“Time smiled, touched my shoulder, and told me things I’d never heard before” ~Gordon Parks

May 18, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

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Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Gordon Parks

By Cheryl Machat Dorskind

I was so happy to read the announcement about the upcoming photography exhibit at the International Center of Photography in midtown New York City celebrating Gordon Parks’ 100th year anniversary of his birth.

The ICP is taking the show to the streets, by including mural size photos as window displays and downloadable talks to mobile devices by Gordon Parks himself. The aim is to introduce Gordon Parks’ works to a new generation.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Gordon Parks’ genius as a filmmaker (including “Leaning Tree” and “Shaft”), writer, composer, and photographer. Largely self-taught, he lived to 93 years old. He was able to overcome many barriers as a child, including poverty and racism. During his tenure at Life magazine, Parks’ photographs focused on social inequality.

Perhaps his best known photograph is “American Gothic” which depicts a black cleaning woman named Ella Watson who stands stoically in front of an American flag, a mop in one hand, a broom in the other. Copyright laws restrict me from posting this photo, but I am able to post another that features Mrs. Ella Watson. This photo was obtained from the Library of Congress’s vast digital photo resource. If you haven’t visited this website, take a look this weekend. It is rich with American history. (www.loc.gov)

(From the LOC collection of the Gordon Parks Archives]

Below are a few quotes from Gordon Parks.

“Time smiled, touched my shoulder, and told me things I’d never heard before. Now and then certain wonders of the universe descend carefully from the Maker’s hands and, one by one, fall into a chosen space to blot out emptiness.”

Gordon Parks
Eyes with Winged Thoughts

Humor on aging:

“Recently my memory is slippery, like an eel. The spectacles that were missing this morning were kind enough to turn up on my head.” He says, “Funny, things I forget are often more significant than the things I remember.”

Gordon Parks
Eyes with Winged Thoughts

On love and hope:

“Despite the turmoil, anguish and despair disrupting the planet we inherited, there is something good I choose to sing about. That something lies within us, patiently waiting – beneath us, above us and around us.”

Gordon Parks
Eyes with Winged Thoughts

The exhibit opens Thursday, May 24th. Maybe I’ll see you then.

Have a great weekend and keep your camera in heart synch.

Cheryl

“In•tu•i•tion guides the photographer’s inner light” ~Cheryl Machat Dorskind

May 11, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

In•tu•i•tion

by Cheryl Machat Dorskind

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com
In•tu•i•tion — The ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning (Webster’s Dictionary). Intuition guides the photographer: Where to look, How to frame, What to see is the photographer’s internal, intuitive dialogue.

I am re-reading Britt Salvesen’s wonderful book, Harry Callahan: The Photographer at Work and thinking about intuition, a conversation I began last week in my blog series, “Friday Quote.”

Harry Callahan was self taught and known as the “regular guy.” He was also a devoted and beloved teacher. His work ethic was pronounced and laced with intuition. Britt Salvesen sums up three prerequisites for intuition: openness, freedom, and curiosity which are maintained with effort, discipline, and patience. Callahan’s intuitive love for his wife Eleanor and daughter Barbara are reflected in the renown photographic series he created of them.

Self Portrait with Nicole: Tripod, self-timer, Tri-x film, Silver Gelatin (darkroom) print, Ilford Matte fiber paper enhanced with washes of oil paint

Intuitively, I knew this was going to be a great moment with my daughter Nicole.

Happy Mother’s Day,

Cheryl

Ten Suggested Buddhist Readings

May 7, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

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READING CORNER

"Buddha Garden"

Ten Suggested Buddhist Readings

Artists, writers, and photographers have been influenced by Eastern philosophy for centuries. One could argue that Henri Cartier Bresson’s famous coinage, The Decisive Moment, is the quintessential essence of Zen philosophy.

“To take a photograph means to recognize — simultaneously and within a fraction of a second — both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived form and meaning….
This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry.”

~Henri Cartier Bresson~

My husband Glenn, who is an English teacher and meditation instructor, has provided a list of his top ten Buddhist books with handy links.

1) Wild Awakening by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

2) Mind Beyond Death by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

3) It’s Up to You, by Dzigar Kongrul

4) Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

5) Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism byChogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

6) Myth of Freedom by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

7) The Words of My Perfect Teacher by Patrul Rinpoche

The Jewel Ornament of Liberation by Gampopa

9) The Essential of Mahamudra by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

10) Comfortable With Uncertainty by Pema Chodron

Friday Quote: Intuition – A Sixth Sense

May 4, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

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Intuition
by Cheryl Machat Dorskind

Intuition: Some call it a “sixth sense,” an “urge” a “feeling”, “knowing,” “pulling,” “drawing” us to pay attention, to create.

Harry Callahan, one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century, was also a devoted photo instructor, chairing the photography department at Rhode Island School of Design from 1961-1973 (and continued teaching until retiring in 1977). I wish I had known him.

Harry Callahan spoke often of intuition in relation to his work. “Once we recognize a potential photograph, we begin to “see” in our mind the image that will convey the visual-emotional experience of the subject to the maximum degree—that is we visualize an image. Our visualization starts with the subject but takes into account the characteristic of the medium itself and of the specific equipment and materials we are using.”

“I know that, for instance, if I want to photograph on the beach or something, then I’ll walk around the beach and all of a sudden I see something. And then that’s the beginning to start working on something, and then maybe I’ll photograph that and walk down farther and find something very similar, and then keep working on that sort of a little theme, whatever it might be. And then the next time I go to the beach I might say, “well I want to go back and do that.”

~Harry Callahan
The Photographer at Work

Happy Friday,
Cheryl

PS My May online photo classes begin this weekend. Sign-up today and join me for a four weeks of photo inspiration to jump start your intuition:

All About Color

Photographing Children:Rising to the Challenge

Painting Photos

Yellow

April 27, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

Yellow

by Cheryl Machat Dorskind

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com

Painted Photo by Cheryl Machat Dorskind

Sunshine, daffodils, forsythia, lemons, butter, bananas, and taxis. Jaundice, malaria, faded, worn, and chicken-out.

Few colors have yellow’s ambivalence. Sometimes it evokes happiness and warmth, and other times we’re reminded of sickness and loss.

Yellow, the lightest of colors, has long been enamored by artists. The works of Van Gogh, Monet and Cezanne transverse the yellow spectrum ranging from canary yellow, lemon chiffon and gold to ochre and raw sienna. Yellow is the photographer’s paint brush. We write with light.

Marketers exploit color’s symbolism and psychology. Yellow is the corporate flower. Check out these logos: McDonalds, Stanley Tools, Midas, Shell, MasterCard, Google, and Mozilla.

