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Getting Creative with Maternity Photography

Maternity photography, like any other type of photography, is what we make of it. As photographers, we have almost unlimited options for creating unique and amazing photos: lighting, filters, background and setting all give us endless opportunities, yet I’ve noticed that many maternity photos look rather pedestrian and cliché.

Pregnancy is a special time in a woman’s life, and the maternity photos that you take should reflect that. Don’t be afraid to go beyond the ubiquitous hands-forming-a-heart-over-her-belly shot and do something different. While your model will let you know what she’s comfortable with and how conservative (or daring) she wants to be, you can make suggestions and help to encourage her to push her limits. Conversely, you may also be surprised by how open she is, and some ideas that she may have, so don’t be afraid to have an open and frank discussion beforehand.

One technique that I like to use in my maternity photo shoots is infrared. Infrared produces a soft grain that is flattering to both face and figure, and should you be shooting outdoors it gives your model an almost otherworldly appearance, with vegetation taking on a white glow, and any clothing or fabrics that you’re using can turn out looking completely different in print form than expected. Is it often seen in traditional maternity shots? Not really, but it’s exciting and different, and many of my mom-to-be models have been genuinely enthused when they see these shots.

Another thing that I like about shooting outdoors is that it can be done in shade or sun, so it gives a lot of interesting lighting options, especially if you’re shooting some rolls in black and white. Keep in mind that the time of day will affect your lighting, so if you’re shooting in the middle of the day, obviously you’ll have a much stronger light, and using film or regular digital will usually produce harsher images, particularly of the skin. (This is a situation where shooting infrared can produce outstanding results, by the way.) Also, be careful about putting your models in the sun for very long periods, since sun, for long periods, is a skin killer.

And while we’re on the topic of lighting, I’ve gotten great results using varied lighting techniques: the use of backlight or sidelight will usually enhance most photos of people (with or without clothes,) resulting in creative results. Don’t be afraid to highlight and shadow different features of your mom-to-be, not just the aforementioned belly shots. Use filters, backlighting and shadow to catch and feature her face’s radiant glow and the natural beauty of pregnancy, capturing her expressions from different angles and perspectives. Does your model have tattoos? These can be featured in interesting ways, and using different fabrics, such as lace or gauzy linen, can spark additional creativity.  On a technical note, if you’re using infrared, shooting with the light source from the back of the photographer or slightly from the side is preferable.  As you add infrared shooting to your repertoire, experiment, experiment, experiment; in addition to the learning part, it’s fun!

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Shutter Speed Basics
I’m going to start you off with some good, solid tips about shutter speed, aperture, exposure, how blur can work well (not the accidental type!) and what camera you can use to get goods results in your digital photography.

Shutter speed is one of the first things in digital photography that you must know if you want to excel your skills and get beautiful digital photos. Your shutter speed controls the amount of light coming in to the digital sensor. The speed at with you get your light exposure can really make or break your digital photography.

In basic terms, to help you understand, shutter speed controls light exposure. Think of it like a door opening and closing fast or slow. How fast or slow it opens and shuts has impact on your light exposure onto the digital sensor. The shutter controls the amount of light coming in to the camera via its speed. The shutter can then make your pictures brighter or darker. Shutter speed can also impact the clarity of a moving object for example. You can create shutter speeds that are fast, giving a ‘suspended in mid air’ kind of look. Think of the motion of a fast moving object that’s been suspended in “mid-air” such as a water droplet for example. Shots like this have a fast shutter speed.

So what sort of shutter speeds do you need for a look like this? A good “freeze motion” shot where something looks suspended in time, may be at a shutter speed of 1/2000 just as an example. That means the shutter has opened and closed so fast that you can’t replicate it in sound or description. The shutter has clicked in 2000th of a second. That’s how a lot of sports photography is done. Many subjects that move very fast can look really good with a fast shutter speed.

