Category Archives: Photography

Now that it’s snowing in many parts of Japan, winter sports are in full swing. From skiing down the powdery white slopes at Niseko to hiking up trails covered in snow, this winter season, never miss a shot with the Grip Hot Shot 7 by Kenko Tokina.

Using a combination of 3M Thinsulate and a honeycomb pattern, the gloves are made to provide more insulation and offer a tighter grip. For precise setting adjustments, the thumb and forefinger have a thimble mechanism making it easier to focus or press the shutter button. The gloves also have an added pocket for memory card storage and other miscellaneous items.

Available in four sizes from S to XL on the official Kenko Tokina website, the Grip Hot Shot 7 costs ¥ 7,891.

Source: Kenko Tokina

© Japan Today

Denis Vejas (1986 Lithuania) is a Vilnius-based visual storyteller and hardcore traveler. A big part of his work has been done in nomadic settings, living the experiences that the road brings. As a photographer and a traveler, he always felt attracted by the things happening on the peripheries of the global world, focusing on the social outskirts and the spaces that are commonly marginalized.

Denis documented these nightscapes for five months in Ghana.

Denis Vejas spent around 13 years on the road traveling independently. He thinks the state of being constantly curious, always facing something new, and being open for whatever comes next is the backbone of both; his work and his personality.

Please visit his website for more interesting photography documentaries.

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You can find Denis Vejas on the Web:

Copyrights:
All the pictures in this post are copyrighted to Denis Vejas. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.

Dec. 31—TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. — Occupying 8,000 square feet on the second floor of the former IBM building west of Enterprise Drive is the Center for Photography at Woodstock’s largest-ever exhibition, “Parallel Lives: Photography, Identity, and Belonging.”

Brian Wallis, the center’s executive director, said the exhibit, running through Feb. 5, seeks to examine the isolation and separation brought forth as the COVID-19 pandemic raged.

But visitors to the gallery won’t find a single photo of hospitals, people donning masks, or mass graves.

“Instead, it looks at the personal and psychological impact of being isolated and separated from others,” Wallis said.

It features the works of 13 photographers from around the world, chosen from about 500 submissions that were carefully reviewed by Maya Benton, the exhibit’s curator, he said.

The exhibit isn’t afraid to tackle some of the biggest issues, including racism, conversations around gender and sexuality, and immigration, Wallis added. In many cases, Benton ended up not even using the work from the portfolios the artists submitted but ended up drawing other pieces from their work, Wallis said.

Wallis provided a tour of the second-floor space of the building that once housed a cubicle farm as far as the eye can see. He said the exhibition occupies just a tiny fraction of the nearly 400,000-square-foot building. He showed some peeling paint and signs that once marked the different clusters of cubicles, hinting at the building’s halcyon days in the IBM era.

“We wanted to leave some evidence of dereliction,” Wallis said.

Wallis, who formerly served as deputy director at the International Center of Photography in New York City before coming to the center six months ago, said they were looking for a place in Kingston to host the exhibition but they couldn’t find a suitable space.

Wallis recalled meeting with county Director of Economic Development Tim Wiedemann, who suggested the former IBM building, which the county had seized in foreclosure in November 2019 for back taxes owed by TechCity owner Alan Ginsberg. It’s now owned by National Resources, which has taken over the former TechCity complex, rechristening it as iPark 87 and promising extensive redevelopment of the long-troubled site.

Wallis admitted it took a lot of work to get the space ready.

“We had to hire a disaster restoration company,” he said. “There was evidence of animals in here. Some of the fluorescent tubes didn’t work.”

The exhibition walls, made up of unpainted parallel plywood panels, are arranged in a neat geometric order reminiscent of the long-gone cubicles of the building’s office days.

Among the featured artists is Manuel Acevedo, whose black and white photos capture Newark, N.J., from 1982 to 1987. Wallis said they touch on topics such as racism and over-policing, laid bare in shots with mounted cops on horseback.

“He just rode the bus back and forth on this one street, sometimes taking photos from the bus and other times getting off,” he said.

At the other end of the exhibition are Noelle Mason’s cyanotypes and tintypes depicting people being smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border in everything from tractor-trailer fuel tanks to large rolled suitcases. Cyanotypes are made using a 19th-century process where positive prints are made using the sun, he said.

