Photography of Palm Beach - West Palm Beach Photographer

Sunset in Florida

2011-06-21T13:22:00.000-04:00

A picture I took coming home from a vows renewal for a 25 year marriage. This was taken at almost sunset in the treasure coast in Florida. This is why it is always good to have a camera in the car....

Robert

Slide show and online photo gallery

2010-08-18T00:32:00.005-04:00

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South Florida Beach Weddings
http://southfloridabeachweddings.blogspot.com/

Ansel Adams

2010-08-18T00:18:00.005-04:00

This is typical Ansel Adams black and white photography. Stunning work.

Update: It seems to be the negatives found in the garage were not taken by Ansel Adams and the art expert who appraised them allegedly has no experience in art appraisal. Here is an article about Ansel the man and photographer.

Ansel Adams was a famous nature photographer whose specialty was black and white photography using what is known as large format film. In film photography you have small 35mm, medium format and large format film. Digital photography has passed 35 mm in quality in many ways, in my opinion. Medium and large format film is still superior in quality to digital photography with what is commercially available, in my opinion.

Ansel Adams was born on February 20, 1902; he was raised in San Francisco, California. Ansel Easton Adams was the only child of parents, Charles Hitchcock and Olive Adams of New England. Ansel Adams' father Charles was a businessman, whose companies were to include an insurance agency as well as a chemical plant. Ansel Adams took a keen interest in music and musical instruments at an early age. He was able to teach himself how to play the piano, and he always seemed to enjoy being around and in tune with as well as surrounding himself with nature as far away from the city as possible. This interest was to be a guide in his nature pictures. Ansel Adams as a child attended both public and private schools, hopefully gaining the best of both worlds.

Ansel’s father gave him his first lessons in mathematics and the French language. French was considered a romantic and international language at the time of Ansel. France was very influential in the impressionist expression of the musical art and painting era.

In 1915 when Ansel Adams was 13 years old, his father bought him a ticket for the Panama Pacific World’s fair. Ansel took a great deal of interest in the Armory Show art gallery exhibition. This art exhibition contained modern art that had been first presented in New York City. There was a music concert that took a hold on the young Ansel's interest.

Ansel was able to take his very first photograph in 1916 at age 19, when he and his parents went on a trip to what is now Yosemite National Park. He took his first pictures with a Kodak Box Brownie camera. I actually remember seeing these Kodak Brownie camera’s when I was a child as most everyone had one in their closet. Kodak was responsible for making photography available for the masses and affordable for the public and the average Joe.

His early pictures and images were of the Yosemite National park, and its splendor of nature, but Ansel’s major interest was of the High Sierra Mountains. Ansel returned to Yosemite National Park every summer and took pictures of nature, which included mountains and the forest. While Ansel was there in Yosemite National Park in 1919, he joined the Sierra Club. The purpose of the Sierra club was to explore and protect the wilderness areas of the Sierra Nevada. Ansel was to become an official contract photographer for the Sierra club. I understand that he was on the board of directors of the Sierra Club for a time.

Young Ansel actually and eventually worked in Yosemite National park for four summers as the caretaker of the Sierra club's headquarters. While spending his time there in the park, Ansel became an expert mountaineer and a rugged conservationist. Ansel also gained a lot of experience in the changing and shifting conditions as a landscape photographer of the park. During this time of the young Ansel or around the year of 1920, photography was just a casual hobby for Ansel Adams. In the year 1920 Ansel decided he was going to make music his vocation and profession.

His ambition in life was his plan on how to become a concert pianist. Ansel was able to give piano lessons and professional piano concerts until the year 1927. Ansel then decided to change his path in life and start his career into photography.

This was to be a life changing decision for Ansel and for the world to enjoy his life-long work. That same year the publication of his first printed book of photographs was entitled Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, was put out for sale.

Ansel was able to procure and got financial support for his first photography book from an art patron named Albert Bender. In the year 1930 Ansel published a limited edition portfolio of some of his photographs of Taos Pueblo. Mary Austin who was a writer, novelist and essayist wrote the text for this book.

The early pictures of Ansel Adam were in a photography style known as soft-focus, or fashionable pictorial, as this was very popular at the time. These kinds of pictures imitated the effects of Impressionistic paintings popular in France, in which the image you were trying to view was hazy or rather it looked like and as if you were looking at it through a mist. This effect made it look more like it was a painting, rather than a sharp photographic image.

In 1932 Ansel was instrumental and helped start a photographer’s group with other well known photographers of the twentieth century, to rebel against the soft-focus photography technique when taking pictures that was in vogue at the time. The group was called Group f/64. Their name was taken thus symbolizing the small lens opening of the camera. What Ansel wanted were sharp details in his pictures that focused through the smallest aperture in the camera lens, which was f/64. Group f/64 was a small informal photography group that lasted for just two years. This group had a large effect as it made a big difference in the direction that American photography would travel in.

In photography the aperture or shutter opening is often called the f/ stop or f-stop and the larger the number then the smaller is the opening of the shutter. The larger the opening of the shutter will reflect a smaller number for the f-stop. A 2.8 f-stop lens is considered a very fast lens and it has a fairly large opening in the shutter to let in a lot of light in a very short period of time. This type of lenses is used for sports photography and it captures moving subjects quite well.

With a 2.8 lens being used for sports the subject will be in focus and the background will be a blur or what is called soft focus. These are considered professional lenses and they cost a considerable sum of money. Consumer lenses are generally 3.5 and above for the lens opening with the f-stop. Although they let in a certain amount of light they are not considered as fast as sports lenses. These consumer lenses have more of what is called depth of field or rather the subject and the background will be more in focus. Ansel Adams founded a group called the F/64 photography group and their concern was to enjoy photography and have the entire photograph in focus.

An f-stop with a very high number has a very small opening in the shutter. This would be very much like a pinhole camera and would have a great deal of depth of field, in other words everything would be in focus in the picture. Suppose you had someone that was about 10 feet from you and you were taking their picture and in the background is a large forest and behind that are mountains and in the sky you have varying shades of blue and beautiful white clouds. You would use what is called landscape mode on your camera and it would have a very high f-stop to be sure that everything in the picture was in focus. This is the photography technique that Ansel Adams was interested in and promoting with his new photography group.

When using this type of technique for photography it is recommended that you use a tripod for the smaller opening of the shutter means that you have to leave it open for a longer period of time and it is subject to blur from shaking. Therefore a tripod will help you eliminate this problem. A sports lenses being used for a different purpose does not have this problem and a tripod is not needed nor is it necessary. I often use the landscape mode of the camera when I am taking wedding pictures on the beach so that the ocean in the background is in focus along with the clouds in the sky. This is the style of photography that the great nature photographer Mr. Ansel Adams was interested in and used in his famous style of photography.

Ansel Adams used what is called large format film for his photography you can make very large pictures from these negatives and there is a great deal of sharpness in the film and when you make prints you have a lot to work with. Digital photography is nowhere near the high level of quality that you have with large format film. Large format film is often used for the pictures that you see on billboards by the side of the highways. Medium format film is used to take pictures of models wearing beautiful clothes and a photograph products and digital cameras are nowhere near the quality of that of film. So Ansel Adams was using a very precise high quality medium to capture his artistic vision. Large format film is very expensive then and is very expensive now, but it captures the quality that Ansel Adams was looking for when he was taking pictures of nature in black and white.

Most traditional fine art photographers love to shoot in black and white because they feel that black and white is more expressive than color film. Even if you are not interested in doing this type of photography, black and white can be a lot of fun to experiment with and it will teach you things related to composition as well as contrast. Shooting in black and white eliminates the distraction of unwanted colors or unexpected colors in the picture scene. When using black and white color is eliminated and the important thing to worry about is framing and composition of the scene and the contrast between light and dark.

Special filters are available that can lighten some tones and darkened other tones which can manipulate contrast while you are shooting with your camera. You can also experiment with contrast by printing on different types of paper used for printing your pictures. Black and white film records light in various shades of gray and it can be used with all available light sources. Glossy paper is very good for bringing out the vivid colors of color photography. Matte paper is very good for printing pictures in black and white.

In the year 1928 Ansel Adams was an official photographer for the Sierra Club and he was working at Jasper national Park which is in Canada, there he did some beautiful work. This was the year before the Great Depression and was the end of the roaring 20s in America. About three years into the Great Depression in the year 1932 Ansel opened his gallery for photography and it was very short-lived. Ansel taught photography and gave lectures to earn money while his gallery was open. Ansel was able to work in advertising and he wrote articles on photography for different magazines. Two of the magazines that Ansel wrote for were called camera craft and photographers on photography. Ansel published his first manual on photography techniques and camera equipment in the year 1935.

Outside of his own photography gallery Ansel's work was featured in an exhibition in the year 1936 for the very first time. Ansel owes a debt of gratitude to a Mr. Alfred Steiglitz, Alfred was known as a master photographer as well as being a discoverer of genius. This gallery was located in New York City and Ansel was on his way to becoming famous and recognized for his vision and talent. In the year 1940 Ansel was able to direct what was called a pageant of photography. The very next year Ansel taught classes at the art center school in Los Angeles, California. Ansel was also appointed by the Department of the Interior with headquarters in Washington DC to be a photo muralist for the US government.

Ansel was given an assignment to take large landscape pictures of national parks and monuments all over America. Ansel was fortunate enough to be able to lecture at colleges all along the West Coast as well is at the Museum of modern Art. In the year 1949 the Polaroid Corporation gave Ansell an appointment as a consultant of photography.

Ansel Adams was to become the director of the Sierra Club from 1936 to the year 1970. In 1968 he was the recipient of the Conservation Service award of the Interior Department. In 1969 he was awarded for his photography the Progress Medal of the Photographic Society of America. Ansel published many portfolios and wrote many books which some include Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trial, Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley, Michael and Annie in the Yosemite Valley, Yosemite and the High Sierra, My Camera in Yosemite Valley, Camera and Lens, The Negative, The Print, Natural Light Photography, Born Free and Equal, Death Valley, and Mission San Xavier del Bac, are just a few of his portfolios and books.

Thai dancing in South Florida

Online photo gallery

2010-08-01T20:12:00.003-04:00

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Suggested Wedding Pictures

2010-07-26T16:18:00.019-04:00

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Suggested pictures of the Wedding and Reception
Wedding Ceremony Pictures:

Grandparents of the bride and groom being escorted in for the ceremony
Mother of the Groom and the Bride being escorted in for the ceremony
Wedding Officiant / Clergy and Groom entering for the ceremony
Best Man and Groomsmen ceremony
Bridesmaids and / or Bridesmaids escorted with the Groomsmen) coming down aisle
Flower Girl and Ring Bearer coming down aisle
Maid / Matron of Honor walking down the aisle
Vow exchange with the Bride and Groom should be facing each other
Ring Exchange with the Bride and Groom should be facing each other
Unity Candle Ceremony is optional but the Bride and Groom should be facing each other

Bride and Groom Kissing for the first time as husband and wife.

Introduction as Mr. And Mrs.

Bride with her Groom exiting down the aisle
Wedding Party exiting to reception

Parents exiting to reception

The Formals: These can be done prior to the ceremony or after and will depend upon lighting and the locale of the pictures being inside or outside. Formals are also known as Portraits and Traditional pictures.

Bride and the Groom
Bride and the Groom with the wedding officiant
Bride and the Groom with the Maid / Matron of Honor as well as the Best Man
Bride and Groom with everyone in the wedding party
Bride and Groom with the parents of Bride
Bride and Groom with the Bride's family
Bride with her parents
Bride and Groom with parents of the Groom
Bride and Groom with the Groom's family
Groom with his parents
Bride with all of her female attendants
Groom with all of his male attendants
Bride and Groom with the grandparents, and / or godparents, etc.

The Reception:

Bride and Groom and their first dance as Husband and Wife
Bride traditional dance with her father
Groom dancing with his mother
Bride dancing with the groom's father
Groom dancing with the bride's mother
Bride and Groom dancing with the Maid / Matron of Honor and the Best Man
Champagne Toast by the party
Cake-cutting by the Bride and Groom
Bouquet Toss by the Bride
Garter Toss by the Bride
Bride and Groom exiting the reception
Candid pictures of the guest’s at the dinner tables
Candid pictures of the special friends of the Bride and Groom

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Photography Terms and paparazzi

2010-07-26T16:13:00.002-04:00

A glossary of photography terms or terminology
Photography definitions
Photographer’s jargon

35MM EQUIVALENT (Focal range)

This is the focal range of a 35mm camera (aka the zoom range, from wide angle to telephoto) as opposed to a digital camera's zoom lens. Camera manufacturers always provide the 35mm equivalent focal range as a point of reference. (For old time film photographers) The distance needed to produce a sharp image measured the magnification of a certain lenses with a standard film size. This is known as your focal length. A lenses with a 45-55mm focal length is considered a standard lenses.

ARTIFACT

No we are not talking about religious items or ancient Egyptian tombs. This is usually in reference to JPEG picture compression. An artifact is an unwanted characteristic that degrades the quality of your digital pictures. An example of an artifact is if jagged edges appear on what should be a straight edge. Associated with a type of noise in a camera.

APERTURE
The aperture is similar to the iris in your eye (Similar to the black part of the eye) an iris is built into the camera's lens. The iris of a camera, just like your eye, opens up and allows more light to reach the imaging sensor. This happens in low lighting conditions and the iris will close more or be a smaller diameter to allow less light to reach the sensor. In the aperture priority camera mode, the photographer decides on the camera's aperture setting. The camera will automatically choose the appropriate shutter speed (Shutter speed is the amount of time the camera shutter is open and the image sensor is exposed to light).

BACKLIT
Backlit refers to a lighting condition where the object or person has a source of lighting emanating from the read of the subject.
A backlit subject, such as somebody with their back towards the sun, causes exposure problems because their face is in the shadow. If you can't move the subject into a better lighting situation, consider using a fill flash to obtain a more balanced exposure.

BITMAP
A bitmap is an image that consists of a large grid of tiny dots or pixels. Every pixel has an individual color and brightness value. Computer files ending in .bmp are not unusual in Windows XP. Digital photos are all bit mapped which includes JPEGs. Dots make up all pictures and the finer the dots, then the better the picture.

BUFFER
The camera’s internal memory, that is to be written to the memory card.

BURST OR CONTINOUS MODE
Burst mode allows the photographer to take several pictures quickly in rapid succession. This is at a much faster rate than in the single frame mode. The image rate is measured in frames per second (fps). This is the ideal mode for action shots, such as football and other sporting events. If you take a group imaging shots using burst mode then you will later choose and decide on the best shots.

CD-ROM
Compact Disc, Read Only Memory. This is a popular consumer storage media used for image and software distribution. CD-R and CD-RW are recordable variations of this media.

CENTER WEIGHTED METERING
A camera that uses center-weighted metering will measure light, mostly from the center of the image. This takes lighting levels into account from the surrounding areas of the image that you are trying to capture. Professional cameras give you the option to choose different metering or rather lighting modes. In other words…
Metering describes the process that the camera uses to measure the available light and chooses the proper lighting exposure level.

CLONING (not animals)
This is a term used for a technique used in imaging editing programs, like Photoshop, that will replace a part of an image by copying another area of the image over it. This is similar to the old double exposure technique of photography.

CCD (Charge Coupled Devise)
This is the IC or integrated circuit that is inside many digital cameras. This acts as an image sensor. The IC chip converts the photographic image of light from the lens into an electrical signal that is converted into a digital image will be stored on the memory card of your camera.
(See CMOS below)

CMOS
Complimentary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
A solid-state computer chip; which is responsible for capturing the image in a camera. (See CCD above)

CMYK
The acronym stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, which are the colored inks used by most print processes. Cyan is blue and Magenta is reddish purple. Black is (K)

COMPACT FLASH
A version of flash memory, with a memory card, that is known for its very high storage capacities up to 1GB.

COMPRESSION (JPEG – GIF)
A formula and a process that will shrink a file size. Lossless compression algorithms (a formula) can compress or shrink file sizes without losing any of the original information. Lossy compression algorithms (formulas), such as JPEG or GIF, will lose some of the original information. Image quality is degraded in the compression process. Compressed TIFF files discard less information, but results in larger image files. (See RAW.)

CPU
Central Processing Unit, the CPU is the chip responsible for the work that a personal computer does. Intel and AMD are the largest makers of CPU chips.

CROP (nothing to do with farmers or alien crop circles)
To crop is to separate part of the edges of an image. Cropping is usually used to emphasize a subject or an object in a Picture. You basically cut a piece of the picture out and enlarging this can lead to an unpleasant blurred image if the photo doesn't have enough resolution to start with.

DEPTH OF FIELD
Refers to the zone of focus in a photograph. The subject is in sharp focus, but the background can be blurry or sharp. Portraits usually have a blurred background to have a pronounced subject. Landscape usually tries to be sharp and in focus for the whole image.

DIGITAL ZOOM
This zoom function is a digital enlargement of the center image. A digital zoom produces images that are not as sharp than a true optical zoom. The digital zoom creates a digital enlargement for the original image and it can suffer in quality, it is not a true zoom like an optical zoom feature.

DPI
Dots Per Inch is a measure of the number of pixels (dots) contained in one linear inch of a picture or image. The larger the number of pixels can increase the quality of an image.

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)
DVDs are very similar to CD-ROM’s but the memory capacity is much greater. DVD-R and DVD-RW are recordable mediums.

ELECTRONIC VIEWFINDER (EVF)
This type of viewfinder is found on digital cameras. Unlike a DLR optical range finder, the image sensor on the back of the camera generates the image seen in the EVF.

EXPOSURE
This is the amount of light that reaches the camera's digital image sensor. The sensor is exposed to light.

EXPOSURE COMPENSATION
Is a setting that provides for a manual override that requires the exposure to be shorter or longer than the camera’s automatic sensor to choose. This allows the photographer to choose to underexpose or overexpose the image and is used in film and digital photography.

