Linda Connor exhibit at the PAM

Since their remodel in 2006, the Norton Gallery at the Phoenix Art Museum has been home to some fantastic photographic exhibits. Their latest installment is the photography of Linda Connor. Linda uses a large format 8x10 view camera to capture her images and then does a direct contact print exposing them with sunlight in her garden. The prints are also toned with gold chloride that adds an inherent luminosity.

If you visit the museum on Tuesday evenings you can get in to see it for free! The museum offers free general admission every Tuesday from 3-9 PM as well as every First Friday from 6-10 PM. Odyssey: The Photography of Linda Connor will be open until March 8, 2009.

Traveling around the world, contemporary photographer Linda Connor seeks places and traditions that convey such intangible qualities as time, faith, and spirituality. Her photographs connect these ethereal concepts to specific locales and to the natural world. She has worked extensively in India, Indonesia, Turkey, Cambodia, Egypt, Tibet, and the American Southwest. Included in the exhibition of more than 70 photographs are some of Connor’s best known images from the past three decades, along with more recent works that have had little public exposure.

Advertising in slower economic times

It is seems to be all anyone can talk about now, the economy. Many companies have made hard decisions and sacrifices to tighten their finances. However, tightening the belt on your advertising budget may be the wrong move. Companies that keep their advertising dollars consistent during a slower economy are the ones that come out ahead when the tide turns. Alternatively, in slower economic times consumers tend to stay close to home. That includes where they spend their money. Consumers may be more likely to spend their dollars with a neighboring business to help stimulate their local economy.

What strategies can you utilize to help maximize your advertising dollar? Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Use eye-level graphics in your environment by printing large format photos, backlit signage, or window graphics. Sandwich boards printed direct to a variety of substrates is another great option. Customers are pretty much guaranteed to notice advertising placed at eye-level.
  
  
• Look up. Space above eye-level can be utilized with banners, fabric flags, or wallpaper murals. This type of marketing can reinforce your main marketing imagery and attract a broader audience to your business. The trick with any these options is to create unique graphics to set your marketing message apart from your competition.

Effectively executed, your company can position itself to stand out and become more memorable in a less crowded advertising environment. It is important to keep looking ahead and use this time as a great opportunity to communicate your message. Contact a Mighty Imaging representative to find out how we can help.

Obama's People in New York Times Magazine

In honor of Obama's historic inauguration tomorrow, the New York Times Magazine asked Nadav Kander to take on an ambitious project of photographing portraits of Obama's new cabinet appointees and members of his staff that played a vital role in his election and transition in to office. Their goal was to go beyond the usual formal portrait shoot and integrate aspects in to the images that speak to the true nature of the subjects. From Senator Robert P. Casey Jr. holding a basketball to Ken Salazar's cowboy hat, the final 52 images will make up the largest collection by one photographer that the New York Times has ever published. Many people are holding the now infamous Blackberries that have been widely reported as being such an integral part of Obama's communication through out his campaign and transition.

Go here to see all of the images, and to listen to a the photographer Nadav Kander and Times Magazine Director of Photography Kathy Ryan discuss the project.

Behind Obama's People - Editor's Letter by Gerald Marzoratti

EARLY IN 1976, with both the post-Watergate presidential election and the bicentennial celebration in mind, Rolling Stone approached Richard Avedon, America’s most celebrated portrait photographer of the time, with the idea of spending the year shooting pictures on the campaign trail. Avedon had other ideas, or, better, a bigger idea: To photograph the men and women he understood to constitute the political leadership of the United States. The result, published in Rolling Stone’s Oct. 21, 1976, issue and taking up the entire feature well of the magazine, was a portfolio of 73 black-and-white portraits — formal, frank in a stylized way and, page after page after page, thoroughly absorbing.

It was with that project very much in mind that The Times Magazine asked Nadav Kander — one of the more original and highly regarded portraitists at work just now — if he would like to photograph the administration of Barack Obama as it was being assembled. We, like many of our readers — like most Americans, it seems fair to say — sensed something eventful and potentially far-reaching about the election and the challenges the new president and his team would immediately face. Why not take account of this with portraits of those whose character and temperament and bearing may well prove consequential in the coming months and years?

The result is what we have titled “Obama’s People” — 52 full-page color portraits of the vice president-elect and the incoming president’s advisers, aides and cabinet secretaries-designate (some of whom may have been confirmed or may have withdrawn by the time you read this), along with those legislators who are likely to prove influential in helping to usher into law what the new administration sets out to do. (President-elect Obama declined to pose for a formal picture.) The portraits were taken in mid-December and earlier this month in Chicago and Washington. The magazine’s editor of photography, Kathy Ryan, along with two members of her staff, Kira Pollack and Stacey Baker, organized and oversaw the sessions. (To get a glimpse behind the camera, see the magazine’s back page.) Matt Bai, who has been the magazine’s chief political writer through the last two presidential-election cycles, drew up the list of whom to photograph and also wrote the elegant essay that serves as an overture to the issue and the moment. But Kander’s portfolio was never intended to be any sort of definitive representation of who mattered in and around the White House at the dawn of the Obama era. That will be the job of history. Kander was shooting in the conditional.

