P&S Article at dpreview.com

Dpreview.com has posted an interesting and useful article by Simon Joinson concerning high ISO settings with point & shoot cameras. This goes a long way towards counteracting the inflated marketing claims of camera manufacturers. The upshot of the article is keep the ISO at the lowest setting for the best results, except for one or two camera models. Check it out here.

Portfolio: Bloomsday 2007 Photos

Once again, my mom (Lavelle Joyner, age 82), Kathy and I walked Bloomsday, a 12k race. I brought along a small point & shoot camera and took some snaps. The farther back in the pack, the less formal things are. These pictures reflect that, plus all along the way bands and other entertainers set up to encourage the runners, walkers, and strollers along. It was a fun day for all.

Hermon Joyner

The Gorilla & Rabbit Band near the finish line.

Belly dancers and strollers.

People posing with the Bloomsday vulture near the top of Doomsday Hill.

Inflatable cat with guitar.

Tail feathers.

Discarded clothing in the trees.

A gorilla ready to run.

A pair of hearts.

News: Amazon Acquires dpreview.com

One of the largest online retailers, Amazon.com, has just acquired one of the biggest destination photography websites, www.dpreview.com. Digital Photography Review was started in 1998 by Phil Askey and has become one the most popular sites on the web for digital camera enthusiasts. Their camera reviews have become the benchmark for reviews and feature the most detailed information and objective feedback possible. Amazon is a Fortune 500 company that sells new and used products of nearly every description, though they got their start as an online bookseller.

Dpreview.com has always been a dependable site for unbiased reviews of digital cameras. It seems to me that it could be problematic for them now that such a big retailer owns them. I hope they can continue delivering the same level of objective reviews, and don’t become simply another selling tool for Amazon. On the other hand, maybe this will give them the resources to publish more reviews than they usually do. For some time, it’s been hard for them to keep up with the torrent of new cameras that pours out of the manufacturers. Perhaps this is just what they need to take it to the next level.

Visit dpreview's site here.

Commentary: Why We Buy Stuff

I’ve been using the same 6-MP SLR for a few years now and, while I wasn’t tempted by the 8-megapixel models that replaced it (not enough difference, in my opinion), I am now starting to look at the newest 10 to 12-MP models. All this looking around and tire-kicking has prompted me to consider why anybody buys anything. Why do we buy stuff? Is it always driven by actual need? (Obvious answer: No.) Or is it more than that? (Likewise obvious answer: Yes.) Like any type of human behavior, it is always a complex situation and answer. (I bet you didn’t see that coming. Oh, boy.)

Okay, this is the way I see it. Here are the main reasons we buy anything, whether we’re talking about a car, a stereo, computer, musical instrument, or camera:

1. It gets the job done and that’s it.

2. It makes it easier to do the job.

3. It does a better job than other tools.

4. It creates an enjoyable experience in and of itself.

5. It makes me feel better about myself or increases my prestige.

For myself, getting a new camera is probably a mix of reasons 2 and 3, with a tiny little bit of 5 thrown in. Honestly, shooting with a 6-MP SLR sometimes makes me feel a bit out of the loop, although I can’t really complain about the results I get. Well, I’m trying to deal with these feelings. I’ll let you all know how this all turns out. Cheers.

Hermon Joyner

Eloquent Nude: The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson

This isn’t a full review, but I wanted you to know about this exquisite new documentary, “The Eloquent Nude” by director Ian McCluskey. Charis Wilson was the subject and model for some of Edwards Weston’s most famous nude studies. She met him when she was 19 and he was 48. First she posed for him, but eventually they fell in love and later married. They became partners in his photography when she wrote the journal entries for his famous Guggenheim trip exploring California. “Eloquent Nude” is a documentary about Charis Wilson and her relationship with Weston.

At the time of the filming, Wilson was 91 years old, physically frail and mostly blind, but still filled with the same fire and strength of intellect she had when she met Weston. The interviews with Wilson are sometimes insightful and spirited and at other times turn wistful and poignant. It’s easy to still see the person that inspired, encouraged, and contributed to one of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century. “Eloquent Nude” provides much needed context for both Wilson and Weston, their relationship, and those early years of photography. The recreations of their photography sessions and trips with actors portraying Wilson (Christine Bernsten), Weston (Barrett Rudich), and Ansel Adams (Eric DiIlio) are fascinating and, speaking as a photographer, mostly authentic.

