Prima Gallery

1. Low lighting

Lighting is always an issue indoors so use it to your advantage. Choose an area or location in your house that has good natural lighting, enough to light your subject but not too much that will overpower it. Switch off your flash and any other artificial lighting. This low lighting is going to help you get a moody effect with just natural light. An image doesn’t always need to brightly and evenly lit and shadows will only add something extra to the photo. A half lit face adds drama to a portrait shot indoors using just natural light.

2. Abstract art

This is a really an easy photo opportunity and lends itself to macro or close-up photography. What’s great about the home is that there are many items that can be given a new artistic perspective when shot close-up. Choose part of the object, get in really close and see if you can shoot it in such a way that someone would not recognize it for its intended purpose. Most of us have seen those ‘guess what this is’ photos in magazines of an object where readers have to guess what the image actually is. Change your white balance settings for some interesting color casts.

DSLRs are complex pieces of photographic equipment and it is easy to get lost or fail to take full advantage of their capabilities. Looking beyond the user aids such as scene modes in entry level DSLRs, they are still capable of stunning results in the hands of a competent photographer even if they come in designer colors. .

Scene modes appear helpful but hey apply a one size fits all approach to more complex photographic situations and fail to take full advantage of the camera’s capabilities. Presumably, photographers choose DSLRs so they can produce excellent images under all conditions.

To learn how to cope with the complexity and powerful capabilities of your new DSLR try taking small steps. This means taking plenty of photographs of the same things in your neighborhood. This is how professionals try out new equipment and techniques.

Read the Manual

But not all at once. The aim is to read small sections of the manual, only as they are needed. Only read far enough to read the “Getting Started” or “Quick Start Guide” section. This should be enough to start taking photos and having fun with new camera. As the confidence in the camera builds move on to other sections in the user manual, one at a time.

P Mode

The first step is to leave all the menu settings on default so that the camera is in auto everything mode. Then set the mode dial to P and start shooting. This is a basic automatic exposure mode where the camera decides on the exposure settings and is good place to start for the first pictures. In the picture of the Nikon d3000 below, the P mode is grouped by the line on the mode dial with the serious photography modes.

This allows practice with all the other basic operations of taking a digital photograph and using it on the computer and printing it. The P mode is like training wheels on a bicycle, handy when learning, but they do prevent the user from using the device to its full capabilities.

Use The Viewfinder

When photographers use the viewfinder they are holding the cameras properly, minimizing the possibility of camera shake. Live view is largely a marketing gimmick designed to appeal to photographers graduating from cameras lacking a good optical viewfinder. Live view is useful when using a tripod, but for hand held shots use the viewfinder.

Exposure Compensation

This is a good first step in taking control of the DSLR as it allows finer tuning of the camera’s suggested exposure settings. Exposure Compensation is useful when lighting conditions become a bit more complex.

Using the EXIF Data

EXIF data is a marvelous feature of all digital cameras; they keep the shooting notes for photographers. Novice photographers often have no idea what shutter speed or aperture to use. Review the photographs made using the P mode, noting the settings the camera chose, and see the resultant picture. This gives a good starting point for photographers choosing these settings.

Aperture Priority

The most popular exposure mode amongst advanced photographers is Aperture priority, usually indicated by A or Av on the mode dial. Here the photographer sets the lens aperture to suit their Depth of Field needs and the camera decides the appropriate shutter speed.

Shutter Speed Priority

This is for capturing moving subjects, usually T or Tv. The photographer sets the shutter speed to suit the speed of the subject and the camera sets the lens aperture for a good exposure.

ISO

This is the sensitivity of the cameras to light. Higher the sensitivity is good for lower light conditions but image noise increases as the ISO increases. Set it to the lowest value or use the Auto ISO function which only raises it when low light conditions require more cameras sensitivity

Only the Start

DSLRs are incredibly powerful photographic tools and these first steps are long way from complete mastery of the digital camera. The main aim in any long-term project is to break down into small manageable steps. Suite 101 are continually adding more photography Feature Articles for photographers ranging from novice to expert.

Buying a DSLR lens based on brand image ignores the range of quality levels often found within a brands range. Most lens manufactures offer range of quality levels from their premium lenses ignoring cost and convenience in search of optical and mechanical performance.