Yellow is a pigment primary and a light secondary. It is a warm color, analogous to orange and red, and complimentary to violet. In color geometry, the triangle is yellow and Sir Isaac Newton assigned yellow to the musical note E (diatonic scale).
Explore your world and hunt for yellow. Bask in its warmth and upload your photo to my facebook page. Looking forward to a good discussion.

Join me for All About Color to learn more about yellow and color compositions. Due to an outpouring of demand, I will also offer More About Color this June and October.

I also teach Painting Photos and Photographing Children: Rising to the Challenge.

Happy Friday,
Cheryl

Friday Quote: Intuition: “Art takes wing”- Ansel Adams

April 20, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | 1 Comment

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com

Friday Quote will focus on intuition for the next few weeks. We will begin with the pithy words from a master.

“Art takes wing from the platform of reality. We observe reality; we may or may not feel anything about it. If we do feel something, we may have a moment of recognition of the imperative subject and its qualities in terms of a photograph. In a sense this is a mystical experience, a revelation of the world that transcends fact and reaches into the spirit.”

Ansel Adams in collaboration with Robert Baker
Polaroid Land Photography
Boston; NY Graphic Society/Little Brown, 1978

Here’s to openness and intuition,

Cheryl

Registration for my online photography classes is open. Join me:

All About Color

More About Color – NEW

Painting Photos

Photographing Children

Friday Quote: Truth ?¿? “The power lies with undeniable reality? ~Arnold Newman

April 13, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

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From the blog series: Friday Quote: Truth ?¿?

“The power of photography lies with the power of undeniable reality of the image…What is real about the medium of Photography? Photography is very unreal. You take a three dimensional world and reduce it to a two-dimensional world. You take color and reduce it to black-and-white. You take the world and life constantly moving within time, and reduce it to an instant moment. That’s not real. It is an illusion of reality. There are many things that are very false about photography when it is accepted without question. You must recognize this and interpret it as you would any other art form, and then maybe it is a little more than real.”

Arnold Newman
Interviews with Master Photographers
James Danziger and Barnaby Conrad III

Arnold Newman offers a treasure of wisdom and inspiration. He dedicated much of his life to photo education.

As Newman remarks, photography plays with the notion of time. Time can be on our side.
Make the most of your time and have a great weekend,
Cheryl

Friday Quote: Truth ?¿? “Photographs Furnish Evidence” ~Susan Sontag

April 6, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | 1 Comment

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Friday Quote: Truth ?¿? “Photographers are always imposing…” ~Susan Sontag

“Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we’re shown a photograph of it. In one version of its utility, the camera record incriminates…In another version of its utility, the camera record justifies. A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened. The picture may distort; but there is always a presumption that something exists, or did exist, which is like what’s in the picture…While a painting or prose description can never be other than a narrowly selective interpretation, a photograph can be treated as a narrowly selective transparency…Even when photographers are most concerned with mirroring reality, they are still haunted by tacit imperatives of taste and conscience…In deciding how a picture should look, in preferring one exposure to another, photographers are always imposing standards on their subjects. Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the work as paintings and drawings are.”

Susan Sontag
On Photography

A recent editorial in The New York Times Sunday Review (my favorite section) previewed a Susan Sontag sampler, a taste of what is to come in a new book of Sontag’s journals (1964-1890) edited by David Reiff (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/opinion/sunday/a-sontag-sampler.html).

Within the sampler, you’ll find a list of things Sontag likes:

“Ivory, sweaters, architectural drawings, urinating, pizza (the Roman bread), staying in hotels, paper clips, the color blue, leather belts, making lists, wagon-lits, paying bills, caves, watching ice-skating, asking questions, taking taxis, Benin art, green apples, office furniture, Jews, eucalyptus trees, penknives, aphorisms, hands.”

The last item on her dislike list is “taking photographs.” Surprising? She was after all Annie Leibovitz’s partner for fifteen years, but once you read On Photography, I suspect you’ll understand. Her posthumous collection of letters will be published April 10, 2012. Click here to pre-order.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend,

Cheryl

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com

Friday Quote: Truth⸮? “Photography never lies or…” ~Roland Barthes

March 30, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com

“Photography never lies: or rather it can lie as to the meaning of the thing…never to its existence.”

~Roland Barthes
Camera Lucida

Below Barthes remarks on his experience as subject:

“In front of the lens, I am at the same time: the one I think I am, the one I want others to think I am, the one the photographer thinks I am, and the one he makes use of to exhibit his art. In other words, a strange action: I do not stop imitating myself and because of this, each time I am (or let myself be) photographed, I invariably suffer from a sensation of inauthenticity, sometimes of imposture (comparable to certain nightmares). In terms of image-repertoire, the Photograph (the one I intend) represents that very subtle moment when, to tell the truth, I am neither subject nor object but a subject who feels he is becoming an object: I the experience a micro-version of death (of parenthesis): I am truly becoming a specter.”

To read more about the topic, “Are photographs true” consider the excellent book Criticizing Photographs, by Terry Barrett (5th Edition).

My thoughts:

I just saw the Cindy Sherman show at MOMA and her self portraits play on these philosophical “what is truth” probings. She constantly toys with herself, molding her image, grabbing a self out of her bag of costumes. I am a bit haunted by her later, larger than life size portraits of aging woman, who on the surface appear elegant. Juxtaposed on digitally imposed bucolic backgrounds, on close exam the aging details crack the heavily powdered foundation and reveal gravity, wrinkles pointing to masked time.

Happy Friday,
Cheryl

“As The Fog Rolls In My Vision Clears” ~Cheryl Machat Dorskind

March 28, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | 4 Comments

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com

As The Fog Rolls In My Vision Clears

Cheryl Machat Dorskind

As the fog rolls in, my vision clears.Its ethereal mist contrasts the ordinary and awakens my camera. Clicking away, I celebrate.

At f/22 (optimal for great depth of field), fog slows the shutter. I secure the camera on a tripod and set the ISO to 100 (fog is noisy). Fog has many nuances. Wanting accurate color, I shoot in RAW and set my white balance to “cloudy.” (Cloudy white balance counters the generally blue bias of fog and synchronizes all jpeg thumbnails). With image stabilization (aka vibration reduction) off and manual focus on (fog impairs auto focusing), I rely on a shutter release cable (or a self timer) to eliminate camera shake.

Perhaps the only unromantic thing about fog (from the camera’s perspective) is the dampness. Consider weather gear.

Exposure is tricky because of fog’s reflective nature. Manual exposure mode is your best bet and bracket even if you are shooting RAW by one stop, plus or minus, so you have these exposures to suit your post processing mood.

Notice how fog (gray) emphasizes green’s vibrancy. Try this: close your eyes, count to five and then look again. Do you see red? This phenomenon is known as simultaneous contrast.

Cheryl teaches the following classes at ppsop:
All About Color
Photographing Children
Painting Photos

New Classes begin April 6th!