F-STOP (f-stop)
The f-stop is the relative size of the aperture of the lens. This determines the exposure and depth of field. Exposure is the amount of light allowed to the image sensor to enable it to become viewed.

FILL FLASH
FILL FLASH is a flash feature, used primarily to fill in the shadows in a setting where there is some light available to take pictures.

FOCAL LENGTH
The focal length of a lens tells you the power of its magnification. Small focal-length lenses are wide angle; large focal-length lenses are telephoto. A zoom lens has a variable focal length lens, most commonly with a 3:1 ratio (e.g., 35-105mm). (See 35mm top)

GIGABYTE (GB)
This is a unit of measurement for permanent (hard disk) and temporary (RAM) electronic storage. One gigabyte consists of roughly one thousand megabytes (the next smaller unit of measure).

HERTZ (Hz)
A unit of measure for cycles or revolutions per second abbreviated Hz. 1Hz equals 1 cycle per second. 1kHz (kilohertz) equals 1,000 cycles per second, 1MHz equals 1 million cycles per second, and 1GHz equals 1 billion cycles per second. Hertz was the name of the German scientist that worked on this unit of measurement.

HUE
The hue of a color is where it belongs in the color spectrum. You have many shades of color and this is what hue is all about. In Photoshop and other image-editing software programs, colors are defined as an alphanumeric value and this is used to make color adjustments to an image easy and precise.

INTERPOLATED
Interpolation is a process by which software enlarges image resolution beyond the actual resolution. The software analyzes the image and creates new pixels based on the surrounding pixels in the image. This technique is commonly used for digital zoom, where in essence, something is created from nothing.

ISO RATING
An ISO rating measures the imaging sensor’s sensitivity to light of a camera. Most digital cameras will have an adjustable ISO setting. This is used to simulate results you would obtain using more or less sensitive films in a 35mm camera. The more sensitive the image sensor is to light, then the higher the ISO setting will be.
ISO stands for International Standards Organization.

JPEG (COMPRESSION)
JPEG is a useful digital photograph or image file format standard. This allows for one to compress or shrink the image. You can balance quality with image size and save on memory space and still preserve image quality. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, an international authority that decides standards for image compression.

LCD
LCD stands for liquid-crystal display. LCD’s are on the back of digital cameras to display images and menus. Mini LCD’s are also used as electronic viewfinders (EVF). Televisions and computer monitors are using LCD’s.

MANUAL
Manual mode allows one to set the camera's shutter speed or aperture of the lens and you can still use the built-in light meter. This overrides the automatic setting of the camera.

MACRO LENS
Macro lenses are designed to focus on objects at a very close range. This is similar to a microscope and will magnify the image. This lens is perfect for detailed images of shots of insects or flowers.

MEGABYTE (MB)
A unit of measure for permanent (hard disk) and temporary (RAM) electronic storage. One megabyte consists of roughly one thousand kilobytes (the next smaller unit of measure).

MEGAPIXEL
Mega stands for million and pixel in number of dots so a mega pixel is one million pixels or rather the dots that compose digital image. Mega pixels are used as a measurement of the resolution of the camera's imaging sensor. The more pixels used for the image, the larger that you can make the photograph without the pixels becoming noticeable to the naked eye. Newspapers pictures are an example of the dots used for pictures.

MEMORY
Memory is the amount of information a storage device can remember. Alternative removable memory devices include XD Picture Cards, Compact Flash, and Secure Digital or SD memory cards. My Nikon cameras use the SD format.

METERING
Metering is the choosing the proper lighting exposure setting and this is essential for the best in picture quality. Metering is the image process that is used by the camera to take quality pictures. There are different metering modes, such as center-weighted and spot metering, and they have differing priorities and characteristics.

OPTICAL ZOOM
Optical zoom is the zoom or telephoto range of the lens on the camera. Optical zoom is the opposite of digital zoom.

RAM
Random-Access Memory, RAM is the temporary electronic storage for your camera or computer. This is very fast memory and is not dependent upon a hard drive. Gamers use this for video games for fast memory intensive playing.

RAW
Raw is a very high quality file format that is uncompressed and is used in high quality digital cameras. Raw uses a lot of memory to store the RAW images, as they are not compressed to save disc space. Most of your digital cameras will squeeze or rather compress a picture using a JPEG formula or algorithm format and then transfer the image to the camera's memory card. TIFF is a file format, which will use less compression to deliver better image quality than JPEG but it has a lager file size. Tiff is smaller than RAW, but larger than JPEG.

REMOVABLE MEDIA (Memory)
Removable media is the type of memory storage that can be removed from the camera. Removable media mentioned with digital cameras are Compact Flash, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, XD Picture Cards, and Micro Drives. The term also applies to memory media such as CD-ROM and floppy discs.

RESOLUTION
Resolution is in reference to digital cameras and the maximum size of an image that a camera can capture. Resolution is measured in the number of pixels or mega pixels. When referring to printing, then resolution is a measurement of the number of individual dots; the printer can fit into one inch (see also dpi).

RGB (Red, Blue and Green)
All the colors we can see are made up from a mixture of Red, Green and Blue. These three primary colors make up all other colors. (See also CMYK)

SATURATION
Saturation or rather color purity, will describe how rich and vivid the color tones that are in the image. Saturated colors have high levels of the primary colors. Desaturated colors appear bleached out, dull, and weak. Saturation is a highly subjective view among photographers. Differing levels of saturation are better for differing types of photography. Fall landscapes are better with the leaves changing colors and being saturated to bring out the vivid colors.

SCENE MODES
Many digital cameras have function modes that are pre-set for specific scenes. You select a certain mode for particular situations; such as portrait (faces) sport (action) Scenic modes will adjust the camera's exposure settings to allow greater depth of field and allow the whole picture to be in focus.

SHUTTER
The shutter is the cover of the aperture that opens to regulate the amount of time that the camera's image sensor is exposed to light from the subject to create an image. Shutter speeds are measured in seconds and fractions of seconds. Longer shutter speeds are better at low light conditions and quicker speeds are better in bright light.

SHUTTER PRIORITY
This exposure mode setting allows you to set the shutter speed, and the camera adjusts the lens aperture according to what it meters for the correct exposure.

SHUTTER SPEED
This is the amount of time that the shutter is open and allows light to reach the imaging sensor. If a photographer is going to use a setting for a large aperture and they are going to be shooting in bright light or possibly taking a picture of a quick moving object then you may wan to use a fast shutter speeds to obtain the best images.

SLR (Single Lens Reflex)
Single-lens reflex. The standard definition of an SLR camera is that the image appearing in the viewfinder is the same as that taken through the lens. SLR cameras generally have the added ability to interchange lenses.

SPOT METERING
Spot Metering is an exposure mode where the readings taken by the camera are from a small area of the image area and where the lighting levels from the rest of the scenic area will be ignored.

TELEPHOTO LENS
A telephoto lens has a long focal length and this mimics a telescope to magnify distant objects. Digital cameras have zoom type lenses and these have variable focal lengths that have characteristics of both wide-angle and telephoto lenses.

TIFF
TIFF is a high quality imaging file format standard that uses less compression as opposed to the JPEG format and this results in larger files. TIFF means Tagged Image File Format.

TTL METERING (Through The Lens)
TTL stands for Through The Lens.
TTL metering is considered the most accurate metering, due in fact because it's based on the same light levels that are reaching the camera's image sensor. Nikon uses TTL metering in their digital cameras.

USB
Universal Serial Bus or USB is a method that is now very common and very fast method of transferring digital images from your digital camera to your computer. USB is the standard used to connect printers, scanners, and other devices to your computer or just PC. The latest USB standard is USB 2.0 and this is about 40 times faster than the older USB 1.1.

WHITE BALANCE (not racial diversity)
White light is made up of a mixture of colors.
Remember when you took a white light in science class and put it through a prism and you would see a rainbow of colors. A perfect "white" would be the perfect balance of all colors. Each light source will have some mixture of red, green, and blue (primary colors) in it. Digital camera’s can analyze the light source and compensate to try to achieve the proper color balance in any given setting. Digital cameras allow you to override the factory default white balance setting to compensate for particular lighting situations, such as incandescent or fluorescent lamps, clouds or sunlight. These tend to favor certain colors of light, ever notice the red sky at sunset?

WIDE-ANGLE LENS
A wide-angle lens has a short focal length and this results in a wide field of view. Digital cameras usually have zoom lenses and they use variable focal lengths that have characteristics of wide angle, zoom and telephoto lenses.

Celebrity photographers and the paparazzi

I am not involved with this in anyway...

Paparazzo is the combination of two Italian words papatacci, which has the meaning of “gnat” and “razzi” which has a meaning of the popping of flashbulbs. We no longer use disposable flashbulbs, but rather speed lights or flash units that are digital.

The Italian word paparazzo was first coined by Mr. Federico Fellini, as this was the name he gave to an aggressive prying high society photographer in his 1959 film "La Dolce Vita". Paparazzi photography is driven and fueled by greed by the tabloids offering large sums of money. Photographers try to catch celebrities as well as the rich and famous in compromising and unflattering poses and situations.

To the celebrities’ photographers or rather the paparazzi were just an annoying group of photographers who were so very persistent when trying to get a salable picture or a snapshot of a celebrity. This is due to the fact that the public is so crazy about movie stars and celebrities that the photographers could sell the pictures or image for extremely large amounts of money.

Digital and film technology became more advanced as did the camera equipment the photographers and paparazzi used. Telephoto and zoom lenses insured that no major celebrity can avoid them for long. Celebrities and politicians, captains of industry can been seen emerging from their limo’s and cars, entering high society glittering parties or just trying to go on a private secluded vacation.

Glamorous and rich personal famous figures of the modern day are followed by the photographers who wield long range zoom lenses and a brazen shamelessness of greed. The paparazzi trespass on private property and the take shots and pictures of movie celebrities during intimate moments in private places and even go so far as to stalking a public figures. Some of these photographic images can be worth in the millions of dollars. A single photograph of Prince Charles, when he was married to Princess Di, as he was seen together with his mistress Camilla Parker-Bowles is estimated to be worth millions of English pounds sterling.

The royal prince of England and his mistress usually arrive and depart at different times in order to avoid the paparazzi when they attend a function together. Almost all of the well known famous faces have had run-ins with the paparazzi photographers. Many famous people have horror stories to tell to all that will listen.

The Hollywood Screen Actors Guild has been concerned with the photographer’s paparazzi army and how it affects many of its 100,000 members. "The death of Princess Diana was the final straw" quotes SAG president, Richard Masur. He, along with California Senators Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and three respected constitutional scholars had a meeting to discuss what could be done about the paparazzi. In less than four hours, they came up with the rough wording of S. 2103 (Quill, 27). Many feel these laws violate the freedom of the press and freedom of speech provisions of the US constitution.

Before his death Rep. Sonny Bono introduced the first bill, H. Rep. 2448, going so far as to specify prison terms for harassment that results in injury (5 years) or death (20 years). The California bill states that harassment would be considered "persistently physically following or chasing a victim, in circumstances where the victim has a reasonable expectation of privacy."

After Bono’s death, Rep. Elton Gallegly, a California Republican, offered H. R. 3224, a more carefully defined version of Bono’s proposal. Rep. Bono’s widow succeeded her husband to keep the Bono name on H. R. 2448. There are many bills being made to stop the most aggressive of the paparazzi but many take away from the first Amendment, freedom of speech. Sen. Feinstein’s bill, S.2103, differs from the House bills because it also provides for civil actions against members of the press and freelance photographers for use of high-powered lenses, microphones, or helicopters used to trespass on private property for commercial purposes and gain.

This legal provision attempts to supplement any and all existing laws of trespass, creating a new legal cause of action for new forms of trespass made possible by modern technological advances in photography and electronic eavesdropping. Victims can sue to recover compensatory, and punitive damages and they may also petition a court and seek injunctions and declamatory relief.

All three of the so called paparazzi bills, H. R. 2448 and 3224 in the House, and S. 2103 in the Senate by statute, in their own way, create new criminal and civil penalties for commercially motivated invasions of privacy that result from persistent chases or other invasive methods used by photographers, videographers and audio sound recorders.

Actor Brad Pitt and actress of his past girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow were caught vacationing on a private island in the nude and their pictures were sold to the highest bidder to a tabloid. The only way someone could snap those nude photographs would have been to trespass on private property.

Michael J. Fox told his unhappy story to the Senate about when he was leaving a movie premier with his wife and a police escort when they both were mobbed by the paparazzi. The resulting photographs of Fox and his wife looking in distress with a police officer assisting them. The trashy tabloids published fictional articles stating that they were being sent death threats and were afraid for their lives. Because of that article, an allegedly disturbed female started sending Mr. Fox real death threats over six thousand total. She was finally and eventually arrested and served some jail time.

Michael J. Fox says "I firmly believe that she would not have acted had the tabloid not provided an irresponsible, fictional precedent. There were stalking laws that protected us from her, but no deterrent or law to protect us from aggressive paparazzi". He states that "it’s the hunting, not the cooking" that celebrities want protection against.

Many other movie and TV stars, politicians, wealthy and victims of infamous crimes have similar stories. The laws that are being considered, four in total as of June 1998, have a positive and negative side to them. All laws are being made to protect against "commercially motivated invasions of privacy". However, some lawyers fear that these laws could do more harm than good.

Washington DC media lawyer Lee Levine said that if the paparazzi legislation passed he could and I quote "envision almost anyone who did not like a story that included a picture of him suing under this new law".

Because of the legal concern that Levine and many other lawyers fear the new laws being presented to the legislation state that it is not illegal to publish whatever photograph is taken in public. According to the people who would like to see the bill passed, the bill would protect those who are harassed verbally and physically by photographers of the paparazzi who are just trying to get a photograph image or picture of a person at their worst for higher sums of money and it would protect the privacy of people, who 50 years ago, couldn’t even imagine the possibilities of future technology. "In the two hundred nine years since the First Amendment was authored, this balance has become progressively hardly to achieve. Before the advent of inexpensive, lightweight, telephoto lenses and long-range listening devices, one could feel relatively secure that, when you were in your own home, no one could closely observe you unless they entered your property".

Because of the modern technological advances in photography, congress should pass some sort of bill that would take this into account. The bill would protect those who are harassed by being persistently followed for the purpose of making a visual or audio recording. In a case where the harassment would cause a person to fear injury, a cause of action would be created. If the harassment results in serious bodily injury, or death, it would constitute a crime.

There is a current legal argument here is that we already have laws protecting against anyone who becomes hurt by the violent actions of another person. People opposed to the new laws that are trying to become passed say that all incidents where a certain member of the paparazzi got out of hand were taken care of through the legal system.

Mr. Paul McMasters, a First Amendment Ombudsman at The Freedom Forum told the House Judiciary Committee that "State and local jurisdictions already have laws dealing with invasion of privacy, intrusion upon seclusion, trespass, harassment, and other problems taken up in the federal legislation”.

Mr. McMasters brought up the 1973 trial where a judge ordered free-lance photographer Mr. Ron Gatella to stay at least 25 feet from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and 30 feet from her children after a long period of harassing coverage as an example of how the legal system intervened when a paparazzi photographer went to the extreme.

Another legal case he mentioned was the 1996 trial where a judge imposed similar legal restrictions on an Inside Edition camera crew that had staked out a family in pursuit of a story. Two British photographers were convicted in a California court and sentenced to jail terms for their attempts to photograph actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver.

Actor’s George Clooney and others led a boycott of tabloid TV shows for what he considered intrusive and unfair coverage. He was joined by his colleagues on the cast of ER, as well as other big TV and movie stars, including Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnell, and Steven Spielberg. As a result of the boycott, the shows changed their rules about what would be accepted and aired.

When a vague and ambitious law interferes with the public’s right to see, hear and be touched by the news, they are robbed of their ability to make their own judgments about what they consider "news". Americans are so bored of their lives that they want to gossip about other famous people and their troubles. Some say that trying to create more and more of the same laws that serve relatively the same purpose would be irrelevant.

The California Newspaper Publishers Association has support of the top 3 TV networks in fighting the Anti-paparazzi bill, SB262, including CNN who hired a lobbying firm to fight the bill. CNPA said new opponents include the California Manufacturers Association, law enforcement agencies, private detectives and unions. The manufacturers are worried that the bill would make it illegal to photograph their employees while playing football or other sports while receiving workers compensation. The police are worried they would be sued for spying on criminals and private eyes are worried because they photograph and film people undercover all the time.

Unfortunately for those opponents, the Anti-Paparazzi bill, SB 262, was passed in California 48-13. This bill would define invasion of privacy as trespassing with the intent to capture audio or video images of a celebrity or crime victim engaging in a personal or family activity. It will allow the celebrity or crime victim to recover damages from the paparazzi and people who employ them.

According to Andrea Brown, who was a spokesperson for the former governor Pete Wilson, "The governor thought it was important because of safety issues for normal everyday people. These people deserve to conduct their personal lives in private. Technology requires changes in any law. It creates new ways for people to commit crimes."

After all the research done on the pro’s and con’s of new laws that would affect the paparazzi it’s easy to see how these laws could affect people on both sides of the issue. Paparazzi photographers have to make a living and the famous deserve their privacy. Celebrities know that with fame comes the loss of privacy but they do not deserve to loss all privacy and not all paparazzi photographers are ruthless, shameless, aggressive people.

Different Styles Of Wedding Photography defined

2010-07-26T16:07:00.001-04:00

Different Styles Of Wedding Photography defined

I wish to give you a very brief overview of the different styles of wedding photography. These styles include a very brief definition of each style. You can understand what is popular and modern in style. I will attempt to answer a few questions to help you choose the photography style and photographer that is right for you.

