The field of photography is a very challenging venue and finding your “voice” in a crowded field can often make the task seem daunting. If you want to challenge yourself in different ways, try something else. Painting, singing, and yes, playing a musical instrument can not only give you a new vision for your photography, but it can get your creative juices going in ways that you may not realize. While you may never become a Picasso, Luciano Pavarotti, or a Mozart, even picking up something you used to do as a kid (or when you were younger for those among us who are under the 30-something cutoff!), and giving it a whirl can give you new-found pleasures.
For instance, when I was much younger, I took piano lessons for seven years. Endless scales, arpeggios, and the whole nine yards filled my practice sessions for days, weeks, months, and well….years! When I moved onto college, other interests bended me away from the piano, probably because after seven years I realized I was never going to be a Mozart. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the practice and occasionally I return to tickle the ivories from time to time. The photography vision has been clouded this week, and I found some solace in the keyboards late Friday night. So, I plugged in the M-Audio keyvoard to my Mac and pounded away for a while as my fingers tried to remember their proper positions. I remembered again that I am no Mozart, but I do have some creative ideas again, all because of a little ditty I put together. Does this ring a bell for any of you?
Have a great weekend everyone! Happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here Monday with the results of my creative challenge! 🙂
As photographers we are always seeking out new sources of information that can help us with our work – whether it be pixel-crunching sites, creative inspiration sites, or news and trending information sites. As I go through my RSS feeds and Alltop favorites every day, over the past year, some were filtering to the top much more often. Naturally, this happens every year, as has been the case for the past 3 years now. When I started this annual event back in 2007, the number coincided with the year, so to wit, here are my TOP TEN PHOTO BLOGS FOR 2009. This may serve as a good starting point for 2010, so the blog post is titled accordingly, even though this is more of a “Year in Review” type of writing regarding photography blogs. As always, lists are subjective and others will have different thoughts and opinions, but nevertheless, here’s my faves (meaning these blogs are in my Alltop or RSS ):
Joe McNally’s Blog – The perfect blend of tongue-in-cheek stories, and yet educational and fun to read! This quickly ratcheted up to the top of my preferred favorites, and it should be in your list too! (And his books are of the same ilk: read The Moment it Clicks and The Hotshoe Diaries as soon as possible if you haven’t already…)
David DuChemin’s Blog – As David said it best – “Ahhh…..Vision!” If you are yearning to touch the intangible and learn about creativity, David DuChemin’s blog is a must read! (I hear he has a few books too!)
Petapixel – Very similar to this one, in that it is informative, interesting, and almost always tied to photography. He wisely started without a vendor association though, and it’s paid off in spades (he’s been around less than a year, and has double the readership). Of course it could be that his content is pretty kick-butt and mine is just the meandering mind of an individual. Nevertheless, a great read and congrats to them for the content they are putting out!
Strobist – If you don’t know about David Hobby’s site, then you are in the dark (literally!), because it’s all about light! Anything you want to know about photography lighting, this is the place to go. With workshops, and primers for both the beginners and advanced shooters, this is an absolute must-read!
Canon Rumors – What can I say? I am a Canon guy, so I am always interested in the news and rumblings of Canon’s next great move in the digital photography realm, and this has become my premiere source of information on the web aside from Canon directly!
Weekly Photo Tips – Authored by Scott Eccleston, this blog is a mixture of tips, tutorials, and personal thoughts on a variety of subjects to include gear, post processing, and such. Worth the read just for the human aspect of photography.
Photowalk Pro – Jeff is the de facto master at organizing photo walks, and although I’ve been on walks since before discovering his blog – his insights have helped me to organize better walks, be a better organizer, and his subsequent foray into photography (HDR) tutorials and photo books (a review on his book about the 50D is forthcoming!). Definitely one worth adding to the reader!
The Online Photographer – Not the usual fare, as TOP can get very professorial. I learn a lot though, and gain insights and get creative inspiration from the photographers and works they discuss here. The entire staff is great, but my favorite writers are Mike himself and Ctein!
Photojojo – What a great blog, creative ways to use your photos all the time. Not only are the ideas cool, but almost always they are highly economical. Definitely for the DIY-er! They also have great photo montages periodically, so also great for inspiring some creative vision!
Photoshop Insider – Want to get the latest scoop on Photoshop and photography in general? Scott has taken a a great Photoshop resource and in the last year, merged it into his own foray into photography from the perspective of being behind the camera.
There’s my top ten blogs for 2010. It’s certainly not definitive, definitely biased, and subject to change at a moments notice, but as of today, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! What are your favorite photo-related blogs? Now’s a chance to shamelessly promote your work (or your friends work) in the comments!
