S+ART

The Sunny 16 Rule (and Other Useful Suggestions)

Unicycle, Rome, 2009, photograph by Angela Kleis

Back in the olden days, portraits took a long time since they had to be carved in stone.  Then, cameras were invented.  It's hard to believe these primitive cameras used an archaic medium called film, and there was no "auto" setting, so exposure had to be set by hand.  Thank goodness we left the dark ages for digital cameras and their on-board light meters, phew!

 

Except that people still use those primitive cameras, film is still the same fantastic medium it always was, and there isn't always time to stop and take a light reading before that dog riding the unicycle gets away.  How can you be sure to get the right exposure?  (And, you ran out the door without your cell phone, what are the chances?!)

  

The Sunny 16 Rule is a method to estimate the correct exposure without a light meter:  On a sunny day, set the aperature to f/16 and the shutter speed to the 1/ISO (film speed or digital ISO setting) for a subject in direct sunlight.

 

This means that if the dog riding the unicycle is also wearing sunglasses because it's so bright and sunny, and the film loaded in your camera is ISO 100, set the aperature to f/16 and the shutter speed to 1/100 (or 1/125 if that's the lowest setting on your camera).  If the film is ISO 400, then the aperature is set to f/16 and the shutter speed is set to 1/400 or 1/500.  Pretty simple, huh?

Of course, an aperture of f/16 may not always work for your needs - and, the Sunny 16 Rule can be adjusted.  Think of f/16 as a starting point - as long as the aperture and shutter speeds are equivalent, they can be changed:  at ISO 400, with each decrease in aperture number (from f/16 to f/11), double the shutter speed (from 1/500 to 1/1000).  Taking this in the other direction, increase the aperture number by one stop (from f/16 to f/22) and decrease the shutter speed by half (from 1/500 to 1/250).  This basically keeps the amount of light hitting the film or sensor the same since the proportions between the size of the opening (aperature) and the time it's open (shutter speed) are consistent.

 

If the weather isn't sunny, there are other aperature starting points to guide you - just combine with 1/ISO shutter speed:

Bright sand or snow:  f/22

Sunny, hazy day:  f/11

Bright, cloudy day (faint shadows):  f/8

Heavy clouds/overcast (no shadows):  f/5.6

Heavy shade (shadows from tall buildings):  f/4

Hopefully this will help estimate the correct exposure starting point when using a camera without an on-board or hand-held light meter, or to even creatively adjust your DSLR. 

 

-Angela Kleis

 www.angelakleis.com

 

Photographers' Rights

A few weeks ago, I attended the FotoWeekDC lecture about photographers' rights presented by Mickey Osterreicher, General Counsel for the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), and Richard Kelly, former Association of Media Photographers (ASMP) President.  The lecture covered model releases, explained privacy rights of individuals when in public and in private and how photographers should approach each of these situations, and talked about recent developments in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which have found photographers at odds with security and law enforcement particularly with regard to photographing federal buildings, even passively.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an official position on photography of federal buildings in response to complaints that photographers were receiving conflicting information please download the bulletin released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on August 2, 2010.  The NPAA has done extensive work to define, defend, and preserve the rights of photographers of all levels.  To learn more about the NPPA and its advocacy work, please visit their blog.

Photographers may also wish to download The Photographers Right, a flyer explaining the rights of a photographer when stopped or confronted for photography, and keep a copy in their camera bag.

Hopefully these documents will help all photographers to better understand their rights when in certain situations.

- Angela Kleis

Happy Thanksgiving!

Clinton, Arkansas. Crystal K. D. Huie. 1972. Gelatin silver print on paper. Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Remember to be thankful for the abundance in your life!  

-Smithsonian Associates

The Antarctica Project

 One of the places on Earth where I've always wanted to go is Antarctica.  I've never been anywhere that cold, that windy, or that full of penguins.  Sure, I could take an Antarctic cruise, but that's barely going to get me off the boat.  Alas, the entire continent is protected, thanks to the Antarctic Treaty signed in 1959, so it's not like I can find a flight - there aren't any.

 

Now, I could take some advice from photographer Gaston Lacombe and apply for an Antarctic residency.  He traveled to Esperanza, the Argentine scientific base in Antarctica, from January to March 2012 as an Artist-in-Residence.  When I saw that he, along with Argentine artist Andrea Juan, were showing work created during their stay in The Antarctica Project, Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA)'s FotoWeekDC exhibit, I immediately got in touch with him to talk about his photographic adventure to the Antarctic peninsula.  And, about all the penguins.