There are some technical oriented details and photographers jargon, please understand that they are only briefly covered. You will probably have a multitude of questions and you will want to discuss all of them with your potential photographer of anything that is not covered in this article.

Various Styles of Wedding Photography and definitions.

Your wedding day is over in only one day and does not last forever. Many details of your special day and your once valued memories will soon be forgotten. The main item that is left for you to remember your special day is your photographs.

The person that you pick as your wedding photographer must be someone that you are comfortable with and also should be someone that you will enjoy working with. During your special wedding day the bride and groom and your family will be working with the photographer for hours.

One should never settle on the cheapest and most economical photographer, you should however settle on your choice of photographers based upon their style, quality and personality.

There are basically four different and creative approaches that photographers will use: Traditional, Photojournalistic, Illustrative and Creative. Here are the defintions and examples of the styles.

Traditional style of photography is sometimes called posed or formal photography and is used in formal portraits or is used sometimes for informal portraits of the bridal party, family, and friends. These pictures and portraits can be used in close-up and full-length photos. Sometime this is mixed with candid photographs of the major key events at your wedding. Most brides will choose this style or version of photography for their special wedding day. Traditional portraiture is very formal and any decent photographer is well versed in this area. This is one of my favorite styles of photography, and as a photographer, I know what makes a woman look great. Formal portrait photography is great for family pictures and family portraits. Angles and certain poses can flatter a woman’s features, if you have an eye for detail.

Photojournalistic or candid style of photography basically means no posed formal pictures. All of your pictures will be taken in a candid fashion and without any instructions from your photographer with this photography style. A photojournalist photographer can capture your emotions and your guests without even being noticed, save the flash. The photographer should hide in the crowd and capture the emotions of the special day. This is my preferred style of photography for the reception dinner. I am actually a published photographer for a local newspaper and this is the style of photography used in sporting events. You take the pictures as the action happens, there is nothing posed and you do not get a second chance to catch the shot. Children’s pictures are often this style of photography. Pet pictures also fall into this category. Children’s and pet photography have to capture the action as it occurs. Children can be posed, but especially little boys, have too much energy to sit still and you have to follow them to get their pictures.

Illustrative style of photography looks just like the photographs that you see in magazines and among models. These photographic sessions are set up like a commercial modeling photography shoot as the photographer takes care of every little detail of the photographic images. Maternity photography uses this photographic technique at times and digital editing programs are useful.

Creative or Artistic photography will take your photographs from unusual and unique angles, with creative lighting. This style of photographer creates his or her artistic impressions of your wedding day and often uses digital photo editing software, like Photoshop, to create their images just like a painter uses a canvas.

When meeting with potential photographers you should look at a recent portfolio with a variety or rather a mixture of weddings. Ask to see an album of a complete wedding. You should make sure to the photographs are from recent current weddings and that they were the actual photographer. Many companies have multiple staff photographers that will take pictures for them and some have sales representatives that will actually meet with you and not the actual photographer.

You should be aware that the photographer that you view the pictures from might not be the artist that actually takes your pictures with a large photographic firm. Beware of a “staff” clause in the contract. I only use one other person to take pictures and then only when I am unavailable for some reason and it is unavoidable.

While looking at the potential photographers pictures you should ask yourself these questions:
Are the posed photographs well lit and do they have a pleasant demeanor about them?

Do the candid photographs capture the emotion, and are they sharp and in focus and free of blur? Would you be happy with the pictures if this were your wedding?

If any of the photos are not pleasing to you, ask the photographer why the picture is this way or that. It may come to the point their view is not the same as yours. It is best to choose a photography that will incorporate with your views, or him or hers view you are pleased with.

While looking at the photographs ask yourself these technical questions:
Is the lighting situation good? Are the pictures not too bright or too dark?
Is the lighting flattering to the subjects being photographed?

Does it pertain to the mood that it conveys?
Is the posing of the photographer flattering?

Does the picture flatter the figure of the person?

Professional photographers must use flash in low lighting conditions, such as in churches, or indoors to counteract unflattering shadows and sometimes even in an outdoor wedding.

Again, if any of the photographs do not please you, then ask the photographer why the picture is the way that it is. If you are viewing a photographer’s portfolio then just about very single photo should be pleasing to the eye, free of distractions, and they should convey the emotion of the special day.

Interviewing a photographer is almost always something that you should do in person. Take the time to preview their website or online photo gallery. You can speak to them over the phone and get a feel for them.

Ask for a DVD or CD of their recent work for a portfolio. An online portfolio is great for weeding out the good photographers from the great ones. You can narrow your choices down to 3 photographers and make your final decision on your choice of a photographer. Budget your photography needs and expect to invest 10% or more of your wedding budget on a professional photographer.

The cheapest is not always the best choice in this case as after the wedding day is over what will you have to show? You pictures may be all that you have to show for your special day and a pro is always worth a little bit more….

Beach Wedding Photographer

2010-07-26T16:02:00.001-04:00

Angles and lighting are all very important for those special photographic moments.
I have a great deal of fun taking pictures of the children in attendance at the wedding party, after I have many pictures of the bridal party.

I take many pictures of the wedding favors and the decor of the venue to serve as a reminder of the wedding day. Wedding decoration pictures will help the memory and set the mood for the album of wedding pictures.

The most important factor in taking pictures is the photographer and next is the subject and last is the camera. Do not get sucked up into the megapixel race, as the number of megapixels does not always equal a good picture. A high quality lens is far more important than just a lot of megapixels.

When taking pictures then you must consider the circumstances.
If your make up is smeared, or the grandparents have a lot of wrinkles, then what good is a sharp picture? I have a special filter for the camera to soften wrinkles and other imperfections. I can also work on the digital pictures with the computer in a program called Photoshop and it is very good at editing and fixing imperfections in images.

I will digitally edit the family event and wedding pictures to remove any red eye or other potential problems to give you a natural look that is flattering to you.
Pictures that I want for you to cherish and show off with pride for many years to come. I always enhance all of your special pictures to remove any red eye or any other problems to give you a more natural look that is flattering to you as well as to your guests.

You may ask for a sample DVD of wedding pictures as a digital portfolio of some of more recent pictures that South Florida Photography has done for your review.
South Florida is a perfect place for a winter beach wedding ceremony or marriage service. West Palm Beach is full of great places for your special wedding day, either on the beach or at a more elegant wedding venue.

The beach is an unusual place for a wedding as you usually have the outdoor elements to contend with. The roar of the ocean and the occasional call of the seagulls make for an unusual ceremony. The steady breeze of the wind and the soft glaze of the winter sun in your face can make for a romantic setting for your special wedding day.

I suggest that you can have a wedding for a few dozen close friends and family and not spend a fortune and still have a nice wedding.

Enjoy your wedding by the sea...

Why Photographers charge so much?

2010-07-26T16:00:00.000-04:00

Why do photographers charge so much?
Why do wedding photographers charge so much?

So Why is it that professional photographers charge so much?

1. Well for one thing a photographer pays about twenty five (25) % of the total revenue charged to the bridal party in federal and state taxes. So one quarter of the total price goes to taxes.

2. The next thing is the camera and lenses and photography equipment costs are very high. One lens is over five hundred ($500) dollars and one camera is over one ($1,000) thousand dollars. I have at least $10,000 invested in photography equipment alone, and this is a guess and it could be higher. I carry backup redundant equipment in case of camera failure. I cannot afford to lose wedding pictures due to a camera that quits working. I also need new camera and lighting equipment and must purchase it for my clients.

3. The photo-editing program called Photoshop costs about $800 dollars and the computer used to run the program is no run of the mill average system. My computer was around $1,500 and I must have two of them as a back up for the customers pictures in case one system crashes.

4. After the hours spent on the wedding pictures the photographer will spend time editing the pictures. If I spend two (2) hours taking one (1) hundred pictures at a wedding – Then I get to edit the pictures. If I spend ten (10) minutes on each picture then I will have one (1,000) thousand minutes invested in digitally enhancing or editing the pictures. If you take 1,000 minutes and divide this by 60 minutes for an hour – then I shall spend an additional 16.6 hours editing the digital images for the clients for your 2 hour wedding shoot.

Wow - Maybe I need to charge more money...?

Flash Photography

2010-07-26T15:57:00.000-04:00

FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY WITH MOSTLY BLACK, WHITE
AND / OR HIGHLY REFLECTIVE SUBJECTS:

Even if you use a TTL (through-the-lens) automatic flash exposure system, the correct exposure will not be automatic if your subject is mostly black or white. The same will be true if your subject has a highly-reflective, mirror-like surface. You can and should plan to compensate for these conditions by using your camera’s exposure compensation. You may also manually open your camera's aperture wider if your subject is mostly dark and you can close or stop down the aperture if the subject is mostly white or is highly-reflective.

ARE YOU CONSIDERING ON BUYING A NEW FLASH UNIT?

When buying a new camera and a new flash you will not go wrong by matching a major brand name with brand names. This ensures that both flash and camera are compatible and are made for each other. A flash unit is considered a “dedicated flash” when it is designed for a specific camera make and model. A brand name of a dedicated flash is made by the manufacturer of the camera, whereas an off-brand or knock-off flash is manufactured by someone else to specifications for a camera’s features. The main concern in buying a knock-off or an off-brand flash is that it may not perform with all of the same feature functions as a brand name flash unit or it may not perform under certain conditions at all. You will also have to contend with the possibility that knock-off brand flash may damage your very expensive camera equipment. The positive side is that you may find a high quality off-brand flash from a respected manufacturer that will perform at a high standard of quality at significant price savings.

Just be sure to take some test photographs to make certain that your new flash unit will work properly and as expected in its various picture and imaging modes before you take important pictures, like weddings....

BATTERY TESTING: BE SURE YOU TEST YOUR FLASH BEFORE USING THEM:

Test and fire your flash before you prepare to actually begin taking pictures using the flash. Count the number of seconds it takes for it to recycle in the ready mode to fire again, the ready-light to come on, if it takes more than 15 seconds, you probably need new batteries. If you are using the new high quality lithium or rechargeable nickle-cadmium or rather NiCd batteries and the ready to use light does not come on after 10 seconds, then the batteries should be replaced with new or fully charged batteries. Fill flash is what you use when you have a light source and you wish to use the flash to fill in the shadows from the main source of lighting. An example of fill flash lighting is someone wearing a hat outside on a sunny day, the face will have a shadow or under someone's nose in the noon day sun.

USAGE OF A TRIPOD FOR THE SLOWER SHUTTER SPEEDS OF YOUR CAMERA:

If you will be using a fill flash in daylight and your shutter speed is less than 1/60 sec, you should be sure to use a tripod support to avoid the blur from camera shake. Most people will shake and extreme settings of the camera will show this.

UNWANTED FLASH REFLECTIONS AND OTHER HOT SPOTS:

One should be aware of reflective shiny surfaces when taking pictures. Glass, bright polished metals, glossy waxed wood and other shiny surfaces in a picture scene will bounce the light from your flash right back at you. This condition will create what is known as a “hot spot” in your picture and this is usually noticed when the surface is photographed straight on. A polarized filter is useful for taking pictures when glass is involved, like an aquarium or window. Take the picture at an angle and you should be alright and do not forget the filter.

The flash hot spot is always a common mistake for a beginner due to the fact that they do not see the reflected light when they are taking the picture. A studio modeling lights or an always on video camera light will show you the reflection prior to the shot and the photographer can reposition themselves, unlike an electronic flash that is dark until it fires. Reposition yourself 30 or 45 degrees when you see that your camera and the flash are facing a reflective surface so that the flash lighting strikes it at an angle that won’t reflect it back into your lens.

STORING YOUR FLASH UNIT:

Remove the batteries to prevent battery leakage problems and always use alkaline batteries or the new Nicad or lithium batteries. Insert fresh batteries into it once a month and then fire the flash several times to recharge the capacitor and keep it in good storage and condition.A capacitor is an electronic device to discharge elctricity and is used in televisions and other devices.

Store the flash unit in a cool, dry place. This is to be sure there is no chance of mold or mildew forming in it. Never keep it in the car in summer time. Don’t stow it near volatile chemicals that release vapors that can harm it, such as camphor or naphthalene, and keep it away from the electro-magnetic waves from televisions and radios.

FLASH SAFETY:

1) Never Expose an electronic flash unit to any water, including but not limited to, rain or salt spray at the beach, this could cause an electric shock or set the unit on fire. Most flash units are not waterproof, and will corrode if water gets in.

2) Touching the front of the flash unit lighting head during its usage can burn.

3) Never Fire a flash into someones eyes of at close range as this may damage the retina of their eyes, leading to partial or complete blindness. Never do this to a baby or infant, I have and use a flash diffuser for this.

4) Never disassemble or try to take your flash unit apart and don’t attempt to repair it. high-voltage circuitry can cause electric shock and death.

LCD PANELS:

If your flash has an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) view panel, be sure to view it straight on, it will be difficult to read when viewing it from the side.
LCDs can become dark or black at temperatures of 140°F (60°C) and higher, and at cold temperatures below 41°F (5°C) slow down LCD’s. The LCD display will return to normal at room temperature - 68°F (20°C).

Photography as an invention

2010-07-26T15:54:00.002-04:00

Photography is an invention of technology and it has become the most universal means of pictorial communication and of artistic expression that the world has ever known. It has the ability to overcome differences in language, cultures and geography. Photograph's are specific and realistic, where music and the related arts can only be in the abstract or generalization. Photography has been used as a scientific tool, and has the precision in making visual records which is beyond the capability of mankind without the technology of the camera. The history of photography is a matter of the growth of technology and innovation and the imagination of mankind.

The world first learned about the first fixed photographs in the year 1839. This is the that year the Daguerreotype and the Collotype were used to make pictures as they were introduced to the public. Both the Daguerreotype and the Collotype were able to make pictures quickly, easily and with little skill or training. The man credited with the invention of the Daguerreotype was a Frenchman by the name of Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre. Prior to this there were no fixed pictures or rather photographs. The pinhole camera, or camera obscura was used to trace an image by an artist and this was a very early form leading to the invention of the fixed photograph.

The Daguerreotypes were basically mirror-like images of silver coated copper plates that were polished and then put on top of a box with some iodine. The fumes from the iodine formed by a chemical reaction with the silver on the plate to form silver-iodine, which is a light-sensitive chemical. The Daguerreotype plate was exposed in a camera to light and then the plate was put over mercury and heated. This mercury fixed the image of the light sensitive silver-iodine and the Daguerreotype image appeared as it formed on the surface of the plate. Many of the people who saw the Daguerreotype process thought it was a form of magic. There are still examples of the Daguerreotype in museums today for people to enjoy.

William Henry Fox Talbot, who was an English scientist and great scholar, is credited with the invention of the Collotype. This imaging process was very similar to Daguerre's but in 1840 William Talbot improved upon it by using paper in the early primitive camera until it darkened until he brought out the latent image to be processed by development and fixation. This process reduced the exposure time needed to become a matter of a few seconds as compared to minutes or hours. The first fixed photographs could take hours for an image to form and only fixed objects, like buildings, were used as subjects. The hours long exposure time was impractical for portraits, as the people, who were the subjects could not sit still for hours and the photography would be blurred. William Talbot named his new photography process the talbotype.

The American civil war in the mid 1860's saw a great number of pictures of the carnage and horrors of war and the many faces of death. This was due to the advent of photography and the ability to fix the images to be recorded. The early flashes used a magnesium mixture to create light for the camera to be able to record the images. Photography could capture an image and could convey an emotion that was worth a thousand words...

In 1888, the first modern automatic camera was introduced by George Eastman with his Kodak camera. It originally had enough film to produce one hundred pictures. The original Kodak originally had a fixed shutter speed that was factory set to 1/25 of a second. This early camera had a fixed focus lens that could produce a fairly clear picture of a subject at up to eight feet away.The Kodak camera has became an American tradition among amateur photographers.

"you press the button, we do the rest," George Eastman said as he put the first easy to use camera into the hands of a picture hungry world. George Eastman made a complicated photographic process very easy to use and almost accessible to anyone with the money. The early Kodak's were used by newspaper photojournalists and professional photographers alike.

Many do not know this but Kodak invented what is known as the first digital camera. Texas Instruments is credited with inventing the digital image sensor that was used in modern digital camera's today. For $24 anyone could purchase the early Kodak camera which came with a leather strap as well as a carrying case to protect the camera from the elements. $24 dollars was a fortune during this time period and was a considerable investment. The cost of the Kodak camera paid for the first roll of film and its development. When you were finished taking pictures with your Kodak you sent the camera to Kodak where the film was developed and you could send ten dollars and you got a new roll of film and this included development and processing of the new roll of film. The early camera's used a film that would flex as it was not made of copper plates, like the early photographs.

Most early photography was based upon silver as the light-sensitive compound.
The first celluloid type film was first introduced in 1895. This film was composed of nitrocellulose and it was extremely flammable. Movies were a collection of film stills that were shown quickly and this early film decomposed and many original early films were lost to history in this manner. Celluloid film was phased out in the 1930's with the advent of what is known as safety film that did not catch fire easily. Color photography was revolutionized in 1935 with the advent and introduction of Kodachrome film by the Kodak corporation.

Polaroid made its land camera and it had instant prints that were introduced in 1948. Mr. Land was the inventor of the camera and Polaroid brought his camera to market. Today almost all photographic film consists of a silver bromide compound on an acetate film. Virtually all photographic paper is based on silver bromide for various paper. In the 1920's photographers became able to use a handy compact camera that could take pictures in dim light. The first of these dim light capable cameras was the Ermanox that had the slogan of "What you can see, you can photograph."

