Bodypainting

This collection of body painting photographs by Craig Tracy demonstrates a way in which photography and painting can be combined. It also illustrates the artist's use of going beyond conventions and incorporating the body as a canvas.

"It is my intent to continue to explore and expand the perceptions and boundaries of this most ancient, alluring, and contempory art form." - Craig Tracy

http://www.paintedalive.com/ viewed 3/06/10

White Balance. How much do you know or use?

After hearing someone say "What's shifting white balance?" while holding some serious gear it got me a little courious. How many people here actually know about or even use the white balance shift option (Not sure what Nikon calls it - Canon has a box with colours on the side which can be moved 9 units in each direction and Nikon has like a colour gamut graph if I recall correctly) on their camera? I'm not talking about daylight/cloudy/tungsten/fluro settings; I'm talking about the adding/subtracting of magenta, blues, ambers and greens. Lucas Wroe and Letece tip toed around it during Tuesday's Colour Management class earlier in the year to the bemusement of people in the class.

This is kinda what I mean. Here's a simple photo that I took on the weekend. No filters on the lens and no editing in photoshop because its just the jpeg from the camera.


Manual 1/800 F13 ISO400 10mm K7800 WBShift B5 M2 - Userdefined 3/Sh+5 C+2 Sa+2 Ct+0

So, does anyone use it, with kelvins, with a white balance preset or has everyone just become reliant on shooting raw and just post editing in photoshop?

On my blogger reading list...

Is a blog called 'Back to basics' with postings by Dan, but whenever I click on a post it says the blog name is not registered. What's going on? I wanna look!

Photographic trade show and seminar brief

Hi all,

The brief for the photographic tradeshow and seminar (for Fridays class) is on the Click on Marketing blog: http://clickonmarketing.blogspot.com/

Ron Muek sculpture exhibition

There is a great exhibition on at GOMA at the moment, it's well worth checking out if you have some spare time and some spare cash. The Ron Muek sculpture exhibition is on until 1 August and costs $10 for students.

Even if sculpture isn't your thing it's great for stalking other patrons and watching their reactions to the work...small children are particularly hilarious! I'm not sure if it's luck or design, but the sculptures are set up in such a way that the patrons do kind of become a part of the work as the interact with it and around it.

According to GOMA, Mueks sculptures are widely acclaimed and amongst the most identifiable works in the international contemporary art arena. The figures in his work are often naked and suspended in states of self-consciousness, introspection or deep contemplation, his figures present both emotional and physical states of exposure. Astounding in their realism, Muek's works have earned him a singular place as the creator of some of the most evocative sculptures of our time.

If anyone does go along I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Muek's work.

Ron Muek sculpture exhibition

"Mummy, can he get up?"

http://qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/ron_mueck

Just curious about what people think of this shot?

Recent work

What is this blog for? I can't recall. Oh well...here's some recent portraits (though not from Anzac Day):

Our ANZAC Day Photographs

Hey gang,

Since most of us spent the day taking photographs of the ANZAC Day Dawn Service or the march in the city I thought it would be a good idea for us to post a couple of our favourites shots from the day and what style it was covered in.

I'll get the ball rolling. Here are a couple of my favourites both taken from the march in the city. I'm not good at asking people for upfront portraits, so I spent most of the day taking photos in a media/editorial style or from as far away as I could with an artistic sort of way with the perfect repeditive movements, lines and shadows - I perfer the artsie way, even if it meant I had to constantly move around :)

Canon EOS-1DMkIII + Canon EF 100-400mm F4-5.6 + Canon 1.4 Teleconverter

M 1/250 F/7.1 ISO250 300mm

Canon EOS-1DMkIII + Canon EF 100-400mm F4-5.6 + Canon 1.4 Teleconverter

M 1/400 F/8 ISO250 560mm

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It is part of a photographers job to see more more intensely than most people do

Tim Flach:
(exert from Photo-Wisdom, Lewis Blackwell)


Taking a picture was initially an almost voyeuristic thing.  At the beginning I was not given the opportunity to do big projects, but I would be commissioned to go and photograph somebody or something.  These jobs could be as diverse and everyday as recording a factory pickling gherkins, or shooting a portrait of a designer of a new bike - but it allowed me to go into different worlds, expose myself to different things.