If you get the chance, please see “The Eloquent Nude.” At the moment, it is playing in extremely limited release, but should eventually be released on DVD. Bear in mind, however, that because of the subject matter and the actual Weston photographs, there is full-frontal nudity in this documentary, though it is never salacious or gratuitous. If you get the chance, don’t miss this documentary. It is a beautiful and sensitive film about a fascinating and dynamic woman.

For more information about the documentary and upcoming screenings, click here.

Hermon Joyner

Canon Lens Work III Available Online

The Canon website in Europe has made the current Lens Work III publication available online as a PDF. This provides details about all the lenses in the Canon catalog, sort of like an expanded sales brochure, but it does contain lots of valuable information about using lenses, optics, and MTF charts, plus there are a lot of great photographs. It's a really excellent resource. Usually published and sold as a book, it is now available as 11 chapters or separate PDFs for free, though at nearly 32 mb altogether, you will need a broadband internet connection to download it.

Click here to download Lens Work III.

Book Review: Ghosts in the Landscape by Craig J. Barber

Ghosts in the Landscape: Vietnam Revisited
Photographs by Craig J. Barber, Umbrage Editions, 2006

Craig J. Barber was a combat marine during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. In creating the series of photographs for this book, Ghosts in the Landscape, he went back to Vietnam three times during the years 1995, 1997, and 1998. For Barber, it was the chance to lay these revenants of war to rest, to deal with the memories of what happened in that place and bring closure to what happened to the people he knew and to those he left behind. Vietnam continues to be touchstone for an entire generation of Americans. Writers, poets, filmmakers, and artists have all tried to process the experience of that war in order to make sense of it all. This is Barber’s attempt to do the same. The photographs function as memorials to his memories of war, but they also function as tributes to the land and people of that country that survived after the war.

Before getting to the book, the first aspect to know about Barber’s photography is that his cameras don’t use lenses exactly; they use pinholes. A pinhole is a very tiny hole that is drilled in a metal sheet which functions as a lens, in that it’s able to focus the light into an image and project it onto film or paper. Because the tiny hole also acts like a very small f-stop, the image it creates has tremendous depth of field. In fact, most pinhole photographs have universal depth of field—everything is in focus. The consequence of this is that exposure times tend to be very long because pinholes don’t let in very much light, sometimes lasting several minutes or longer even in bright daylight. This produces interesting motion effects in the images; objects that don’t hold still are recorded as blurs and streaks of movement. The second thing to know about Barber’s images is that his prints are platinum prints, which accounts for the softer look and brown tones. Platinum prints are especially good at rendering subtle light values, while maintaining rich darker values. To the viewer, platinum prints have a nostalgic look about them, which can complement some subjects. In the case of Ghosts in the Landscape, they work very well.

The images in Ghosts in the Landscape are presented as diptychs and triptychs, that is, each image on a page consists of two or three separate images that function as one long panoramic image. This results in a slightly disjointed feel to the images, almost disorienting, where you see elements that should continue, but don’t—like memories that are missing details out of the middle of the experience. Some elements are duplicated in both images; others are left out. The people found in these haunting photographs take on the aspect of faded memories, as if they are people whose very shapes are beginning to shred and disperse due to the passing of time. Of course, this effect is because of long exposures and the inability of the subjects to hold still, but they also serve as a comment on the nature of memory. The landscapes are melancholy and contemplative, darkened at the corners as if your view has been restricted, allowing you to examine only what Barber wants us to see, which is only what he wants us to remember from his journey. And indeed, memory seems to be overriding theme in this book. Barber is dealing with his memories of the war and reconciling those memories against the reality he encountered when he went back to Vietnam. His images are luminous and beautiful with a keen bittersweet edge to them. They are meant to be slowly and patiently taken in a bit at a time, as much as any painful memory should be handled.

Ghosts in the Landscape can be purchased at: http://www.photoeye.com/.

Hermon Joyner