Then there are the budget class lenses aimed at more occasional photographers who put greater emphasis on price and convenience. This results in smaller, lighter lenses with greater zoom ranges and smaller maximum apertures.

There is a perception of the superiority of camera manufacturer’s lenses over specialist lens manufacturers. Often the specialists offer advantages to DSLR lens buyers in the form of price, smaller size, or better quality. Their budget offerings that compete on price often reinforce the belief that they only offer low quality products. However, many also offer premium interchangeable lenses with quality suitable for professional use.

Manufacturers Clues to Quality

Most but not all manufacturers give a clue where a particular lens sits in their quality hierarchy, these are some indicators of premium lenses;

• Olympus: offer two levels of premium quality High Grade and Super High Grade
• Canon: L series
• Sigma: EX
• Tamron: SP
• Pentax: * and Limited ranges
• Sony: G series and Carl Ziess designed

Nikon is the notable exception but price and specifications are a good guide to differentiate their budget from premium lenses.

Price – You Get What You Pay For.

The quality of lenses differs not only between manufacturers but also within their own lens ranges. This reflects the compromise between quality, convenience, and price.

Sometimes photographers base their lens buying decisions based on poor performance of the budget lens of one brand. They compare the budget lens with the professional image of the cameras manufacturer branded premium lenses and then buy a budget lens from the camera manufacturer. This ignores the spread of quality levels within a manufacturers range. If photographers want professional level quality then they need to pay a professional level price whatever brand of lens they choose.

Lens Specifications

Very often, the names of lenses consist of strings of strange letters and number. Some are reasonably self-explanatory and others require more explanation of what they are and why they could be important in your lens buying decision.

Remember the basic premise of this article is no single factor should be the only consideration in any lens buying decision. These specifications have varying importance to prospective lens buyers depending upon their individual photographic requirements.

APO (Aprochromatic )

This is when the lens elements produce the same amount of refraction on the different wavelengths, or colors, of visible light.

ED,UD, ELD

These letters are different lens manufacturers way of referring to low dispersion glass used in the elements of the lens. This relates to the sharpness of the resultant image.

f/

A number follows this symbol indicating the maximum aperture size of the lens. The smaller the number the larger the aperture and the more light the lens can gather. It is only one number for a prime lens but some zooms have two, for example; f3.5-5.6 indicating the effective aperture becomes smaller as the focal length of the lens increases. Generally, the lower the f number the better the image quality of the lens. Zooms with the same effective aperture over their zoom range are usually better quality lenses.

USM, HSM, SWM

These refer to lenses with inbuilt autofocus motors. They usually operate faster and quieter than lenses where the autofocus system uses the motor in the camera body via a drive shaft.

Weight and Size

Maximizing the performance indicators in premium lenses usually results in larger and heavier lenses. In price conscious consumer grade lenses often the goal is to make them smaller and lighter without sacrificing too much image quality.

The invention of photography in the 19th century came at a time of major developments in the Near and Middle East. So it is not out of place here to recall them so that the context of the development of photography in this region may be better understood.

In 1799 the study of Egyptology took a great leap forward thanks to a discovery of great importance. A French officer came across the famous Rosetta Stone, which made possible the deciphering of the hieroglyphics. Although the stone was taken by the British and Thomas Young had begun to decipher it, it was the French historian Jean François Champollion who finally completed the study, in 1822.

In 1812, Petra and Abu Simbel were effectively explored by the Swiss Johan Ludwig Buckhardt.
The first regular shipping line between Marseille and Alexandria started operation in 1835.

In 1859, Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894) began the piercing of the Suez Canal, which entered into service ten years later following an official international ceremony under the patronage of the Empress of France, the Emperor of Austria and the Crown Princes of Prussia and Denmark. So the lines of communication, transport and commerce were greatly shortened.

Jerusalem, which up till then had aroused little interest apart from its Holy Places, developed as an international center. The British were the first to open a consular office there, in 1833, followed by the Prussians in 1842, the French in 1843, the Americans in 1844, the Austrians in 1845, and the Russians in 1858. In 1837 the Turkish postal services began to operate from Palestine and the first telegraphic service in the region was installed in Jerusalem in 1865.

In 1881, the first wave of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived in Palestine, among them photographers.

During the 19th century, there were two ways of corresponding in the Ottoman Empire. There was the Turkish Post Office, slow and not very reliable, and there were the various post offices opened by the foreign powers. The most efficient ones were that of Austria, backed by Lloyd’s maritime Austriaco, and that of France. It was in this way that the French postal service established itself in the Ottoman Empire from 1830 on. This implantation was basically meant to make up for the shortcomings of the Turkish postal service and to improve the postal communications necessary for the smooth functioning of the French and other European enterprises and commercial operations set up in the main ports around the Mediterranean. Among the first five post offices installed between 1830 and 1849 was that of Beirut, in 1845. The stamps affixed on the letters were those of the countries running the post offices, and the stamped mail was carried regularly by the frigates anchoring off the Grand Hôtel d’Orient (hôtel Bassoul) near the present Hotel Phoenicia.

In the 19th century Britain and France had little difficulty extending their influence over the Levant, for although the Ottomans had been ruling there for three centuries, they had imposed neither their language nor their civilization, and had never imposed their culture over the Near East. What was more, they openly despised the local populations. Consequently, the rule of the countries of Western Europe had much more influence than that of the Ottomans. France spread its influence over Egypt, Lebanon and Syria through its commercial and cultural activities and through its social and cultural services. Great Britain was more concerned with the work of its missionaries and the extension of Protestant influence. One of the principal aims of these missionaries was the conversion of the local populations, the Jews in the Holy Land, particularly in Jerusalem, the Druze in Mount Lebanon, and the Greek Orthodox in Beirut, with financial aid for those who were converted. The limited success they met with in their mission seems today to be a proof of the difficult conditions of survival in the region.

At first, France was more successful in spreading its influence over the area. Britain, being preoccupied by its colonial efforts in India, was less concerned with the Near East. Further, the attitude of the French towards the local peoples proved more agreeable to them than that of the British.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire, called by the Europeans the Sick Man of Europe, was crumbling on every front. This weakening of the Empire was due to several factors.

-As a result of the participation of France together with Great Britain during the Crimean War (1851-1853), Sultan Abdel-Magid was obliged to grant certain privileges to the non-Muslim inhabitants of his empire and to strengthen the reformist current in conformity with European conceptions.

-During the 1870s, the internal situation in Egypt deteriorated. The country was bankrupt and the Panislamic nationalist movements opposed to westernization became more numerous and violent. The condominium established by Paris and London over the finances of the Khedive provoked strong nationalist agitation which led up to the military revolt led by Arabi Pasha in 1882 and on June 11th to the massacre of some sixty Europeans in Alexandria. One month later, the British Navy bombarded Alexandria and then made landings there. In September, the British forces finally sent an expeditionary corps to occupy the whole of Egypt.

As a beginner you may have a vast number of photography ideas. What you may be wondering is what technique is best to use with which idea. Before taking a photography course you may wish to try the technique described here.

Before you begin list all of your ideas on paper. Sit down and give yourself twenty minutes of uninterrupted time to brainstorm every idea that is saturating your mind. This technique is often called a “brain dump.”

You will be amazed at the creativity that emerges once your mind is cleared of all the clutter of thoughts and ideas you are having. After making your list put a star beside your favorite photography ideas – not more than ten.

Then go back and put two stars beside the ones that seem to excite you the most – not more than three. Take these three most exciting ideas and think about what it will take to complete them. Are you equally excited about the process each will require?

Choose the photography idea that excites you the most and that would be the easiest to implement. If all three of your top favorites are equal, write them on one piece of paper each, fold the paper, and put the papers in a box.

Now, with your eyes closed, draw one photography idea out of the box and get busy with it. When it’s complete, follow the same process to choose your next project. Simple, right?

The flowers are in full bloom, the vegetables look ready to eat, the beach scenes beckon, and there is a glimpse of European travels, all inviting the viewer to "Through the Lens 11," photography by Anne Holland. Anne Holland has returned to The Stable for the second time in the last three years to exhibit her photographs.

The exhibit is Holland’s second at The Stable. There are 45 new pictures in this show.

"I sold 40 pictures at the two-hour reception at The Stable in January 2007," Holland said.

Holland’s life as a photographer began eight years ago. She was moving from her home in Wilton, Conn., to a condo in Danbury, Conn.