Then I started to see photography was a way of creating a doorway for somebody else to find other things.  You can have signs in the image that have a potential to take people somewhere else.  You may not understand everything that is there, but you can have a sense for it.  So I might have an image of a neck of a horse: at one level it is a horse, in another way people might see it more as a mountain, but having heard people discussing it, I see they can find other associations.  Photographs have this potential for layering many interpretations, ambiguity, which makes photography very special.  But still it has this ultimate strength, in that something existed at some point in front of the lens; if that ingredient is maintained, respected, then you have the potential for people to find alot of connections out of that original moment that you may never have anticipated, that you could never anticipate.

Tim Flach (UK) is a photographer best known for his highly conceptual portraits of animals, particularly horses. His images of animals are considered a departure from traditional wildlife photography and he has been described as “a potent example of a commercially trained photographer who’s now reaching a global audience through the boom in fine art photography.” He is the author of the book Equus.


Tim's Website is worth a look just for the homepage!
http://www.timflach.com/

The two most expensive photographs ever sold!

These are the top 2 most expensive photographs ever sold. The first image is by Andreas Gursky of Germany. This image entitled '99 Cent II Diptychon' is THE most expensive photograph ever sold. It was first sold in 2006 and grossed $2.25 and $2.48 in 2 seperate auctions in New York City in that year. In 2007, the image was sold for the highest amount yet and the highest that a single photograph has ever sold for..... $3.34 million!!!

What are your thoughts on this image and the crazy price that it was sold for?

The second highest grossing image, is by Luxembourgish pictorialist photographer Edward Steichen in 1904 entitled, 'The Pond--Moonlight'. There are only 3 images of the negative that exist in the world. It was one of the first images to be printed in colour. It was sold for it's highest at US$2.9 million in February of 2006.

Personally, I am more drawn to the film imagey of Edward Steichen above, but I am more interested in raw film with all of it's flaws and beauty rather than the crisp, perfectly constructed 99 cent image. I am just curious, what you guys think of these 2 highest grossing images and the crazy amounts of money some rich art fanatics paid for them?!

Remember these??

"Role Models"


Back in 2008 before we all came together at SBIT, Miley Cyrus (15) posed naked wrapped inside a bedsheet for Vanity Fair magazine, photographed by none other than Ms Annie Leibovitz.

For detailed article: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article3835597.ece

The photograph caused international outroar from parents of the crazed tween fans and widespread controversy amonst the industry.

A disney spokesperson described as "a situation [that] was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines.

In response to the internet circulation of the photo and ensuing media attention, Cyrus released a statement of apology on April 27: “I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic’ and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about."

Leibovitz also released a statement saying: "I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted," Leibovitz said. "The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful."

Miley also posed with her dad Billy-Ray Cyrus in what was descibed as some creepy-too-close positions. Clearly her father didn't foresee a problem with the images.......

Young Harry??

A year earlier 2007, Daniel Radcliffe starred in a revival of the play Equus. The relatively unknown production attracted a lot of press attention, in particular the casting of seventeen year-old Radcliffe caused some controversy, since the role of Alan Strang required him to appear naked on stage.

This was despite the fact that many other young actors over the years had performed the play naked, he got absolutely slammed by the media for his outragous behaviour.

Radcliffe insisted that the nude scene was not "gratuitous" and that he should portray the character and the scene as called for by the script. Peter Firth gave more than 1,000 performances as Alan Strang from 1973 onwards also 17 years old at the time (as the character was written). However only when promotional images surfaced of Daniel Radcliffe as he would appear in the play, was it to become controversial.

An interesting opinion:

http://homeboynet.wordpress.com/2007/02/01/daniel-radcliffe-vs-harry-potter-vs-controversy/

What do you think about Miley & Harry's photographs?

Are these images offensive?

Are these stars too young for these kinds of scenes?

Is it unfair that there is limitations placed on them because they were labelled as role models?

Did these young actors know what they were doing? And the affect they would cause?

Or are they living in a fantasy world where there is no wrong and right?

Is the industry taking advantage of them?

Should we just take it for what it is or should these celebrities take some responsibility?

So many questions...................

mummies dead

QUESTION: how far is too far when using children in any form of media?


Assumably the parents of these children are aware of the images being created and are required to sign some sort of waiver.  But I have to wonder how much is photoshoped in at a later point and how much the children are exposed to at the time of the shoot.  This also reminds me of instances such is often seen in the commercial world and popular television programmes such as the CSI series when children are used to portray 'victims' how do you teach a child that acting like your mummy died is not the same as it actually occuring?

All these images are from Joshua Hoffine, born in Kansas graduated with a degree in English Literature.  His photographic career began when he started taking pics for Hallmark cards and ran his own wedding photography business.  Seems a small leap to where he is now.


more images posted on his blog HERE

Welcome

The game has begun!