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Tag Archives: Photography Resources
Henri Cartier-Bresson on Photography
Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004) was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the “street photography” or “real life reportage” style that has influenced generations of photographers who followed.
Cartier-Bresson achieved international recognition for his coverage of Gandhi’s funeral in India in 1948 and the last (1949) stage of the Chinese Civil War. He covered the last six months of the Kuomintang administration and the first six months of the Maoist People’s Republic. He also photographed the last surviving Imperial eunuchs in Beijing, as the city was falling to the communists. From China, he went on to Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), where he documented the gaining of independence from the Dutch.
“Photography is not like painting,” Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative,” he said. “Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”
Photographer Reflects on Revolutions
Photographer John Moore is no stranger to combat. As a member of an Associated Press team in 2005, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography for coverage of the war in Iraq and he’s done extended stints in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, South Africa, Mexico and Nicaragua and elsewhere in the last 20 years.
Yet despite his relative comfort with being on the frontlines, Moore told the NewsHour from his hotel room in Cairo that his latest assignment -a six-week trip that took him to the uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain and Libya – might have been his most dangerous. Moore recorded the interview for us after sneaking out of Benghazi, Libya en route back to his home in Denver.
Read the article.
The Well: Covering Capitol Hill
A rare glimpse into the way press photographers cover the politicians of the United States Congress and the problems they face. Leading political photographers in Washington talk about the perills of the 24/7 news cycle and the increasingly sparce access.
Free subscription to Digital Photo magazine
Free subscription to Digital Photo magazine: Link. I get this myself, although I don’t spend the time reading it. You might be signing up for other unwanted mail too, so sign up at your own risk!
Obama meets with tech business leaders
President Obama was here in the Bay Area having dinner last night with some important people.
It must be pretty awesome to be there taking these pictures. Check out a Q&A session with Pete Souza, official White House photographer.
Anyone recognize the people at dinner with the President?
Photo-biking in China
I’ve spent the past 5 summers with students in China. I don’t shoot as much as I usually do because I feel like I’m “at work” and need to make sure the project is going well and that everyone’s doing well. That’s probably why I’ve posted very few pictures from China here on the blog.
Anyways, my colleague Dan (who’s a great photographer) did a good job of setting aside time to shoot. He found a migrant neighborhood across the railroad tracks from our school. By the way, our students were studying at one of the largest university campuses EVER, so traveling by bike was a must. In the states, people go on photo-walks. Here is my first ever photo-bike tour. Quite challenging trying to bike and shoot at the same time, I tell you–and over some unpaved roads too!
Entrance to our Narnia 2010. It led to an underpass beneath some railroad tracks.
The tunnel/underpass to Narnia. The length of the crossing is like crossing from one subway platform to another. Try going through something like this after a torrential downpour. NOT pretty when biking through a foot of water and debris.
This is me and my bike. Notice the green and black rubber horn. It made a sound similar to that of a circus clown’s bike. I used it a LOT — for both safety and entertainment purposes.
Check out the sidewalk BBQ with a customer sporting the Beijing bikini.
The following image should give you an idea how close I got to cars, trucks, and buses. Btw, that’s my colleague Dan biking in front of me.
I’m slowly going through my images now. We’ll see if I get around to posting more.
Camera Mode Dial Cuff Links
How geeky fun are these?!?!
Bonus: Look, you can have spicy noodles delivered to your house every month!
Timbuk2 Love and Lost
I’ve had my Timbuk2 bag for well over 10 years now. I called it my “superman bag” because it was red and blue with the yellow logo. That bag has traveled with me all over the U.S. and Asia. It’s well-made, but some of the materials were dying, so I figured I’d drop it off at the store to see what they could do about it. And then they lost my bag! My heart sank a little, but the 2 guys at the factory (I forgot their names) were awesome. They helped me customize a brand new bag (good thing they had the same fabric available as my old bag!) and sent it right over.
