Sex Sells! Perhaps Even Presidents

Sex sells. It's an old adage, albeit not one usually applied to presidential campaigns.

Until now.

John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, has enough sex appeal to apply the tried-and-true-axiom to the process of selling tickets to the offices of two of the most powerful, executive positions in the world.

What's this have to do with photography? Glad you asked.

Interestingly, some might say "sadly," search engines are reporting queries for photos of Sarah Palin outweigh searches for her bio or other (relevant?) info about her. It might turn out that photography (with the added element of sex appeal) will play a greater role in selecting our next president than the issues and/or the candidates' actual qualifications. I hope not, but there it is. After all, this is the first time most of us have heard the term, "She's hot!" applied to a presidential-ticket candidate.

The recent Jill Greenberg controversy, here and here, is another interesting example of the power of photography as it applies to this presidential campaign. I should note the Greenberg story is sans the sex appeal element. Unless, of course, your idea of a stud muffin is a stodgy, white-haired dude with the nose of an aging pugilist.

Note: I ain't trying to politicize this blog. It's about photography, not politics. Please also remember--as with this and other updates--I'm just saying. So take it for what it's worth, if anything.

Adorama Kicks Off Another 100 in 100

Adorama kicks off a third season of their popular 100 in 100... make that 100 photography tips in 100 days.

You'll find some cool, useful, easily digestible tips in Adorama's 100 in 100 archives and in their current updates.

'Nuff said. You take it from here.

Canon's Destined Evolution

Image above is Canon's teaser for (what many people assume will be) the much anticipated replacement for its popular 5D dSLR. There's much speculation the camera will be announced soon, possibly at Photokina, 2008, which kicks-off in less than two weeks.

The people who research this sort of stuff, aka the Canon and Nikon guessers, are fueling rumors of a Canon 5DmkII sporting a 21+ megapixel, self-cleaning, full-frame sensor with a DigicIV processor housed in a weathered-sealed, magnesium alloy body. They're expecting 5fps with an ISO range of 100 to 6400, 19-point AF, 3.5" LCD screen, LiveView, and HD movie mode. Not too many guesses regarding the price but I'm thinking it will be somewhere in the range of the original 5D when if first came out. I purchased my 5D soon after its release and I think I paid about $3,500 (at a retail camera store) for the body only.

I doubt I'll be purchasing one of these cameras. I'm pretty sure I can continue to make-do with my original 5D. Yeah, if the Canon guessers are right, the 5DmkII will have nearly twice the megapixels of my 5D and a new and, I'm assuming, much improved processor. But I think I'd rather spend my money on "L" glass. Great glass, IMO, almost always yields better images than megapixels and processors when you're using comparable camera bodies.

The improved weather sealing is probably Canon's attempt to make the 5DmkII more attractive to photojournalists, nature photographers, and others who work in potentially "dirty" environments. The original 5D sucks in this regard. I have to clean mine way too often and I rarely shoot in "dirty" environments. But many of these same people aren't going to be overly impressed with 5 FPS. (The original 5D is 3FPS so the 5DmkII is not a big leap forward regarding FPS and buffer)

Regardless of what I decide to do or the accuracy of the "guesser's" predictions, I'm sure Canon's Destined Evolution camera will be a commercial success. There are too many photo-tech-heads out there--those who regularly seem compelled to buy cameras of the latest-n-greatest variety--for the 5DmkII to be anything but a success.

Now, if RED founder Jim Jannard's promise to deliver a truly new and (r)evolutionary digital SLR becomes reality, and it ends up being to still photography what his digital, ultra-high-resolution video camera has been to movie makers, I might have a new camera in my future... assuming it's reasonably affordable, available with lens mounts that are compatible with my glass, and, well, and a whole lot of other stuff.

PhotoShelter Bails on the Stock Photo Biz

Effective October 10, 2008, PhotoShelter will no longer be trading in the stock photography commodities market. What? You're an artist, you say? Your photography isn't a commodity? Okay. If you say so. But if, for some purely (Ugh!) commercial reasons, you're considering making a few extra bucks with the fruits of your camera, you might start considering some of it as such. i.e., as a commodity.

Personally, I'm neither shocked, surprised, nor saddened by PhotoShelter's decision. There's an explanation on the web regarding why they've gotten out of the stock photo biz but, frankly, I'm not much interested. Bottom line: PhotoShelter's foray into stock photography is history. RIP.

I was, however, taken back by a collateral-damage casualty of PS's decision, namely, the demise of their most-excellent blog, "Shoot! The Blog."

But like a phoenix rising from the ashes of corporate destruction, Rachel Hulin, PhotoShelter's pink-slipped former blog attendant, has created a new blog in order to keep doing what she was doing for PhotoShelter... Only more! And more better I'll bet! (Sorry for the bad English.)

We won't be jonesing for our daily fix of Hulin's picks. (Her picks of pics, that is.) I'm guessing Rachel's new blog will soar even higher now that the excess-baggage of corporate sky marshals and flight controllers--the ones she once needed to appease--has been jettisoned.

So here's some big fat good luck wishes to Rachel and her new supersonic blog-craft!