Save the Date: Cheryl will be teaching a new class “More About Color” in June. Stay tuned and watch for the registration announcement.

Friday Quote: Truth?⸮

March 23, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | 1 Comment

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com
This week’s Friday Quote begins a mini series: Truth?⸮ Photography’s credibility aura will be explored.

“A failed attempt to photograph reality. How foolish of me to have believed that it would be that easy. I had confused the appearances of trees and automobiles and people with reality itself and believed that a photograph of these appearances to be a photograph of it. It is a melancholy truth that I will never be able to photograph it and can only fail. I am a reflection photographing other reflections within a reflection. To photograph reality is to photograph nothing.”

~Duane Michals~

Contacts volume 2

Duane Michals, an American born contemporary photographer (1932 – ), often makes use of photo sequences and text.

Have a great weekend,

Cheryl

Reading Corner: March 21, 2012

March 21, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | 1 Comment

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com

This past week’s New York Times Sunday Review (3/18/12) had a couple of interesting columns. As an author, photographer, and educator, I was especially focused on the articles about reading.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, in her column “My Life’s Sentences, “likens writing a sentence to taking a Polaroid. “To write,” she says “is to document and to develop at the same time.” And like a photographer who builds a portfolio over time with discerning edits, Lahiri’s work “accrues sentence by sentence. After an initial phase of sitting patiently, not so patiently, struggling to locate them, to pin them down, they begin arriving.”

The other article that grabbed my attention was “Your Brain on Fiction” by Annie Murphy Paul who explains why the experience of reading can feel so alive, “…. The brain, it seems, does not make much of a difference between reading [fiction] about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case the same neurological regions are stimulated.” This clarifies why I have avoided reading the last 30 pages of Disgrace by Nobel Prize winning author J.M Coetze; I simply am not ready to say goodbye to Professor Lurie and Melanie, Bev, Lucy, and Petrus.

Annie Murphy Paul’s column concludes, “Reading great literature…enlarges and improves us as human beings.”

And with this optimistic note, I will now finish Disgrace.

And……What’s on deck? Man Seeks God, by Eric Weiner (hardcover), Vincent (900+ paged book but worth its weight for its cotton rag deckle-edged paper), The Tourist (paperback) by Olen Steinhauer, and The Marriage Plot (Kindle) by Jeffrey Eugenides. On my iPad, I’ll continue with Mari Smith’s The New Relationship Marketing.

And how about you. Reading anything noteworthy that you’d like to share?

Kindle links

;

Books:

Friday Quote: Art is about correpsondences, making connections” ~David Hockney

March 16, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

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“A lot of the early modern artists believed that art could change the world. A lot of artists today don’t’ believe that. Well, I do…The urge to depict and the longing to see depiction is very strong and deep within us. It’s a 5,000 year old longing — we see it all the way back to the cave paintings — this need to render the world. Art is about correspondences — making connections with the world and with each other.”

~David Hockney~

David Hockney, considered by many as one of the world’s greatest living artists ( 1937 – ) is a painter, printmaker, photographer, and stage designer. His works are characterized by economy of technique and a preoccupation with light and frank realism.

He has a lot to say. Here are a few books to read more of his insights. They might just give you a creative jolt.

Couldn’t resist one more quote:
“I think that the way we depict space has a great deal to do with how we behave in it.”
~David Hockney~

Have a great weekend,
Cheryl

Friday Quote: “I had some wild concept that you can change space” ~Jan Groover

March 9, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

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“Technical prowess, I know just as much as I need to know and no more. I am interested in seeing the thing. I could tell you how a view camera works, I could probably explain it to you, but I only know that from experience. I knew nothing about it before I bought one. I had some wild concept that you can change space, which… you can. But, once I bought the view camera, everything else was just eyeballing it…If the thing doesn’t look like the way I want it to look, I’ll try something else.”

~Jan Groover~

PRODUCER: Tina Barney, 1994
DIRECTOR: Mark Trottenberg

Jan Groover died on January 1, 2012; she was 68 years old. “Her relentlessly formal still lifes of mundane objects brought a sense of Renaissance stateliness to postmodern photography…The pictures resonated not only as subtle documents of feminism, but also as unusually beautiful investigations of the fictions that are inseparable from facts in the conventions of photography. (Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, January 11, 2012).

Here is a link to her works in the MOMA collection.
http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=2358

Happy Friday!
Cheryl

Friday Quote: “Compose and Wait” ~ Sam Abell

March 2, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com

“Compose and Wait” ~Sam Abell

“One of the things that I most believe in is the compose and wait philosophy of photography. It’s a very satisfying, almost spiritual way to photograph. Life isn’t’ knocking you around, life isn’t controlling you. You have picked your place, you’ve picked your scene, you’ve picked your light, you’ve done all the decision making and you are waiting for the moment to come to you.”

For over forty years (born 1945) Sam Abell has been a photographer, educator, author, and mentor. He learned photography from his father at their home in Sylvania, Ohio where he lived for eighteen years. Abell states that the flat landscape of Sylvania —one of the flattest landscapes in North America — developed his signature composition style;

“the background is level, horizontal, and cleanly divides the frame, top-to-bottom and near-to-far. I find it, in addition to it being a graphic element, to be an optimistic or positive element… The horizon to me always meant possibilities…”

Friday Quote: “Why hire a photographer?”

February 24, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

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I was not surprised to see the cover of the New York Times Sunday Arts section (2/19/12) feature a rare non-costumed Cindy Sherman self-portrait for its lead article. And I thought, of course, “Why hire a photographer when she can photograph herself…best…as she wants to be seen?”

Once again Cindy Sherman makes front page art news in the New York Times Weekend Arts, today (2/24/12), but this time she is back in costume. Her exhibit at the MOMA is one not to be missed. Here are some Cindy Sherman Quotes:

On Characters

“None of the characters are me. They’re everything but me. If it seems too close to me, it’s rejected.”

“My work is not about fantasizing about characters or situations……When I’m doing the characters I really don’t feel it is something I’m building out of my fantasies, my dreams…”

On Makeup

“Sometimes I would play in my room out of curiosity to see what makeup can do. Sometimes become a character…”

The Photographer’s Quote

“I was good at copying things, but I didn’t really have ideas of what I wanted to do with painting. That was when I thought, ‘Why am I wasting my time elaborately copying things when I could use a camera?’”

Carol Vogel, NY Times (2/19/12)

On Hiring Models

“Whenever I tried to hire people or use friends or family, even if I paid them, I felt like I had to entertain them. When I’m working alone, I can push myself. And I don’t complain.”

Carol Vogel, NY Times (2/19/12)

From the Critics

“The contradictory and complex readings of her work reinforce its ongoing relevance to multiple audiences. More than ever, identity is malleable and fluid and her photographs confirm this.”

