Lenses for Travel Photography - Part V (Lens qualities and characteristics in purchase decisions)

This week in Part V of my seven part series about lenses for travel photography, I discuss what qualities and characteristics are important to consider when choosing lenses for travel. The series is primarily meant for SLR and DSLR camera users, who can attach a variety of lenses to their cameras to support their creativity, and suit the needs of their photographic opportunities.

Unfortunately for anyone purchasing lenses, there are a myriad of lens qualities, specifications, and characteristics which should be considered. Even if you’ll be purchasing nothing but the absolute best quality pro lenses, you will be weighing choices and making compromises.

You’ll have to decide the relative importance of specifications and characteristics for you photography to make your lens choices. This article should help you familiarize yourself with what you need to consider, and why, when purchasing your lenses.

Photography Exhibition: The Getty Museum - A Record of Emotion: The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, regularly has extraordinary photographic exhibitions. A Record of Emotion: The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans is no exception.

This exhibition will run through June 6, 2010

Lenses for Travel Photography - Part IV (Lens choices for travel photographic opportunities)

This week in Part IV of my seven part series about lenses for travel photography, I’ll discuss choosing lenses for your travels. The series is primarily meant for SLR and DSLR camera users, who can attach a variety of lenses to their cameras to support their creativity, and suit the needs of their photographic opportunities.

There is a large variety of lenses: wide angle, normal or standard, and telephoto lenses, wide angle zoom, standard zoom, and telephoto zoom lenses, and don’t forget there are also zoom lenses which go across the categories as I discussed in Part III of the series. As the great American jazz and popular music singer, Peggy Lee asked in one of her famous songs, “Is that all there is?,” in the world of photographic lenses, the answer is, no.

There are also super telephoto lenses, and super telephoto zoom lenses, as well as specialty lenses such as fisheye, macro (close-up), perspective control lenses, and selective focus lenses.

Photography Exhibition: The National Portrait Gallery - Glimpse of the Past: A Neighborhood Evolves

Periodically the National Portrait Gallery has some incredible photographic portrait exhibitions. Glimpse of the Past: A Neighborhood Evolves is such an exhibition. With attributed and unattributed works you get a insight into the history of official Washington, DC, through photographs.

This exhibition will run through January 8, 2012

Lenses for Travel Photography - Part III (Choosing between zoom and prime lenses)

This week in Part III of my seven part series about lenses for travel photography, I’ll discuss ideas you can use to help you choose between zoom and prime lenses. The series is primarily meant for SLR and DSLR camera users, who can attach a variety of lenses to their cameras to support their creativity, and suit the needs of their photographic opportunities.

Before you can choose between these two types of lenses, you have to understand the difference.

Simply put, prime lenses are lenses with a single focal length. Prime lenses come in a large number focal lengths ranging from wide angle through super telephoto.

Zoom lenses are lenses which have a variety of focal lengths within just one lens. Zoom lenses can have focal lengths which are all within one class of lens, such as the Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Lens, which stays solely within the wide angle range of focal lengths. Zoom lenses can also have focal lengths which span lens classes such as the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Lens which runs the gamut from wide angle, through normal, to telephoto focal lengths.

Photography Exhibition: Philadelphia Museum of Art - The Platinum Process: Photographs from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has become one of the foremost exhibitors of fine art photography in the nation, especially since the completion of its Perelman Building. The Platinum Process: Photographs from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century is a wonderful exhibition worthy of this great institution.

This exhibition will run through May 23, 2010

Lenses for travel photography - Part II (Important Specifications)

This week in Part II of my seven part series about lenses for travel photography, I’ll discuss important lens specifications you should keep in mind when purchasing or choosing lenses for your travel. The series is primarily meant for SLR and DSLR camera users who can attach a variety of lenses to their cameras to support their creativity, and suit the needs of their photographic opportunities.

Among the important lens characteristics you should understand are:

• Focusing and sharpness
• Largest aperture and for zoom lenses when applicable, the range of the largest aperture at the full range of the lens’ focal lengths
• Magnification
• Focal Length
• Special Features such as Vibration Reduction, Focus Limit Switches, Extra-low Dispersion (ED) elements, special lens coatings, and no lens extension
• Potential problems such as focus softness in corners, vignetting (light falloff), chromatic aberration, and distortion
  
  

Photography Exhibition: Florida Museum of Photographic Arts - August Sander, The Twentieth-Century Man

The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts holds some of the best photographic exhibitions in the southern United States. Their current exhibition, August Sander, The Twentieth-Century Man looks like an amazing exhibition of Mr. Sander’s work. While I haven’t seen it yet, having seen his photographic work at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, I’m certain this exhibition at the FMPA will be an exciting example of this 20th Century photographer.

The exhibition runs through March 13, 2010

Lenses for travel photography - Part I (Lens Classes)

This week is the start of my seven part series about lenses for travel photography. The series is primarily meant for SLR and DSLR camera users who can attach a variety of lenses to their cameras to support their creativity and suit the needs of their photographic opportunities.

The series will include:

• Part I — Lens classes; wide angle, telephoto, macro, etc.
• Part II — Important specifications of lenses
• Part III — Choosing between zoom and prime lenses for travel photography
• Part IV — Lens choices for travel photographic opportunities
• Part V — Lens qualities and characteristics in purchase decisions
• Part VI — Special lenses and lens accessories
• Part VII — Lenses I use and recommend for travel and why
  
  
  

Photography Exhibition: The Art Institute of Chicago - William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961–2008

The Art Institute of Chicago, regularly has extraordinary photographic exhibitions. This exhibition, William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961–2008 is a great example of a wonderful photographer of the last half century in the United States.

This exhibition will run through May 23, 2010