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Frecs for 3/12/2010

Frecs = Friday Recommendations

Its been an interesting and full week here.  I’m still in the full-time job hunt and making some progress.  Sherri and I attended an informal photowalk with friends in DC over the weekend which included the Eastern Market followed by the Ninjas vs Pirates games.  I also ran into some skateboarders at Freedom Plaza that were nice enough to let me take some shots of them in action.  We’re still making headway in getting PhotoBlogging DC relaunched, expect to see an announcement next week.

I stopped by the Kettler Capital IcePlex yesterday to watch my hockey team, The Washington Capitals, practice and sneak in some photography.  I came away with more than I bargained for though, around 200 shots and a bum ankle.  My new #1 tip to photographers:  Don’t concentrate on your subject (i.e. Mike Green) so much that you forget to look out for that curb lying in wait to turn your ankle.  I don’t think I broke anything but I will probably lame for a week or so.  Ice and Advil will be my companions for awhile.  The shot below with Mike Green posing with a visiting atom team from Canada was the one I was trying to get. I was in excruciating pain when I finally did snap it.

Links

• 8 Ways to Participate in the DC Area Photography Community.
• Jason D. Moore has a new 4 part series on SEO for Bloggers.
• Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips started a conversation around The 5 Places I use Lightroom Presets the Most (And the Least)
• Digital Photography School (DPS) is always good for a few links every week but if I had to cut it down to the one that interested me the most it would be How to Take the Perfect Headshot: 6 Tips.
• Scott Bourne has an interesting post on Photofocus about 10 Places to Find Photographic Inspiration.
• Jeff Revell of PhotoWalkPro wrapped up his European trip with his article The Thing About Travel Photography.
• David A. Ziser, author of Captured by the Light (and presenter of one awesome webinar), shares his 15 Steps for Shooting Weddings in Catholic Churches.

The Friday Follow Five

1. Scott Bourne – @scottbourne
2. Rob Jones – @townerjones
3. Nichole Young – @nicolesy
4. Jason Anderson – @CBJason
5. Jeff Namadan – @jnamadan

For more recommendations check out my Twitter list of DC Area Photographers.

Have a great week!

Tags: Frecs, friday follow, kettler iceplex, links, mike green, recommendations, sharing, twitter, washington capitals

#snowpocalypse time lapse video

Sherri had a great idea of setting up the tripod and snapping off photos of our back deck during the snowstorm.  We used one of our spare Powershot S5IS since we didn’t want to monopolize our main cameras.  She took photos over about a 30 hour period and I created a slideshow video in an old copy of Premier Elements.

She uploaded it to weather.com yesterday and we just received reports from friends that they saw it on the Weather Channel.  We’re thrilled.

Can you spot the falling tree?

Let us know what you think of it.

Tags: #snowpocalypse, reston, snow, time lapse, video, Virginia

Add a Daguerréotype Giroux to your camera bag

Are you bored with your photography lately?  Think you’ve mastered all your gear and looking for a new challenge?  Instead of upgrading your body and glass think about taking a step backwards with your gear.  Way back to 1839!

In 1839 no one had heard of Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Kodak and the other manufacturers that we are familiar with today.  Then, for a very short time, the only source of professional photography was from Alphonse Giroux and his brother-in-law, Jacques Daguerre.  From this pair came the world’s first commercially produced camera, the Daguerréotype Giroux.  It is credited with “the initial spark that began the worldwide spread of photography”.

There are only a few of these cameras known to be in existence and all are stored in public museums…except one recent find.  For the first time one of these cameras will be presented at auction, by the Viennese auction house WestLicht. The sale is scheduled for May 29, 2010 at their location in Vienna, Austria.  WestLicht does not state who the owner of the camera, only that it belonged to a family in northern Germany and was passed to the current owner by his father as a gift for passing his final apprenticeship as an optician. They also state it is in beautiful original condition, even coming with the original written instructions.

The outstanding original condition of the 170 year-old apparatus is remarkable. Every detail including the lens, the plaque signed by Daguerre himself, the black velvet interior and the ground-glass screen are in their original state.

The unique camera comes with the extremely rare original instructions in German with the title: “Praktische Beschreibung des Daguerreotyp’s”; published by Georg Gropius, Berlin 1839, 12×20cm, 24 pages with 18 illustrations in 5 plates showing the equipment used for producing Daguerreotypes in accordance with Daguerre’s invention. On the back of the little book there are two handwritten notes from 1840 with details of the process.

For comparison, a similar camera built by Susse Frères, also in 1839, was auctioned by WestLicht Auctions in 2007 for 576,000 Euros (~$800k) and set a record price for any camera at auction.  This auction is set to break this record.  It is estimated to bring in 500.000 – 700.00 Euros (~$700,000 – $1,000,000).

Hey!  We all knew this photography hobby was going to be expensive so buck up and make a bid.