Shutter speeds of babies and kids for example have to be taken pretty fast….unless they’re asleep of course. You need a pretty high shutter speed of babies and kids because in photographic terms they move around so fast! I’ve never been more tired after a day of shooting photos of kids and babies. You have to be on your toes because a potentially great photo is gone in an instant of a second, so you have to watch them like a hawk.

On the other hand you can get blurry images using shutter speed effects manipulation. Shutter speeds and artistic blur can work quite nicely together. For example if you want to create that artistic blurred look, (not the accidental smudge look) then some gentle blur in your photos can look beautiful. This involves some adjusting of the shutter speed to get the right look for your shot. I would call it a smudging effect if you want to get technical. You may take the same photo of the kids running, but set the shutter speed exposure to something around the 1/250 or less for example. This range of f stops may create a really nice, soft blur with these shutter speed effects.

Aperture on the other hand is described as F stops. The higher the number f stop, the smaller the opening of the lens and the less light falls on the image. For example, you may find that a dusk sunset shot is rather beautiful and you want to capture the colours as you see them. You may decide to manually change the aperture, or f stop, and open up the lens and let more light in. You may find that on auto your camera has chosen an f stop of F8. You look at the scene on the viewfinder and you find it’s just a little dark for your liking. You then switch the camera to a manual mode and change it to F4, which you find lets more light in and gives you the shot you want. Remember, the higher the F stop number, the less light comes in. The lower the number, the more light comes in.

Shutter speed and aperture in your digital photography must work together closely to create the right blend of effect in your photo. So just try it. Play around with moving objects on different shutter speeds and you’ll see what I mean about the different types of effects you can get.

So what digital cameras can you have complete shutter speed and aperture control over?

Digital Slr’s are by far better as far as controlling the amount of light that comes onto your sensor. It’s a little hard to get this control with an ordinary point-and shoot- digital camera because you can’t control the shutter speed or aperture independently. On a pro-sumer camera it’s bit better because you can change the exposure value, but still, you can’t change the shutter speed alone.

Although on a pro-sumer, you may have a reading called “e/v” which stands for “exposure value”. An “e/v number” is really a measurement of the cameras combination between aperture and shutter speed. I don’t have time to go into great explanation now but if you can change the exposure value or “e/v” you have a little more scope than the point and shoot digital camera. You can still experiment pretty well if you have one of these digital cameras. However a single lens reflex digital camera is the ideal. It allows you to control the shutter speed alone, independently, without affecting the adjustment of the aperture.

To summarise, you can get beautifully artistic shots by having a sense of what works intuitively, then couple that with a good sense of photographic technical knowledge and you are well on your way! So start with trying out different shutter speeds first and then move on to aperture, then try both.

Happy shooting!

For centuries images have been projected onto surfaces. The camera obscura and the camera lucida were used by artists to trace scenes as early as the 16th century. These early cameras did not fix an image in time; they only projected what passed through an opening in the wall of a darkened room onto a surface. In effect, the entire room was turned into a large pinhole camera. Indeed, the phrase camera obscura literally means “darkened room,” and it is after these darkened rooms that all modern cameras have been named.

The first photograph is considered to be an image produced in 1826 by the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce on a polished pewter plate covered with a petroleum derivative called bitumen of Judea. It was produced with a camera, and required an eight hour exposure in bright sunshine. However this process turned out to be a dead end and Niépce began experimenting with silver compounds based on a Johann Heinrich Schultz discovery in 1724 that a silver and chalk mixture darkens when exposed to light.

Niépce, in Chalon-sur-Saône, and the artist Louis Daguerre, in Paris, refined the existing silver process in a partnership. In 1833 Niépce died of a stroke, leaving his notes to Daguerre. While he had no scientific background, Daguerre made two pivotal contributions to the process.

He discovered that by exposing the silver first to iodine vapour, before exposure to light, and then to mercury fumes after the photograph was taken, a latent image could be formed and made visible. By then bathing the plate in a salt bath the image could be fixed.

