Some new photographers thrive on the unpredictable nature of the event photographers; they love nothing more than entering a wedding hall or convention center and having to keep up with all the changing faces, shooting as they go, grabbing the shots where they can.

Not so for Paul Kline. Even though he was interested in photography and suspected that he might want to pursue it, when he went to his first job‚ a friend of a friend's 50th birthday party‚ he learned that working as an events photograher would not be for him.

"It was a good experience for many reasons, but I knew after that job that event photography was not for me," he said. "Even though I like working with people, there are too many elements that I can't control."

Today, he does mostly with advertising and commercial work, and occasionally does headshots and his own personal work for fun. And his focus on doing what he loves is obviously paying, as one of his photographs was chosen for the cover of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) year end 2005 Bulletin Magazine. This elegant lotus blossom print is one his top sellers, captured digitally. You can see more of Paul's photographs on his website, www.paulkline.com.

Paul has embraced cutting edge digital photography both in his commercial and personal work. "I am a complete convert from film to digital based photography. The speed, quality and flexibility that digital photography offers is unrivaled by film‚ although I still shoot a roll of film from time to time for nostalgia." 

Of course, having your photo on the ASMP cover doesn't happen without a lot of other work going into the business. Paul has his own studio in Maryland, which offers a diverse range of services including world-class photography for advertising, magazines and corporations.

Since that first job which showed Paul what direction he didn't want to go in, he has developed two interests which he now concentrates on. One of his favorite subjects is something that doesn't threaten to throw any surprise moves during the shoot: glassware. "I love the optical properties of glass and have a lot of fun shooting glass products." 

But his other favorite subject is, perhaps surprisingly given his response to shooting his first event, people‚ just not in a crowd.

"I love the dynamic nature of working with people," he said. "They always are able to surprise me, and I really try to connect with my subject. 

It was Paul's delight in the visual world around him that first ignited his interest in photography.

"I am a very visual person. My father was a photographer and taught me many things about photography, he really instilled the love of photography in me."

Paul's father gave him a good understanding about photography, but once he realized he wanted to pursue the business seriously, Paul looked into taking a course. 

Florence Welch by Wendy Redfern

Sisters are doing it for themselves with a new exhibition featuring photographs of famous women taken by female photographers.

She Bop A Lula is an exhibition featuring 70 images of successful female singers, taken by female photographers, covering the last six decades. From Lady Gaga to Shirley Bassey, many of the photographs are intimate backstage moments of the singers and a collection have never been seen before. It supports the curator Dede Millar’s idea that women often seemed to have been sidelined in popular music over the course of history and the exhibition gives both female artists of song and camera a spotlight.

The exhibition will launch with on 7 June and will run until 15 September at Dimbola Museum and Galleries, Isle of Wight. For more information please see the press release below.

Christina Aguilera by Amelia Troubridge

Press release:

She Bop A Lula will feature 70 fabulous pictures celebrating some of the most successful and creative female singers over the last six decades, from Lady Day to Lady Gaga. The photographs, some never seen before, will be a mix of candid and intimate backstage scenes, sensitive and stylised portraits, through to the excitement and raw power of live performance.

Singers featured include: Dusty Springfield, Janis Joplin, Madonna, Suzi Quatro, Nina Simone, Patti Smith, Jessie J, Kylie Minogue, Grace Jones, Amy Winehouse, Annie Lennox, Siouxsie Sioux, Debbie Harry, Shirley Bassey, Adele and many more!

Curator of the exhibition, Dede Millar, comments that the idea behind the exhibition is that in the history of popular music women are often sidelined: “She Bop A Lula will highlight the talent of women performers, as well as being a showcase for women photographers. All the exhibits have been captured by talented and award-winning female photographers who bring a different perspective to music photography than their male colleagues, they capture the vulnerability and elegance of their subjects.”

Billie Holiday by Beryl Bryden

Apart from the visual appeal of She Bop A Lula, it opens up lively debate and comment:

*Who are the Top Twenty female singers?
*Why have men been more successful than women in the music business?
*The stories and experiences of women photographers in the male dominated music industry
*What would be the ideal CD compilation of women singers?

Exhibition launch event
7 June 2013, from 7pm

There will be an exhibition launch party at Dimbola on Friday the 7 June from 7pm. This will be a fantastic evening with a DJ providing a soundtrack of great songs from the many talented musicians whose portraits will be on display. From Dusty Springfield, Janis Joplin, Nina Simone and Patti Smith to Amy Winehouse, Debbie Harry, Adele and many more!

Entry to the exhibition launch is free and open to all and there will be a licensed cash bar. Please RSVP to rachel.flynn@dimbola.co.uk by Thursday 6 (numbers are limited).

WHO ARE WE?

We're the New York Institute of Photography, a distance education school teaching photography since 1910 - over 100 years of knowledge and experience.

 Click here to watch the New York Institute of Photography video.