A quick search of the term daguerreotype in the WorthPoint Worthopedia, a collection of over 50 million auctioned items,  returns quite a number of interesting items.  Daguerreotype photos, cameras, tripods, and even lens seem to have been a popular collectible over the past few years.  Photos from subsequent versions of the daguerreotype cameras are especially collectible like the image below taken during the Civil War sometime in the late 1850s or early 1860s.

If you are interested in more on the background, history and the science behind the Daguerréotype Giroux, I’ve included information from the WestLicht’’s press release after the jump.

Continue reading »

Tags: Alphonse Giroux, auction, camera, camera history, daguerreotype, Daguerréotype Giroux, Digital Photography, Jacques Daguerre, WestLicht, WorthPoint

My slow but sure comeback

My absence from the online community I hold dear is slowly coming to an end.  My sometimes self induced and mostly work induced hiatus has allowed many of my projects and plans to suffer.  I am slowly but surely reversing that trend.

I’ve spent the past two weeks taking inventory of my online assets, something I would suggest everyone do at least once a year.  Just like spring cleaning the house, your online space can get cluttered.  This was a long and sometimes confusing process due to the number of sites, services and assets I involve myself with.  In fact it is still on going.  The goal is to streamline my online presence into a circular path where each node feeds the next.  My various interests should not be separate entities but a series of pieces that flow into each other to create a complete picture of who I am, what I’m looking for, and what I can provide for you.

The initial plan is to rebrand and redesign this site, create a professional photography services site, publish a social media resume page (more on that in a future post), and a new daily photoblog.   These are assets that I will own the domain and be 100% responsible for the content and functionality.  Then there are other sites I utilize like Facebook, LinkedIn, SmugMug and Twitter where I have limited control over my content and very little in the functionality side.  Last year I did not do much to integrate my sites and these services other than reposting blog articles.  To be truly successful online you must find the recipe that uses all of these ingredients in healthy balanced portions.  I’m pulling my chair up to the buffet and loading my plate with what I believe will sustain me best.

Here’s my plans for the upcoming months:

• I’m working with a talented graphics artist now to create new logos.  My plan is to have similar branding across all of my work whenever I can.
• Once the logos are complete I will start work on redesigning this site, removing the User 40.0 moniker and creating new content.   I expect this to be completed and launched in late February.
• Tonight I’ve launched a new photoblog named Marc-a-Day.  If you can’t get enough of me here then go check it out and get some of me everyday.  This is not me taking a photo a day, I’ve failed too many times at that, but I will post a new, hopefully interesting, image a day.
• Two more sites will soon to follow, a new photography service offering along with an expanded social resume site.  I currently have a domain at marcbentonresume.com with a small social profile but I plan to expand this to include more of my professional background and also include a video or two on it.
• Photoblogging DC was both a success and failure.  Success as I was able to talk a number of truly talented photographers to contribute and our daily visits were steadily growing.  The failure was in the way the site was designed.  It was dependent on one person to format and publish the posts, something that eventually I was unable to keep up with.  I hope by the Spring to bring this site back with a better design where our contributors will have more functionality in the system.
• Sherri and I plan to organize more photowalks through this site and the Photowalk DC Facebook group.  Look for a late-February event announced soon.

We’ve recently kicked off a new decade.  Its time to let go of the baggage of the past and start anew.  I hope we all enjoy the trip together.

techARTS – Uniting the Creative and Technology Communities

Building upon their success with the Twin Tech events, iStrategyLabs is launching a new initiative – techARTS.  This event is designed to bring together the areas tech and creative communities.

The first techARTS is scheduled for Halloween, October 31st, at a yet to be disclosed location.  What we do know is that the location is huge and will be a combination of indoor and outdoor venues.  There are plans to display works and create interactive displays from various tech and artistic domains.

“techARTS is going let us scratch our creative itch a bit more. It will focus on merging Creative and Technology communities – helping them come together in mass to meet, find collaborators and show off their skills…If you push pixels, sling code, trickle paint, create content or belt out beats this is for you. Okay even if you don’t do that stuff – and you’re kinda awesome this is where you want to be.”

“We believe that a designer + a developer can = a startup. We’re going to use this techARTS Halloween party to see what kind of offspring the geeks and creatives can produce.”

When I first heard of this effort I immediately reached out to Peter Corbett to see if he wanted some photography support.  My initial plans were to only photograph the event but after our first planning meeting my input has expanded.  We’re discussing a photography display of images from local photographers, possibly  based on a theme.  We’re also planning on building a photo booth for the event.

Now comes the part where you come in.  If you want to attend, and you know you do, the registration page can be found here.  If you would like to assist me with the photography domain then contact me directly or leave a comment on this post.  Peter is looking for sponsors to help offset the cost of the event, if you or your organization would like to participate as a sponsor please contact him.  Lastly, you can participate in the TechArts awards by going to techAWARDS and/or artsAWARDS and nominating and voting for your favorite person or organization in each category.

The images in this post were from our first planning meeting held at the iStrategyLabs offices in Dupont Circle.

Tags: artists, artsawards, creative, designers, iStrategyLabs, techARTS, techawards, technologists, technology