Ms. Respini (NY Times 2/19/2012)

Her exhibition at MOMA will be on view through June11, 2012

I made many, many mistakes and learned

February 17, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

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“Andre Kertesz has two qualities which are essential for a great photographer: an insatiable curiosity about life and a precise sense of form.”
~Brassai~

Born in Hungry in 1894, Kertesz was self taught. When asked what interested him most, he replied, “Everything….The camera is a sketchbook…I made many many mistakes and learned…Everything I did was exactly composed…The camera is my tool. Through it I give a reason to everything around me.”

1983 BBC Series

Friday Quote: Eggleston’s democratic camera explores “only one”

February 10, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

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According to Alan Yentob (Creative Director BBC, Producer, “Imagine” – the attached video clip) William Eggleston “dragged color — kicking and screaming into the world of art photography.”

Born in 1939 in Sumner, Mississippi – Eggleston continues his work in what he describes as “banal and everyday.”

“I do have a personal discipline of only taking one picture of one thing, not two. I would take more than one and get so confused later and trying to figure out which is the best frame. I decided that was ridiculous and I was only going to take one frame.”

His great influence was Henri Cartier Bresson; “When you break down the frame, it had inherent geometry.”

According to the Whitney Museum of American Art, “by not censoring, rarely editing, and always photographing, Eggleston convinces us of the idea of the democratic camera. His work is psychologically complex and casually refined, bordering on kitsch and never conventionally beautiful.” (http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/WilliamEggleston)

The photographer watches and waits

February 3, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

“The photographer watches and waits”

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com

“Photographing children requires total attention to their state of mind—a state that changes constantly from smiles to tears to wonder. These glimpses of magic slowly unveil, but illusively disappear the moment the photographer tries to capture them. Like an audience engrossed in the subtle character shifts of an actor, the photographer watches the child and waits for cues. “

~Cheryl Machat Dorskind
From my book, The Art of Photographing Children

Join me for my online class, “Photographing Children: Rising to the Challenge”
Class begins this weekend!

Friday Quote: “Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement” ~Jackson Pollock

January 27, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

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“I don’t work from drawings or color sketches. My painting is direct. I usually paint on the floor. I enjoy working on a large canvass. I feel more at home, more at ease in a big area. Having the canvass on the floor, I feel nearer, more a part of the painting. This way I can walk around it, work from all fours sides and be in the painting. Similar to the Indian sand paintings of the West.

Sometimes I use a a brush, but often prefer using a stick. Sometimes I pour the paint straight, right out of the can. I like to use a dripping, fluid paint. I also use sand, broken glass, pebbles, string. A method of painting is a natural growth, out of a need.
I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them.

Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.

When I am painting I have a general notion as to what I am about. I can control the flow of the paint, There is no accident, just as there is no beginning and no end….a painting has a life of its own, I let it live.”

~Jackson Pollock~
Excerpt from the video Jackson Pollock 51
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrVE-WQBcYQ
Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg (directors)  Morton Feldman (composer)

Saturday, January 28th, marks the anniversary of Jackson Pollock’s (the father of Abstract Expressionism) 100th birthday.

This weekend celebrate his genius: visit a museum, view his work on an online gallery, buy a book, or watch “Pollock” directed by Ed Harris.

Here’s a sampling:

Friday Quote: Play when you practice, practice when you play

January 20, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | 1 Comment

“There is an old adage in music: “if you play when you practice, you practice when you play.”

~Ansel Adams~

Over 50 years ago Ansel Adams, feeling restless, made a career choice, forgoing the life of a classical concert pianist for that of a photographer.

He was encouraged by family and friends to stay the piano course. “Oh Ansel, don’t give up the piano, the camera can not express the soul…The only answer I had to that was, I don’t think the camera can, but maybe the photographer could.”

Friday Quote: Close enough?

January 13, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

Friday Quote: by Cheryl Machat Dorskind

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”

~Robert Capa~

Have a great weekend,

Cheryl

Friday Quote: If they were willing to give, I was ready to photograph

January 6, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

Friday Quote: If they were willing to give, I was willing to photograph

“It doesn’t matter if you use a box camera or a Leica, the important thing is what motivates you when you are photographing. What I have tried to do is involve the people I was photographing. To have them realize without saying so that it was up to them to give me whatever they wanted to give me… if they were willing to give, I was willing to photograph.”

~Eve Arnold~
Conversations with John Tusa

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/eve-arnold-personalities

Eve Arnold, a pioneering photojournalist, died this past Wednesday at the age of 99. She began her career in 1946, when career women were a rarity, let alone women photographers. She was one of the first women to join Magnum Photography Agency (along with Inge Morath). In her memoir, Arnold recalls how she studied contact sheets she found at Magnum to learn how the other Magnum photographers, such as founders Henri Cartier Bresson and Robert Capa, approached their assignments. She noted that Henri Cartier Bresson’s work in particular taught her to tell an entire story in a single image.

In the 1950s, Arnold carved a niche in Hollywood and is perhaps best known for her “natural and intimate portraits” of Marilyn Monroe, and “unflattering real portraits” of Joan Crawford. Yet, Arnold prided herself in staying away from “women pages” and whenever possible worked from a global perspective, traveling the world, documenting infamous faces, and winning many prestigious awards, honors, and publishing 12 books.
Have a great weekend and take a moment to reflect upon the work of Eve Arnold,

Cheryl

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com

Red sits on top of the rainbow and the Adobe Color Picker

January 3, 2012 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

Red sits on top of the rainbow and the Adobe Color Picker

This holiday season was wrapped in red heart colored ribbons instilling messages of love and good will.

Red, both a pigment and light primary color, sits on top of the rainbow and the “Adobe Color Picker.” At its digital purist, red is 255 R, 0G, 0B.

Red is an attention grabber. Food photographers know that red stimulates appetite and product photographers will use bold reds to help brand companies. Check out the logos for Canon, Costco, Netflix and Target. Portrait photographers use red to create flattering flesh tones. Red can emphasize a toddler’s vitality or convey (with a red sweater) a teen’s confidence. Juxtapose red with green to add contrast (green and red are complementary pairs and create a natural impact). Red, considered a warm color, creates an optical illusion of an object moving forward in a composition.

Red has the longest wavelength and is said to be the first color a baby sees. Red stirs emotions; it is powerful, seductive, and elegant. At its full intensity, red jostles the senses—red may even raise your blood pressure.

While both reddish, red is not the same as magenta; red is a primary and magenta is a secondary color of light. When mixing light primary colors, red light and blue light combined will create a magenta colored light. Reducing red in your digital file will increase the amount of cyan, while reducing magenta will add more green. (See the screenshots used to adjust the flesh tones.)

To reduce the reddish flesh tones, I move the red slider to the left, thus adding more cyan

Alternatively, to reduce the reddish flesh tone, I can add more green by moving the magenta slider to the right.