In 1839 Daguerre announced that he had invented a process using silver on a copper plate called the Daguerreotype. A similar process is still used today for Polaroids. The French government bought the patent and immediately made it public domain.

Across the English Channel, William Fox Talbot had earlier discovered another means to fix a silver process image but had kept it secret. After reading about Daguerre’s invention Talbot refined his process, so that it might be fast enough to take photographs of people as Daguerre had done and by 1840 he had invented the calotype process.

He coated paper sheets with silver chloride to create an intermediate negative image. Unlike a daguerreotype a calotype negative could be used to reproduce positive prints, like most chemical films do today. Talbot patented this process which greatly limited its adoption.

He spent the rest of his life in lawsuits defending the patent until he gave up on photography altogether. But later this process was refined by George Eastman and is today the basic technology used by chemical film cameras. Hippolyte Bayard also developed a method of photography but delayed announcing it, and so was not recognized as its inventor.

In the darkroomIn 1851 Frederick Scott Archer invented the collodion process. It was the process used by Lewis Carroll.

Slovene Janez Puhar invented the technical procedure for making photographs on glass in 1841. The invention was recognized on July 17th 1852 in Paris by the Académie Nationale Agricole, Manufacturière et Commerciale.

The Daguerreotype proved popular in responding to the demand for portraiture emerging from the middle classes during the Industrial Revolution. This demand, that could not be met in volume and in cost by oil painting, may well have been the push for the development of photography.

However daguerreotypes, while beautiful, were fragile and difficult to copy. A single photograph taken in a portrait studio could cost US$1000 in 2006 dollars. Photographers also encouraged chemists to refine the process of making many copies cheaply, which eventually led them back to Talbot’s process. Ultimately, the modern photographic process came about from a series of refinements and improvements in the first 20 years.

In 1884 George Eastman, of Rochester, New York, developed dry gel on paper, or film, to replace the photographic plate so that a photographer no longer needed to carry boxes of plates and toxic chemicals around. In July of 1888 Eastman’s Kodak camera went on the market with the slogan “You press the button, we do the rest”. Now anyone could take a photograph and leave the complex parts of the process to others. Photography became available for the mass-market in 1901 with the introduction of Kodak Brownie.

Since then color film has become standard, as well as automatic focus and automatic exposure. Digital recording of images is becoming increasingly common, as digital cameras allow instant previews on LCD screens and the resolution of top of the range models has exceeded high quality 35mm film while lower resolution models have become affordable. For the enthusiast photographer processing black and white film, little has changed since the introduction of the 35mm film Leica camera in 1925.

How to Buy Digital Camera Equipment

There are so many digital cameras that it can be confusing trying to buy digital camera equipment. Here are some tips to help you decide which the best choice is for you and buy digital camera equipment that you will get the best results with:

• The first step before you buy digital camera equipment is to set a basic budget on how much money you want to spend. You do need to be realistic about the fact you won’t be able to get the best of every feature, as you may have to make tradeoffs when you actually buy digital camera equipment.

• Your experience level has to have a big influence in your decision to buy digital camera equipment. There is no point in buying too much buy digital camera equipment than you can actually use. For a novice you should buy digital camera equipment that is point and shoot so that you don’t have to worry about manually changing any settings. Digital zoom is not as important a part in the process of choosing to buy digital camera equipment as you may first think. Basically it just means that the camera crops the picture and gives you the center piece of it. You do not need to buy digital camera equipment that does this as you can do it better yourself after you take the picture. You can usually move closer to the subject anyway and to buy digital camera equipment that includes an optical zoom can add a lot of unnecessary cost and weight to the camera. Of course, expert photographers will want to buy digital camera equipment that gives them more manual control over the exposure process.

• Next you need to consider what you will use your camera to capture before you set out to buy digital camera equipment. A fast shutter speed is necessary for moving subjects. You can also buy digital camera equipment that has special features to enable you to take multiple pictures in quick succession for high-action pictures.