Interview with Tyson Crosbie

Tyson Crosbie was recently interviewed by MyArtSpace, a premier site dedicated to contemporary art and artisans. Tyson reveals some of the motivations behind why he became a fine art photographer, his influences, and his process. He also provides some great insight on the power and potential pitfalls associated with online marketing for artists. Below is a sampling of the interview.

#3 of Tyson's Phoenix 20 series

Art Space Talk: Tyson Crosbie

BS: Tell us more about the thoughts behind your work. For example, do you adhere to a specific school of psychology or philosophy as far as your practice is concerned?

TC: Nearly ten years is not enough time to develop any clear understanding of the meaning of anything. I am not so sure I'll ever reach any clear understanding, I can speak to where I am now.

I view my work as an evolution, the most important image I've ever made is the next one. It is my goal to create a lifetime body of work that evolves as I do that is recognizable visually as a journey of a life. The first abstracts that I took in school were exercises in composition and theory. What I call the Mexico series was when I became self aware as an artist. Following that the early work is when my language really starts to develop and refine. My most recent work is confined by rules and language and far more complex and yet the subtleties of information that I can contain in the imagery fascinates me.

Of course it is my obsession to observe the world, this ties me to the medium of photography intimately. Still I am drawn to contradictions like; Creating work as a purist, a traditionalist and using digital media. Loving observation and information as a scientist and an artist. Believing that I am solipsistic and an existentialist and an egoist at times.

More resolution = less noise

Most photographers realize that the more resolution your camera captures, the better. How does that relate to noise in your image? Especially when it goes to print. DxO Labs has the answer. They did an independent complete analysis of signal-to-noise ratio (aka SNR) with two Canon model cameras. The results might surprise some people.

DxO is a free resource that offers non-biased in-depth technical analysis of RAW-based image quality. There is a wealth of data on their site. They are highly recommended by places like Popular Photography.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, higher resolution actually compensates for noise

This Insight uses currently-available DSLRs to demonstrate the technique for objectively comparing noise for cameras with different levels of resolution. Such comparisons conclusively show better results overall for high-resolution sensors, despite the increase in noise.

You like the look and feel of your old camera, but you want to upgrade it to a higher resolution. If you keep the same optics, the same sensor size (and therefore the same field of view), what will be the result? Basically, the same amount of light captured by the optics will be shared by more pixels, and since each individual pixel will receive less light, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) will be lower. In short, you will end up taking photos with more noise.

Two questions naturally arise:

• How can the noise from two cameras with different levels of resolution be fairly compared?
• Which is better, a low-resolution camera with less noise, or a high-resolution camera with more noise?

...Suppose now that the images have exactly the same field of view (by changing the lens focal length) and are printed on 30x20cm paper with the same 300dpi printer. Because of the very high resolution of the 1Ds Mark III, the printer will downsample the image and decrease the noise, giving a clear advantage (about 3dB) to the 1Ds Mark III.

Imagine a low-resolution sensor. A higher-resolution sensor can be obtained by cutting each pixel of the low-resolution sensor into four smaller pixels.

For a given exposure time, each smaller pixel receives four times less light than a large pixel-the equivalent of reducing exposure time by a factor of four. So to get the same sensor response, exposure time needs to be multiplied by four, which means that the ISO sensitivity of the high-resolution sensor is four times less than the low-resolution sensor.

Imaging USA Convention & Expo this weekend

The PPA, SEPCON, EPIC, and CPI jointly are hosting Imaging USA Convention and Expo this year right here in Phoenix. Besides the numerous educational classes that they offer, they are also holding one of the largest photo industry tradeshows of the year. Over 223,000 square feet of floorspace will be dedicated to the event at the newly re-built Phoenix Convention Center. Classes start tomorrow, and the Imaging Expo tradeshow starts on Sunday. The entire event runs through Tuesday January 13th. World-renowned photographer Anne Geddes will be giving the keynote talk on the evening of January 12th.

There is still time to sign up if you would like to see the latest and greatest in photo world. Hope to see you there!

We're not just serious about photography; we're serious about your business. Start your year off right at Imaging USA - it's the best place for you to ignite the energy and passion for doing what you love, while learning how to grow your business, push the boundaries, and gain an edge over the competition. Don't miss:

• An Evening with Anne Geddes
• Unbeatable Pre-Convention Classes
• World-Class Instructors, 5 Program Tracks + 3 Conferences
• 223,000 sq. ft. Tradeshow

Watson Lake workshop with Colleen Miniuk-Sperry

Colleen Miniuk-Sperry will be leading an Arizona Highways workshop at the end of January. Her latest workshop will be on location at Watson Lake near Prescott, Arizona. It is a weekend workshop January 31-February 1. The groups are kept small so that each attendee can receive personal attention. There are only two more spots left for this workshop. If you are interested, sign up today!

Join photographer Colleen Miniuk-Sperry on an exciting weekend workshop, as she guides you around the sparkling blue waters & impressive jumbo rocks of Watson Lake near Prescott, Arizona. While Colleen uncovers her favorite locations around Watson Lake & the Granite Dells, learn special techniques for capturing stunning nature photographs.

The cost is $380 per person, which includes:
o 1 night lodging in Prescott, AZ
o Lunches, dinner, and snacks
o Hands-on, individualized field instruction for all skill levels at scenic locations around Watson Lake

For more information, visit http://friendsofazhighways.com/calendar.htm & select the “Watson Lake” workshop listing.