"When we put our house on the market I made a little photo book of our perennial gardens. Then it took off from there," she said. "I started making greeting cards with my photos and now my total sales of cards is 11,000."

When she first started taking photos, she borrowed her son’s camera; now she uses a Canon film camera and also has a small camera in her car.

Holland discovered The Stable while visiting her daughter’s family, who are village residents.

"There is nothing like this [The Stable] in Connecticut. It’s my favorite space," she said.

It takes five to six months to prepare for the show, she said.

Morning and evening are the best times to photograph, for the light, commented Holland. She said flowers are her favorite thing to photograph, especially roses.

"Wagon/flowers" was photographed in Palm Desert, Calif., with most of the floral photos shot in Descanso Gardens. "Yellow tulips," "Pink/yellow poppy," "Sunflowers," "Sepia rose," "Peach poppy," "Orange tulips," "Gerber daisy," "Orange zinnia," and "Purple daisy" are also being displayed. Orchids were photographed at the New York Botanical Gardens, as was Chihuly glass. A photo of water lilies was also taken at the Botanical Gardens.

During a trip to Siena, Italy, hats and the flowers adorning them hung outside of a flower shop that caught Holland’s eye.

"Whenever I shoot, I have an idea what people are looking for," she said.

"Blue/yellow pansy" was photographed in Myrtle Beach.

"Restaurant/bike" and "Pizza restaurant" show street scenes in Rome. The Food Court in Barcelona provided vibrant colors for "Cherries/peaches," "Radishes" and "Tomatoes/garlic." "Peppers/lemons" was photographed in Corsica.

Holland called "Tart," taken at Zabar’s Bakery in Grand Central Station, a fun food shot.

Beach scenes photos in the exhibit include "Pilings/seagulls," and "Two canoes" from Martha’s Vineyard, with "Sea shells" her granddaughter brought from Cape Cod. Atlantic City, Myrtle Beach, Cape May and Westport, Mass., also provided interesting shots. She photographed "The Alabama Pilot Boat," an early 1900s vessel, while on a ferry from Oak Bluffs in Martha’s Vineyard.

There is also a look at an Annapolis, Md. home called "Green Shutters."

Holland’s greeting cards are sold throughout Fairfield, Conn., and her photographs are on display at businesses in both Connecticut and New Jersey.

She is a member of the Candlewood Camera Club of Connecticut and has received outstanding achievement awards from the International Society of Photographers, first place in Westport magazine’s photo contest, and first place in the Orlando Sentinel’s photo contest. Her exhibits have been featured at Candlewood Camera Club and three libraries. She will be displaying at another library in April.

With all the galleries sprouting up along H Street NE, the neighborhood may be on its way to becoming Washington's next big arts district, and another addition this weekend will certainly help the area's credibility. G Fine Art, formerly housed along 14th Street, is taking up residence in the up-and-coming neighborhood.

The gallery celebrates its move to Northeast Washington on Saturday with a new exhibition and an opening reception. The work of A.B. Miner goes on display in "Naked," a show that strips down in more ways than one. In one diptych, Miner pulls back the curtain on his creative process, while a massive 12-panel painting shows a year in the life of a post-surgery expanse of skin from a landscape of stitches to a healed, though scarred, chest. Meanwhile the video piece "Fly 08" -- a riff on Yoko Ono's "Fly" -- features the interaction between an insect and a reclining nude figure.

Much of photography’s past is on display at the Association of International Photography Art Dealers Photography Show, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. But if you are concerned about the future of the medium, there are only a few hints of what might be to come.

Mainly it is a show for collectors of vintage prints. Among the 72 dealers, scores are presenting usual-suspect inventories: Evans, Weston, Arbus and so on. Some, however, have exercised more creativity.

Photology, for one, has a marvelous display of small, sexually provocative Polaroids by a select few, including Helmut Newton, Carlo Mollino, Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe. At Hemphill there is an understatedly poetic series of pictures of old buildings in the South taken in the 1970s with a Kodak Brownie by William Christenberry.

Two galleries present remarkable, though very different, triplets.

Monroe has Eddie Adams’s famous 1968 picture of a South Vietnamese officer shooting a Vietcong suspect in the head, flanked within the same frame by shots in which the prisoner is being escorted by soldiers before his execution and has fallen to the ground after.