Here’s to a Happy New Year and realize your red potential.

Join me for my class “All About Color” to learn more about Color Theory.

Cheryl teaches the following classes at ppsop:

All About Color
Photographing Children
Painting Photos

Friday Quote: “Perhaps every culture leaves markers for the future…”

December 30, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

“Perhaps every culture leaves markers for the future, a means of connecting the dots of linking the past to what is yet to come. The “frozen moment” of photography provides a possible answer to the problem of Heraclitus, that one cannot step into the same river twice. Perhaps one can look at the same photograph twice. Even though our thoughts and our memories change, we change, the perspective through which we look at the world changes, there is the thought that a photograph partially takes us outside of ourselves. That it gives us a glimpse—even though it may be only a two dimensional representation—of something real.”

Errol Morris
From the Book “Believing is Seeing”
(Observations on the Mysteries of Photography)

Wishing you a safe, healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year!

Cheryl

Friday Quote: Equipment should fit like a good pair of jeans

December 23, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

“Equipment should fit like a good pair of jeans, moving, adapting, and forming to the moment with comfort and ease.”

Cheryl Machat Dorskind
From the book
The Art of Photographing Children

Friday Quote: “I begin by not photographing” ~Jeff Wall

December 16, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

“I begin by not photographing” ~Jeff Wall

“I developed that phrase because it just described something I really do. If I see something on the street, lets say, I don’t photograph it. So I could be looking and hunting for things…but I just don’t photograph them. It’s only a small difference, really. The actual event disappears as a photograph. It vanishes as a potential photograph. It doesn’t happen. But, it doesn’t disappear because I am the photographer…

October 2007
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/242

Photografs like Paintings – Jeff Wall in Dresden… by deutschewelle

The Art Institute of Chicago on Jeff Wall: “Epic and luminous, the work of Jeff Wall has overturned nearly every convention of photography. Meticulously staged and theatrical in scale, Wall’s images have more in common with the grandest history painting of the 18th century and the flickering mesmerism of cinema than with the fleeting documentary style of much of modern photography.”
( http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/jeff_wall/overview.html)

Happy Friday,
Cheryl

Friday Quote: Philippe Halsman

December 9, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

“Most people hide behind a socially attractive mask. Others lose their composure in front of a camera. Lighting and photographic equipment are less important to the portraitist than psychology and conversation. If he uses them effectively, sometimes in the short span of a sitting a miracle happens. A fragment of evanescent truth is captured and instant eternity (simply add hypo!) is born.“
- Philippe Halsman

The word hypo evokes nostalgia – I miss the darkroom!
(Hypo – a trademark of Kodak- is a clearing agent used to remove fixer from films and fiber-based paper to shorten the washing time and also enable washes at lower temperatures practical.)

I was reintroduced to the fine work of Philippe Halsman when I met and photographed Austin Ratner this past August. Austin Ratner spent five years researching the life of Philippe Halsman and wrote the highly acclaimed novel, “The Jump Artist”

Austin Ratner © Cheryl Machat Dorskind, 2011

In addition to his renown portraits of celebrities, politicians, and intellectuals of the period of time between 1940-1970s, Philippe Halsman was also known for his “jump” pictures which include popular comedians of the time (Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Groucho Marx) and (then) Vice President Richard Nixon jumping. To learn more about Philippe Halsman, http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/halsman/intro.htm.

Happy Friday!

Cheryl

www.cherylmachatdorskind.com

Friday Quote: Contact Sheets

December 2, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

“The contact sheet is like the analysts’s couch. It’s also a kind of seismograph, recording the instant. It’s all there, what surprises us is what we catch, what we miss, what disappears. Or else an event that fulfills itself as an image.”

~Henri Cartier Bresson~
Contacts 1
Contacts, Vol. 1: The Great Tradition of Photojournalism (1988)
DVD, Directors: Richard Copans & Stan Neumann

Contact sheets are valuable editing tools and they’ll help you stay organized. Back in the film days, contact sheets were part of the workflow. Now we view digital files on a slide show, 2 up, four up, or plain old one up. But it is hard to edit the many images that a digital session typically produces.

With a contact sheet, a best shot will pop. The printed thumbnails give you a different perspective, one that is useful for gaining insights into your work. Editing is important, a best practice is to “show less and only the best.”With a white background, there is plenty of space for writing comments or circling the best shots.

For your next photo shoot try a contact sheet and discover how the thumbnails will help you “see.”

Have a great weekend!
Cheryl

6 Tips for Photographing Children

November 28, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

Photographing children looks easy, but children typically do not want you to photograph them—at least not on your terms. Photographing your own children can be especially challenging. Here are some tips that might help.

1. Be Prepared, Plan Ahead

Children require complete focus; be-here-now must be the motto. Determine the camera settings beforehand so you are not distracted by technicalities and can focus on your subjects. Establish the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed based upon the lighting conditions you will encounter. As a general rule: Bright Sun ISO 100, bright but cloudy ISO 200, late in the afternoon ISO 400, if sports are the subject ISO 800 (provided you have a newer camera and have tested your noise factor).

For this session, I kept it simple. White backdrop, natural afternoon sunlight flooding the studio, with an on-camera flash and a Gary Fong cloud diffuser. Photographing with a Canon 5D MII, I often shoot at a high ISO so I havethe flexibility of working with a fast shutter and/or an aperture of my choice. While f/2 lenses are wonderful to own, I do not as a rule use them for children (or families). Children move unpredictability and therefore a narroweraperture (f/11 or smaller) provides a sharper focus safety net.

Manual exposure mode: ISO 640, f/5.6 @ 1/100; 24-105mm f 4L, 70 mm focal length, fill flash with Gary Fong cloud diffuser, RAW

2. Be Patient

Photographing children requires an abundance of patience and alertness. Henri Cartier Bresson likened this readiness to the mind of a hunter, always ready for the moment to reveal itself. You too must intuit, quickly grabbing their spirit in an unveiled smile or a twinkle in the eyes.

Serendipity can bring you to the right place at the right time and you instinctively connect with the Decisive Moment, but photographing children requires waiting, coaxing, and waiting some more. Be patient, make luck happen.

Manual exposure mode: ISO 100, f 11 @ 1/100; 24-105mm, 67 mm; fill flash, RAW

3. Create an Environment that Encourages Imagination

Young children will forget about you and your camera if you create an environment that allows them to imagine. Relating to the subject is essential. How do you relate to a one year old or an 18 year old? How do you encourage your own child to go with the flow and allow you to photograph them with the new camera you received as a Holiday gift?

Ariel: Manual exposure mode: ISO 640, f/5.6 @ 1/100 24-105mm f4L, 45 mm focal length, fill flash with Gary Fong cloud diffuser,RAW

Ask the child to perform for you. To relax Ariel, I asked her to show me her new ballet steps. Once she was finished dancing, she was willing to sit for a moment, and during that moment I was able to capture a few great pictures.