Filters can change the color and the texture of the subject being photographed and are used for various special effects. Modern digital photography and digital editing software, like photoshop, has rendered filters to the back seat of film stills photography. Soft focus has the purpose to produce a slight blurring of the focus, and creates an optical distortion. This photographic technique is very useful in glamour portraits and weddings. When you have a subject with less than perfect features, then soft focus filters are very useful. You do not want a sharp picture of a middle aged bride or grandmother with all of her wrinkles. So you would use a soft focus diffuser filter to soften out the facial blemishes in the subject. This is in stark contrast to the sharp pictures that you can take with children portraits and family portraits and I use this technique in South Florida and Ft. Lauderdale and the Palm Beach area for family pictures and portraits.

Photography is not only used for an art form, it can also be more than just a job, but a true profession. In the field of photography there are many chances to carve out a lucrative and satisfying career. Some people make a decent living by taking pictures and they are known as true professional photographers. Just because you buy a good camera, does not make one a photographer. The pictures the professional takes are used in TV, magazines and newspapers.There are many occupations in the photography field. For example: wedding and portrait photographers, architectural, fashion and modeling photographers and the many other countless jobs there are in creating and maintaining cameras, and film and developing of film. Many people pay a photographer for glamour photography and for sensational portraits of them to display at their house and to send to modeling agencies.

The artistic part of photography quickly developed into motion pictures. A motion picture was a film with many still film frames on it. The first films were about industry and paid for by big companies in industry. The films were usually about the company and industry that produced it.The names of some of the very first such movies were the Story of Coal. The Story of Wheat. The Tea Industry, and Pottery Making. The films were used as a source of entertainment. The public was amused and informed by the films.It would not be long for independent film makers to realize that companies would pay them to make films. By 1915 the nontheatrical film business was in full blown operation and a whole new industry was born and developed into modern day Hollywood. New technologies contributed to the steady progress of the film cinema. Modern new inventions, such as portable 35 mm projector, that had its own retractable base were to show up on the scene of history. During the 1915 World Fair, which was held in San Fransisco, many films were shown that were sponsored by industry and businesses. The movie industry amused and educated the public at large then and to this day.

Another important advancement in the movie making business was the development of 16 mm sound film. This effectively killed the silent movies and the stars that were in them. Many of the silent film stars had voices that were not pleasing to the audiences and their careers died suddenly. They were victims of modern sound technology. During World War II, the film business saw great improvements over the quality of these talking movies and films. Various new modern filming techniques were used such as long,medium and closeup shots, the use of various angles for subject and camera movement, and cuts to differing scenes helped to keep the attention of the viewer. When a film was well constructed and produced the viewer is unaware of the movie making techniques involved. If a film is not made well, if the camera movements are not steady and the cuts are not precise, or if the visual time and space continuity are illogical, the viewers concentration lapses and he becomes bored and easily distracted. The overall effect of the film is substantially reduced.Most of the makers who made war time training films came from the Hollywood entertainment industry or newsreel companies.

The field is constantly expanding, particularly in the area of scientific investigation, space experimentation, atomic energy, missiles and aeronautics (Encyclopedia of Photography 1807).

"In its first short century and a quarter, photography's scope has been enormously expanded. Pictures which only a few decades ago seemed beyond the camera's capability are now within

the reach of all. But as the scope expands the tradition stays the same. Yesterday's photographer would be amazed that picture can be taken in 1/1000,000 of a second, but put a camera in his hand and he would know exactly know how to use it. Behind our present techniques, and behind our ways of seeing the world, lie the experiments of thousands of photographers who took up the camera because they believed that with it they could best say what was in their minds, and, in a few instances, in their hearts" (quoted from The Encyclopedia of Photography 1754).

Sources:

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/corp/historyOfKodak/buildingTheFoundation.jhtml?pq-path=2217/2687/2690

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photography

www.duenow.com

The Camera: Mechanics and construction

2010-07-26T15:52:00.001-04:00

The Camera:
Mechanics and Construction
By: Robert H. Walker

The camera is defined as a electro-mechanical device and an apparatus for taking pictures or photographs, or electronic digital images. The camera is basically a lightproof housing through which light is reflected off an object or a subject and an image is focused and recorded on a digital sensor or on photographic film through a lens that focuses the light.

There are many different camera types that are being used today:

35 mm Film

Medium Format

Large Format

Digital Imaging

all cameras are more or less advanced variations of the very first camera

Nearly all cameras are made up of the same basic components:

Camera body (the lightproof box)

Camera lens and a shutter to control the amount of light reaching the light-sensitive medium (Digital or Film)

Camera viewfinder to look at the scenic view that you wish to shoot

Focusing mechanism be it fixed or variable

Still Cameras

Focus and Composition of the Scene:

All cameras use a glass or plastic lens for the focusing of the light to take an image, except for pinhole cameras, which focus the image on the film through a tiny hole. The focal length of a lens, i.e., the distance between the rear of the lens (when focused on infinity) and the film, determines the angle of view and the size of objects as they appear on the film or digital imaging sensor. The light projected image is focused on the digital image sensor or the film by adjusting the distance between the lens and the electronic media or light sensitive film.

In most 35-mm cameras, this is done by rotating the lens which adjusts the focal length. With twin-lens reflex and larger view cameras, the whole lens and the panel are moved closer to or further away from the film. To view a subject for composing a picture, almost every camera has some kind of a viewfinder. Modern 35-mm single-lens reflex SLR cameras place the viewfinder screen in a special housing on the top of the camera body.

On the inside of the SLR camera there is a movable mirror that reflects the image from the lens to the viewfinder screen for viewing and focusing. As you prepare to take the picture it then flips out of the way when the shutter is tripped, so that the image hits the film or the digital sensor instead of the imaging viewing mirror. The mirror for the viewfinder will automatically return to its place after the exposure has been made.

Range finding cameras causes the object to be viewed by two separate windows; one views the subject scene directly and the other window contains an adjustable optical mirror device. When this device is adjusted by rotating the lens, the image entering through the lens can be brought into display with the image from the direct view focusing the object on the film. This range finding technique has been used since WWII in submarines and military applications for close estimations of distances of targets. It is very accurate for optics and is slowly being replaced with laser rangefinder's in military applications where tolerances are very tight.

Controlling the Amount of Light Entering into the Camera Body

The maximum opening in the lens through which light enters the camera will indicate the speed of a lens. The speed of the lens is controlled by an iris (eye) diaphragm.

The iris of a camera acts the same like the iris, the dark part of your eye, and it is a set of metal blades that form a circular hole in the center area at the base of the lenses and whose diameter can be made larger or smaller. The shutter controls the amount of time that light is allowed to enter your camera.

There are two basic types of shutters:

Leaf-type

Focal-plane.

The leaf-type shutter uses a ring of overlapping metal blades, which are similar to those of the iris diaphragm. It is usually placed between the lens elements, but sometimes it is placed behind or in front of the lens. The focal-plane shutter is located just in front of the film or digital imaging sensor plane and has one or two cloth or metal curtains that travel vertically or horizontally across the film frame. By adjusting the shutter speed, the proper amount of light needed for a good exposure can be obtained.

Features of Modern Film and Digital Cameras

Most of today's 35-mm cameras incorporate a rapid film-transport mechanism, lens interchangeability, and a built-in light meter. All digital cameras have built in light metering capability. Many also have an automatic exposure device where the shutter speed is regulated automatically to produce the "correct" exposure. Accessories include filters, which correct for deficiencies in film sensitivity; flash bulbs and flash mechanisms for supplying light; and monopods and tripods, for steady support.

Simple box cameras are fixed-focus cameras with limited or no control over exposure. Twin-lens reflex cameras use one lens solely for viewing while the other focuses the image on the film. Other popular cameras are compact 35-mm rangefinding cameras, 126 cartridge cameras, and the sub miniature cameras, which uses 9.5-mm film. Digital cameras use Photoshop for filters quite often and have the most advanced features, in my opinion.

Development of the Camera

Some claim that the very first camera was invented during the times of the Greeks, others say an Arabic man invented this camera. It was basically a dark box large enough for the viewer to stand inside; with a small hole in one side. An inverted (upside down) image of a scene was shown on the inside of the darkroom. An artist then traced the image and this was considered the origin of the camera obscura. The first diagram of a camera appeared in a manuscript written by Leonardo da Vinci in 1519, even though he did not claim the invention as his own. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce first achieved the recording of a negative image on a light-sensitive material in 1826. He coated a piece of paper with asphalt and exposed it to light on the inside the camera for eight hours. This was not practical for portraits of people as they could not stand still for that long and the image would be blurred. So buildings were the first images recorded with these types of devices. Even though different kinds of devices for making pictures had been invented as early as the 1860s, E. J. Marey built the first motion picture camera in 1887. In 1889 the great scientist and inventor Thomas Edison invented the first successful camera. However, cinematography was not accessible to amateurs until 1923, when Eastman Kodak produced the first 16-mm safety film. Bell & Howell introduced cameras and projectors that used 16-mm reversal safety film.

Sources:
The Encyclopedia of Photography (1971);
The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography (1972);
The Duenow.com website;
Howstuffworks.com

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Pinhole Cameras

The definition of a pinhole camera is a camera without any kind of a lens. Lenses in a good camera are usually constructed of glass or in the inexpensive cameras lenses are usually made of clear plastic. The pinhole camera does not use anything for a lens. These were the very first original cameras made in the history of photography. The very first pinhole cameras were not even loaded with film and only projected an image in a dark room with the light from the outside coming in through the pinhole. This is the origin of film stills photography.

The image in a pinhole camera is inverted or upside down on the area that the image in projected. The wikipedia has an excellent article about this and an image to explain this and a picture is worth a thousand words. I have the Wiki link at the bottom of this article.

I built a pinhole camera for observing a solar eclipse when I was a child and you can safely watch the image of the moon as it crosses the path of the sun. These types of devices were originally called camera obscura and it is a Latin word meaning "dark chamber" and this is where we get the word darkroom. Before the advent of film, artists would trace the images projected through the pinhole as a more permanent record. Later on metal plates with various silver compounds would be used to record the image and were the ancestors of what would become film photography, these metal plates used to record images are generally credited to Louis Daguerre.

The basic tenets and principles of the camera obscura have been known for over one thousand years. Some claim that Ibn al-Haitham (Al-Hazen) had constructed a functional camera obscura in the 10th century. Its was used as a drawing aid and could very well have been used by familiar artists by as early as the 15th Century, Leonardo da Vinci described a type of the camera obscura in his Codex Atlanticus writings. Such cameras were later built and used by William Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre, a French inventor, for creating the very first photographs.

These types of cameras were used originally to photography fixed objects, like buildings, as they had a very long exposure time. Sometimes hours were required for the exposure and this was far too long to take an image of someone as they would move and the image would be blurred. This problem was solved by new chemical solutions for the recording of the images and by having the subject of the portrait put their head into a type of brace to prevent movement.

If you want to be a pinhole photographer then all you must do is build a home made do it yourself pinhole camera. The pinhole camera is very good with perspective as there is no lens distortion to content with. The hole should be perfectly round and the size of the hole is very important in the construction of the camera. The depth of field is in a pinhole camera is basically infinite. This does not necessarily mean that everything will be in proper focus. The distance from the aperture of the camera and to the film plane in relation to the infinite depth of field will determine if everything is in focus or out of focus.

The f-stop is very important to the function of the camera. The f-stop of the pinhole camera may be computed and calculated by dividing the diameter of the circular pinhole into the focal length of the pinhole camera. The diameter of the pinhole can be determined by knowing the diameter of the pin, needle or drill bit used to make the pinhole. The definition of the focal length is the distance from the pinhole to the film.

Basically you take a box or any container punch a pinhole and then attach film to the opposite end and then you have your camera. If you wish to be a pinhole photographer then you should see the following websites for more information.

See the Wiki article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_camera

Excellent advice on making the pinhole camera here: http://www.mrpinhole.com/

There is a world pinhole camera day: http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/index.php

Daguerreotypes: The worlds first pictures

2010-07-26T15:49:00.000-04:00

Daguerreotypes: The worlds first pictures

History of Early Photography

Tele: 561-964-5036

In Paris, France there was an announcement to world in the year 1839 by the French Academy of Science. There was a statement made to the world that the world's first fixed photographic process was invented in France. Prior to this there was just the pinhole camera and the image was traced by an artist or an image could be viewed, but not captured. An inventor and an artist by the name of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, who was a amateur french scientist had developed the Daguerreotype process through which a permanent image could be viewed a silver plated sheet of copper.

The process Daguerreotype could be duplicated by anyone and could then be used in a commercial setting. France proposed to not patent this invention and decided they wanted to give this as a gift to the world. The first Daguerreotype form of pictures was born in France in 1839. Technically the daguerreotype were not the very first actual photograph taken but they were the most famous due to the development of the commercial photorgaphy process. Louis Daguerre is usually given the credit for the development of the worlds first fixed photographs.

A fellow frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce had made the very first picture or image with a view from a window in the year 1826, but Joseph Niepce died in the year 1833 and his project was not complete. The first successful permanent picture or photograph was produced by Joseph Niépce. He began experimenting with chemical processes to fix or set optical images in the year 1793 and some of his early camera works produced images. But the problem was that they faded rapidly. Joseph Niepce is credited to have first produced a long lasting pictorial image in the year 1824. Joseph Niépce called his process "heliography", which literally means "sun writing." The exposure time required is an issue that is still debated even today, and it is said that it is somewhere between 8 and 20 hours. Due to the extremely long exposure time, the process was used to photograph buildings and inanimate objects, and it could not be used to photograph people as they would move and the image would be blurred. Joseph worked with Louis Daguerre in the year 1829 on improving the photographic processes, but Niépce died suddenly from a stroke in the year 1833.

Joseph Niepce's photographic process used pewter and resin to fix the photographjic images. Daguerre's photographic process used silver plate on copper sheets that were treated with iodine to create silver-iodine to make the silver plates sensitive to light. When Louis Daguerre exposed the light sensitive plates in a primitive darkroom, using the vapors from mercury that he warmed, He then rinsed the photographic image with distilled water which fixed the images. This created splendid life-like images and he humbly named the photographic process after himself and he called this process the daguerreotypes.

The first permanent photograph was made in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who built upon a discovery by the German Johann Heinrich Schultz (1724). A silver and chalk mixture darkens upon exposure to light. Niépce and Louis Daguerre experimented and was able to refine this process. Daguerre first exposed the silver-plated copper plates to iodine, obtaining silver-iodide. Then he was able to expose them to light for several minutes. Then he coated the plate with mercury vapor that was heated to 167 degree Fahrenheit or 75 degrees Celsius, to create a mixture or rather amalgate the mercury with the silver. They were finally able to fix the image in a salt water solution. These ideas led to the famous Daguerreotype.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/

The resultant plate produced a mirror like exact reproduction of the scene. The image was a mirror like picture perfect reproduction of the original scene. The image could only be viewed at an angle and needed protection from the air and finger prints so they were encased in a glass protected case.

Daguerreotypes were created and were developed using natural lighting in makeshift artist studios. The object or person had to be perfectly still for a period of up to 45 minutes. This did not work very well for active young boys. Children where kept from moving by being restrained with a harness with metal neck braces. The children did not find this to be the most comfortable thing for them to put up with. The daguerreotype image itself is likened to the chalk on a chalkboard.

One needs to protect the image under glass and it is sealed to keep it from being exposed to the elements. There are early daguerreotype photographs on display in museums today to be viewed for our pleasure. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre was able to create art on a miniature silver plated canvas that was made of copper that has been left behind for posterity.

Glossery and list of terms used when talking about Daguerreotypes;

Brass mat -- Used to frame the image and provides a protective space between the daguerreotype plate and the cover glass. Some of the brass mats are stamped with the photographer's name and address.

Case -- Daguerreotype cases are made from a variety of materials. The most common cases are made of wood covered with tooled leather or embossed paper. In 1854, thermal plastic union cases, noted for elaborate designs, came into use.

Calotypes -- Early commercial introduced by William Henry Fox Talbot in the year 1841 and it is a photographic process that uses paper that is coated with a silver-iodine compound. The root words comes from the Greek Καλο for 'good', and type meaning, 'drawing'. So the word literally means "good drawing". Calotypes was the first commercial process using the image to negative and negative to picture principle, greatly improving the contrast qualities of the resulting pictures or images. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calotype

Daguerreotype -- A plate of copper, plated with silver. After cleaning and polishing the silver plated plate, they were exposed to iodine vapors which created a light-sensitive surface that resembled a mirror. The plate, which was held in a lightproof holder, was then put into the camera and was then exposed to a subject or object in the light. The silver coated copper bodied plate had the image developed over hot mercury vapors until the object image appeared. To fix the image, the plate was immersed in a solution of sodium thiosulfate or salt and then toned with gold chloride. sodium thiosulfate is used in water treatment for testing compounds in water. This substance is found in municipal water treatment plants all over the United States. Source: http://duenow.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_thiosulfate

Hallmark -- Stamped marks on the daguerreotype plate that identify the manufacturer of the plate or the photographic supply house. Hallmarks usually consist of symbols, initials, and/or numbers. The number indicates the ratio of silver to copper. The most popular number was 40, indicating 1 part silver to 39 parts copper. Hallmark is was used as a term long before the printed greeting card company was around. If you want picture greeting cards then please contact me.

Preserver -- is a thin brass binding that is used to hold the daguerreotype, brass mat, and cover glass together. Preservers were widely used in the 1850s.

Timeline of the Daguerreian Era

1839: The invention of the daguerreotype by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre is formally announced in Paris, France. William Henry Fox Talbot announces a camera-less photographic process which he calls photogenic drawing. This creates an image of plant forms, lace and any other small object that is placed directly on a sheet of light-sensitive paper. In September 1839 the first American daguerreotypes are made in New York City.

1840 William Henry Harrison is elected as President of the United States of America.

1841 William Henry Fox Talbot patents the calotype, or a paper negative process.
This lays the foundation of the paper printing process by Kodak to print pictures that is still in use today. President William Henry Harrison dies and is succeeded by John Tyler as president of the USA. Circus great and showman P. T. Barnum opens the American Museum in New York City.

