Animal portraits in black & white as fine art

Atem © Wolf Ademeit

Wolf Ademeit is a German photographer who considers himself a hobbyist, although he owns an advertising agency and a photo studio. His specialty are incredibly expressive portraits of zoo animals, many in black & white – one example is shown to the right. For some more background either see read the interview by Topaz Labs (advertising their software, but explaining his approach) or read the 'about' section under his own pages.

Water wigs - fun with splashing balloons

Tim Tadder is a professional photographer in California who created quite a splash with his wonderful water wig photos – created without image manipulation! The current issue of the German magazine c't Digitale Fotografie has a feature on Tim Tadder who freely explains his approach.

The basics are very simple and well known for high-speed photos: a dark studio, camera shutter open and flashes with short flash duration to freeze the movement, triggered at an opportune moment. The colours come from colour filters in front of the flash lights. The 'wigs' are simply water-filled balloons either dropped on the models heads (sic!) or for the lengthy ones, oblong balloons that can be shaped and then are burst by an assistant with a needle.

Tim points out some important points to remember if you'd like to try this yourself:

• Make sure your equipment is splash-proof and have the model stand in some recipient for the water!
• Make your trials for the set-up with some non-living item, most models get impatient quite quickly with balloons being dropped on their head :-)
• Bald heads work best for this approach.

Yearbook 2012 published...

yearbook 2012 by esacphotoclub | Make Your Own Book

Our sixth edition of the Yearbook has just been published and congratulations go to Benja for his fantastic self portrait, which was the most popular voted image on our gallery pages in 2012, and therefore rightly deserves pride of place on the cover.

For those of you who haven't seen a print version, the 'Book Preview' above will hopefully give you a small taste of what to find inside.

I still think that each year we surpass the quality of the previous years edition and I am convinced we have done it again. A big thank you to all the members for once again putting in the time and effort to produce the images throughout the year. Without this, the club could not produce such a high quality product. Hats off to you all !

The London Olympics and David Burnett...

We last spoke about David Burnett in May of 2008 and its good to see that he still remains true to the use of anologue cameras and especially when you consider that the London Olympics coverage broke all records with respect to the number of digital cameras used and all the new technology needed to control them remotely and get all those images back to the internet world in mere seconds.

PetaPixel have a nice article on their webpage that you'll enjoy if you a retro sort of guy like me, and if your not, you may realise that digital is the only alternative out there.

Tips for Better Portraits...

Pete Hurley, one of the best known (and most successful) headshot photographers shares some nuggets of information that can help you turn your portrait from the mundane to the marvellous in the article below from the The New York Times.

If you liked what you read, you'll probably enjoy the video below and maybe even tempted to cough up for his DVD. Enjoy !



Peter Hurley: The Art Behind The Headshot DVD from FStoppers on Vimeo.

Deep North...

Nikon - Deep North from Corey Rich on Vimeo.

How's you knowledge of mountain ranges in the Arctic Circle ?, want to see the techniques and organisation involved to set up an adventure photographers shoot ?

If your interest is piqued, check out the video above by Corey Rich and most of your questions will most probably be answered.

Clouds...

You would think a 'Clouds' Theme at the end of winter, beginnings of spring would offer a multitude of opportunities for dramatic sky's.

Well this year is not the case where featureless sunny blue hs been the norm, not that I'm complaining, but it didn't help much in the preparation for the theme.

Despite all of the above, 13 members presented images and with a slight change to the format, allowing attendees the opportunity to voice their comments in advance of knowing who actually took the photograph; the meeting proved lively and active with everyone freely volunteering their thoughts and advice.

Over there on the left is one of my personal favourites from Peter, with a wonderfully composed cloudscape complementing a rather unusual building.

Next theme is 'Cityscapes', see you for more next month !

Invited Speaker - Juan Vaquero (part II)

When you meet Juan, the immediate impression is of a highly motivated, passionate and talented photographer and a highly approachable and instantly likeable character.

These initial impressions were very quickly confirmed as we received a real treat of a presentation where Juan led us through the works of photographers that personally inspire him to his own commercial, exhibition, personal and travel photography (one of my favourites you see here).

If we could of asked for anything more, Juan also graciously answered all the questions we threw at him. Personally I learned a lot and feel that my photographic awareness has been further enhanced even though I only got to spend a short time in his presence.

Juan has very kindly passed on the list of photographers he referenced during the presentation such that we can educate our eyes further:

• Margaret Bourke-White
• Ansel Adams
• David Burdeny
• Nick Brandt
• David LaChapelle
• Mark Seliger
• Jerry Uelsmann
• Oleg Dou
• Henri Cartier-Bresson
• Garry Winogrand
• Ramon Masats

Many thanks once again to Juan and we hope to see you again sometime soon.

Invited Speaker - Juan Vaquero

The club is very pleased, and honoured to announce that Juan Vaquero, will be visiting us on the 22nd March to give us all a talk on his photography and creative vision.

Juan a professional photographer from Madrid has workied with Museo Thyssen, Louis Vuitton, Cmmunidad de Madrid, Vogue Mexico and SEAT just to name a few. Along with participating in exhibitions as far a field as the United States, Malasia and China.

A very big thank you to Miguel for organising everything and I think that this is an amazing opportunity for all of us to experience closer up, the work of a professional photographer.

You can see more of Juan's work on his web site.

Mary Ellen Mark...

Profoto on Set with Iconic Mary Ellen Mark from Profoto USA on Vimeo.

Mary Ellen Mark, another one of my favourite photographers has gained worldwide visibility through her numerous books and exhibitions where she has addressed such difficult social issues as homelessness, loneliness, drug addiction and prostitution.

Working primarily with analogue camera's using black and white film, she has travelled the world extensively taking pictures that clearly demonstrate a high level of commitment and humanism. It is exactly what you will see from the above video, where Mary passes on some sage advice and you really get to appreciate her persona and begin to understand why she achieves such stunning and touching imagery.

It would not be time wasted, investigating further the work of this master photographer.