Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Coming World Of Photography; A Look To The Future; FREE Lighting Seminar; & New B&H Wedding Web site

Good Morning Everybody,

I have to tell you, the very nice weather around here is really making it hard for me to get motivated ;~)  Heck, I even took off an hour early yesterday to enjoy it.  I've got a few things for you today so let's get right to it. 

I see where my good buddy and fellow blogger, Kerry Garrison, is giving a FREE lighting seminar in Anaheim, CA this Saturday July 2.  Yep, I'm sure I read FREE - you can check it out right here.

B-H Wedding site Next up - let me tell what our good friends over at B&H are up too - it's pretty cool.  The have just launched a brand new website just for wedding photographers entitled, "The Ultimate Guide To Wedding Photography."  I have to tell you, this is not "fluff" stuff.  The site has lots of solid wedding tips and tricks for aspiring pro and seasoned professional.  Check it out right here.

And speaking of Aspiring Pro's, I ran across this very interesting article a few weeks ago.  Give it a read and then tell me what you think.  Be sure to read this article to the end - you'll be surprises by the "punch line."

The Coming World Of Photography; A Look To The Future

history_photography Photography spent its first hundred years slowly developing its mechanics, its lenses, cameras, emulsions, and lights. But digital cameras have speeded progress and will place the digital camera in the forefront of man's technical devices when victory comes.

To determine the new uses, new methods, new viewpoints that will give digital camera work its direction in the digital period, POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY has asked a trusted photographic editor, a war correspondent, documentary photographer; teachers of photography, manufacturers, and a soldier to contribute to this symposium. (I've only selected one person for this story - DAZ.)

Their opinions differ. Yet somehow all seem to feel that the second hundred years will see the digital camera put to use as never before with the aspiring pros often leading the way. THE EDITORS

WILLARD D. MORGAN, Photo Editor [link]

Digital Photography DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY can well afford to pause and take stock of its phenomenal growth. Today, as photographers we have high ISO's, fine cameras, marvelous color rendition, highly perfected flash radio triggers and strobes, efficient lighting equipment, fine sophisticated exposure meters, easy and cheap digital printing solutions, excellent lenses, and uniform photographic printing mediums of excellent quality.

There will naturally be changes and improvements as we progress in our digital age, yet basically we will be using familiar materials. What then for the digital photographer?

For the commercial photographer I can only see a period of intense production to fulfill somewhat stylized photographic demands. Here and there a creative worker may override static work to produce a variation in style.

The aspiring pro will ride through the digital years with a free spirit of adventure. Every new camera, lens, and piece of camera equipment will be eagerly seized upon and used. These digital aspiring pros will form many new camera clubs, eagerly buy all the new photographic books, read 100's of blogs, and become the initial participants in a great proving ground of new equipment and methods which may later become standards for the professional as well.

I feel that the great changes in digital photography will come from the creative aspiring pro, who is not bound by commercial conventions. To be specific, this creative aspiring pro photographer will learn to give a fuller interpretation to the people and places about him. Changes will come from within the photographer himself. I would like to see the discussions of the future center around the interpretation of the photographic idea and not on endless techniques which will be fairly easy to acquire anyway. In this way we will enter a new century of photography which will be challenging and exciting.

Article text reprinted from the February 1944 issue of POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY magazine.
 
Pop Photog 1944"1944 you say! Digital wasn't even around then!"  You're right, but 1944 was another time of tremendous rebirth in photography - the post war years. 
I para-phased the article referenced above and changed out ever so few of the original words - like "postwar" for "digital" and "amateur" for "aspiring pro".
 
What rings true is this: 
When you have an explosion of enthusiasm in our profession, it is the amateurs and aspiring pros who jump on the bandwagon first.  That's clearly what happened in our current digital revolution and also helps explain the new digital photography landscape we see before us.
--Food For Thought!
 
BTW, you can read the original text by hitting the "Read more..." link below.
__________________________________________________
Hey gang, that's it for me today. I've got to get working on a few items for our upcoming PhotoPro Summer School next week.  Have a great rest of the day.  I'll hope to see you tomorrow for a very fascinating Business Day Thursday.

See ya' then,  David

The Coming World Of Photography

Photography spent its first hundred years slowly developing its mechanics, its lenses, cameras, emulsions, and lights. But war speeded progress will place the camera in the forefront of man's technical devices when victory comes. To determine the new uses, new methods, new viewpoints that will give camera work its direction in the postwar period, POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY has asked a trusted photographic editor, a war correspondent, documentary photographer; teachers of photography, manufacturers, and a soldier to contribute to this symposium. Their opinions differ. Yet somehow all seem to feel that the second hundred years will see the camera put to use as never before with the amateur often leading the way. THE EDITORS


WILLARD D. MORGAN, Photo Editor

PHOTOGRAPHY can well afford to pause and take stock of its phenomenal growth. Today, as photographers we have fast films, fine cameras, marvelous color film, highly perfected synchronizers and flashbulbs, efficient lighting equipment, fine photoelectric exposure meters, standard reliable processing solutions, excellent lenses, and uniform photographic paper of good quality. There will naturally be changes and improvements after the war, yet basically we will be using familiar materials. What then for the postwar photographer?

For the commercial photographer I can only see a period of intense production to fulfill somewhat stylized photographic demands. Here and there a creative worker may override static work to produce a variation in style.

The amateur will ride through the postwar years with a free spirit of adventure. Every new film, developer, and piece of camera equipment will be eagerly seized upon and used. These postwar amateurs will form many new camera clubs, eagerly buy all the new photographic books, and become the initial participants in a great proving ground of new equipment and methods which may later become standards for the professional as well.

I feel that the great changes in postwar photography will come from the creative amateur, who is not bound by commercial conventions. To be specific, this creative amateur photographer will learn to give a fuller interpretation to the people and places about him. Changes will come from within the photographer himself. I would like to see the discussions of the future center around the interpretation of the photographic idea and not on endless techniques which will be fairly easy to acquire anyway. In this way we will enter a new century of photography which will be challenging and exciting.

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