The daughter of a border policeman, Mason now lives in Florida. Wallis said some of her cyanotypes are repurposed from radar images found on right-wing websites.

Also featured are Mason’s large tapestries depicting communities captured from aerial photography. Other images are tintypes, a process the center teaches, Wallis said.

On another panel are Jillian Marie Browing’s cyanotypes on embroidered backgrounds. Wallis showed off several that celebrate her matrilineal heritage through her own hair along with hair from her mother and her grandmother. Another image is a large self-portrait, he said.

Nearby, Rashad Taylor’s father-son images of Black men, including a self-portrait of him with his own son, seek to shatter the negative images cast upon Black men by the media and other institutions, Wallis said.

“He wanted to make regular representations that show a positive representation,” Wallis said.

After focusing her work mostly in countries that ban same-sex marriages, French photographer Scarlett Cote spent three years of the Trump presidency, with its hyper-focus on masculinity, traveling the U.S. to examine the spectrum of masculinity in the U.S., according to Wallis.

Felix Quintana’s photographs, also using a unique cyanotype, often with a tattoo-like graffiti, scratched document gentrification in South Central Los Angeles through a Latinx perspective, Wallis said.

Wallis said the center will host a number of special events before the exhibit closes. They will include family hours from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Saturday in January.

Gallery hours are Thursdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Photos: Center for Photography at Woodstock exhibit : Parallel Lives: Photography, Identity and Belonging

(c)2022 Daily Freeman, Kingston, N.Y. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

December 31, 2022

RICOH Imaging Company, has announced a new Pentax Film Camera project focused on the research and development of film camera products.

In his message to the press, Noboru Akahane, President and CEO of Ricoh Imaging, affirmed that the company has been listening to film camera users and that this project will provide them with products that helps address challenges in the development, manufacturing and aftercare service of film cameras.

Film photography has been growing in popularity over the last few years, especially with the young Gen Z. Unlike the days of film and print, the current trend shows young people enjoy using film cameras and products while displaying them in a digital format on social media platforms. In a world where smartphones have dramatically changed the culture of photography, there is a part of the population that is still keen on spending more time on enjoyable activities such as capturing and creating beautiful images.

This renewed spark in film photography has ignited RICOH Imaging’s plan to produce products using knowledge, skills and technologies that they have developed over the years. With fewer manufacturers and a growing concern about the servicing of film cameras, the project seeks to prioritize users – from camera development, production, sales and aftercare.

Ricoh Imaging is also looking to engage with camera aficionados, creators, and photographers to promote the project through hybrid and in-person events as well as on social media. Using feedback and suggestions from film camera users will also be a big part of product development.

The success of this project is not just pinned on this user-driven strategy but also on involving other manufacturers to help counter the challenges of procuring essential film camera parts which are no longer as widely available since the advent of digital cameras.

Read the full press statement here.

For more information on film photography, have a look at these articles:

Film photography on a budget.

Kai Wong on his passion for film photography.

Best Compact 35mm film cameras with autofocus

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“What is your typical exposure time in this kind of lighting?”  I panicked when the pro photographer asked me that question when I was starting.  I had no idea what she was asking or how to have an intelligent conversation about exposure time.  In fact, I didn’t even know what “exposure time” meant.  Yikes!  So what is exposure time in photography?  I don’t want you to have to stumble over that kind of question, too.  So today, let’s talk about exposure time, what it means, and how to decide how to best use it in some common scenarios.

What is the Exposure Triangle

Before we can talk about determining the best exposure time in your photos, you’ll need to understand the exposure triangle and how it works.  Your camera settings all work together to form the perfect exposure.  Using manual mode allows you to choose the settings on your own.  In Your Ultimate Guide to Shooting in Manual Mode, take an in-depth look at the exposure triangle and shooting in manual mode.   Even if you sometimes choose to shoot in automatic mode, you’ll be doing yourself a favor by learning how the exposure triangle works.

Today, let’s have a quick reminder.  Three settings on your camera affect the exposure triangle.  They are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.  These three settings work together to create the right light in your final image.