Bruce Silverstein has three variations on a subtly surreal 1948 portrait of a preteen girl with strangely bright eyes and curiously dark skin (she’s white). She seems an eerie blend of innocence and witchy experience.

Similarly weird pictures of children by Loretta Lux are at Yossi Milo, but they are in color and slightly distorted digitally. “Marianne,” in a neat powder-blue coat, is lovely if a little spooky, but the strangely solemn, big-eyed twins in polka-dot dresses in another image are scary. They look as if they escaped from Stanley Kubrick’s film “The Shining.”

There is a lot of work in the show that blurs the line between commercial and fine art. Danziger has pictures of the punk goddess Patti Smith by Annie Leibovitz. At PDNB Gallery there are still-life pictures of food by Robyn Stacey. A watermelon with a chunk cut out of it simultaneously calls to mind Baroque-era Spanish Realist painting and illustration for a contemporary gourmet food magazine.

As for the future, Bryce Wolkowitz offers a variety of electronically animated works, including a self-portrait by Shirley Shor that appears on a framed flat screen. Using a program she wrote, Ms. Shor created a composite image in which randomly changing pixels from pictures of herself and about 40 relatives and friends combine into a shimmering, constantly shifting single portrait.

One photographer who definitely has a future is Alex Prager, a young Los Angeleno who makes staged color photographs of women that synthesize the influences of Cindy Sherman, Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Douglas Sirk. Her coolly romantic pictures are at Yancey Richardson, and she will be included in a show of new photography at the Museum of Modern Art in the fall.

While the annual Photo Regional may be the best barometer of what's happening in the medium, the "Best of" exhibition series at the Photo Center of the Capital District in Troy, now in its second year, is becoming the gauge of emerging talent.

With 25 artists, "Best of 2009" is rough around the edges, but that's its charm. The 52 frames jam the center's cluttered space with a salon feel. It's easy to miss the pictures lining the tight and winding hallway leading to a "Do Not Enter" sign on a back door.

Exposed pipes and some works hanging on an odd partition -- wobbly as walls in an office cubicle -- add to its casual, unfinished feel.

A majority of the frames are landscapes -- many of the tried-and-true variety -- yet nearly all exhibit a high level of technical execution. There are no real surprises, but some do push the medium. As last year, many artists have taken up photography recently; about one-fifth of the entries were unknown to organizers.

Like the Photo Regional, the "Best of" is organized through an open call. Submissions are whittled down to the best of a single artist. In a new twist, the works not making it to the walls are shown in a video compilation. Visitors are encouraged to vote for their three favorites in keeping with the center's mission of developing new photographers.

In keeping with that spirit, here are my three selections:

"Hotel Movement" by Diane Reiner. A black-and-white geometric image that toggles between the ideas of existence and buildings, work and play, home and travel caught by a keen eye for the moment.

"Storm King at Dusk" by Lynn Palmiter. The Hudson River Valley has been the subject of some great art over the years, and this image adds a level of foreboding and mystery.

"Merging Earth and Sky" by Cheryle Gowie. Using a long exposure, the black-and-white image literally drags the sky to the tree tops, while its use of watercolor paper with various coatings frays the ends into jagged forms.

'Emerging Artists 2010'

Most of the artists don't have regular gallery representation; none went to a formal art school. They seem content to stay on the fringes of the art scene, breaking academic rules of color, form, material and composition with brooding, unabashed glee.

They are gathered in an exhibition called "Emerging Artists 2010" at the Limner Gallery in Hudson through March 27.

The pen/ink and digital image "DJ Change" by Gavin Weir has an Obama-esque figure spinning tunes at a decadent party with dollar bill-laden donkeys and elephants grinding and bumping on stripper poles. "Mary" by Tamara Staser-Meltzer is a caustic paper collage showing a deconstructed Jesus' mother as anything but a virgin.

E. Thurston Belmer's "A Red Home" takes the form of a homey and sedate 19th-century portrait, but startles with its pain and longing, while the highly graphic head shot on oil and canvas in "Obey" by Tim French conjures up fear and loathing in an autocratic society. There's a rough quality of youth to the exhibition, and a wide variety of skill.