One of the resolutions I had wanted to do was publish a “Best of” series from the Flickr group each month. That did not come to pass, but I did want to take some time to share some of my favorites of the past year with you here. Not much to say in the way of prefacing these, other than to say that I liked them. Whether for the technical quality, the compositional quality, the message, the colors, or the perspective – they stood out for me. Feel free to visit the Flickr group pool and peruse for your own favorites, but here’s mine:
Thanks to everyone who continues to share their photos in the Flickr Community. I will try my best to get some “favorites” put out monthly from this group, as that is one of many New Years Resolutions I am going to try to commit myself to for 2010. Some are personal, some are inspired by others. I’ll likely share more of these commitments going forward as well. Do you have any resolutions for the 2010 calendar year? Sound off in the comments!
Finally, stay tuned for the December Giveaway Winner which will be announced later this week too! Tomorrow, be sure to stop back for more top picks from 2009. Happy shooting and we’ll see you then! 🙂
While recently listening to This Week in Tech (a great podcast, and I highly recommend it), the show host, Leo Laporte, made an interesting observation about the advancement of technology. He was musing about the changes that have happened in audio consumption. We listen to much of our music in iPods and portable music players, when not too long ago, we were confined to a certain space. To that end, he noted that the technology of audio in those days revolved around things like the number of amps, tweeters and woofers, quadraphonics, decibels, and much of that technical information. We jam-packed our houses with stereo components, our cars with subwoofers, and on and on. To get truly high quality audio you needed to have resources (a.k.a. money), and the producers of that audio content was restrictive because of the costs.
Not today – these days you can plug a $5 microphone into a USB port on a $400 computer, say or sing anything you want, and almost instantly have beautiful high quality digital recordings of whatever you like. This is a good thing though – because even though more people are recording audio, what matters is what the message of that audio is saying. I can’t just go on the podcast and talk about nothing because no one would listen…although sometimes it feels like I am blathering on and on! 🙂 As the old saying goes, “content is king“! Leo’s observation was that in the audio world, it’s a wonderful thing because anyone can produce audio, and there are now more voices for creativity. With the lower cost of entry to producing high end audio, two questions came about. The first is “What does that content say (what is the point, or message)?” The second is “How do you want to consume that media?” (With the options being whether you want it on a CD in your car, on your iPod at the gym, on your computer as you work, or where ever.)
It was a very astute observation, and that description applies to other media as well. I am, of course, thinking about photography. Think about the analogy for a minute. For the longest time we had the film world, and as ASA speeds got better, grain got finer, the size and quality of image development improved as technology permitted. With the movement to the digital world, and the subsequent “Megapixel Wars”, capturing high quality detail in your photography was no longer such an arduous process. I believe we are at a crossroad now in digital photography, where the technology has expanded to a quality level that anyone is able to produce excellent quality images, in terms of technical details. The portability factor for audiophiles doesn’t really apply as much to photography though as the medium is more portable by definition. You are also looking at the image rather than listening to it.
The advances in the technology of photography has also introduced a creative outlet for many where it previously did not exist. The decreasing costs of production have allowed many to find their “photography voice”. With the holidays upon us, many are likely to get a shiny new camera with lots of bells and whistles, and for some out there, this will be an opportunity to “sing”! It’s an exciting time to be a part of the chorus because with so many voices, there are lots of melodies and harmonies to be heard and enjoyed.
This will undoubtedly lead many to ask “So, how do I make my pictures sing?” It’s a great question, and one that I have been tackling in some way, shape, or form for some time now from various points of view, including technical, compositional, and subtle intangibles that are all part of this larger question of how to better express yourself photographically. There’s more to come on that, and I’ll be sharing more thoughts on this in the weeks to come. But it is a good exercise, so I would like to throw it to the reading and listening audiences. As we take a blogging break over the holidays, ask yourself (and post your thoughts here in the blog) the following two questions:
Can pictures really “sing”? Why, or why not?
If so, what does it take to make your pictures sing?
Share your thoughts in the comments below! As a reminder, you can also now embed photos in your comments by using the link to attach a URL. Happy shooting, Merry Christmas, and we’ll see you back here next week!
P.S. Don’t forget – next week is the last week to add your “Giving” themed photos to the December Giveaway! Should be lots of opportunities to capture some photos with that theme over the weekend! There’s over $400 in prizes will go to one lucky person, so post your best photo to the Flickr thread here. The guidelines are posted there, so be sure to check those to make sure your entry is counted…Happy Shooting and good luck to all!