• There are a number of helpful websites that give reviews on photographic products to help you decide on the best camera for your needs before you buy digital camera equipment. Of course, you can also ask friends and family about their digital camera choices. Price comparison websites are also essential to help you to buy digital camera equipment at the best possible prices. Remember that when you buy digital camera equipment there are often a list of extras that you may want to purchase, including batteries and memory cards.

Don’t be tempted to go for a trendy-looking, colorful camera if you really want to buy a less cool looking one that does more of what you want. Make sure that you have got as many of the features that you wanted to have in the first place and haven’t compromised too much on them for the sake of a few extra dollars. It is important to ensure that you buy digital camera equipment that you are happy with and enables you to take the photographs that you want.

When it comes to the internet and the advancements of modern technology, the revenue generating options are truly unlimited. One way that many people are finding great success as entrepreneurs is through the use of their digital cameras and photo printers. Whether you use your digital knowledge to enter photo contests using images taken with your digital camera or choose to start an online auction business, the use of a both camera and photo printer are essential.

With entrepreneurship in mind, the following five tips may help to get you started on the road to success using nothing more than your digital camera and photo printer.

$Start an eBay business and use your digital camera to take pictures for inclusion in your auctions. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much money will it be worth for your auction? After all, would you buy something without seeing it?

$Become an amateur photographer using your digital camera and print out the images using a realistic photo printer, which can use either black or color ink.

$Create personalized calendars by taking a photo with your digital camera, incorporating it into a calendar creation program and print them out using a photo printer. These are extremely popular at craft shows and flea markets.

$Take photos using your digital camera and incorporate them into a program that manipulates photos. You can even take two photos and merge them together. For instance, take a photo of two sunflowers and another of your two best friends. Download the images from your digital camera onto the computer and manipulate them so that the faces of your two best friends are inside of the sunflowers. Print this photo using your photo printer and use it as an example of your new digital imagery business. These, too, are extremely popular at craft shows.

$Using nothing more than a digital camera and quality photo printer, you can work in the publishing industry. Several years ago, a national magazine cover featuring a well-known celebrity was created with nothing more than a personal photo printer. The magazine office was unable to make an e-mailed image work, so they enlisted the help of a writer who enlarged the photo and printed it out using a color photo printer. The print was then mailed to the magazine’s office, who then used the image as their full-color cover picture.

When purchasing any type of electronics, including digital cameras and photo printers, always pay close attention to the warranty and make sure that you are buying a quality name in technology. Depending on your intended use, you may want to select a digital camera with a high pixel count and a photo printer capable of producing high DPI (dots per inch) images. Both will allow for better quality and more realistic photo creations.

Photo Etiquette for Wedding Guests

One of my main concerns when it came to the photography at my wedding was allowing guests to take pictures without interfering with the professional photographer and compromising shots. A Salt Lake wedding photography studio I consulted with offered a few techniques and suggestions to ensure guests get great photos without detracting from the professional photos.

Flash Settings
If you will be attending a wedding as a guest and plan to play amateur shutterbug, make sure you are familiar with the flash settings on your camera – this will allow you take beautiful, natural shots, without interrupting a moment or the “official” photos with an obnoxious flash. It may seem backwards but many professional photographers recommend turning the flash off indoors, since the harsh light can often spoil pictures. For outdoor pictures during the day, turn the flash on (most cameras will automatically shut it off), which can help reduce shadows.

Respect the Formal Pictures
Though photojournalistic and candid shots have become increasingly popular in wedding photography, the formal shots are still very important and highly valued by many. As a guest, you should always give the hired photographer the time and space needed to take these photos. Trying to get in to take a shot after the photographer will just drag out and interfere with the process.

Respect the Photographer
Understandably so, everyone wants to capture the perfect moment. Unfortunately, many guests get caught up in the moment and can become aggressive or overly excited trying to get a shot. Always be aware of how your actions are affecting others and most importantly, the photographer. Be conscious of your surroundings and take your photos without getting in the way of the photographer.

