himself declared a ‘community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.’ Nearly 70 photographers are represented with five to six images and the current Magnum members have selected the photographs that they consider to best represent their own output. Opposite each photograph is a page reserved for special dates, reflections, and notes. Published in an appealing and impressively-sized format, running more than 700 pages, this book includes images that make history both individual and universal.

Craft & Vision ebooks

You know I always say in class that if you don’t like your pictures don’t blame your camera. I meet so many people who would love to make better pictures and their route to doing so is to buy ever more expensive equipment. Don’t misunderstand me, I recognise that good equipment is important but one of my favourite photographers, Jane Buekett,  still only uses her Pentax K1000, that is not the digital Pentax, that is the the film one that is at least 30 years old. Actually that is not exactly true, the bit about Jane ‘only’ using her ancient film camera, I recently converted her to a bit of digital and now she carries a Canon G10 too. This is all beside the point, which is that on our courses we stress that the route to better photography is not through spending more money on cameras or lenses but by learning how to use them properly and how to improve your ‘eye’, your vision, your craft.

I have purchased many of the Craft & Vision ebooks because for me other peoples’ version of the things I do is valuable, another viewpoint, a different way of expressing is uplifting and re-affirming. It is for this reason I recommend you read Tom Dinnings Blog. One of the great things about the internet is the ability to engage with others who you may never meet but who share your version of being creative, your vision. That doesn’t mean they take the same pictures as you or that it is a mutual back slapping club but that you share attitudes and thought processes about how you make pictures. In class last night on our Intermediate Photography course a student, Sarah, explained that in German the term is distinctly to ‘make a photograph’ rather than the ‘take’ that we consider here in England. I definitely prefer the idea of making a photograph. What do you say wherever you are in the world, I would be very interested to hear, and does it infer a difference of approach?

Another photographer whose attitudes I concur with is the man behind Craft & Vision, David du Chemin, his work is completely different to mine, how I would enjoy his life for a short while, traveling almost continuously making images with the intention of making a difference. Go and have a look at his site, sign up to his blog.

So the Craft and Vision ebooks. As I said I have purchased a number, they cost almost nothing, are beautifully produced and interesting and informative.

Here is a link to their pages, go and have a look, save money on equipment, make better pictures