Look at what the inside of your camera looks like with this graphic.  Let’s talk about how some parts of your camera work to achieve the perfect exposure.

© Provided by Veronica Bareman
A diagram of a DSLR camera showing the shutter location

Aperture

Aperture refers to the amount that the lens on your camera will open.  Inside the lens, a diaphragm opens and closes (labeled “aperture blades”) to let light into your camera.  Just like the pupil in your eye opens to let more light in and closes to allow less light, your camera lens does the same thing. 

Your aperture setting will also affect depth of field, so know that when you adjust the aperture for exposure, you will also change the slice of focus you can achieve.

Shutter Speed

The camera’s shutter lies right in front of the camera’s image sensor (labeled “shutter”).  When you press the shutter button, the shutter slides open for a determined amount of time to let light in and then closes.  The length of time that the shutter is open is called “shutter speed.”  The slower the shutter speed, the longer the shutter stays open, hence more light.

Shutter speed also affects how we freeze or capture action, so when you adjust shutter speed, you will change how motion shows in your images.  Long exposure times blur movement, whereas a short exposure time will stop motion. 

ISO

ISO refers to the standardized industry scale for measuring how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to the light that hits it.  Many technical details make ISO work, but it’s enough to know that the higher the number you use when setting ISO, the more sensitive your camera’s sensor is to the light that hits it.

© Provided by Veronica Bareman
Pink background with

A higher ISO number makes an image brighter but also increases digital noise or makes your image look grainy.  The average viewer isn’t going to notice a low to moderate amount of grain, but to achieve the highest image quality, keep your ISO as low as possible.  High ISOs mean high noise, and low ISOs mean low noise.

What is Exposure Time?

Let’s recap so far.  In photography, exposure is defined as the amount of light that enters your camera and hits the camera’s sensor, which is responsible for recording the image.  There are three specific ways the camera allows light in:  ISO, Shutter Speed, and aperture.  Those three ways are commonly called the exposure triangle.

Today we’re talking about exposure time, which is a function of the shutter in your camera, specifically how long the shutter stays open to let the light into the camera.  Exposure time is critical to determining how bright or dark your photos are.

A perfectly-exposed photo shows crisp detail in your image’s lightest areas (highlights) and the darkest areas (shadows).  When an image does not get enough light, it is underexposed.  Too much light and it is overexposed.  When a photo is improperly exposed, information will be missing in the pixels of the photo’s darkest or lightest areas.

© Provided by Veronica Bareman
a large sea bird stands atop a building. The image is edited into stripes indicating over-exposed, correctly exposed, and under-exposed

Exposure Time and Motion Capture

Exposure time also affects how you capture motion in photography.  Exposure time allows you to either freeze action or intentionally blur it.  But exposure time is also essential for getting the perfect amount of light on your subject.  Even though it sounds simple, the truth is that exposure can be a complicated subject in photography.  Remember that there is always room for creative interpretation, and a photo has many elements equally as crucial as exposure.

The best thing you can do to get the look you’re after is practice, practice, practice!  Once you master one facet of a gorgeous image, add another technique.  Remember, this is the difference between a person with a fancy camera and an actual photographer.

Freezing and Blurring Motion

Using a fast shutter speed will allow you to freeze action.  Using a slow shutter speed will allow you to capture motion, which can be fun for light trails, moving water, or creative sports shots.

Reciprocal Rule of Exposure

If you want to get just the right amount of light onto your subject, and that subject isn’t moving a lot, and you wish to avoid motion blur, then you’re going to want to tuck this next nugget of info into the back of your mind:  The reciprocal Rule.  The name sounds fancy, but it’s really quite simple.  The reciprocal rule is:

Exposure time = reciprocal value of the focal length

But don’t be scared.  Think of it this way:  If you are shooting at a 50mm focal distance, you must use no slower shutter speed than 1/50s.  If you are using a long lens, shooting a portrait at 200mm, and holding your camera by hand, you must use no slower shutter speed than 1/200s.  Make sense?  If you wish to use a slower shutter speed than that, then you’ll need a tripod to avoid camera shake and motion blur.

Of course, nothing is simple in photography, so know that if you have image stabilization on your lens, you can bend this rule a bit.  Nevertheless, you won’t go wrong with the reciprocal rule.