It's arrived! The NYICD Branding for Bloggers book has hit the shelves, and we are giving away three signed copies! Post a little something about the book on Twitter or FB and include a link back to this post. Then leave a comment below letting us know that you've completed the task. We'll draw three winners next week!

In the meantime, have a "Look Inside" on Amazon!

Want to start a blog and learn how you can turn an online hobby into a money-making career? Explore The Complete Course in Professional Blogging from NYICD.  

I just pulled the trigger and purchased the HERO3 Black Edition with a headstrap mounting attachment and extra backup battery (always a necessity). The plan is for me to let you know my progress and to share a few videos with you. Hopefully we'll be making some videos that have to do with general photography, but they just might be fun videos I'm making with my new toy strapped to my head! (Or maybe I'll become good enough to put together something like today's Video Pick, below.) I'll keep you posted, particularly as I check out the battery life, which I've been reading a lot of complaints about online (the reason why I purchased a spare battery).

WHO ARE WE?

We're the New York Institute of Photography, a distance education school teaching photography since 1910 - over 100 years of knowledge and experience.

 Click here to watch the New York Institute of Photography video.

Written by Steve Meltzer, Shared via Imaging Resource

Jack Delano's gorgeous color images from the 1940s remind us of the day when railroads dominated the American landscape -- and the American consciousness. The gigantic locomotives, the play of light on steel rails and the huge roundhouses were all elements that spurred the imagination and presented a subject of infinite possibilities for a photographer. The railroads had bound the country together and opened the West. Chicago was the hub, especially the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company's Proviso yard.

Working for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, he traveled across America photographing the effects of the Depression on American life. At the time, the railroads meant freedom and they seduced thousands of unemployed men -- and some women -- to ride the rails. They hitched rides on freight trains and hid in empty cars or slept on top of them, always on the alert for the railroad cops. In the depths of the Depression, their primary goal was to get "somewhere else" and find a job.

Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks at Proviso yard of the Chicago and Northwest Railway Company. Chicago, Illinois, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Delano was originally one of those job seekers himself when he proposed a photographic project to document the mining operations and working conditions of the Schuylkill County,Pennsylvania-area, coal mines. He sent samples of his photographs and applied for a job at the FSA's Photography program, which was headed by the charismatic Roy Stryker and was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1933 New Deal -- a program aimed at creating jobs for some of America's millions of unemployed.

A welder who works in the round-house at the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company's Proviso yard. Chicago, Illinois, December 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

 At the recommendation of the photographer Marion Post Wolcott, Stryker hired the young Delano on the condition that he had his own car and a driver's license. At a salary of $2,300 a year, Delano -- along with Wolcott, Russell Lee, Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange and others -- helped produce what is probably the greatest photographic record of American life ever made.

Women workers employed as wipers in the roundhouse having lunch in their rest room, Chicago and Northwest Railway Company. Clinton, Iowa, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Surprisingly a large number of these images were shot in color with the newly available Kodachrome transparency film. Delano was one of the FSA photographers who shot a good deal of his work in color, both as Kodachrome 35mm slides and medium format transparencies. In 2006, the Library of Congress produced an exhibition, Bound For Glory, which for the first time featured a collection of these color photographs taken by the FSA photographers.

Mrs. Viola Sievers, one of the wipers at the roundhouse giving a giant "H" class locomotive a bath of live steam. Clinton, Iowa, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress 

The benefits of classical training

Born Jacob Ovcharov in 1914 in the small Russian village of Voroshilovka, Delano came to America in 1923 with his parents and younger brother. By the age of 9 his creative talents were already evident, and he attended the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia where he studied graphic arts, photography and the viola. After that he continued his studies of illustration and music at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts until 1932.

Switchman throwing a switch at Chicago and Northwest Railway Company's Proviso yard. Chicago, Illinois, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

In these Chicago Northwestern Railroad photographs, I think you can feel Delano's musical training. Like his contemporary -- the similarly classically trained Ansel Adams -- there is the same sense of power and grandeur. They share the romanticism of the New World, where Nature and Technology have replaced the old gods. In Delano's photographs the trains and the railyards dwarf people, in much the same way as the landscape does in Adams' photographs.

View in a departure yard at Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company's Proviso yard at twilight. Chicago, Illinois, December 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

More than just a photographer

In 1941, Stryker sent Delano to photograph rural poverty in Puerto Rico. He fell in love with the island and, in 1946, he and his wife Irene settled there permanently. Delano began to write music, and for the next 50 years produced full orchestral, chamber and instrumental works, choral pieces and more. (You can see and hear one of his compositions played by the Orquesta Sinfonica del Conservatorio de Puerto Rico below.)

In Puerto Rico, Delano began to make movies of island life and, in 1953, directed and wrote the score for a film called Los Peloteros about poor rural kids and their love for baseball. The film became a classic in Puerto Rican cinema.

Like so many photographers of his time, Delano was a multi-faceted talent. And although he died in 1997, he left us the legacy of his superb photographs and his music compositions.

Chicago Union Station, 1943. Photo by Jack Delano.