1851 Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, inventor of the daguerreotype, dies. Daguerreotypes are exhibited at the Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations held at London's Crystal Palace in England.

1854 James Ambrose Cutting patents the ambrotype process. In the late 1850s, the ambrotype would replace the daguerreotype. George Eastman, the father of Kodak and the Kodak camera, is born.

1856 William and Frederick Langenheim copyright the first paper photographs, stereographs of Eastern U. S. sites.

IR or Infrared Photography

2010-07-26T15:46:00.001-04:00

Fujifilm has announced a new camera that is sensitive to the infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) spectrum of light. The new Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro UVIR as it takes the original design of the FinePix S3 Pro DSLR and makes modifications that allow the new DSLR camera to capture light at the UV and IR wavelengths beyond that which is visible to the naked human eye. Fujifilm removed the previous filter from the design and replaced it with a new glass protection filter. The new UV/IR sensitive camera can allow one to view light at ultraviolet and infrared optical wavelength spectrums.

Some wedding photographers are starting to use infrared photography for the brides as something different and new.

I know a forensic police photographer that uses a film camera sensitive to the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum. The police use these cameras to "see" things at crime scenes that the human eye can not see in the normal spectrum of light. Blood that is not visible to the naked eye in visible light shows up very well under the ultraviolet spectrum. So for a crime scene the ultraviolet camera will spot blood more easily that a normal color spectrum camera. Law enforcement agencies have long used ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) photography for many years to uncover evidence not easily seen by the human eye, such as gun powder residue and blood stains.

This is also useful for recovering altered, burned or obliterated writing. IR photography is also used in nighttime police and military surveillance. This IR/UV system is also useful for uncovering forged documents. An ability to reveal the formerly unseen is why technical professionals in many fields ranging from law enforcement, military surveillance, medical research, art history, and biology have long used UV and IR photography to observe and discover crucial facts that would normally be hidden for the normal human eye. The new Fuji camera will make this so much more simple to use instead of having to develop film.
For more information and some pictures that the camera can take you can see them here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/EVENTS/PKNA06/1155139201.html

Digital cameras are being used for forensic police procedures such as collecting fingerprint evidence has gained acceptance. Digital cameras operate much like the traditional cameras except that instead of images being transferred to film, they are stored on a PC hard drive. Lasers and forensic UV/IR light sources allows the camera to capture a fluorescent fingerprint image. Finger prints can then be sent to the FBI or a statewide criminal fingerprint database - in an hour or so instead of the eight hours required using conventional means. "You get a better quality fingerprint image and get it into the system quickly to catch suspects faster, cutting crime and making citizens happy," Reis a police photographer in Southern California says.

Reis primarily uses his camera to take pictures of fingerprints collected by traditional lifting methods. With conventional black powder lifts, the camera provides clarity and detail allowing print enhancement capabilities and enlargement. Crime scene pictures have been taken directly of fingerprints. The police department uses a scanner to input fingerprint images lifted from objects with tape. "The lift tape picks up a lot of stray powder, surface texture and other background material," Reis says. "Photographing the print with the camera before making the lift often provides a cleaner print to work with."The camera brings images directly into the computer for immediate viewing, networking from one person to another and digital enhancement. Distracting backgrounds can be virtually eliminated in the computer, making fingerprints easier to view.The camera is connected to the computer and prepares fingerprint evidence using Adobe Photoshop software. Source: Duenow.com

Technology can be wonderful and a useful servant.

Tips on hiring a photographer

2010-07-26T15:40:00.004-04:00

I think traditional film photography is great and this is what I started out with and learned in the field over 20 years ago. I can now spend more time on the lighting and composition and setting with my subjects and pose them for a flattering family portrait. Digital is about as good as 35mm film photography at the present time. I think medium format film is superior to digital at this time, but the future marches on...

Digital photography offers many advantages for the wedding photographer and here are but a few of the main points:

The wedding photographer has the capability to see the image immediately instead of waiting for the film to be developed . This is my favorite reason for using digital my digital Nikon camera and this gives me assurance and confidence due to the fact that I can see if my lighting, composition, expression, exposure, etc. are all set properly. I do not have to wait to see the film come back from the photolab in a few days. I even show the bridal party the LCD preview image to see if they like the resulting image that I just took.

The digital Nikon camera has the unique ability to change the ISO setting, the equivalent of film speed, while busy working on your wedding photography pictures. The wedding photographer is able to go inside or outside in a variety of lighting conditions and situations and not have to worry about having to change film to the correct speed to match the light levels from place to place at a wedding. This is very important when going from the wedding ceremony to the reception dinner. The bridal paty does not want to hear that you need the time to change film before they can continue their wedding celebration.

My Nikon digital camera can and will take a virtually unlimited number of pictures at a wedding event. This is a double edged sword for the professional wedding photographer as you have many images to choose from, then you must edit the numerous wedding pictures. I can overshoot and take 5 pictures of the groom placing the ring on the brides finger and I am certain that at least one or two of the wedding pictures will turn out. I can then pick and choose the best images for printing and placing in a wedding album. I almost always give the rest of the wedding pictures on a CD for the bride and groom to view. No one needs 5 pictures of essentially the same scene.

Modern day SD cards hold many images - even with the large megapixel size of the modern digital cameras. My new card can hold 1,000 pictures before I need a SD or CF new card

With Adobe Photoshop (or Google Picasa) I have the capability to produce black and white B/W and sepia toned pictures from my digital Nikon camera. When a wedding photographer takes a digital image then every printed photograph has the ability to become a black and white and / or sepia image. The bridal party may desire an image in color, but maybe the families may want to have a wedding picture in classic black and white. I think that Google has a very excellent product in Picassa and it is more than most home consumers will ever need for digital editing.

Many photographers offer magazine style wedding albums and these are flush mounted wedding albums and they are very high quality generally. These are considered wedding albums that are coffee table family heirlooms of the wedding pictures of your special day. Images that are taken with film need to be scanned in order to produce this special type of wedding album. While this is technically feasible, it adds time and another step in the wedding photography process. Digitally capturing the wedding pictures will eliminate all of the scanning and time spent dust spotting the scan made from the negatives.

The wedding photographer, me, has the freedom to experiment and I can almost instantly view the results. I will shoot many pictures or images that I would not even attempt to try with film due to the fact that I know I will be able to delete the images if they do not look right or modify the settings because I'll be able to see my results immediately. I do not have to pay for film to be developed at a photolab and pay for poor pictures that can not be used. I have very high standards for the wedding pictures that I shoot.

Despite all the pro's and con's about film vs. digital - what it boils down to when selecting a wedding or portrait photographer is:

Are the images taken and personality of the wedding photographer really what you like...?

You will spend alot of time with the wedding photographer and you must get along with them.
Make sure that you will enjoy them and you wedding pictures, after all - It is your day...!

Questions to ask your self when picking a wedding photographer

Do you really like the feelings that the pictures convey?
Is the style of the images that the photographer shows something that you like?
Do you LIKE the personality of the photographer?
Do you trust them?
Do they show and convey confidence about the work they do and the tools that they use?
Do you like the portfolio that they show?

My main area of coverage is Palm Beach and Broward as a wedding photographer. I try to keep busy from Jupiter to West Palm Beach and Boca Raton. I also perform photographic coverage from Ft Lauderdale to Miami. As a West Palm Beach wedding photographer that works the entire county, I must have redundant cameras and photography equipment to provide coverage for the wedding if the main camera malfunctions. I like working as a photographer in Ft. Lauderdale and all of Broward.

I always bring a lighting assistant and 2nd wedding photographer when I work in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. I do travel to Miami and Dade county and perform photography at weddings. The lighting assistant will provide photographic coverage of the guests at the reception dinner after the wedding ceremony is finished. I, as the main wedding photographer, will provide photographic coverage of the bridal party of the bride and groom and their families. I make sure the formal traditional wedding and family portraits are well taken care of. I do travel to Miami-Dade for wedding photography and all of Palm Beach and Broward and the rest of South Florida.

Studio Family Portraits

2010-07-26T15:34:00.003-04:00

Lighting and Family Portraits - Portrait Photography
Family Portrait Photographer from West Palm Beach to Ft Lauderdale
Portrait photography in Palm Beach and Broward

Photography of Palm Beach
By: Robert H. Walker
Tele: 561-964-5036

If you would like to have studio quality portraits taken of your family at my home studio in Boynton Beach Palm Beach County or at your choice of location, then I ask that you give me a call.

Lighting is a very important aspect of picture and portrait taking and the Lighting can affect the appearance of your subject quite dramatically . By changing the direction of the lighting, you can transform the mood of the image from plain or glamorous to downright ghoulish.

Remember when you took a flashlight while camping and you put it under your chin and let the light shine up towards your face? The lighting technique gave your face a ghastly appearance. The light can make a huge difference in the mood of the photography imaging. Pictures and especially portraits are affected by the color and angles of the lighting. I have color balanced lighting for my home portrait studio in ft lauderdale and you would not believe what I had to pay for a couple of lamps. This just to take pictures for formal portraits at a studio for some family pictures.

Outdoor photography

Bright direct sunlight is considered harsh or hard lighting. Bright lighting will cast dark harsh shadows that can obscure and hide the face and cast shadows under the nose and it will help in pointing out unwanted wrinkles and other blemishes. Harsh lighting will cause squinting in the eyes and this leads to unflattering poses in the pictures. I always warn people to avoid noon time wedding pictures and family portraits outside in the overhead sunlight. If the sky is overcast and cloudy, then this problem is lessened and you still have adequate lighting for your portraits.
Light from an overcast sky or if inside, from a window, is softer in lighting and it helps to create soft shadows that will not obscure and hide the face of the subject and this assists in minimizing wrinkles and other unsightly blemishes on the portrait subject.

The softer lighting will reveal soft and subtle skin tones and beautiful hues of the skin as well as allowing your portrait subject to open their eyes while avoiding squinting and avoid creating a poor portrait pose. I have a soft flash diffuser that will help prevent this problem from occuring for portrait photography. West Palm Beach and Ft Lauderdale is very bright during the day in the summer and the portrait photographer must know their lighting.

Direction of lighting

The direction of light, be it natural sunlight or studio lighting, changes the way that people look. Which direction is best will depend upon many factors. Depending on the portrait effect that you're trying to achieve will decide what type of lighting and the angles chosen.

Frontal lighting is like harsh sunlight shining directly into a person's face and it will create squinting of the eyes and appear to flatten the subjects face.

Overhead lighing like at noon time when the sun is overhead will create and cast an unpleasant facial shadow. I always use my cameras strobe flash to lighten harsh facial shadows. To reduce the
shadow effect of bright light then you do what is called using fill flash.

Side lighting is like the early and late sun in the day and you can locate and position your portrait subject so the lighting or the sun will strike one side of their face. When one side of the subjects face is brightly lit and the other side of the subjects face is in shadow then you will create a very dramatic effect and many television studios have mastered this technique.

Back lighting is a technique that occurs when you position your portrait subject facing away from the lighting source. This serves in placing your portrait subject's face in a slight shadow and you have no problem with squinting and this will add an attractive glowing feature to the subjects hair. You can Use a strobe fill flash to lighten your subject's facial features.

Indoor lighting is the most difficult as taking good indoor pictures is the most challenging because the light is often dim and inadequate.

Natural light from the sun is so much better and brighter than most artificial light. It's usually the best idea to take indoor pictures of your subjects and people with indirect sun light from a northern exposure window or any window not exposed to direct sunlight. The window light is good due to the fact that it is soft and indirect window light is good for people portraits and images. If you find that the side of the face away from the window is too dark then you can move your subject and then reposition yourself and the portrait subject. This way more of the facial features of the subject receives window lighting.

Dim window light may cause the automatic exposure settings of the camera as it forces the camera to use a slower shutter speed. If this happens then you will need to hold the camera very steady and you may try to use a tripod.

Artificial indoor lighting is difficult to get good results as with the typical table and ceiling lights are not properly color balanced. They will not provide proper and attractive lighting for portraits for the people's pictures.

Try to avoid using the incandescent and flourascent lights and try using the strobe flash or indirect window light. If you must use the artificial lighting then you must hold the camera very steady or you may put to use a tripod. Exposure times can be very long with dim light and the average person will shake some and this will cause your image to be blurred.

Flash: A built-in camera flash is ok for indoor snapshots of people. But a built-in flash is not adequate for portrait lighting. For portraits use window lighting or you will find that strobe flashes and studio lighting is best for color balanced pictures and portrait images.

Following these lighting tips for using a flash to take better indoor pictures of people:
Position your subjects well within the flash range for your camera and the flash strobe. When your are photographing a group, make sure that all your subjects are about the same distance from the strobe flash. You can turn on some room lights to help avoid red eye. Red eye is created when the flash hits the back of the eye and reflects back into the camera lens.

The extra brightness in the room created by the extra lights will help reduce the size of your subjects' pupils thus allowing light in. This is why some cameras havea pre flash prior to the flash taking the main flash for the picture, to reduce the size of the subjects pupil.

Be on the watch out for shiny surfaces and what not like mirrors, windows, and sunglasses, as they can reflect the flash back into the lens. If you stand at a rigt angle to a shiny surface then you will help to prevent unwanted reflections of the flash in your photographs. You can ask your subjects that are wearing glasses to turn or tilt their heads slightly to a right angle.

Consider the following portrait photographers tips:

Use soft, diffused lighting just like you would see on a cloudy-day for outdoors lighting or indirect window light and use this to reveal your subject's facial features in a most flattering way.

Keep the background simpleand you will avoid distracting elements in the portrait photography. Try to make it reveal the emotions and feelings of the portrayal of your subject.

Move in close with your lens for an above-the-waist or head-and-shoulders pictorial composition. You can also move back to show the entire figure of your subject.

Try to position your camera angle at or slightly below your subject's eye level, this makes the subject the main image in the picture. Portrait photography in Palm Beach, Florida and I also travel and perform portrait photography in Ft Lauderdale, in South Florida.

Pay special and particular attention to the positioning of your subject's hands and the angle of their head and shoulders. In a portrait, you do not want the hands and head to look awkward or out of place. Portrait photographer in Palm Beach and South Florida.

Q and A

2010-07-26T15:28:00.002-04:00

Q. When do you need a contract and how much do you ask for to hold or book a date?

A. I ask for 50% of the total fee as a retainer to hold the date for photography services. I work on a first come - first served basis. If someone sends me a check and an agreement (contract) then I take the date off of my calender. So there is no real answer to the time question of when I need an agreement contract. Whoever books me gets my services for the date.

Q. How many pictures can I expect for an event? Like a wedding or portrait shoot?

A. I usually average 100+ pictures an hour. I take many pictures of the same poses - like with group pictures as someone always blinks, so I overshoot the weddings for this reason. I may take 5 pictures of your ring exchange and choose the best 1-2 to edit for this reason. I guarantee 50 edited pictures per hour booked. 2 hours is 100 edited (digitally enhanced images) pictures.

Q. Do I guarantee my work?

A. Normally - the answer is yes I do.

Q. I, as a photographer, have 3 questions for you to ask your pastor and / or church.
(if your having a wedding)

Is your priest/rabbi/pastor and / or church going to allow me to use a flash for indoor lighting during the ceremony?

Is your pastor / church going to make me stand in the back of the building, in the dark, during the ceremony?

Will I be allowed free movement during the wedding ceremony to get the angles I need for the proper pictures of your marriage ceremony?

If the above answers are no - then I can not guarantee anything.

I have never had this happen to me personally - but I know of photographers that this has happened to. No photographer can get great pictures under these conditions. If I am not allowed to take the pictures I need and have difficulty with the conditions, then I would prefer not to do the photography shoot or job.

Why waste time, yours and mine, taking poor pictures and you are unhappy with them. Under these conditions, I am sure a court would order a refund and this would not be due to my neglect - but would be the fault of the pastor or church. Yet I would bear the loss of time and reputation.
Please let me know the conditions that the pastor allows photography in their wedding ceremony or church.

I would always be willing to show you my print portfolio to preview...

I will be happy to allow you to review my work prior to delivery and choose between your pictures or a 50% refund.

Refunds:

I have question for you

If I deliver a CD with the digital negatives and then a photography client makes a dozen copies of the CD and makes 1,000 prints, what is my recourse if they want a refund? Am I supposed to issue a refund and give the pictures for free?

Photographers that offer refunds make you PAY PER PRINT and NEVER give you the DIGITAL NEGATIVES.

I am sure you have priced other photographers and the per print charges add a minimum of 500-700 to the hourly rate for just 100 4 X 6 prints and they never give you the negatives.

I will let you review the pictures as I take them on my on camera viewer.
I can also allow you to view the pictures on my computer, prior to my giving them to you, to see if you want a refund or the CD of your wedding pictures. I think that this is fair to us both.
If I am unable to deliver to deliver my work - then yes I do guarantee a refund.

Q. Is your lighting setup time included as part of my 3 total hours where it would take away from "my" photo opportunity time, or is the setup separate and not included as part of my contracted time? For example, if I requested a 6:00 pm start time, would you begin setting up at 6pm and not start shooting until you have finished setup at 6:30? Or would you come earlier to setup so we can begin at 6 p.m.?

A. I always come early to set up and YOU give me the time to start - So the answer is the set up time is not billed. You get 3 hours of pictures, not 2 1/2.

Q. What does the budget package include for prints?

A. The budget package is a CD only with the digital negatives on it and you are free to make unlimited prints at the photolab of your choice. There is minor editing done with this budget package.