Manual exposure mode: ISO 640; f/5.6 @ 1/100; 24-105mm f 4L lens; 82 mm, fill flash with Gary Fong cloud diffuser, RAW

An adult, standing tall will make the child uptight. To allow the imagination to wander, I am often on my knees or lying on my stomach to meet the children’s gaze. Once you have established the environment whereby you are forgotten, you have the ability to capture sweet moments.

Sometimes it helps to ask the parents to leave, while other times, the parents provide a safety net that adds to the environment you are creating.

4. Learn to Use the “Back Focus Button”

Most children do not want to sit still (when asked), so have your eye on the viewfinder, finger on the shutter, focus locked. Using the back button auto focus is a big help. This enables you to split the functions: the thumb locks the focus while the index finger is ready at the shutter. With practice, back button auto focus will enable you to easily focus and refocus while the child moves (without accidentally clicking the shutter). Check your camera manual to learn about this custom feature.

5. Location, Location, Location

Rather than asking the child to relax in a studio, bring the studio outdoors. Most children love the beach, the park, or their own backyard.

Manual exposure mode: ISO 100; f/16 @ 1/125 +.33; 24-105 mm f4L; 32mm focal length, RAW

Children will find the water’s edge truly exhilarating.

Manual exposure mode: ISO 100, f/10 @ 1/100; 24-105 mm f4L; 40 mm focal length, RAW

This child was hot, tired, and pouting, so I gave her my hat and she felt a lot better.

Manual exposure mode: ISO 100, f/11 @ 1/100 24-105mm f4L; 95mm focal length, RA

Mindy was a doll and wanted to be helpful with her large family of 10 children! I gladly crowned her my third assistant and our bond helped create some awesome photographs.

Auto exposure mode: ISO 500; f/20 @ 1/160, fill flash 24-105mm f 4 L; 105 mm focal length, RAW

To keep the moment spontaneous, we kept chasing the light. The constant movement kept the boys smiling (and conspiring) long enough for me to grab memorable photos.

Aperture priority exposure mode: ISO 400, f/7 @ 1/200, fill flash, 24-105mm f4L; 66 mm focal length, RAW

6. Keep the Clothes Simple

A quick way to enhance your children portraits is to plan the wardrobe. If you are going out with the family, then spend a few minutes making sure that the clothes coordinate in color and that logos are minimal—or better yet, invisible. Match color value with location. For instance, if you are going to the park, bold primary colors might be appropriate, whereas at the beach, khaki or denim work well.

There are differing opinions on whether the whole family should be wearing the same colors. In these photos above, you will find that the families are dressed in matching outfits, but this is not a rule written in stone. The following images illustrate how you can successfully mix and match colors in a family portrait.

Manual exposure mode: ISO 100; f/9 @1/125, 24-105mm f/4L; 55mm focal length, RAW

Manual exposure mode: ISO 160; f/14 @1/125, 24-105mm f/4L; 45mm focal length, RAW

Remember, your mood will be mirrored in the photos you capture. Photograph with an open and joyful heart.

Join me for a class in 2012:

All About Color

Photographing Children

Painting Photos

All my best,

Cheryl

Author of The Art of Photographing Children

Autographed copies are available!

Friday Quote: Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim

November 25, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

Have you noticed that art critiques (photography, films, and book reviews as well) can be awfully opinionated? Art criticism is supposed to be about detailing, explaining, and educating the public. But sometimes art critics get carried away with their editorial perspective.

“Abigail Solomon-Godeau views her chosen critical agendas as one of asking questions: Primarily, all critical practices—literary or artistic—should be about asking questions. That’s what I do in my teaching and it’s what I attempt to do in my writing.”

Critic Kay Larsen, states that she starts writing criticism “by confronting the work at the most direct level possible—suspending language and removing barriers…you can try to figure out how to explain it, and there are many ways to take off—through sociology, history, theory, standard criticism, or description.”

And lastly, Grace Glueck sees her role as a critic as “being one of informing members of the public about works of art: She aspires to inform, elucidate, explain, and enlighten.”

With the above critical philosophy (from the terrific book Criticizing Photographs, by Terry Barrett Criticizing Photographs
as a backdrop, I now turn to the exhibit of Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim, “All.” Maurizio Cattelan is known for his prankster approach to art and critics have not been kind.

And yet…he is having a retrospective at the age of 51 at the Guggenheim Museum and he cleverly insisted on using the brilliance of Frank Lloyd’s Wright’s space to hang (never-to-be -done-before) his collection of 128 works in the center of the atrium.

Ingenious and fun, you see the art from different perspectives as you walk up and down the ramps: I recommend the exhibit to all. The Guggenheim even gives you free headsets so you can learn about Cattelan.

I have read several reviews—thankfully defacto (since I might have been put off going by the undeserved negativity): The New Yorker, NY Times, and Bloomberg condescend, NY Magazine and The Economist offer useful insights. Jerry Saltz of NY Magazine summarizes in his redemptive article, “All is Cattelan internally fissuring, convulsing into a spectacular grand seizure. It’s full disclosure, nondisclosure, self-martyrdom, panic attack, and jumping-the-shark rolled into one—and it’s also some kind of masterpiece.”

Visit the museum and let me know your thoughts. And notice, I say thoughts; this is when opinions are welcome.

Friday Quote

November 18, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

Hear-See

“What are the first sounds you hear in the morning, before you open your eyes? The loud insistent beep of an alarm clock? The voice of a news announcer or loud rock music on your radio? The “noise alarm” of a crying baby or honking horns and other traffic noise outside your window? Or are you one of the lucky ones who awakens to just the simple sounds of nature – wind rustling in the trees, a rushing brook, the singing of birds tuning up like an orchestra before the great symphony of your day?

The first moment of awakening is brief, but it’s important. What you hear influences your mood, alertness, energy level, and thus your behavior more directly and more profoundly than you may realize. Not only does each particular sound element create an impact, but the ratio of noise to organized sound, the layering of multiple sound sources and the combined decibel level of all the sounds that greet you can all have a dramatically positive or negative effect. The effect can linger. As with a bell struck by its clapper, the effects of these sounds can resonate throughout your day.”

Excerpt from the book
“Healing at the Speed of Sound: How What We Hear Transforms Our Brains and Our Lives”
By Don Campbell and Alex Doman

Music and art (of course, I include photography in this category) are interrelated on many levels. Many speculate that Sir Isaac Newton distinguished seven colors of the visible light spectrum (yellow, orange, red, green, blue, violet, and indigo) to parallel the notes of the musical scale. (Nowadays, indigo, a hard to distinguish color, is often left off the list).

As photographers we paint with light. Starting your day with the right sounds will profoundly affect what you may or may not see, how you will see, and what you choose to leave in and out of the picture frame.