You can visit Rachel's new blog by clicking HERE. It's also listed in my Blog Roll. Oh yeah, that's a pic of Ms. Hulin up at the top. Nice photo. Easy on the eyes. No. I didn't snap it.

Spirit Photography

During the last half of the 19th Century, spirit photography, i.e., attempting to capture manifestations of spirits (make that ghosts) utilizing photographic processes, became wildly popular. It's popularity went all the way to the White House!

Who knew Abe and Martha had enough spare time on their hands--what with the Civil War raging on and all--to get bit by the spirit photography bug?

To this day, the art and craft of spirit photography lives on although, admittedly, not with the same zeal as it did 150 years ago. Most modern day practitioners attempt a more scientific approach in their quests to find evidence that spirits walk amongst us. (I wonder if they teach a class in spirit photography at the Brooks Institute?)

The vast majority of spirit photographs have been debunked as fraud. Yet still, a few examples defy logic and fuel the search for photographic proof that there is an afterlife. Hollywood has exploited the spirit of the spirit photography craze a few times. The recent feature film, Shutter, is a good example. Hollywood's "Shutter" is a remake of a Thai horror film of the same title. I haven't seen either version but I'll bet the original is, as is usually the case, a scarier better film. You can check out the trailer for the original "Shutter" HERE.

For a more detailed history of spirit photography, CLICK HERE. If you're interested in learning even more, a spirit photography Google search yields many more results. Or, simply sit back and take a look at the short video I found on YouTube that briefly examines the history of spirit photography.

By the way, if you're wondering why I'm so captivated with photography's past, I believe that learning about the history of photography and the work of its greatest craftsmen and artists helps me better understand photography's present state. Leastwise, that's a big chunk of the reason. Besides, who knows? Learning about this stuff might even help make me a better shooter. Stranger things have happened.

The Father of American Photojournalism

I guess I'm still on a history jag. At some point, I'll get back to photography of a more contemporary nature, maybe even some of my own.

So who was this guy (pictured left) they call the father of American photojournalism? Well, most historians credit Mathew Brady with that distinction.

Brady, as you probably already know, was most famous for photo-documenting the U.S. Civil War. But his portfolio was not limited to Civil War battle images. He was also a portrait photographer who captured the likenesses of many famous people of his era, albeit the majority of them Union and Confederate officers. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln posed in front of Brady's camera more than a few times. In fact, one of Brady's photos of Lincoln is still used on the $5 bill, another graced the Lincoln penny.

Unfortunately, much of Brady's work is lost. After the war, the majority of the glass, photographic plates he used to record America's most devastating war were sold and used in greenhouses. (Hmm... There's something poetic about that: Images recording the death and tragedy of war used as components for structures nurturing life. Sort of a swords to plowshares concept.)

Most people probably aren't aware that many of the images credited to Brady weren't actually snapped by Brady. I know I was surprised to learn this fact.

Mathew Brady, it seems, employed a team of photographers and assistants to photo-document scenes from the Civil War. Alexander Gardner, James Gardner, Timothy H. O'Sullivan, William Pywell, George N. Barnard, and Thomas C. Roche were the photographers he employed. Seventeen other men, from assistants to darkroom technicians, were also employed. Brady's field production crews were equipped with traveling darkrooms. For most of the war, Brady remained in Washington, D.C., organizing and managing the business side of photo-capturing the Civil War. Although Brady personally photographed the Battle of Bull Run--and was nearly captured while doing so--he visited few battlefields after that. This might have been due to Brady's deteriorating eyesight. A malady that began in the 1850s.

Sadly, the father of American photojournalism died alone and broke in the charity ward of Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. (Wow! Photographers and other artists dying broke. How unusual.) It's estimated Brady lost over $100,000 producing the 10,000+ photographic plates his crews exposed while documenting the war: A rather large sum back in those days.

Shorpy's Blog

For the few of you who semi-regularly visit this blog, you've probably figured out I'm more than a little interested in history and things of a historical nature including, but not limited to, all things photographic.

As such, I was happy to discover the photographic wonderments of Shorpy: The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog. (Hat tip to Pop Photo's State of the Art blog for pointing me to Shorpy.)

No, the Shorpy blog itself isn't 100-years-old. D'uh. Blogs didn't exist 100 years ago. Neither did the internet... except, perhaps, in the futurist minds of writers like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, although I don't believe either of them ever wrote about it. (But I could be wrong.)

Instead, Shorpy is a photoblog featuring high-definition images from the first half of the 20th century. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a 14-year-old boy who worked in an Alabama coal mine and ironworks in the 1910s. I doubt Shorpy could ever have dreamed his name and likeness would someday grace the masthead of something called a "photoblog." But who knows? Perhaps Shorpy, like Verne and Wells, was somewhat precognitive? Stranger things have happened!

At the top is a picture of a young, grease-soaked, Shorpy, photographed by Lewis Wickes Hine, standing front-and-center amongst a group of his (also quite young) co-workers at the old mine and ironworks. Hine is one of my all-time-favorite editorial photographers. His images of child labor in turn-of-the-century American industry, as well as his photo-documentation of the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City, are indelibly etched in the history of American photojournalism.

If you're like me and you enjoy viewing photographic glimpses of the past, you'll probably spend some quality time at Shorpy: The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog.