Photographing fireworks in winter weather

As Thursday night becomes Friday morning this week, we’ll go from New Years Eve to New Years Day. Across much of the country that means fireworks.

Photographing fireworks takes planning and knowledge at anytime, but January 1^st in much of North America also means it will be cold. Cold weather offers additional challenges for fireworks photography.

Here are my tips for photographing fireworks in cold weather.

Photography Exhibition: The Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago Cabinet: C. D. Arnold Photographs of the World's Columbian Exposition

The Art Institute of Chicago, regularly has extraordinary photographic exhibitions. This exhibition, Chicago Cabinet: C. D. Arnold Photographs of the World's Columbian Exposition is a great example of a wonderful photographer of the late 19^th century and shows an important time in the history of the United States.

This exhibition will run through February 28, 2010

My Tripod is Verboten! What do I do?

It’s happening more and more to travelers across the world. Regardless of the reason, use of tripods in some locations is forbidden.

You can’t use a tripod on top of the Arc de Triomphe, on the third level observation deck of the Eiffel Tower, or the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

At the Chichen Itza archaeological site in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, I’m hearing reports tripods are now banned.

Many cities don’t permit tripod use on busy sidewalks.

Photography Exhibition: The Getty Museum - In Focus: The Worker

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has one of the great photographic collections in the world. This exhibition of 40 prints of men, women, and children working include a range of photographic processes from daguerreotypes to gelatin silver prints.This exhibition, In Focus: The Worker, is one of the Getty’s most interesting.

This exhibition will run through March 21, 2010

NSL's Annual Holiday Photography Gift Suggestions

It's the holiday time of the year, time to think about gifts for friends and family who include photographers; beginners, through serious amateurs.

Purchasing photography gifts can be difficult, especially for serious amateurs, as many prefer to carefully choose each component of their "kit" themselves, but I think there are some possibilities that almost any photographer would say, "Thanks very much!"

I'd stay away from choosing cameras, lenses, tripods, most bags, and software, unless you know of a specific item they want, but have held off for some reason. Instead, look for items which could augment already existing equipment or other items which might help.

I have a few choices below that I think most would find very welcome in a wide price range ($18–$300 or more, if you want to go there).

Photography Exhibition: Florida Museum of Photographic Arts - Andrea Modica: Flights of the Soul

The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts holds some of the best photographic exhibitions in the southern United States. Their current exhibition, Andrea Modica: Flights of the Soul looks like an amazing exhibition of Ms. Modica’s work. While I haven’t seen it yet, having seen her photographic work at the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, I’m certain this exhibition at the FMPA will be an exciting example of a terrific contemporary US artist.

Ms. Modica has been the recipient of both a Guggenheim Arts Fellowship and a Fulbright-Hays Research Grant. Her work has been on exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the George Eastman House in Rochester, and The National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.

The exhibition runs through January 10, 2010

For more than ten years, Andrea Modica has been photographing a group of children in rural upstate New York. It is here, through a young girl named Barbara and her extended family, that Modica has created an amazing body of her work. Transforming reality into fantasy, Modica creates narratives that seem to have no beginning or end, yet present endless scenarios.