What Tools Can I Use to Help Calculate Exposure Time?

All of this sounds very complicated, but with a bit of practice, you’ll choose your exposure time like a pro!  Many people like to use a light meter when getting started, which is a great tool.  Personally, I think there is no better way to learn how to set your exposure time than by practice, practice, practice!  Using a tool is an excellent way to learn as long as you remember that the more dependent upon that tool you become, the more you’ll need to stuff in your bag and carry later.  And this Hip Grandma likes to travel light, so this is a tool I don’t use in my everyday photography.

Exposure Time Jargon

There are a few words you’ll hear bandied about when you’re listening to photographers talk about their craft.  Let’s review a few of them related to exposure time.

Shutter Stop

When you adjust your exposure time, you will do it in “stops.”  Each exposure stop represents a change in shutter speed to either double the time the shutter is open or divided by half.  Most modern digital cameras can shoot at a lightning-fast shutter speed of 1/4000 or 1/4000^th of a second.  That’s mighty fast!  Adjusting that to one-stop slower equals 1/2000 or 1/2000^th of a second.  The next stop is 1/1000, then 1/500, etc., all the way down to 1 second, and then even slower to 2 seconds, 4 seconds, 8 seconds, etc.  Most modern cameras will allow you to make adjustments in half-stop and third-stop increments.

Here’s a practical example:  If you start with a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second and adjust that to 1/250^th of a second, you are doubling the time the shutter is open, thus letting in double the amount of light.

Although memorizing these numbers is not necessary, learning how shutter speed works by halving and doubling the amount of light that reaches your camera sensor is critical to understanding how to get the best results in every image.  When more light reaches your camera’s sensor, your image is brighter.  When less light reaches your camera’s sensor, your image is darker.

Exposure Value

Exposure Value is the term commonly used to explain how much light reaches your camera’s digital sensor not only through shutter speed but also by taking into account aperture and ISO settings.

Dynamic Range

Dynamic Range is the measured amount of difference between your photo’s brightest and darkest areas.  An image with a high dynamic range (HDR) will vary significantly from the darkest darks to the lightest lights, and everything from each extreme will maintain details.

Histogram

The histogram is a graph that shows the range of tones in any given image from brightest brights to darkest darks.  Modern DSLR cameras will allow you to see the histogram on the camera’s screen or in the viewfinder.  You can also see the histogram in Lightroom or other editing software. 

Exposure Compensation

Exposure compensation happens when as a photographer, you override your camera’s meter and choose settings that will make your image brighter or darker.  Take a look at How Calculating Exposure Gets You The Perfect Image Every Time for a deeper dive into using your camera’s meter.

© Provided by Veronica Bareman

What is the Correct Exposure of An Image?

That is indeed a trick question!  Like snowflakes, every image is unique and different, and every photographer has a distinct artistic vision for what looks great!  For this reason, you must take feedback and constructive criticism lightly and consider the source.  The question is not what is the right exposure, but what were you trying to achieve, and were you successful?  You are well on your way to success when you can achieve the creative vision you desire! 

Wrapping it All Up

Why Should I Care About Exposure Time?  Because understanding how exposure time works with the other settings in your camera gives you ultimate control over your photo results.  If you’re a control freak like me, you’ll like knowing exactly why your camera is doing what it’s doing and how to achieve the exact result you are after.  A perfectly exposed photo is the best photo!

I would love to know how I can improve this blog for my readers. Would you mind taking this short anonymous survey to share your thoughts?

If you liked this article, you’ll probably like these, too!

© Provided by Veronica Bareman
PIN image showing a giant crane on a roof with exposure amounts and the title of the post, What is exposure time in photography?

The post What is Exposure Time in Photography?  Your Best Guide appeared first on Veronicajune Photography.

Most photographers shoot digital because of the speed it offers and the very low cost. Travis Cobb photographs with film exactly because it is slow and expensive.

If Cobb’s portfolio is anything to go by, it works! You can see it for yourself at traviscobb.photography, where he shares some of his amazing work with the world.

Full disclosure: This article was sponsored by Identity Digital.

Why film?

“I love film photography because it slows me down,” Travis Cobb says. “The cost to buy one roll of film, mail it off and process it works out to US$40.”