There are many artists and photographers who link music and art, music and light, music and taste, music and smell. Scientists call this synesthesia. I will be talking about these relationships in future blogs. Stay tuned and send me your comments.

Happy Friday!
Cheryl

Friday Quote

November 11, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | 2 Comments

Snowdon

English photographer, inventor and designer

On Portraiture…..

“Being photographed is a bit like being in the electric chair; nobody likes it. I think the only way you can learn about taking pictures is to be photographed yourself so you can see what an awful experience it is…

I like to direct my subjects and tell them exactly what to do. It is not always a matter of making people feel totally at ease. Often the only way that one can break through someone’s prepared face is to make them slightly uncomfortable, physically or mentally. Sometimes people can be awkward or ill at ease in a way that expresses themselves better than when they are relaxed.”

From the book “Snowdon Sittings”

Over the course of his career, Snowdon photographed almost anyone of importance in the art and fashion world. He was greatly influenced by Henri Cartier Bresson and Irving Penn.

Want to learn more about Lord Snowdon? Here is a video interview with Charlie Rose from 2001

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/3037

Happy Friday,

Friday Quote

November 4, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

“We all measure ourselves every day by other human beings, by everyone we meet. I’m interested in people who do things and the hardest-working people I know are creative people: artists, musicians, writers. The motivation of these people and even the drive of the top business executive is exciting to me. I love to interpret people in a way that combines the graphic aspects of art that have always fascinated me, for instance design — design that relates to my feeling about these people and their work. Design is composition—anything that makes the picture work whether it is free or rigid in feeling. It all depends on what you have to say about that specific person. It is all related.”

~Arnold Newman~

From the book “Interviews with Master Photographers”

As a portrait photographer and educator, I pay homage to Arnold Newman who is the father of environmental portraiture and moved the studio beyond four walls.
Location. Location. Location. You are only confined by your imagination.

If you are interested in learning more about Arnold Newman visit the Arnold Newman Archive: http://www.arnoldnewmanarchive.com/.

For photo book collectors:

Happy Friday!

Cheryl Machat Dorskind

Friday Quote

October 28, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

“Some researchers used to believe that people had different learning styles — that some people are right brain and some are left brain: some are auditory and some are visual learners. There’s almost no credible evidence to support this view. Instead, we all flip back and forth between different methods, depending on context….

Within weeks, students forget 90 percent of the knowledge they learn in class anyway. The only point of being a teacher is to do more than impart facts; it’s to shape the way students perceive the world, to help a student absorb the rules of a discipline. The teachers who do that get remembered…

Much unconscious learning is done through imitation. She exhibited a way of thinking through a problem and then hoped her students participated along with her….

The pain of getting things wrong and the effort required to overcome error creates an emotional experience that helps burn things into the mind.”

Excerpt from The Social Animal

by David Brooks
Author and op-ed columnist for The NY Times

Teaching photography envelopes this message. In the photo school of hard knocks, you are forced to make mistakes and innovate to overcome obstacles.

It is Halloween weekend, a photographer’s playground. Have fun and feel free to upload a photo on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CherylMachatDorskindPhotography.

And by the way, if you would like some photo instruction, new classes begin at the online photo school, the Perfect Picture School of Photography next Friday, November 4th. I teach All About Color and Painting Photos. and personalized One On One classes. Four great courses to join me in study. In the one-on-one classes I’ll help you along with your holiday greeting cards and photographic gift item ideas.

Have a great weekend,

Cheryl Machat Dorskind

Friday Quote

October 21, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

Kairos is a Greek word describing the opportune moment, the right occasion, or as poetically described in Wikipedia, “a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens.“ Henri Cartier Bresson coined this blink-of-an-eye photo recognition The Decisive Moment.

“Clear sightedness” and “a good eye” are phrases that come to mind. Kairos is the opposite of chance. According to Bresson, the photographer is always on alert. The world matters at every moment.

“ A photograph is the simultaneous recognition in a fraction of a second of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms.”

~Henri Cartier Bresson~

This weekend go out and be in the moment. If you capture The Decisive Moment, upload and share your photo on my facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/CherylMachatDorskindPhotography

Happy Friday,

Cheryl Machat Dorskind

Friday Quote

October 14, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | Leave a comment

“I’ve said a million times that the best thing for a young photographer to do is to stay close to home. Start with your friends and family, the people who will put up with you. Discover what it means to be close to your work, to be intimate with a subject. Measure the difference between that and working with someone you don’t know as much about. Of course, there are many good photographs that have nothing to do with staying close to home and I guess what I’m saying, really, is that you should take pictures of something that has meaning for you.”

~Annie Leibovitz~

Many photographers begin their careers by photographing their families and friends. Perhaps this October weekend you’ll be inspired to photograph someone you love.

Happy Friday!

Cheryl Machat Dorskind

Friday Quote

October 7, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | 1 Comment

Friday Quote

Today begins a weekly series on my blog called “Friday Quotes.”

“I would tell a young photographer today to be a student of the humanities, to be able to think, to be able to observe, to take advantage of what you see around you—you should do that before you click the camera.”

~Yousuf Karsh~

Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) is considered one of the 20th century photography. Click on this link and listen to a few pithy words from the master himself.
masters.http://www.karsh.org/#/the_man/video/

His words remind me of a quote I recently posted on facebook by Steve Jobs, “I skate to where the puck is going to be.”

For more information, http://www.karsh.org/

Happy Friday

A Personal Touch

September 30, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | 1 Comment

A Personal Touch

Cheryl Machat Dorskind

Let’s face it, photography is competitive. Anyone can call themselves a photographer; so the essential question is, “How are you any different than the typical guy or gal with the expensive camera gear?” The answer lies in what you are communicating and how your style sets you apart?

I recently judged the annual Westhampton Beach Outdoor Art Fair. Interestingly, the majority of artists were photographers. As a judge, I surveyed the art with an eye for originality, a what-else-can-you-show-me attitude.

I immediately noticed landscapes as the common subject; their presentation set them apart. Some chose traditional metal frames behind glass and others printed on canvass. One artist caught my eye: she used traditional c-prints (color photographs from negatives) dry mounted onto bamboo wood blocks. They were available in different square sizes which hung especially well as a group (ka ching…more sales).

Best in show however, went to a realist watercolorist who expanded his canvasses to include the mat and frames. His African portraits reached across the edges of the watercolor paper and glazed onto the mat boards. The frames were also part of the art, each molded with pressed tobacco leaves.

Many of the photographs remain a blur and so I thought “What better way to introduce you to my class “Painting Photos?”

My online class at ppsop, “Painting Photos,” is designed for the photographer who wants to explore something more. It is for the photographer who is ready to enter art shows and photo competitions, or the photographer who wants to create greeting cards, fine art editions, or personal gift items.