So here’s my new boring inconspicuous brown bag:
In case anyone’s wondering, here’s how I carry my photography gear:
I have a Tenba insert (wow, the price has gone up since I bought it) which I just stick into the bag to hold everything. I like this set up because it doesn’t look like I have a camera bag, although carrying everything with one strap might not be the best for my back issues.
I’m proud of my bag and the fact that it was handmade right here in San Francisco. Oh, they have a blog too.
Snøhetta Works
This is a book that my architecture/design friend Jaime gave me last month. She likes architecture and she knows that I like pictures, so she figured she would give me a book of photographs of architecture by a Norwegian company called Snøhetta. As she was describing the firm and all their designs, and I asked if they were the ones who designed the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. (How I knew about that, I had no idea. I remembered learning about it somewhere.) And indeed, they had designed the library.
And guess what? The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has chosen Snøhetta to design the expansion of the existing Mario Botta structure to accommodate the Fisher Collection.
Video: Around the World in 80 Seconds
Pretty cool. I immediately recognized those shots here in SF. If he hadn’t turned left, you would have seen this intersection.
Photographers Prepare for a Moment in May
Photographers around the world will be taking a picture of one moment in time on May 2 at 15:00 UTC. That’s 8:00 a.m San Francisco time. Oh boy…
For Old Times’ Sake
I haven’t posted up many any black and white photos, at least none that I can remember. I see a lot of street photographers using b/w–guess it gives images that “timeless” feel, as if the images could have been taken in any era.
The image above was taken last week, March 21, 2010.
Mini MINI Cooper (steering wheel on the right side of the car), as seen in Chinatown, San Francisco.
Not sure if I’m doing justice to this whole black and white conversion thing.
Tony’s List
I met Tony (along with a bunch of other photographers) in North Beach. He asked how long I had been shooting. I actually never know how to answer this question, but I said I’ve been taking pictures for a long time, but took a more meaningful approach only this past academic year. He asked if I had any favorite photographers. I said I didn’t know enough to answer — I’m such a noob. Then the question was turned on him and he proceeded to name a few photographers who have really inspired him. I took out my notebook and asked him to write their names down for me. He ended up giving me 12 names of photographers/influences and a book title.
Here’s his list:
- Edward Weston
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
- W. Eugene Smith
- Josef Koudelka
- Garry Winogrand
- Mary Ellen Mark
- Manuel Álvarez Bravo
- Group f/64
- Farm Security Administration (FSA)
- Edward Steichen and “The Family of Man”
Some Japanese photographers:
- Daidō Moriyama
- Nobuyoshi Araki
Book: On Photography by Susan Sontag
I’ve got some homeworking to do.
*Note: I’m not sure why I took the picture above at 1/30 sec, which is probably why his hands are blurry. But maybe that’s not a bad thing as it captures the “writing” in action.
A Pictoral Guide to Avoiding Camera Loss
Patriot or Super Hero?
A little out of focus. I gotta work on these dog shots.
Photo in Curbed SF
A Bit Late: Happy New Year
I’ve been to St. Louis twice now, and every time, it just feels so quiet to me. Ok, besides the 16,000+ college students who were at the conference with me or the occasional crowd coming out of a Blues game, there just wasn’t much going on downtown.
Here’s a picture taken right before New Year’s at Union Station, St. Louis, MO that captures the fact that no one’s ever around.
Well, it was nice that my team of coworkers was there with me all week. It’s just quite sad spending New Year’s away from most of your friends and family. Fortunately, I rang in the New Year with one of my little sis’ from Texas.
In the following image (taken while we were having brunch celebrating her birthday this past summer), she had just tried to “help me add milk to my coffee, spilling it all over the table.” It’s so telling of the grief she gives me our friendship.
Brunch at KABB.
Xintiandi, Shanghai, China.
Star Light, Star Bright
No time like the winter to give light painting a try.
My first time light painting, shot my friends’ kids: Toby, Brandon, and Caleb. Just because we were bored.
Edit: Forgot to mention that Mackenzie was our light switch coordinator (for before and after the shots). =)
