Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Photo of the Week
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Tuesday, March 30, 2010
From Here To China
Here in his boyhood home, he dedicated himself to long practice and hard work on this piano. His efforts invited this musician to play the piano on many of his world travels for years after he left California. On several occasions he very competently performed in front of national audiences but he never recorded any great works. There were a few occasions that were captured by the world on television and are now part of America's history. Do you know this musician?
Workshop: NOW BOOKING
You can click HERE to go straight to the registration page, or you can contact us at craigphotography@mac.com or 724.355.9079 with any questions.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Monday, March 29, 2010
The annual Spring Bulb Show
I'd never led a blog post with an image of a fish before, so I thought I'd do that today in this post of some shots from Saturday's shoot at the 2010 Spring Bulb Show at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Indianapolis. All of these were shot with my Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens. Except for the fish shots, for which I had to boost the ISO to 1600 to get a fast shutter and freeze the action, I was able to use a tripod -- and, more importantly, an ISO of 100.The fish are from the conservatory's koi pond, which actually is part of the tropical plant display inside the conservatory and not part of the bulb show. I neglected to use my polarizing filter to blunt the glare, but decided to post the top image nevertheless because I like the piggybacking going on.
The bulb show runs through Friday; on Saturday, the conservatory will sell the bulbs on a first-come, first-serve basis. In May, look for the conservatory to again let the public come in -- on a one-day only basis (because that's all they need) -- and dig out the bulbs in the Sunken Garden as they get ready to put in the summer arrangements.
If you're interested in getting free bulbs that way, visit the consevatory's Web site and sign up for the email notification they'll send out verifying the date and time.
On April 17-18, the conservatory will hold its annual orchid show. Very pretty orchids on display throughout the indoor premises.
Above: A neat convergence of species and foliage. The green "wall" on the right actually is a huge foliage leaf.
Above: An experiment with narrow depth-of-field on a porcupine tree trunk in the tropical plant area. 
Above: First of two interesting flower stamens.
Above: Second of two interesting flower stamens. This petal reminded me of the Rolling Stones tongue logo. 
Above: A curious fish swimming straight for me. The "Jaws" theme was not playing. Mindy Hiatt | Reception Book
I'm so excited to share this Reception Book made by Mindy Hiatt of Mindy Hiatt Photography. Look at that couple! Look at those locations! Look at the colors! This book turned out absolutely gorgeous! Mindy said,
I made this sample guest book to show my wedding clients. This was my first time using The Album Cafe's templates and I could not believe how easily I was able to use photographs from previous sessions. I did not have to change my style at all to create a wonderful piece of art that clients will keep the rest of their lives.
Deliberate Living
Well over a year ago I had a conversation with David Burke about his travels through Africa. One sentence he said has sat with me but I have never written it down before.
“I went to Africa to photograph the poor…I photographed joy.”
~ David Burke (see photos here & here)
This is what I learned from that conversation:
There is no poverty when there is no consumerism to attach itself to. You only know that you’re poor when you know that the other person is rich. The notion of rich does not exist because the notion of poor does not exist.
This is not an anti-consumerism argument; it is a self-awareness discussion on deliberate living.
I do not want to idealize that the poverty of Africa is some un-recognized paradise. It’s not. Starvation, polluted water and death by mosquitoes is not paradise, it’s Hell.
“The poor shall inherit the earth” ~ Jesus
We live in a post-modern world. What does that mean? Our ideas and self-concepts are shaped by media exposure that we consume (or digest), not by deliberate living. We are who we are due to the fact that we like that movie, music, TV show, magazine or book we read.
Take away media (postmodernism) and you have the question “Who am I? Who am I left with? What do I attach my self-interest to? What’s left to influence me? Ourselves? That sucks I am boring without all my stuff.”
Consumption is not the answer to any problem.
Answer: your feet on the soil of the earth itself, your family, connection, conversation, community, food, the culture of our ancestors, communication of experiences, actually doing stuff. (Stuff can be an act of doing rather than an act of acquiring objects).
Taking a long walk to get water for drinking and cleaning for your family does not mean poverty; it means that you are a more extraordinary person than I am.
What do I do with what I just wrote down…no idea yet? But I hope you share in this conversation with me.
“I went to Africa to photograph the poor…I photographed joy.”
~ David Burke (see photos here & here)
This is what I learned from that conversation:
There is no poverty when there is no consumerism to attach itself to. You only know that you’re poor when you know that the other person is rich. The notion of rich does not exist because the notion of poor does not exist.
This is not an anti-consumerism argument; it is a self-awareness discussion on deliberate living.
I do not want to idealize that the poverty of Africa is some un-recognized paradise. It’s not. Starvation, polluted water and death by mosquitoes is not paradise, it’s Hell.
“The poor shall inherit the earth” ~ Jesus
We live in a post-modern world. What does that mean? Our ideas and self-concepts are shaped by media exposure that we consume (or digest), not by deliberate living. We are who we are due to the fact that we like that movie, music, TV show, magazine or book we read.
Take away media (postmodernism) and you have the question “Who am I? Who am I left with? What do I attach my self-interest to? What’s left to influence me? Ourselves? That sucks I am boring without all my stuff.”
Consumption is not the answer to any problem.
Answer: your feet on the soil of the earth itself, your family, connection, conversation, community, food, the culture of our ancestors, communication of experiences, actually doing stuff. (Stuff can be an act of doing rather than an act of acquiring objects).
Taking a long walk to get water for drinking and cleaning for your family does not mean poverty; it means that you are a more extraordinary person than I am.
What do I do with what I just wrote down…no idea yet? But I hope you share in this conversation with me.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Liz Bradley | Reception, Dolce & Sugar & Spice!
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