 

Antarctica is a protected nature reserve so everything brought onto the continent must be inspected and no rocks or animals may be disturbed.  Leaving the base is extremely dangerous due to the tendency of the weather to change very quickly, and the perimeter is marked with chains and signs to help keep anyone from travelling too far.  Their closest neighbors are Adélie penguins.  About 250,000 of them, including babies. "It was the most adorable thing I've ever seen in the world", Lacombe described.  #squee

An Adélie penguin glides in freshly fallen snow, at the Esperanza Base in Antarctica. Photograph by Gaston Lacombe.

 

The Adélie penguins are small, standing only about two feet tall, and differ from Emperor penguins in that they are only black and white.  You can't hug them - I asked.  They return to their breeding grounds in the summer, which runs from November through March, to lay eggs and raise their ridiculously cute babies, and then return to the sea ice. While on land, the penguins follow specific roads to and from the water, and they are color-coded:  pink from the colony to the sea and brown from the sea back to the colony. The brown color is dirt and mud, but the pink?  That's penguin poop.  From eating all the shrimp.  And, it can be seen from space.

Lacombe shot over 20,000 photographs of the penguins and other Antarctic life such as birds, seals, sea lions, and algae.  He approached this exhibit searching for life and color in an otherwise stark, barren landscape in a harsh white climate.  Along with the penguin roads, the ice may be colored red or green by algae blooms.  Juan, an installation artists, brightened the landscape with brilliantly-colored fabrics that appear superimposed on the white background.  Her photographs of these installations offer a philosophical look at how the continent might change as a result of climate change, bringing new organisms and resculpting the terrain.

Obviously, the trip had its share of obstacles along the way.  The gargantuan task of editing 20,000 photos was made even more difficult by a broken computer, damaged during the week of travel to the Esperanza Base.  Lacombe and Juan could only take what they could carry, and that included photographic equipment, computers, and Juan's installation materials, along with their regular travel items like clothing and other sundries.  When asked if he'd always wanted to visit Antarctica, Lacombe responded with, "I've always wanted to go everywhere." And that includes returning to Antarctica at some point.

On Sunday, I attended Lacombe and Juan's lecture on The Antarctica Project and their work on the base as part of the FotoWeekDC festival.  In addition to his photographs, Lacombe produced a 30-minute documentary film on the human element in Antarctica (people live there, but not for more than a year at a time).  If you can imagine the adorableness of baby penguins learning to swim for the first time, well, he caught that, too. 

 

The Antarctica Project with work from both Gaston Lacombe and Andrea Juan is on exhibit at now CDIA in Georgetown. 

-Angela

AirCraft: The Jet as Art

Maryland One. Jeffrey Milstein

Photographer Jeffrey Milstein has been interested in aircrafts since childhood. He began studying jets from his backyard near LAX and built a telescope from cardboard tubes and cheap lenses to identify them. As a teenager he filmed aircraft with an 8mm camera at the Santa Monica airport, and developed his current style.

    Milstein captures the beauty of modern flight by standing at the end of a runway and snapping the jets moments before landing. He waits for perfect conditions – preferably late afternoon on a sunny but hazy day when the light reflects off the ocean onto the bottom of the plane. He uses a high resolution digital camera to capture pristine clarity at speeds of 175mph, and then distills the subject from the background to highlight design, color and symmetry. He enlarges some of his subjects to mural size, showcasing grand detail, while displaying others in typology format similar to that used for scientific butterfly studies. The colorful winged forms, simplistically displayed against a white background, start to take on the form of birds or insects. By isolating his subject, Milstein forces the viewer to revel in the aesthetic beauty of a common object many view as simply utilitarian, and reminds me of photographer Leland Bryant's desire to see the beauty in the ordinary. This is what artists are so good at doing, and their ability to make the public stop and see something differently – even for a minute – continues to impress.

Milstein’s show departs Nov 25. Don't miss the flight!