Don’t Compete for Pictures
Don’t ruin someone else’s perfect shot for the sake of your own! Practice courtesy and respect with others taking pictures, especially the professionals. Be aware of their position and pictures when taking yours – make sure your flash is not interfering with their light or you are not invading the space needed to capture the moment.

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Artist Amanda Ross-ho : I Want to be Artist

December 2006, Los Angeles — Cherry and Martin presents its first solo exhibition of Los-Angeles based artist Amanda Ross-Ho’s sculpture, photograpy and installation.

BIOGRAPHY

1975 Born in Chicago

Lives and works in Los Angeles

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2007

Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles

2006

Western Exhibitions, gran-abertura , Chicago

Cherry and Martin, Don’t Front (You Know I Got Cha Open) , Los Angeles

Roski Gallery, Infinity’s Limited Engagement , Los Angeles

2005

F2, IRRECONCILABLE INDIFFERENCES, Los Angeles

2004

Western Exhibitions, Season Finale, Chicago

2003

Soap Factory, The Earth is Rotating with this Room as its Axis, Minneapolis

Dogmatic, Scene of Changery, Chicago

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2006

Bellwether, Dice Thrown (Will Never Annul Chance), New York

Artissima 2006, Cherry and Martin , Turin

ZOO Art Fair 2006, Cherry and Martin , London

Aqua Art Miami 2006, Western Exhibitions , Miami

Commerce Street Artist Warehouse, It Was the Blurst of Times , Houston.

California State University, Long Beach, Greater LA Masters , Long Beach

New Center for Contemporary Art, Past Imperfect: Future Tense , Louisville

i-cabin, To London From Chicago, with Love , London, UK Roski Gallery, 666 , (curated by Jan Tumlir), Los Angeles, CA.

Mexico Arte Contemporaneo, Cherry and Martin, Mexico City, Mexico

Circus of Books, many guys, many many girls, all real beauties , Los Angeles

NOVA Fair, Ghosts Are Everywhere, Chicago

2005

Track 16 Gallery, State of Emergence, Los Angeles

Platform China, Hella Chihuahuas , Beijing, China.

Western Exhibitions, Things We Said We’d Never Do Again, Chicago

Art Chicago in the Park, Western Exhibtions , Chicago

Museum of Contemporary Art, ArtLA, Los Angeles

ArtLedge, Spring Break , Chicago

University of St. Francis, Players, Joliet

F2, Inaugural Exhibition, Los Angeles

2004

stichting Kunst and Complex, Battle of the Dimensions , Rotterdam, The Netherlands Scope Miami, Pari Nadimi, Miami,

Art Toronto, Pari Nadimi, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

F-Space, Ready, Set, Go!, Los Angeles

Western Exhibitions, This Thing We Do, Chicago

1R Gallery, Welcome to Wonderland, Chicago

Art Chicago, 1R, Chicago

Gallery 312, 100 Cuts, Chicago

Museum of Contemporary Art, Uncovered, Chicago

1R Gallery, The Nada Art Fair 2003, Miami

2003

TBA Gallery, Don’t Fail Me Now, Chicago

Bottom Line :

Amanda Ross-Ho makes choices in the space of seven breaths—an ancient Samurai practice. Just as well, as rapid-fire decision-making defines the work and life of this 31-year-old Chicagoan, who is exploding into the art world. When I speak to her, she is putting the finishing touches to her masters thesis at the University of Southern California and preparing for her debut at LA’s hottest new gallery, Venice’s Cherry and Martin.

Things You Need to Know about Canon Ixus 95 IS Digital Camera
Want to own a stylish and multi-functional digital camera? The answer for your need is the Canon Ixus 95 IS — and you won’t regret buying this state-of-the art, innovative gadget.

Canon Ixus 95 IS is stylish in a way that the portions around its lens are highly reflective. You also have the options in color because it comes in grey, silver, pink and blue. Your hand will enjoy handling this digital camera because its shape has a roughly standard rectangular look and not-so-thick width. You may carry it anytime and anywhere because it is so handy, with a dimension of 88.5 x 54.8 x 21.8 millimeter, and it weighs only 120 grams–so handy, that you can even slide it inside your pocket or in a purse.