Cobb says he shoots in medium format, so one roll yields just 10 images. “Every time I press the shutter, I hear ‘four dollars’ in my head.”

“Nobody is paying for that, other than myself, so I have to be very conscious of what I’m dedicating each frame of film to.”

With a collection of 20 medium-format cameras in his closet, Cobb says the one that always finds its way into his camera bag is a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II, which he bought through eBay many years ago.

He describes finding that camera as a bit like finding your favorite shoe.

“The camera is an extension of myself now,” he says.

“I know exactly how to use it to get what I want. It’s a unique camera, and it takes pictures like nothing I’ve ever used before.”

“It’s definitely worth four dollars every time I press the button.”

Film photography has had a resurgence in recent years, and camera prices have skyrocketed since Cobb bought his Mamiya.

“Seeing what that camera sells for now, there are times I’m hard pressed not to list it for sale. But I’m going to shoot with it until it dies.”

“It’s like having a dog. You wouldn’t give up your best friend.”

Looking for a connection

Travis Cobb started taking black-and-white shots in high school and studied photography as part of a fine arts degree at university.

After this, Cobb says he was mainly photographing to document his newborn son.

But, it wasn’t long before photography found its way into his work as marketing director for a large sports company, which led to long hours and extended periods of travel.

“That didn’t work for me,” Cobb says. “As a parent, I felt I didn’t have nearly enough time with my son.”

“It was a struggle to find a happy medium between my love and admiration for this hobby and being a parent.”

Still, paid photography assignments kept on coming Cobb’s way.

“I’d go to work and put photos of my son as a desktop background on my computer.”

“People would see the photos and ask who took them, and then they’d ask me to take pictures of their kids.”

One thing led to another, and Cobb got into wedding photography. Digital wedding photography.

“I had to get digital cameras, as nobody wanted to pay for film,” he says.

“I’ve shot over 100 weddings and it got to a point where it turned into even more work, on the side of my full-time job.”

“It wasn’t fun anymore, so I had to start saying no a lot.”

“Now when I take on a client, there has to be a connection,” Cobb says.

“The latest wedding I photographed was for my cousin. It was just me, her and her husband on a two-week road trip through Iceland, which I got to document on film for them.”

“I brought 30 rolls, so I knew I could snap 300 pictures. I had to make every frame count.”

The portfolio

Cobb shares his photography portfolio on his website traviscobb.photography, where he also blogs and posts videos featuring behind-the-scenes stories from his photography shoots.

He describes the decision to join thousands of photographers moving to .photography domain names as cost effective and great for his personal brand.

“I used to have a rudimentary gallery display website where I’d put my photos on a DVD and send it to an acquaintance who would put them online for me,” he says.

Cobb eventually moved on to managing his own website through various web hosting services, but he was never happy with his web address.

“I’ve had a couple of domain names. I wanted travis dot com, but it was taken and someone wanted a lot of money for that.”

“When I found out I could get traviscobb.photography, I bought it the same day and paid a fraction. It definitely worked out better.”

“It’s easy for people to remember, and it leads to exactly who you are,” he explains. “When you say ‘my name dot photography’, it reinforces your personal brand.”

“If you want to showcase yourself as a photographer, this one is it.”

Whether you’re just getting started out or you’re ready to take your photography business to the next level, a .photography domain extension shows the world you’re serious about your photography.

Join the ranks of thousands of professional photographers with an SEO-optimized domain.

And, since your desired .photography domain is more likely to be available than the .com equivalent, you won’t have to worry about compromising your personal brand identity.

Your work deserves a .photography domain.

Join our growing collective and you may be featured!

You’ve done the work, and now it’s time for the world to see what you can do. Each month, we’ll be featuring a photographer’s website on PetaPixel, Shutterbug and CP Collectives. Submit your website with a .photography domain extension for the chance to be featured and check out a new photographer each month.

Visit Travis’s website: traviscobb.photography

More from Travis Cobb

Full disclosure: This article was sponsored by Identity Digital. .Photography is part of the Identity Digital portfolio of domain extensions. Click here to learn more. Travis Cobb has been compensated for his participation in this article.

Image credits: All photos by Travis Cobb