Just as a frame enhances an image, a border will set your photo apart. And while there are many software products that allow you to create a border, painting photos instructs you how to create a border that is truly unique. Consider the following examples from former students.

In Lesson One students are assigned to photograph their environment and sort through old photos that have an emotional thread. I then suggest which images to pursue through the remaining lessons. This is an image submitted by Linda Burke for the creative border assignment.

Photo by Linda Burke before manipulation

Patty McCabe added her handprint with this image. She created a background layer using the paper texture I provide, filling it with a 50% opacity. She created an artistic border using the eyedropper tool to add just the right color by selecting an area of lilac within the image. She then used the eraser brush to bring back more of the flower.

Creative borders can be show stoppers, as they were for a former student Cordia Murphy whose recent exhibit drew rave reviews. During the class, Cordia enthusiastically wrote, This serves me well because I am doing a show in February and wanted to mix it up a bit and not have straight landscape photos. The show is of the same area so wanted to catch attention.”

Creative borders can be show stoppers, as they were for a former student Cordia Murphy whose recent exhibit drew rave reviews. During the class, Cordia enthusiastically wrote, “I have gone border crazy. This serves me well because I am doing a show in February and wanted to mix it up a bit and not have straight landscape photos. The show is of the same area so wanted to catch attention.”

John St. Pierre working with Photoshop CS4 and Corel Painter used the rice paper texture (provided) and a brush template he created with india ink to add his personal stamp.

Robert Belie selected a photo dear to his heart to enhance using Photoshop Elements and created an artistic border. He desaturated the color, added a texture (provided in the class) and added a gradient to change the gold to orange in the foreground. The image was printed on watercolor paper with a deckle edge (papers are discussed in lesson 4), and used watercolor pencils to enhance the flesh tones, and add back color in the balloons. His signature was added with the digital brush (a bonus lesson in painting photos).

Scott Pakulski wanted to say something more with his photographs of the Eiffel Tower. Here is the before and after. His image was printed on inkjet paper. First an artistic border was created in lesson 2 and then a dry brush filter was used in lesson 3 to selectively enhance color.

While it is September, it is also time to be thinking of your holiday card promotion. If you want to have your cards stand out among the many options available online, then join me for painting photos class or a one-on-one with “Painting Photos.”

Join me on You tube and watch a video tutorial http://www.youtube.com/user/cheryldorskind?feature=mhee

Class Requirements: Photo editing software is required (Photoshop, Corel, Elements, Microsoft Picture Image). Adobe and Corel offer free 30 day trials. The class can be strictly digital or a combination of hand and digital. Painting experience is not required, but a willingness to explore and patience is a must. If you like to lose yourself in the process of Photoshop, or want to experiment with fine art paper and applying colors to inkjet prints, then this is the right class for you.

Cheryl Machat Dorskind, a noted professional photographer for over twenty years, shares her passion for photography through her books, teaching, fine-art, and commissions. She is the author of two best selling photography books (The Art of Photographing Children and The Art of Handpainting Photographs), a college professor for the past 18 years, a fine art photographer and handpainter, and has been teaching at ppsop since 2006.

Cheryl also teaches All About Color.

Some Things Blue

September 15, 2011 by Cheryl Machat Dorskind | 2 Comments

Blue is arguably the most popular of colors and evokes a vast range of meaning culturally and personally. Blue moon, the blues, blue morning, blue sky, blue jeans, bluebells, blue bonnet, perhaps Picasso’s Azul Period (1901-1904) best characterizes the melancholy and poetic power of blue.

Blue conveys trust, dependency, and intellect. That is why blue is so often used in corporate branding and corporate portrait backdrops. Blue also has physical power. Merely being in a blue room can reduce your heart rate and body temperature. It’s no wonder why people love the beach, it’s a giant outdoor meditation hall.

Blue, as a light primary, plays an important role in the overall color of our images. This is where white balance and color temperature come into play. White balance measures the light source and establishes a color temperature for the scene. In theory, the camera’s white balance establishes a neutral white or gray as opposed to a blue white, blue gray, or a blue biased flesh tone, etc (For the record, red and green can also be dominant, but this article is focused on the color blue). With a correct white balance, the image should reveal true-to-life color. But all cameras process digital data differently and the colors might not be what you envisioned in your mind’s eye.

Blue light is described as cool. Temperature, of course, is relative. The Kelvin scale expresses the temperature of color in an absolute form. For example, a cool blue sky measures 10,000 K, and strobe lights are rated at 6000 K (The degree symbol is not used when discussing Kelvin temperatures). Below please find a chart of common light sources and their approximate Kelvin values.

Artistically, sometimes it makes sense to purposely alter or mis-match the white balance, to make an image more blue or cooler. If you shoot in RAW, you have the opportunity to change the white balance and color temperature at whim in post processing. But JPEG shooters (and tiff files) can also take advantage of white balance adjustments using Adobe Camera RAW (ACR).

To open a file in ACR, you’ll begin in Adobe Bridge, select File>Open with ACR (Make sure you have enabled this in the Adobe Photoshop CS4, CS5 or Photoshop Elements Preferences Panel).

Please Note: For the RAW shooter, the temperature scale in ACR resembles the chart I have provided. For the jpeg shooter or tiff file manager, the values are different and you will have less color control, but still this remains an effective method to fix or alter the color and therefore the success and meaning of your photograph.

The following photos illustrate how the color blue changes when white balance and color temperature are adjusted. The first image opens in ACR using the “As Shot” preset (my RAW conversion default, because I like to see how the camera interprets my image at capture). In the second photo, to tweak the overall colors, I select the white balance eyedropper tool and point to the white bucket. Notice the shift in the color blue.

Color theory, color symbolism, psychology, physics, artistic expression, white balance, color temperature, and the color wheel are some of the topics explored in my class, All About Color. As illustrated, there are many tools at the digital photographer’s disposal to change color. ALL About Color provides the foundation for you to develop a trusted eye so you know when and why to use the “right” colors.

This class will help portrait, stock, still life, landscape, and product photographers enhance their images and use color strategically. For beginning students, ALL About Color will ignite your passion for photography.

Join me and enrich your vision. And if you are color blind (like 8% of the male and .05% of the female population), you are still welcome. I will teach you to compensate for the colors you cannot see.

Cheryl Machat Dorskind, a noted professional photographer for over twenty years, shares her passion for photography through her books, teaching, fine-art, and commissions. She is the author of two best selling photography books (The Art of Photographing Children and The Art of Handpainting Photographs), a college professor for the past 18 years, and has been teaching at ppsop since 2006.

Cheryl also teaches Painting Photos, a hands-on guide to creating artful photos.

Questions or comments: Cheryl@cherylmachatdorskind.com

www.cherylmachatdorksind.com

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