-Jen Schiller

Gearing up for FotoWeekDC

Friday marks the opening of the fifth annual FotoWeekDC festival in Washington, D.C., bringing nine days packed with events, exhibits, workshops, and seminars dedicated to the art of photography.  This year, FotoWeekCentral, the location of ten full-scale exhibits including the winners of the International Awards Competition, Youth Photo Contest Winners, FotoBooks, and more, is centrally-located downtown in the Warner Building at 1299 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.  In addition to the official FotoWeekDC exhbits and events, many FotoPartners are participating with their own work.  Take a look through the Events Listings to plan your own week-long celebration of photography and discover new work, artists, techniques, skills, and opportunities throughout the city.

-Angela

One Point Perspective

Interview with Photographer and Smithsonian Associates Instructor Leland Bryant, Part II

(See Part I)

Dreams of Conquest. Photograph. Leland Bryant.

Do you find inspiration organically when you are out and about or do you premeditate your subjects if you will be traveling to a certain city, for example?
Both. If you have a camera when you are traveling you are more inclined to use it. So I have a camera in my bag, and I am always looking. Sometimes something will catch my eye, like a shadow. I like lines that go no place but must mean something. Why are they here? Why are we here? We must be here for a reason. All these things must be here for a reason, so it might as well be for me to find them.

Is there ever an issue with creating commercial work versus work that is more your style? How do you find balance between passion and making a living?

These are often big issues. You have to make a living. I didn’t want to be a tax accountant and then a photographer, and then a father and then a husband. I wanted to be a photographer all the time. An important part of making work is having it seen. I went for 20 years just making art and putting it in folders and binders and saying, I’m not showing it to anybody. It wasn’t until I began to teach and started showing work that I actually became whole. It became part of me, and yet when you show work you release it. You are still responsible for it but now it has a life of its own. People respond to it in so many ways that it effects how you feel about your own work and thusly yourself. So when I could mix [art and work], I did architecture photography.  Despite the buildings in DC being plain, there were always reflections and things I would include in the shoot and the client would say, “This is really great, send me a 30x40, I’m really happy I told you to shoot that!” So that way I sneaked [art into my work]. It’s kind of like being an underground guerilla fighter for art. I have a bumper sticker that says, “Make art not war.”

What do you do with the non-commercial work?

Because I’ve done photography professionally, I haven’t really needed to sell the weird subject material that I have: peeling paint, dried up mud in the desert, millions of colors of paint mixed up in a bucket, etc. I make the work for me. It’s still for sale.

Can you explain your statement, “To make art is to make meaning?”

I think that says it all. I’ve heard a lot of people with a lot of flamboyant explanations of art. I had them too, all the way down to the “capital A Art” that the folks of the enlightenment had when all of a sudden this light just showed up in all their paintings. That was capital A Art. These artists – our ancestors – made art of that type for the first time. But everyone needs the “little A art” – how to shoot their children better, so you don’t have that fake smile. They need to know how to capture a boy who is always flaming through the house, who would be best represented by a little blurred face blowing through the Ether. Photographing light - that is what I try to teach.

What is the most difficult thing about being a photographer?

Probably the most difficult things are also the most rewarding. You have to be ready at the moment. If something drops in your lap, you have to be able to shoot it. Also, the arts in general aren’t supported in this country; we have no need for them so we don’t support them. That’s why I sometimes give it away.

Where is art more supported?

Europe has always supported art – even the Soviets to a small degree. People in Congress come out and say, “this is insulting!” Well I say the same thing to them as I say to any other idiot: “don’t look, stupid! It’s not for you!” Not everything has to be about politics; morality especially.

Do you find that DC is a good place to be an artist?

I think it’s a good place. I think it’s kind of cliquey. But I move in and out of those cliques pretty well. I don’t subscribe to any of them. But I like to keep track of what they’re doing because sometimes I don’t understand stuff. People put art on the wall that I don’t understand, but it doesn’t matter! And that is where “to make art is to make meaning,” and the reverse, “to make meaning is to make art,” comes from.

 

To see more of Bryant’s work, check out his website.

 

-Jen Schiller

 

 

 

One Point Perspective

An Interview with Photographer and Smithsonian Associates Instructor Leland Bryant

Coexist, 8/08 (Leeds, UK). Digital Capture, Canon 40D. Leland Bryant.

Leland Bryant has been instructing photography for over 25 years and producing inspiring photographs for even longer.  He leads The Smithsonian Associate’s Fine Printing course in which intermediate photographers develop black-and-white negatives into archival prints.  

How did you get into photography?

It’s quite a story. When I was 10 my aunt had a Leica G, which was a pre-WWII camera. I just fell in love with it. So, she let me play with it. We went out the next day and turned [the negatives] in to the People’s Drugstore and they came back shiny, glossy, black-and-white prints – I was hooked. I’ve been doing it ever since.