Q. Do you have someone to help and assist you in taking pictures, I have alot of guests?

A. The lighting assistant is not always a professional photographer, but for the reception dinner of the guests only - the pictures that they take are decent and he can take many shots with my back-up camera. I also supply the same duplicate coverage of guests, but I concentrate primarily on the bridal party and immediate family primarily. The lighting assistant can take decent pictures of your guests. The photographers that charge per print - know that you will not be spending $5-7 a print for a picture of your guests at a table having dinner. So many photographers will not waste their time taking alot of guest pictures. We do cover your whole wedding and reception dinner and take pictures of all of your guests, friends and family, period...!

Q. What do you wear to weddings? I interviewed a photographer yesterday who wears shorts to summer weddings and I thought that was strange, so I have to ask I guess :)

A. I understand - I have photographed and seen formal tux weddings where the DJ or videographer wore jeans and a t-shirt. I wear black slacks and a suit jacket, I dress in an appropriate manner always. If you require my attendance in special attire - just give me the name of your tailor for a fitting, at your expense.

Q. Do you take continuing education classes on photography?

A. I had to actually go back to school and learn photoediting with the computer (it is actually fun with what can be done :) with the computer) also my darkroom experience is rapidly becoming obsolete...! I learned a program called photoshop and it is the photography and graphic arts studio standard for editing or digitally enhancing digital images.

Q. What packages do you offer?

A. I have a 2 hour budget wedding photography package with no prints for 2 hours of coverage for $500-600 for a CD with the digital negatives. This package includes the wedding officiant / clergy that assists me with the setup and lighting prior and after the ceremony. You get the digital negatives for prints and you get to make your own unlimited copies of prints. Extra hours for the budget package are $150 each and I bring a lighting assistant at no extra charge. This package is most popular for beach and budget weddings.

Online Photo Albums - Payment and Refund Policy

2010-07-18T19:56:00.007-04:00

Click here for a larger photogallery

Thanks,

Robert H. Walker

Policies for payment of photographic services:

Photography of Palm Beach photo studio has a new policy concerning checks for payment.

We want you to enjoy your wedding photos that we take in Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach and Boca Raton. We do a great deal of work to make the pictures and digital images look the best. But due to all of the fraud associated with the photography business and with photographers, we do ask the following from our customers.

We only accept checks drawn on a US bank in US funds or US Dollars.

If you want to get your pictures in a timely manner, then we suggest that you pay us in a money order or cashiers check. Local checks take up to three
(3) weeks to clear and your pictures and images will not be released until the local check clears.

Out of state checks will or may not clear for up to four or five weeks. Your out of state check must clear before we will release your pictures. International checks? forget it!

I suggest that you pay us in funds that are not subject to collection, such as a money order or cashiers check. I say that cash always works. We am happy and can always give you a receipt for cash payments.

Refunds are only given after 60 business days for overages not due to our mistakes.

60 days after the event is under cancellation or check was deposited
Wedding pictures and family portraits and events will be held until the checks clear for payment.

Digital images and pictures of your wedding or family event are important to you and we want you to get them in a timely manner.

Please do not waste our time by writing us and asking us to deposit funds from out of the country and then asking for a refund in the method of a money
transfer like Western Union. It will not happen…!!!
We do not participate in money transfer schemes with fraudulent checks.

Refunds Policy:

I will gladly give a refund if I Am unable to deliver your pictures for whatever reason
(i.e. camera or equipment failure, theft, fire or disaster)
Unable to show up at your wedding or event
(car breakdown, accident or sickness)

I generally hold all monies paid to Photography of Palm Beach and apply them as a credit for future services. I will be happy to hold all overpayments and apply the money for extra prints or photoediting and retouching of portraits.

Under NO CIRUMSTANCES will I issue a refund before an event is scheduled and all monies must clear the appropriate banking procedures first.

I will verify that your event is scheduled with the venue, like the hotel or county club, to insure that your photography request for me is legitimate and is not a check scam or fraud.

In other words, if you tell me you are getting married at the Breakers Hotel - I will call them and ask about your wedding. I know most of the Hotels and Country Clubs in the area, after all I work here all the time.

I will also be happy to refund any overages or overpayments 60 business days after an event is finished, providing that the funds have cleared from the appropriate source.

If you are thinking of sending me a fake check or money order and you want me to wire you a cash refund - well forget it and move on - DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME...!!!

Bride on the beach

2010-07-18T15:05:00.004-04:00

This is a pretty bride on the beach with one of the children of the family.

photography by Christina

Bridal bouquet

2010-07-18T14:59:00.003-04:00

I have a wedding package that includes flowers and champagne for the wedding for people from out of town. I ordered these flowers for the bridal bouquet and said wow and did the bride.

These above flowers above were ordered from The Blossom Shoppe in Boynton for my wedding clients.

Bethesda by the Sea Episcopal Church Palm Beach

2010-07-18T14:54:00.004-04:00

This is the garden at Bethesda Church in Palm Beach.

This is Bethesda by the Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach. All of these pictures are taken by Christina.

Since the development of the modern Aqualung by ocean pioneer Jacques Cousteau and Emil Gagnan in 1943, we have been able to stay underwater safely and comfortably for longer periods of time. This amazing technological breakthrough allows us to discover, explore, and photograph pictorial images of the wonders of the underwater world. It was one of the first challenges underwater pioneers, such as Cousteau, who was faced was capturing the beauty and mystique of this foreign underwater world on film in order to share it with those unable to see it for themselves. Television and cable audiences can frequently find a documentary or special about an aspect of the underwater world. Virtually everyone has seen a documentary with Jacques Cousteau and his underwater society and images.

What is it that makes the underwater world so intriguing and appealing to photographers?
First, it truly is another world - a world of motion and tranquillity. Like outer space, it offers underwater photographers a sense of adventure, the thrill of discovery, and the promise of excitement. The underwater world also appeals to aquatic photographers because its natural state that seems so foreign to ours in the world above the seas. In part, this reflects tremendous differences between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Land environments are dominated by plant life, while the underwater environments are dominated by animal species. When we describe land environments, we refer to grasslands, hardwood forests, and oak trees , and mangroves. When we describe underwater environments, we refer to coral reefs, oyster flats, and zebra mussel beds. In addition, the animals that photographers encounter underwater often have unusual, if not bizarre, shapes and colors that provide a never-ending supply of photographic subjects.

Land objects, which take on an entirely different nature and sometimes increase in value when submerged, can be excellent "foreign" underwater photography objects. Objects such as doorknobs, old nails, and bottles are usually termed junk, but they are considered treasures after resting at the bottom of a body of water for a decade or two. The broken hull of a lifeless ship sixty feet below the surface is another intriguing photo opportunity that lures many photographers into the water. This creates an artificial reef that is teeming with life as it creates a place for small fish to hide from larger predators.

The fundamentals of land photography - like measuring light, calculating exposure, focusing, framing, and composing - are essentially very similar to the same fundamentals that are and can be applied to underwater photography, the challenge of capturing images on film or digital in the underwater lies in dealing with the constraints of the underwater environment. First the photographer has to master the skill of scuba diving and learning to breathe underwater. There is always an element of skill and danger lurking while diving under the seas. Mastering this exhilarating sport is essential to mastering underwater photography. The aquatic realm imposes some unusual environmental constraints on both camera as well as the diver alike. The relatively poor clarity of water as a medium in which to photograph, and the loss of and change in the quality of available light underwater are the most serious constraints. In other words, it is difficult to get good quality images underwater and there is always the element of risk and danger involved.

Environmental constraints also require photographers to develop and sharpen their organizational and planning skills, which make or break any attempt at underwater photography. The steps it takes in order to simply get to the subject are often complex, involving events beyond anyone's control. For example, when an electronic flash fails underwater, a photographer cannot simply reach into their equipment case and pull out another one. Replacing the flash unit requires them to alert their diving companion, get back on the boat, take off most of the gear it originally took them a half an hour to put on, find a dry place to work on the equipment, and the get back in the water. Being unable to change film or a flash memory card underwater is the best example of a photographic environmental constraint that requires careful planning. On land, photographers usually take this simple procedure for granted, but it is a significant part of preparations for an underwater photographic shoot.

On the recreational level, the availability of underwater photography equipment at an affordable price allows sport divers to capture underwater encounters on film or digital. More and more divers are putting down spearguns and picking up cameras. On the professional level, the quality of underwater images continues to improve as increasingly advanced camera systems become available and as the market for such images broadens. The growing public awareness of the condition of the oceans - through the efforts of such conservation groups as Greenpeace, the Cousteau Society, and the World Wildlife Fund - continues to require high-impact, high-quality images that reveal the delicate nature and the precarious balance of the underwater world. At any level, underwater photography is just as exhilarating to look at, as it is to photograph it.
There is a group called the South Florida Underwater Photography Society
You can view there website here: www.sfups.org/
They love getting together for dive shoots.

Equipment needed for underwater photography

The two words that characterize all underwater photo equipment are "waterproof" and "rugged." The primary consideration in designing any piece of underwater photo gear is keeping the internal parts dry. This requirement shapes the design process for developing submersible camera systems. It calls for the use of strong, corrosion-resistant materials, as well as testing facilities that allow manufacturers to experiment with units under varying pressures underwater. Camera equipment for underwater photography must also be able to withstand extended periods of exposure to vibrations, the corrosion that saltwater can cause, violent knocks and bumps, and a variety of other abuses that would destroy even the most durable land camera immediately. As a result, most underwater camera equipment is heavy, bulky, oversized, and awkward to handle, at least on land. There are special needs for all underwater photography equipment and it must remain dry underwater.

Camera systems were developed along two major lines. The first consists of taking an existing land camera and designing a watertight vessel called a housing for it. Not only must this system accommodate getting the camera in and out of the housing in order for photographers to load the film and change lenses, but it also must have through-vessel fittings so that they can manipulate the camera controls from outside it. However, each fitting is a point on the housing where water can seep in, and each requires a seal. Early housings were not very reliable, like they are today. Today's modern housing models are made of both molded plastic and metal, and are extremely reliable if maintained properly.

In the second approach, the camera is the housing: the camera body represents the vessel with the outside controls that are directly linked to the inner workings of the camera. These controls include the shutter-release button, the lens-aperture control, and the film- advance lever. This approach is applied to viewfinder cameras only, with which it works quite well. The degree of complexity in the workings of single-lens-reflex cameras has, for the time being, prevented this approach from being used with these cameras.

Lens selection for underwater photography is rather limited, mainly because of the need to shoot at small camera-to-subject distances. Because there is no room for long distance photography underwater, telephoto lenses are not needed. Zoom lenses are also rarely used underwater because they require an additional housing. Most underwater photography is done with what is considered close-up or wide-angle lenses, both of which allows photographers to get close to their subject.

Because of the general lack of natural ambient lighting that is below the water's surface, most underwater photography requires supplementary light as either fill or, more often than not, key lighting. Additional light is usually needed to show the true colors of all of the subjects. These are usually lost because of water's differential absorption of visible light. There are three sources of artificial light for underwater use: movie lights, flashbulbs, and electronic flash units. Movie Lights - This source of artificial light allows photographers to dim the light and see in advance exactly what the picture will look like.

However, movie lights designed for underwater photography are not appropriate for still photography, primarily because they require large quantities of power in order to produce enough light to adequately cover most picture areas. Another problem: the color temperature of most movie lights does not match the color temperature ratings of most still-format films and digital cameras sensors. Flashbulbs - These artificial-light sources enable photographers to use cameras that synchronize flash firing with fast shutter speeds. Underwater photography subjects rarely have to be photographed with a flash at shutter speeds greater than 1/90 of a second because of the density of water: it significantly slows down almost any object moving through it.

Electronic Flash Units or speedlights - Essentially, all artificial light for underwater photography is supplied by electronic flash units. The advantages of using them include dependable firing and synchronization, adequate light output and area coverage, color temperatures that match existing film types, and adaptability to automatic light sensing/output or manual modes. There are a variety of makes and models to choose from in this line of artificial light.

For the most part, all underwater photography is done in the 35mm format or more recently in the digital format. Using medium-format camera systems underwater is complicated because of the difficulty in designing and constructing waterproof housings for them. Another reason for the dominance of the 35mm film format in underwater photography was the development of the Nikon's 35mm format system. Its widespread popularity in both the consumer and professional markets has had a big influence on the technological research, design, and construction of underwater camera equipment. While the size of the consumer market for underwater camera equipment is growing, it is still quite small in comparison to the market for cameras used on land. As a result, the research and development of underwater gear are slow.

Within the 35mm format, both light sensitivity and color characteristics determine film selection for underwater photography. Although print film gives photographers more leeway in regard to exposure during the developing process - which can be particularly helpful in underwater use where measuring ambient light is often difficult - slide film seems to be preferred for two reasons. First, it is less expensive than print film. Given the amount of film photographers go through underwater, price can become an important consideration from a budgetary point of view. Second, if the images will be used commercially, transparencies are generally preferred: they tend to reproduce better.

In addition, black and white film is used very little underwater; getting good shade contrast is difficult in most underwater situations. Because of this, black and white images usually appear dull and extremely monochromatic; they lean toward a fairly even gray tone, and everything in the picture blends in with everything else.

Digital photography has caught up with film in the quality department and has many advantages over film that is apparent in the land or underseas photography realm.

With the limited levels of ambient light underwater, "fast" color films are generally more useful for images in which ambient light is key. Some photographers use films with ratings of ISO 100 and higher despite the inherent problems of graininess and loss of resolution with the faster films. These include films with ISO ratings of 200 and 400, whose grain quality has been improved recently. With ambient light, images will lean heavily toward a monochromatic combination of blue and green - a result of water's color-absorption properties. With color-print film, warm colors can be enhanced to a certain degree during the printing process. This can also be done with slide film if an internegative is made and a print is produced from it. This reason of water than absorbs color from the white spectrum of light is why the seas appear blue and green.

Getting sharp, clear images underwater is hindered by several factors that vary with the type of camera system being used. With viewfinder cameras, the first concern is accurately estimating camera-to-subject distances. Refraction of light plays a role here: it confuses the issue on a conceptual level. As a result of refraction, the subject appears to be approximately 25 percent closer than it actually is. And, because there is another air/water interface between the camera lens and the surrounding water, the camera also "sees" the subject as being 25 percent closer than it is. So at whatever distance photographers estimate the subject is from the camera, that is the correct focus setting for the lens.

Focusing single-lens-reflex cameras underwater has its own set of difficulties. The main problems are being able to see through the viewfinder and getting a clear image on the focusing screen. Basically, photographers are looking through five glass interfaces: the face mask, the viewing window in the waterproof camera housing, the viewfinder of the camera in the housing, the lens, and finally the window on the other side of the housing through which the lens sees the subject. The generally low levels of light underwater further complicate these problems. South Florida is a wonderful place to practice underwater photography and scuba diving. Just be careful of the man-o-wars and sharks and barracudas.

All information gathered from various Internet sources including Duenow.com and Underwater Photography by Charles Seaborn published by Amphoto, New York, New York. 1988.

Beach Wedding planning

2010-07-18T14:42:00.007-04:00

This was another wedding planned by Amy of Fabulous Wedding Planning. Amy is a fabulous wedding planner. This was a small intimate beach wedding as is great for a couple from out of town that need help with planning.

All of these pictures taken by Robert H. Walker

Microsoft is banking on a new imaging format called JPEG XR

By Robert Walker
Photography of Palm Beach

We at Photography of Palm Beach use the large JPEG standard for all of our wedding customers. We use large JPEG and it has a 4 to 1 compression ratio. This large format has very little loss of information quality in the way of photographic formatting. Raw format is great for editing and formatting, but the customers need JPEG for their printing of their images at the photo labs.

Cannon and Nikon use different methods for their "raw" format in the way they process their pictures or digital images and they are not compatible. There is no industry standard at the present time. Tiff and JPEG is the closest thing to an industry standard at the moment.

We do hope that maybe one day we will see a new and better standard for digital image compression that has little or no loss of information in the compression of the digital file.

Bill Gates and the Microsoft group are looking to have the entire photographic industry switch as an alternative to the photography standard known as the JPEG image format. Microsoft is hoping that this could become an industry standard. If adopted by the photography and camera manufacturers then this could be a major step in Microsoft’s business ambitions to spread this photographic technology and this would boost the newest Vista operating system.

(I have personally had problems with Vista and it made me switch to Apple)

The Joint Photographic Experts Group has named the current industry standard, which is what the JPEG file format is named after. They want to see if they should make Microsoft's relatively new HD Photo format a new standard.

“Getting to this stage is a good sign in Microsoft's view, and the company has hopes the format will be accepted as a standard called JPEG XR” as quoted by Mr. Robert Rossi, who is the principal program manager at Microsoft for emerging image and video technology.

"The fact that this happened is a very strong endorsement. It's very rare for this to be reversed in the formalities that happen between now and October," Rossi is quoted as saying. Microsoft wants the new format to be the standard.

“JPEG standardization could improve the format's prospects” Info Trends analyst Ed Lee is quoted as saying. "That helps the potential future of the standard significantly," he is also quoted as saying. “With an open standard, it will be easier to win allies such as camera makers, and competitors "won't feel as wary about adopting it."

The new standard will need the support of Adobe and Photoshop otherwise the new standard would be doomed to failure. Adobe’s Photoshop is the industry standard for digital image editing and retouching of photographs. Microsoft hopes the new HD format will put their new product lines in the middle of people's digital imaging. Windows Vista has built-in support for the file format right out of the box.

"It's going to make Vista more attractive as an operating system to use," Rossi is quoted as saying. Microsoft has found some very important partners for JPEG XR. Hasselblad is reported to be on-board with using the new entry into the imaging format by Microsoft. Earlier this year, Microsoft already won praise from image-editing software Adobe, which is the digital image and graphic design standard in the USA and much of the world.

Standardization alone will not guarantee success with consumers or businesses. It was reported that JPEG 2000, a successor to the original JPEG that came from the same photographic experts industry standards group, has been a complete failure the consumer markets and this even though it offered much more superior compression quality.