To view the article in its original form, click here.

 

WHO ARE WE?

We're the New York Institute of Photography, a distance education school teaching photography since 1910 - over 100 years of knowledge and experience.

 Click here to watch the New York Institute of Photography video.

 

GDT studio category winner: 'Bubbling' by Sigi Zang GDT prize of the jury category winner: 'Returning from the hunt' by Michael Lohmann

To see all the winners from this year's contest, go to the GDT gallery by clicking here.

WHO ARE WE?

We're the New York Institute of Photography, a distance education school teaching photography since 1910 - over 100 years of knowledge and experience.

 Click here to watch the New York Institute of Photography video.

© Jeff Bridges - A self-portrait on the set of "True Grit."

Some photographers are drawn to dramatic events in exotic lands. Others are compelled to stay closer to home and burrow into the stories they know best.

The actor Jeff Bridges gets to do both. He photographs the world he grew up in, movie sets — each one a world never seen before. And he earns a little more than your average photographer while doing it.

Since 1984, Mr. Bridges has documented the sets of most of his movies, compiling a large collection of wide images that give an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at movie making.

“My photography is mainly focused on my work making movies, which I’ve done my whole life,” he said in a phone interview. “I think I have a perspective that not many people have. And I get to take advantage of all of the strange sources of light on a set.”

Though Mr. Bridges is better known for his acting roles — The Dude in “The Big Lebowski,” Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit,” Kevin Flynn in the Tron movies — he will receive special recognition tomorrow at the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Awards dinner in New York.

This is not the first time Mr. Bridges has been honored: he has been nominated for six Academy Awards and received an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as Otis Blake in the 2009 film “Crazy Heart.” But he says it is “wonderful to be recognized by people who love photography.”

Mr. Bridges uses a Widelux camera for almost all of his photos because he says its ultrawide images are close to how the human eye really sees. It’s a quirky camera that allows photographers to emphasize both foreground and background. In the introduction to his book “Pictures,” published in 2003, Mr. Bridges wrote about his favorite camera:

The Widelux is a fickle mistress; its viewfinder isn’t accurate, and there’s no manual focus, so it has an arbitrariness to it, a capricious quality. I like that. It’s something I aspire to in all my work — a lack of preciousness that makes things more human and honest, a willingness to receive what’s there in the moment and to let go of the result. Getting out of the way seems to be one of the main tasks for me as an artist.

The Widelux has a lens mounted on a moving turret. As the lens moves, a slit shutter sweeps across a wide plane of film, creating a sometimes blurry cinematic effect. It can take two and a half seconds for a normal exposure (at one-fifteenth of a second). This gives the photographer less control of the result, because when one starts taking a picture, it is hard to know exactly what will happen two seconds in the future on the far side of the frame.

“I look at the camera as sort of a missing link between motion picture photography and still photography,” Mr. Bridges said.

© Jeff Bridges - Top, Maggie Gyllenhaal: “Tragoedia/Comoedia,” on the set of “Crazy Heart.” Bottom, Matt Damon: “Tragoedia/Comoedia,” on the set of “True Grit.”

“You show up, you practice, you have as much technique that you can bring, and then the reality has much to give to the experience,” Mr. Bridges said. “That’s what makes it such a joy to look at the contact sheets. You see what you thought you had and you did, and what you didn’t think you had and you got, and that’s very similar to making movies.”

Mr. Bridges has acted professionally since he was a young child, when he appeared with his father, Lloyd Bridges, star of the television series “Sea Hunt,” on that show. While attending high school in Los Angeles in the late 1960s, he built a home darkroom in a bathroom and fell in love with black-and-white printing. As his acting career took off, he left photography behind — until he appeared in the 1976 remake of “King Kong,” in which he played an paleontologist who always carried a camera. That rekindled his interest, and after his wife bought him a Widelux, he brought it to the set of “Starman” in 1984.

His co-star Karen Allen suggested they make a book of photos for the cast, and for almost every film he has been in since then, Mr. Bridges has made a special, limited-edition book for the cast and crew.

His purchasable collection, “Pictures,” was published by PowerHouse Books, and he donates the proceeds — including from sales of individual prints — to the Motion Picture and Television Fund and several organizations that fight hunger in the United States.

At times, his photographs form a visually refined family album that includes his father; his brother, the actor Beau Bridges; and his fellow actors. They provide a behind-the-scenes view of movie making and sometimes resemble early silent slapstick shorts more than they do fine art films.

Mr. Bridges revels in using the Widelux’s long exposure time to take in-camera photos of his acting friends (Slide 12 and above) making comedic and tragic faces. During a single exposure, they run from one end of the frame to the other and pose goofily for the camera.

He wants to publish a book of his newer images and intends to continue photographing the sets of his movies.

So, Mr. Bridges will abide. You can take comfort in that.

© Jeff Bridges - Sam Elliott and Jeff Bridges: “The Stranger” and “The Dude” on the set of “The Big Lebowski.”

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