Your work varies in location and subject matter from parking lots to British architecture, but there is a recurring theme of finding the beauty in the ordinary. How do you choose your subjects?

They speak to me when I see them. You have to be in the kind of mood where you’re not worrying about being late or what you’re doing or who you have to pick up. You have to be in a therapeutic place where you’re looking for another input, for something that will take you out of yourself into an external awareness that lets the left and right brain take on each other, battle each other, and leave you at peace. There is no such thing as a boring thing (except for politics). There is a visual language and dialogue that we need to learn. When I’m behind the camera looking at a subject I am totally unaware of external problems, except for where the sun will be in 20 minutes.

Is that what you’re hoping the viewer feels as they see your work?

My goal is to have the viewer stop for a minute. To silence that internal dialogue chattering away in their brains and have them say, what’s that?

Your piece “The Monster and the Wizard” really caught me. As soon as I saw the title I saw [the forms], but I never would have ordinarily stopped and seen that.

Titles are really important. To leave something untitled is like having kids without names. It’s their personality. So I try not to hang anything that says “untitled”. I got tired of [the “Views from the Parking Lot”] series after I had it on my website. You just need to set things down after a while and come back to them. I picked up my 4x5 and started shooting again in black-and-white, going back to my roots.

What is your favorite part about the Fine Printing course here at the Smithsonian?

These people – the many people who love photography, who battle to come in here, keep this place open, and take the extra time to do something a little better. Because photography is really easy; the magic of electronics has done a very good job. The camera [I’m holding] has more computer power than the first guy who went to the moon. When you think about what a Canon EOS2 can do, it’s astounding. It will give you good pictures, but it won’t put the feet back on in the picture if you did not capture them when you initially took the shot. It won’t put the top of the head back in the photograph or correct your focus. We’re still in charge.

 

To be continued.

-Jen Schiller

Conversations with Photographers

Photography is, well, visual.  Except when it's not. 

 

Patrick Onofre's podcast series transforms photography from visual storytelling to audial expression through casual conversations.  Since the start of 2012, Patrick has produced a weekly podcast which provides photographers a unique platform to talk more about their work, projects, vision, challenges, and influences in an easy, informal setting.  The list, currently totalling 41, features both familiar faces and new ones, making it easy to discover new artists and learn more about the ones you may already know.  A photographer himself, Patrick guides the conversation through common-ground topics and interests using specific examples from the photographer's portfolio, making it obvious he's come prepared and has a genuine interest in the work of each one.

 

Last night, I had the opportunity to meet with Patrick about my own work, how I got started, and how, even after more than twenty years, I still forget to change the batteries (or carry extras) and mess up the exposure.  It was a lot of fun and a lot less intimidating than I had prepared myself for, and I look forward to all of his future episodes (I haven't had a chance to listen to it, yet - it's 84 minutes long!).

 

All of the podcast episodes are available for free download from iTunes, or you can listen online via Stitcher Radio (just follow the link on each podcast from his website).

 

- Angela

Chrome

Whether it's describing black and white film or color slides, the word "chrome" is predominant in photography.  My curiosity of word origins and meanings lead me down a rabbit hole to learn more about how the word chrome became ingrained in so many areas of photography, particularly because of its duo-role in both black and white and color films.

 

Film rolls. Photograph by taliesin. Source: MorgueFile.com

 

There are several types of black and white film, orthochromatic and panchromatic, for example, that describe the wavelength at which the emulsion is light sensitive.  However, the names of many color slide films also carry the term, including Ektachrome, Fujichrome, and Kodachrome, as does the process of developing them, called chromogenic.  Single-colored images are referred to as monochromes, including black and white photos, and color slides are commonly called chromes.  Ilfochrome, originally called Cibachrome, is a direct-printing process for color slides or transparencies that forms the image via a dye-destruction process without using an internegative.  And, the element chromium is present as a hardening agent in gelatin emulsions in black and white (silver gelatin) film and several non-silver processes such as gum bichromate that takes advantage of the light-sensitive properties of dichromates, usually potassium bichromate. 

 

It turns out, "chrome" is derived from chroma, the Greek word for color, which also lends itself to chromium, thanks to its intensely-colored compounds. 

 

Now you know, too.

 

-Angela