The new XR file format began its debut in the Windows Media Photo. 2006 sparked an effort by Microsoft to encourage a much broader acceptance as Microsoft changed the name of the imaging format to HD Photo. Microsoft also rescinded restrictive licensing and went to the open source and royalty-free terms of usage by the public.

The "XR" in the name has reference to and stands for the extended range of color tones that the format can represent as opposed to the standard JPEG of today. Microsoft claims that this new technology of XR JPEG can represent each separate component of red, blue and green color in a pixel with 8 bits of data. Digital cameras usually take and record images with 12 bits of data so this has a conversion factor to JPEG typically loses some information in a digital image that a photographer might desire to keep. Digital imaging details in the shadows of a face or the creases in light colored clothing. JPEG XR can store a minimum of 16 of data per color for each pixel.

Newer color printers should be able to tap into the full capabilities of the new technology Microsoft hopes. Among some of the many other advantages Microsoft puts forth are: Compression technology that can record the same quality as traditional JPEG but using only half the file size space or twice the quality at the same file size as using the standard JPEG available now. Also Microsoft states that in addition, unlike JPEG, the XR format’s new encoding algorithm will preserve all the digital imaging pixel data in what is called "loss less" compression and this is comparable to raw imaging.

XR is said to permit richer more vivid colors and better archival preservation as images are moved from camera to computer to printer. If this is as good as Microsoft states then this should be a real boom for the professional photographer and digital graphic artist.

HD Photo images can be huge, as large as 68.6 terapixels total, as long as the compressed image doesn't exceed 32GB in size.

Many photographers of today are seeking to use and extract all the digital imaging data from their cameras using the so-called "raw" formats, which capture image sensor information without in-camera processing.

The “raw” format allows one to have more manipulation of the following: color balance, sharpening, noise reduction and lossy compression into JPEG. Raw images are converted to the manufacturers proprietary file formats that are more easily viewed or printed formats such as JPEG or TIFF. TIFF is a large format imaging formula that is very good at preserving data and has very little loss in data.

Microsoft is banking that JPEG XR will do away with need for raw imaging.
"You're giving people much of the capability of raw in a convenient file format," Rossi said. "On the ultra-high-end there might be still a preference to use raw," he added. Getting the average mainstream photographer to use the new XR JPEG format will be a challenge. Standardization by the industry experts and computer and camera makers could make that easier.
"The bigger challenge is going to be getting the equipment manufacturers to buy in and incorporate that compression standard into their hardware," Lee said. "Once you've got that hardware, you're well on your way to getting it at least adopted by some consumers."

We will see where this goes and Microsoft has a habit of making something free and then start charging for what was once free, once it has been accepted into the mainstream.

Time for the reception

2010-07-18T14:35:00.004-04:00

Time for the wedding reception and dinner, dancing and drinks...

All images by Robert H. Walker

Apple Tiger VS Windows Vista operating system.

Microsoft Windows Vista – Vista the WOW factor - as in
WOW Vista does not work…

The black screen of death aka The Darth Vader of operating systems.

I use Google's Picasa and Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Photoshop for retouching the digital photography and imaging that I take as a professional wedding photographer. I have been forced to migrate from a windows based operating system to an Apple based operating system. I like the Apple IPhoto digital imaging editing program and it compares favorably with the Google Picasa editing program. Digital cameras take decent pictures, but oftentimes the images need editing to get rid of clutter and color correcting. There is a learning curve from migrating from a Vista to a Tiger operating system. But as a wedding Photographer I need to do the best possible job for my married clients at their wedding.

Editing of digital images is truly one of the most important aspects of the photography business. I can take an average picture or digital image and edit and retouch it and turn it into a great piece of artwork. Photoshop is a truly great program and piece of software. You can take Photoshop and take a photograph and change the colors in a photograph to anything that you want. You can restore old photos as it is used for old photograph restoration. I used this Photoshop program while I worked at a graphics arts business, just prior to my getting into the photography business full-time.

I have used Apple Macs and Microsoft Windows based PC’s in my line of work and you can get digital image editing software for either platform. Google has a wonderful program called Picasa and it works only on PC’s with a Windows based operating system. Google’s Picasa is a great photo-editing program and it is free. I really like Picasa and having Google offering it for free. Thank you Google.

I purchased a new HP computer, a laptop and the Vista system did not work properly. The CD/DVD player would hang up while viewing picture slideshows, right out of the box. My wedding photography client and I were really unimpressed. They did not hire me and I thank Microsoft for this mess. Hello Apple...

I really liked Windows XP – But this Vista is a big problem with the last PC that I bought and returned. As a professional wedding and family portrait photographer, I can ill afford to wait while Microsoft fixes Vista problems. So I purchased an Apple Mac and it seems to be real good so far. Apple has far fewer virus and spy ware problems with the Tiger operating system.

Sorry Mr. Gates, but as a business I cannot wait until you work out the bugs and problems with Vista. I do not dislike Bill and Microsoft and I respect them in many ways. But I cannot purchase a computer system for my photography business and not have the luxury of waiting for the bugs to be removed from Vista.

Wedding arch

2010-07-18T14:16:00.008-04:00

This is a decorated wedding arch made of bamboo and we can put the flower and color combination of your choice for your wedding day. The bride wanted Fuchsia as her color scheme and the groom wanted the "safety orange" as his color combo. These pictures were not retouched or color corrected. They are raw and unedited and maybe only cropped.

Mom and Dad of the bridal party and yes that is the real "safety orange" color of the lei as the color in the picture is not touched.

Hey when does the reception start...?

Rings and finger shot with the bouquet on the beach.

Bride and groom - get the sunglasses out for that orange...

Walking into the sunset on the beach.

Group family shot.

Romantic beach picture.

Rain is considered "good luck" on the wedding day. There was good luck on this wedding day on the beach as it sprinkled a bit.

Decorated wedding arch made of bamboo with colors of your choice.

All pictures taken by Robert H. Walker

Photography is sometimes called painting with light

Job 38: 19 - Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,

Photon:

The words photo, photograph, photography, photographer and photon all have the same Greek root word. photon means light. Photo and photograph all have reference to paint with light and photography is the art of painting with light and the photographer is the artist that paints with light. A camera captures light and color and in essence creates an painting with light.

The photon was originally called a "light quantum" by Albert Einstein and the modern name "photon" is derived from the Greek word for light. A scientist named Lewis' had a theory was never accepted as it was contradicted by many experiments, but he coined a new name, photon, was adopted immediately by most physicists.

Visible light at times will behave like a wave but at other times it acts like a stream of high-speed, submicroscopic particles. Sir Isaac Newton was one of the first scientists to have a theory that light consists of a group of particles. Modern physicists have demonstrated that the energy in any electromagnetic field is made up of a group of discrete packets.

The term photon has the meaning of visible-light particle and this has been proposed for these energy packets. Particle-like behavior is not restricted to the visible-light portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. Radio waves, infrared rays, visible light, ultraviolet rays, X rays, and gamma rays all consist of photons, each of which contains a particular amount of energy that depends on the specific wavelength.

White light is made up of the following visible (optical) color spectrum: violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red and if you split the colors through a prism then you will see the various colors. A rainbow is essentially the same optical vision as a prism as the atmosphere allows our eyes to view the varied colors of white light as it shifts to the splendid colors we see. Red, Blue and Green are the primary colors and you can make up the full range of visible colors from these three (3) colors.

Light was essentially and originally captured on film and was printed on paper, so that you could see the vivid colors. Now the light is essentially captured on a sensor and transmitted to a monitor or printer. Photography has truly changed a great deal since I was in college and used my 35 mm camera.

In the physical universe there are a great many things which cannot be explained. Among these many things is light. Light, as far as we know, comes in different wave lengths and the size of the wavelength will determine what type of light it is. The middle wavelength lights are what gives us the seven basic colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Beside these visible lights there are the lights that cannot be seen by the human eye. These invisible lights can be grouped into two other groups the long waves and short waves.

Light's properties can seem very confusing and appears inconsistent because of the unique nature and properties of light: light has the properties of both a wave and a particle. In some situations, light's behavior is more easily explained by thinking of light as a particle. In other situations, its behavior can only be explained if light is thought of as a wave. This duality of the nature and properties of light between a particle and a wave is very difficult if not impossible to visualize. It is much easier to see light demonstrate its properties in specific situations.

Light as it behaves as a Wave:

Before the nineteenth century, the physics and scientific community was split in a controversy over the actual nature and properties of light. Around 1800, Thomas Young devised an experiment designed specifically to settle the debate over the nature of light once and for all. The basic principle behind the experiment was how light would behave when it encountered an obstacle with a hole that was smaller than the beam of light. Young set up a beam of light to shine through a slit, then the resulting light that made it through that slit was to pass through two more slits side by side. If light behaves as a group of particles, it should pass through the first slit, then through the two small slits. But, it should not spread out after passing through the slits. Because of this if light behaves as a particle in this situation, only two stripes of light should end up passing through the entire slit system.

These results were not what Young actually observed. Instead of seeing two stripes, Young saw a series of many stripes. This was definitely not consistent with the behavior of a particle. However, it was consistent with the behavior of a wave. When a wave passes through a slit, it spreads out on the other side. Also, when two waves pass over each other they can interfere with each other. These two properties of waves explain the behavior that Young observed. When the light waves pass through the slit, the waves spread out on the other side of the slit. When the two waves overlap, they interfere with each other.

Fabulous Wedding Planning

2010-07-18T14:03:00.006-04:00

This is the handy work of Fabulous Wedding Planning. She does wonderful work and I recommend her to all. I have seen her do small intimate beach weddings and these pictures were taken in the club house at a gated community. Click on the below link to go to her website. Her name is Amy and she will take care of the decor for your wedding.

Fabulous Wedding Planning

Pictures by Christina and Robert H. Walker

Wedding pictures by Christina

2010-07-18T12:49:00.005-04:00

The above pictures are some girls having fun at the wedding. This was a small intimate wedding at a private residence.

Chaplain Bob with the bride and groom.

Mom and future bride? I think she was trying to contain a laugh...

Happy couple.

Candid guest shots are the most fun to take. Christina loves candid pictures of the guests and bridal party.

A happy group as they prepare to take their seats for the wedding ceremony.

These wedding pictures are all taken by Christina

Happy 4th of July

2010-07-04T12:51:00.002-04:00

Happy July 4th, 2010 and remember this is not about drinking beer and eating chips...

Why hire a professional wedding photographer?

2010-07-02T08:33:00.007-04:00

So why hire a professional wedding photographer?
Photo by Christina

Many people have decent digital SLR camera's now and many fancy themselves as photographers. I have found that for outside photography, when the lighting is favorable, most anyone with a decent camera can take a nice picture. Indoor photography is much more challenging with the use of a flash or speed light.

As a professional wedding photographer I have professional Nikon camera equipment and lenses with flash speed lights. I have not just one or two camera's either. I actually have four Nikon camera's. One must have redundant equipment in case of camera failure. Can you ask the minister to stop the ceremony while you get another camera or change batteries?

Professional wedding photographers must have a eye for lighting and angles that most people just do not have that take pictures as a hobby. We can pose you to take the most flattering angle for a picture that makes you look your best.

If you family member is taking your wedding pictures and they have a problem with the camera and the pictures turn out bad or dark, what will you do?

Will you be angry with your family member?
Remember they are not professional wedding photographers.

Do you want your family to be working while everyone else has fun at your wedding?

Do you want your family to enjoy the wedding also or will they be stuck taking pictures?

Think about what the wedding pictures will look like after a few drinks?

I have seen people spend a grand on flowers and then skimp when it came to the pictures.

What do you do with the flowers after the wedding?
Most people throw the flowers in the garbage.

Yet for the pictures that you keep, the families try to get by on the cheap. Does this make sense to you?

Please take a look at our photo gallery and think about why you should hire a professional with a great deal of experience.

I have had my pictures published professionally in a magazine and newspaper. I have years of experience and have taken around 50,000 pictures. I actually wore out a camera that I purchased as I used it so much that I had to replace it. please come to my office and see my photogallery. Call for an appointment.

Prices for photography

2010-06-29T11:22:00.007-04:00

Our prices for photography

Wedding photography is our specialty.

We have two packages: the formal and a budget photography plan.

Call us at 561-964-5036

Come to our office in Boynton Beach and see our photo gallery.

Formal package:

We charge $250 an hour for larger functions with a mix of indoor and/or outdoor photography with 2 photographers working. I will give you a cd of your pictures and a copyright release to make unlimited copies of prints for your family and wedding guests. We will do a mix of posed and candid photography.

The main photographer covers the bridal party and immediate family. The 2nd shooter or second photographer covers the guests and the pictures are edited for quality. You can expect 50 edited pictures or images per hour booked.

Saturday afternoon / evenings this is the standard package that normally applies.

Budget package:

I can do minor editing and/or unedited budget photography for small informal outside beach weddings for $150 an hour for one photographer and you keep the disc or cd of the digital images or pictures.

If you only have a couple of people and you want to get married on a off-day (not saturday) ask me about about a discounted rate.

Please do not ask for this budget package for an indoor wedding at a church, hotel or country club for a Saturday evening. Inside photography pictures require color correction and editing.

Please check our online photography portfolio for our quality work in Palm Beach, Martin or Broward County. Click the links to the right to see our work.

We do photography work and travel from Stuart, Jupiter, West Palm Beach, Boynton, Del Ray, Boca Raton and Ft. Lauderdale to Hollywood, Florida. We generally do not travel to Miami for work.

Come to visit our office and see our extensive picture gallery in Boynton Beach.

Why a wedding photographer

2010-06-26T07:25:00.013-04:00

Future bride...?

Why a Wedding photographer?

I started performing weddings after I graduated from Bible College and someone asked me to perform their wedding ceremony. I found that I enjoyed performing weddings as an officiant and I built a website to advertise that I performed wedding ceremonies. I really liked doing weddings.

Wedding photography is different from many other forms of photography as to the expected wedding shots or pictures that are expected. I took guest pictures at the reception while the main photographer concentrated on the bridal party and family with the formals. I had purchased my own Nikon camera equipment for my own beach wedding pictures and added some to my website. I had great difficulty obtaining pictures from other photographers of my performing a wedding with the bridal party. I wanted pictures of my arch and decoration to add to the website and photographers never gave me their pictures so I had to purchase my own camera and take my own digital images or pictures.

I helped a professional photographer build her portfolio and get jobs. She hired me to take pictures of the wedding guests while she photographed the bridal party and the immediate family posed formal pictures. This was how I gained experience. Soon I brought my camera to almost every wedding I performed and took pictures for practise and experience. I learned the camera quickly this way. The wedding guests usually did not mind and the bridal party loved getting free photography. I have quite an extensive portfolio now thanks for my free photography offers in the past.

Wedding photography uses a mix of formal posed and candid pictures. Posed pictures means you ask the people to hold still and you make them stand a certain way and you take their pictures while they expect you to do this. Candid pictures are taken while the people are interacting and they are not expecting you to take their picture. Photojournalism is a style and photography technique when you record the event step by step as it is happening and the series of pictures tell a story.

I took over 1,000 pictures with my digital Nikon SLR at the last wedding I worked at. I purchased a modest Nikon digital SLR and took pictures of my brides and grooms so I could remember them for the future. I would assist the main wedding photographer by taking pictures of the guests, while she took pictures of the bridal party and the immediate family.

Many photographers charge by the picture, in addition to an hourly rate, so they almost never bother to take guest pictures. The professional photographers know most people will not spend $5-7 on a picture of a casual friend who is a guest at their wedding. So I took pictures of all the couples at the wedding party and wedding reception. This is very similar to doing family portraits and I always get lots of pictures of children.

Children’s pictures are very challenging at times, as they do not always want to sit still and let you get some good pictures of them. Little boys are especially difficult to photograph as they almost never want to sit still. I have professional studio lighting and a nice blue-grey and blue backdrop for family portraits. I love children’s pictures and they can be very photogenic and good subjects if you set up for them and follow them around to get the good angle.

Facial expressions are very important in photography as is the lighting conditions. I love outdoor photography in the late evening for the ambient lighting and one only needs a fill flash for spectacular shots. Inside photography took me about one year to feel really comfortable to be able to rely on the flash and get reliable lighting that is flattering for the photographic subject.

I purchased a Nikon D-300, D-200, D-90 and a D-40 with some really great lenses to go with it. I have the Nikon 18-200 mm lens as well as some f/2.8 lenses for low level light photography for dark indoor photography that does not allow for a flash, like in a Catholic Church or Synagogue. Those types of lenses are what are used for sports photography as they are considered “fast lenses” for action. I have all the camera equipment needed for a wedding and adequate back-up redundant camera’s and lenses in case of failure.

I always wear two cameras in case one has a problem. Nikon lenses are first class and very high quality for the professional photographer. Nikon camera's are not junk either and you pay for the quality. I heard that Nikon will soon get out of the lens manufacturing business to concentrate on making camera bodies. Carl Zeiss will soon take over the making of lenses for Nikon. Zeiss is a German optic manufacturer and has made top quality glass since World War II.

Vizcaya Weddings - Vizcaya as your wedding venue

2010-06-26T04:55:00.007-04:00

Vizcaya weddings and have Vizcaya as your wedding venue.

Vizcaya of Miami

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens or just simply known as Vizcaya is a historic landmark in early Miami history. It was the winter resort and Spanish estate and villa of millionaire businessman Mr. James Deering. Mr. Deering was a founding member of the Deering, McCormick-International Harvester Corporation. This estate was a Spanish villa and was taken apart brick by brick and brought to America on a ship where it was reassembled on Biscayne Bay in what is the present day Coconut Grove area of Miami, Florida. Miami-Dade County took over ownership and runs Vizcaya as the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. Vizcaya is open to the public with admission at $15. You can take the train to Villa Vizcaya as it is served by the Vizcaya Station with the Miami Metrorail. Vizcaya is the venue of many weddings, quinces, bar and bat mitzvah’s and sweet sixteen parties. Vizcaya is a wonderful place to have your wedding and pictures taken.

