Protecting your photographs?

In years past, when travelers returned home, they took their slide or negative film to the camera shop, the drug store, or the quick processing shop to have the film developed and made into slides or prints. A few hours or days later they picked up their photos to share with friends and family.

Today, with digital photography having replaced film photography, and the use of the Internet becoming ubiquitous, for most people, fewer and fewer prints or slides are being made, even at home. Photos are now viewed and shared in online galleries, and often by email, messaging, and cell phone transmission.

While some make their galleries private, most users never utilize their gallery's privacy and security tools, so their photos are available for anyone in the world to see, and if desired, copied for themselves.

These days, photos are often viewed by unintended gallery visitors and many are appropriated without the photographer's permission, sometimes for stolen profits.

Should you protect your photographs? Absolutely!

Photography Exhibition: The Art Institute of Chicago - Looking after Louis Sullivan

The Art Institute of Chicago, regularly has extraordinary photographic exhibitions. This exhibition, Looking after Louis Sullivan: Photographs, Drawings, and Fragments is a great example of a wonderful study of a great architect by photographers of the mid 20^th century.

This exhibition will run through December 12, 2010

AE, AF, FV locks demystified

While many digital cameras today don't have an FV lock, virtually all have an AE and AF lock. Unfortunately, few digital camera owners know what these locks are, nor that their cameras have them. It's unfortunate because they are extremely useful camera features.

Here's a basic description of each lock:

• AF-L or AFL — Autofocus Lock: When using auto focusing, this locks focus even when the camera is moved to recompose the photo, prior to making the photograph.
• AE-L or AEL — Autoexposure Lock: When using any of the automatic or semi-automatic exposure modes, this locks the exposure settings, even if the light changes or the camera is moved, prior to making the photograph.
• FV Lock —  Flash Value Lock: When using an automatic setting for your built-in or external flash, this locks the power output level of the flash, even when camera is moved, to recompose the photo, prior to making the photograph.

I use these locks often, especially the AF Lock. I consider the AF Lock as essential as the ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture exposure controls.

Photography Exhibition: The Getty Museum - In Focus: Still Life

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has one of the great photographic collections in the world. This exhibition of still life prints of  include a range of works from André Kertész to Charles Aubry to Sharon Core. This exhibition, In Focus: Still Life is one of the Getty’s most interesting.

This exhibition will run through January 23, 2011

Five photography gear carry-on myths busted!

Travelers have told me TSA says photographers are allowed an extra carry-on if it's filled with nothing but photographic equipment. Others have said putting your photo gear in your checked-in luggage is no big deal, as the airlines will reimburse its loss in case it's lost or damaged.

A wildlife photography enthusiast I know told me just a few months ago, he was told air travelers could carry their tripod on the outside of their photography bag on the plane with no problem.

Another traveler told me that the weight limits on carry-on luggage doesn't apply if it's all photography gear.

Each of those statements are myths. Some may have some truth in them, but generally, none are true.

Photography Exhibition: The National Gallery of Art - The Pre-Raphaelite Lens

The National Gallery of Art has an extensive collection of photographic images, however, most are not regularly on display. This exhibition, The Pre-Raphaelite Lens: British Photography and Painting, 1848–1875, will take 100 photographs and 20 paintings and watercolors from its permanent collection and that of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. It will be treat to see them.

This exhibition will run from October 31st through January 30, 2011

Identifying your travel photos when you return home - Part III

The Photo Identification series, discusses one of the most classic problems of the vacation photographer, identifying one's photographs after returning home. When people look at their photos weeks after making them, it can be difficult, if not impossible to remember where each one was made, and what each images' subject is.

In Part I, low-tech identification methods were discussed, such as written journals, marking maps with photo locations, and using identifier photographs. In Part II,  hi-tech identification methods which are automatic or close to it, such as using GPS technology was discussed.

In Part III, I conclude the series with a discussion of software to input missing GPS data, correct already embedded data, and locate GPS coordinates for input into image exif data, and using only manually collected information about one's photo locations.

Photography Exhibition: Philadelphia Museum of Art - Mark Cohen: Strange Evidence

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has become one of the foremost exhibitors of fine art photography in the nation. Mark Cohen: Strange Evidence looks to be a wonderful exhibition worthy of this great institution.

This exhibition will run from October 23, 2010 through February 28, 2011

Mark Cohen (born 1943) appeared on the American photography scene in the early 1970s and, in the ensuing decades, distinguished himself as one of the most original American street photographers. Working primarily in the small Rust Belt cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he lives, Cohen photographs people and places encountered at random.

Identifying your travel photos when you return home - Part II

As discussed in Part I of this Photo Identification series, one of the most classic problems of the vacation photographer is identifying one's photographs after returning home. Often when you look at your photos weeks after making them, it can be difficult to remember where you took them, and what each image's subject is.

The low-tech identification methods discussed in Part I, such as written journals, marking maps with photo locations, and using identifier photographs work, but many photographers consider them too tedious and time consuming. There are some hi-tech identification methods which are automatic or close to it, but I caution anyone who thinks they are foolproof, to think again.

Each of these hi-tech methods involve GPS (global-positioning system) technology. GPS devices typically identify their position by longitude, latitude, altitude and compass heading, plus date and time.

Today, some digital cameras have built-in GPS units, some cameras are GPS ready, and other cameras can have GPS information added to their photos' exif data, but don't have the capability to embed the information directly themselves. It must be added later, via a computer.