For its battery, you may use a lithium ion, NB-6L that is capable of taking up to 260 shots if you are a photography enthusiast. For the memory card, this digital camera is well-matched with HC MMCplus, MMCplus, MMC, SDHC and SD cards. Take note that Canon does not provide a card with the product or any built-in internal memory. For more information about cheapest but quality batteries and memory cards, you may find it on some on-line stores.

The resolution of Canon Ixus 95 IS is 10.0 megapixels; with 3.0x optical zoom equipped with optical image stabilizer. You may optimize the settings of this digital camera through the Smart Auto Mode that uses the scene detection technology for superior shots.

You will also be amazed with the VGA movie feature of Canon Ixus 95 IS. With cool 30 fps, you can create multiple movie clips easily. The VGA movie feature has a Long Play function that lets you make longer clips that you can store in the product’s memory card.

Canon Ixus 95 IS has flat 2.5″ PureColor LCD II which is protected against scratches, dirt and light reflections. The LCD has a wide viewing angle that allows you to share images with your loved-ones.

If you enjoy taking portrait shots, the Face Detection Technology will enhance any of your portrait shots. This feature enables up to 35 face detection in just one shot. In every portrait shot you take, the settings are automatically adjusting its flash, white balance, exposure and focus. When you want to have a nice group shout, you can use the Face Self-Timer function when there is an additional face to be detected in the frame.

In terms of price range, you will not hesitate to purchase this digital camera because you can get this for as low as 129.95 dollars. You may buy this at any leading camera stores or in any authorized Canon stores. If you are techie-savvy, you may also purchase this with just one click of the mouse – over the internet. Just make sure that when you purchase online, the website is legitimate and not a scam. Canon products have an online store and that’s the best site where you can buy this wonderful Canon Ixus 95 IS.

Have you ever sat in front of a computer, flipped through multiple store catalogs, or paced through the aisles at your local department store looking for the perfect gift for a friend or family member?  If you have then you are not alone.  Each day there are multiple individuals who need to purchase a special gift for a birthday, anniversary, or another special occasion.

If you end up purchasing a gift from a department store or a catalog it is likely that the gift you selected isn’t as personalized as you wished it would be. The problem with purchasing a personalized gift is that many individuals are looking in the wrong spot.  A personalized photo blanket is a gift that would likely meet your needs; however, it is one that cannot be found in most department stores or store catalogs.  Many times the only way to purchase a personalized photo blanket is to find a photo designer online.

Finding a personalized photo blanket designer is easy thanks to the internet.  Many individuals who make a living developing personalized photo blankets only advertise their business online. This is why you may have never seen or heard of a personalized photo blanket before.  Each photo blanket designer is likely to offer different product features and designs; therefore, you are encouraged to see what each individual has to offer before planning your blanket design.

Personalized photo blankets often come in a large number of different sizes and styles.  To determine which size and style you would like to purchase you should first learn what is offered.  It is not uncommon for small throw blankets to be offered; however, it is possible for smaller and larger photo blankets to be developed.  When purchasing a personalized photo blanket you will also need to know if color blankets are available.  Most individuals prefer a black and white blanket; however, both items are popular.

When a personalized photo blanket is purchased it is possible for the blanket to be used; however, many times they are just used as a memento.  If you are purchasing a personalized photo blanket for someone that you know you should keep this in mind when making the purchase.  There are many photo blanket designers who sell wall hanging kits. This is a great personalized photo blanket accessory for those who will want to preserve the blanket and keep it as clean as possible.

A personalized photo blanket is a great gift for friends and family members.  Whether you are ordering a personalized photo blanket with a picture of you and your best friend or a picture of your family there is nothing as meaningful and as personalized as a photo blanket.  Why purchase a generic gift when you can offer so much more to the person that you care about?