The Vizcaya estate is across the street from the Miami Museum of science and planetarium. I was a member of the Miami space planetarium when I was growing up in Miami while I was in elementary school. Miami spoke English in those days and was relatively crime free as I remember long ago. Vizcaya was mostly built between 1914 and 1919; this was during the First World War. The planting and construction of the large Italian style Renaissance gardens and the outer village continued well into 1923. Mr. Deering, the owner of Vizcaya, died in 1925 just shortly after the estate was completed.

The early 20th century Vizcaya estate in Miami consists of: the Italian style Renaissance gardens, native landscaping, with the historical village out buildings group. The garden landscape and architecture designs were to have Tuscan Italian Renaissance influence. Paul Chalfin was the man responsible for the design and the director the Deering winter residence spectacular style. The current estate is 50 acres of property. The current Vizcaya property totals 50 acres total with 40 acres of native woods and landscape. The gardens and the house are located on the remaining 10 acres of property.

The Vizcaya estate was originally 180 acres of Mangrove swamps and dense inland native tropical woodlands. Mr. Deering was a conservationist or an early day environmentalist so he planned the development of the Vizcaya estate on the shore of Biscayne Bay to help conserve the native Florida Miami forests. We used to have what was called Dade pine, a tree that had hard wood with what is considered a soft wood. It was very strong and Dade pine is now considered extinct. During the World War One years, building tradesmen and construction supplies were very difficult to procure in South Florida.

Vizcaya is noted for its adaption of historical European aesthetic garden and architectural traditions to South Florida's subtropical ecology. Deering used the ideals and imported French and Italian garden design layouts. Vizcaya has coral stonework with Floridian coral architectural trim and planted with sub-tropic compatible as well as native Florida xeriscape plants that thrived in the South Florida habitat and tropical climate. Philodendrons as well as Palms were not been represented in the European style gardens of Spain, Tuscany Italy or of France.

The Vizcaya estate was envisioned by Paul Chalfin, who was an art curator, painter, and interior designer and he was the project's main director. Chalfin was instrumental in the assistance and he encouraged Mr. Deering's collecting of fine art items, various antiquities, and the splendid architectural elements for the Vizcaya project. Mr. Chalfin had recommended architect F. Burrall Hoffman for the design of the structure as well as the development of the villa, the garden pavilions, and Vizcaya estate outbuilding groups.

The landscaping master plans as well as the individual garden areas were designed by the Colombian landscape designer Diego Suarez. Suarez was in training with Sir Harold Acton at the gardens of Villa La Pietra, just outside of Florence, Italy. The Deering estate's name is from the northern Spanish Vizcaya Province, which is located in the Basque region along the east Atlantic's Bay of Biscay, as estate Vizcaya is on the West Atlantic's Biscayne Bay, located just south of downtown Miami.

Mr. Deering used the Caravel, which is a type of ship style that was heavily used in the Age of Exploration as his symbol and emblem of estate Vizcaya. The ship of coral in the rear of the building is very beautiful and enduring. I have several pictures of it on the website. French, Italian and European influences mark the gardens and villa architecture of the estate Vizcaya. This is a wonder spot to have a garden wedding ceremony.

Mr. Deering dies in 1926 and the estate passes to his heirs. Vizcaya’s upkeep due to hurricanes and rising maintenance costs due to the corrosion of the salt air costs are astronomical and the heir’s began selling the estate's surrounding land as well as the outer gardens. In 1945 Deerings heirs gave large land tracts of the Vizcaya property to the Catholic Church and to Miami's Mercy Hospital. Of the original 180 acres only 50 acres were retained as the main house, the formal gardens, and the outer village were kept. In the year 1952 Miami-Dade County formally acquired the villa estate and the gardens which were in dire need of major significant restoration costing $1 million.

Deering's heirs donated the villa's furnishings and antiquities to the Miami-Dade County Museum. Vizcaya was opened to the general public in 1953 as the Dade County Art Museum In 1994. The Vizcaya estate was awarded designated National Historic Landmark status and is now protected by law. Vizcaya is located at 3251 South Miami Avenue in Coconut Grove, Miami, and is open to the public on a daily basis, except for Christmas Day. Vizcaya has been accredited by the American Association of Museums.

National Trust for Historic Preservation has designated and listed Vizcaya as one of America's Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places. This historic designation was based in part on damages from hurricanes and the damage done by sea salt in the air and tropical climatic effects. Vizcaya has been the venue of several movies.

Deerings family was involved in the development of the Cutler area of South Miami and I grew up In Cutler Ridge that was devastated by hurricane Andrew. During Vizcaya’s construction the city of Miami’s population was only about 10,000 people. Deering had employed more than 1,000 workers for the Vizcaya villa’s and garden project. This included general laborers and skilled craftsmen from the Caribbean nations as well as from Europe. About 200,000 people visit Vizcaya each year and at $15 per person for admission, the museum generates about 2-3 million for the upkeep of the house and gardens. The Miami-Dade County Commissioners officially granted governing authority to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust in 1998.

Model Photography

2010-06-25T03:29:00.003-04:00

This girl is a model per her husband. She is blonde and blue eyed and from eastern Europe and was a model there. I love Photography. These pictures were taken by Christine.

Photography by Christina

2010-06-25T03:12:00.005-04:00

Christina is an artist by trade and she has an eye for angles and glamour.

Here is one of my featured photographer's.

Vizcaya art

2010-06-25T03:05:00.003-04:00

These artistic sculptures are in Vizcaya and I love art and taking pictures of them.

Vizcaya in Miami

2010-06-25T02:48:00.007-04:00

Vizcaya Gardens

2010-06-25T02:29:00.007-04:00

This is the gardens in Vizcaya located in Miami. Dade county runs the show and most of the gardens are nice. The main building seems to be in disrepair. They do weddings in Vizcaya and I Would love to have a wedding at Vizcaya. I love performing weddings and taking pictures.

crazy kid

2010-06-24T02:55:00.001-04:00

Some one did not want her picture take. Too late I already did. some would say this is a reason not to have kids... honestly she was a fun one and cute too. crazy kid

cake for kids

2010-06-24T02:50:00.000-04:00

A little cup cake for kids

I love cake and cupcakes...

Little girls

2010-06-24T02:46:00.001-04:00

Peek a boo...I see you.

This one was not easy to get a decent picture of

Don't hate me cause I am cute...

This is so funny...

Little Girls

2010-06-24T02:42:00.002-04:00

This is the sister of the pretty girl.

Hey what about me guys...

take my picture I am cute too...

Hey I am bored...

Kids pictures

2010-06-24T02:36:00.002-04:00

Kids are sometimes very difficult to photograph as they can run around and do not want to pose for the pictures. Boys never seem to want to sit still for their picture to be taken. you need to have to find the children in a pleasant moment for the right facial expression for a flattering photograph. The kids are sometimes so nice and then they grow up...

Children's photography

2010-06-23T15:51:00.001-04:00

This is the daughter of my niece at the restaurant on Father's day 2010. I prefer the studio with a nice backdrop and controlled lighting. I have no control over the background in a public setting.

children's pictures

2010-06-23T15:25:00.001-04:00

More children's pictures...I suppose she loves the attention.

Vizcaya and Miami Skyline

2010-06-23T01:41:00.001-04:00

The top and last image is Vizcaya in Miami. This was a Spanish castle brought over brick by brick and reassembled in Miami on the water. Miami-Dade county took it over and it is overgrown and in disrepair. I would not recommend this tour for anyone for the $15 you would spend. The middle image is the miami skyline...

The Bird is the Word...

2010-06-23T01:36:00.001-04:00

Some very nice birds at the Miami Seaquarium...

orca's

2010-06-23T01:34:00.001-04:00

The killer whale show or orca's as they are sometimes called.

I still think about the girl that was killed by the killer whale at Seaworld...

Dolphin Stadium

2010-06-23T01:29:00.002-04:00

I was in the very back and top level of the dolphin stadium at the Miami Seaquarium and these dolphins were jumping level with my camera. I must have been 15 feet high. I am impressed with the dolphins and the Nikon D90 camera. I took my daughter to the show and last time I took her was around 1982 or so...

Miami Seaquarium Dolphin show

2010-06-23T01:25:00.001-04:00

I really loved the show at the Miami Seaquarium, but not for $40 per person.

Flying dolphins

2010-06-23T01:18:00.002-04:00

No, this is not the receiver for the Miami Dolphins. They could always use some help...

I took these action shots at the Miami Seaquarium with the dolphins jumping out of the water. Getting action shots like this are much more challenging than taking pictures of a bride and groom getting married at the alter. It was very hot today on June 22, 2010 it was recorded to be 91 F today and it was hot.

Killer Whales

2010-06-23T01:14:00.003-04:00

I took these shots with my Nikon D90 and the 18-200 mm lens. I only cropped these and did not editing or "fixing" with photoshop. These orcas are well fed and I grieve for the family of the girl that was killed in Orlando by one of these KILLER WHALES.

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO SEE A FULL SIZE IMAGE / PICTURE

Miami Seaquarium

2010-06-23T01:11:00.002-04:00

I enjoyed the show at the Miami Seaquarium, but it is not worth $40 to see this...

Miami Seaquarium

2010-06-23T01:02:00.003-04:00

I went to the Miami Seaquarium on Tuesday - June 22, 2010 and took these images with my Nikon D-90 and the 18-200 mm lens. I shot in sports mode with wide bracket focus and hi-speed shooting at 4.5 images per second. I must admit the d90 of Nikon is really a first class digital camera. This is my back up camera as I did not want to take my d-300 to Miami. I was at the top level in the back row and I zoomed in and did some minor cropping only - no photoshop as these are not retouched. I do not remember if these are the seals or seal lions. Sea lions are very large creatures, unlike seals that are about the size of a medium build dog.

Dog and cat pictures - Pet photography

2010-06-14T02:26:00.002-04:00

This is our "pet" cat that we feed. He adopted us as long as we feed him and let him sleep in the house in the winter...gotta go out at night.

Wedding photographer

2010-06-14T02:25:00.002-04:00

These are wedding pictures of my family and their daughter. I also like building pictures. The blonde lady is a guest at a wedding that I shot and performed the ceremony for. I love taking pictures of people after the ceremony. I love receptions and taking pictures after people have a few drinks and getting the candid pictures.

I once helped an ungrateful someone get into wedding photography by asking my wedding clients if they would want free photography of their wedding. “What is the catch” they would always ask. The only catch is we are allowed to use your pictures and images for our website and portfolio. I helped this someone get experience as I helped train them with the dynamics of wedding photography. I had worked with many professional photographers so that I knew the expected posed formal wedding pictures. This someone quickly gained vast experence with digital, as opposed to film, photography and built a beautiful portfolio in a matter of a few months. Many wedding photographers would take years to build such an extensive portfolio.

I only had one bride deny our free photography request. They had a big time photographer that used to work for Cosmopolitan magazine and Vogue. One can build a great deal of experience and a substantial portfolio in a very short time when one takes wedding pictures several times a month. This is a great way to gain a great deal of experience in being a wedding photographer in a very short time.

Mother and daughter

2010-06-14T02:24:00.002-04:00

Mother and daughter. The daughter was such a great poser for the pictures. Maybe the little cutie will be a model someday. She was a very nice young lady. Girls are usually much easier to take their pictures as opposed to little boys. Boys run around too much and are difficult to capture good pictures of.

Ebony bride and groom

2010-06-14T02:23:00.003-04:00

This couple were married in Hobe Sound beach. I liked this couple and I wish them the best in their new marriage. Ebony bride and her groom. I love beach weddings and I do go to Martin County for beach weddings. This is the north end of Jupiter Island and is the public beach there. I must admit they found a nice secluded spot on this public beach. It did rain that day and they say that rain is good luck on your wedding day. Rain is not lucky for my Nikon Camera. This is taken with a Nikon digital SLR model D40. This is my beach camera. I love Nikon Lenses for their precision and quality.

Cute litle girl

2010-06-14T02:23:00.002-04:00

This little girl was a natural for taking pictures and she is cute enough to be a model. I really enjoyed working with this family and performing the wedding and taking pictures afterwards.

Beautiful ebony bride

2010-06-14T02:22:00.001-04:00

This bride is very photogenic in my opinion and we loved the setting of the rock outcroppings for the background. This is Hobe Sound on the north end of Jupiter Island.

Family Photography

2010-06-14T02:21:00.001-04:00

Newly married family and I performed the wedding ceremony and some photography for them.

Children photographer

2010-06-14T02:20:00.004-04:00

I am a photographer that loves to take pictures of children. The kids pictures were taken on Singer Island beach. The bride up top was married on Singer Island also.

Dad and daughter

2010-06-14T02:20:00.003-04:00

This is dad with his daughter and she is so cute. This wedding venue and the pictures were taken on Singer Island and the weather was horrible for the rain.

Bridal party and guests

2010-06-14T02:19:00.001-04:00

I am "nuts" about weddings...

Bride and groom and some guests from various weddings that I performed and took reception pictures of. This was the bridal party and a bride and some guests. the nutty one is looking for the food at the reception.

Outdoor wedding

2010-06-14T02:16:00.001-04:00

I love landscape pictures and outdoor weddings. This wedding was on Palm Beach Island.

Jupiter Lighthouse

2010-06-14T02:13:00.001-04:00

This little boy was a guest of my photographer. The lighthouse is in Jupiter and they have weddngs there. The view from the top is splendid. I did all 100+ steps to the top and I performed a few weddings at the top of the Jupiter Lighthouse.

Nesting dove

2010-06-14T02:12:00.001-04:00

I caught this dove in her nest. I love the lighting of this beach landscape on Singer island and the lighting was perfect. I only cropped this picture and no photoshopping was done to the colors for the image.

Studio portraits

2010-06-14T02:11:00.001-04:00

This gal with her dog was a bride and was the first picture. The middle pictures were taken with studio lighting and a professional backdrop. Yes I do studio portraits of families and glamour shots. The middle couple were alot of fun to work with them.

Palm Tree's and cute girl

2010-06-14T02:10:00.003-04:00

I believe that this is Singer Island.

Jupiter Lighthouse

2010-06-14T02:10:00.002-04:00

This is the Jupiter Lighthouse by Jupiter Island, which is home to the rich and famous.

Tiger Woods lives here at least he does as of this posting 06-2010

The above two pictures are a park in Boynton Beach, which is where I currently live.

The above two aerial pictures are the view from the Jupiter Lighthouse at the top.

I believe that it is 119 steps to the top. The lighthouse was built in 1860 and has weathered many storms over the years.

Brides

2010-06-14T02:09:00.001-04:00

Brides always look so nice on their wedding day...

Balin Kirdin or Balin (Name) Kird-in

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This is Balin Kirdin or Balin Kird-in also known as name. She is famous in Thailand as a model and was in a music video there.

Call 1-954-245-1517 for Thai Dance booking

Thai Dance in South Florida

Thai Dancer in South Florida

รำไทย ไหว้ครู โขน ฟ้อนเล็บ รำมวย ไหว้ครู

Hire a Thai dancer for your next party

If you would like to see authentic Thai dance for your next event or party, then allow me to suggest Balin Kird-in. Balin Kirdin was born in Thailand and she has studied Thai dance arts in Thailand as well as in the South Florida area. Balin Kirdin has been seen performing colorful Thai dancing at the West Palm Beach Buddhist Wat or Temple as well as at the Thai festivals in South Florida. Balin is a trained Thai dancer also she is young, tall and pretty and she wears Thai traditional silk dress for the Thai dance exhibition.

Call 1-954-245-1517 to book a date with Balin for Thai dance in South Florida.

Balin Kirdin is now available for Thai dancing anywhere in all of Broward and the greater Ft. Lauderdale area, including North Miami as well as Hollywood.

You may also book Balin to perform her Thai dance in all of the Countyof Palm Beach , which includes the city of Boca Raton, Village of Wellington, the City of West Palm Beach and town of Jupiter and all of the rest of South Florida. Thai dance is a most entertaining exhibit and the silk dresses are very colorful.

2010-06-14T02:07:00.001-04:00

Who or is it hoo...

wise old owl...

this was taken at night and I saw the owl in a tree at work.

I took this picture with a 50 mm 2.8 F / stop lens.

Lucky Girl

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This is a lucky girl to have such loving parents.

I performed their vow renewal at Hollywood Beach, Florida.

She was very good at modeling and posing...

mother and daughter

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Dog photography

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Dogs are great and they can be fun for working with and taking pictures.

sunrise in Florida

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These pictures were taken at sunrise in Deerfield Beach.

I just love the splendid colors that can occur, if the weather permits.

party

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This is what I came to this party for...

I took this picture for the city party at Boynton Beach.

I have one hundred pictures I took of this event.

Cute boy

Another beautiful bride

Ritz Carlton Palm Beach

2010-06-14T02:02:00.001-04:00

This is the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan, Florida.

They sometimes call this South Palm Beach. I am on the officiant vendor's list with the Ritz Carlton Hotel. This is South Florida and it is a five star hotel and the service is first class all the way. The food is outstanding as well. They are happy to perform small weddings by the pool overlooking the ocean. Dinner is usually served indoors in air conditioned comfort.

Do not let the angelic looks deceive you - Actually she is a good kid...

bridal guests

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Guests of the bridal party.

The sand ceremony container is always a welcome addition to the new home and placed in a hutch for a memento of your wedding day.

Sand Ceremony

2010-06-14T01:59:00.002-04:00

A sand ceremony on the beach with the bouquet of flowers.

This dog has a great personality and disposition.

She looks angelic for sure...

Beach wedding

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The bride and groom getting married on the beach and the boy as a disinterested guest.

Florida Beach wedding is South Florida in Jupiter.