Which is more Important: Shutter Speed or Aperture

Mitch Tapper in an article in NATIA News titled, "Digital Photography for Law Enforcement - Which is more important: Shutter Speed or Aperture," concludes that in surveillance photography, shutter speed is the more important. He said, "I would have to say that in our line of work, I would favor the shutter speed because if you use a small aperture to gain depth of field and you have a lot of blur because you used a lower shutter speed, you will be worse off than having less depth of field and having more ability to eliminate the blur...If you do no want to shoot in manual mode, meaning that you are responsible for adjusting both the shutter speed and the aperture, then I would suggest shooting in Shutter Priority Mode, where you will pick the shutter speed and the camera will pick the corresponding aperture. If you pick too high a shutter speed, the camera will let you know that you are out of exposure range."

End of Semester Blues

Here we are the week before finals. My final project is complete and photos for the Mediafest 2010 are in the print shop. As this year comes to a close, I again must say good bye to many fellow students who are moving on to 4-year universities or new opportunities. I will miss you and wish you all the very best and hope to see your work posted on websites or on display in galleries. Thanks to Kirsten and my fellow students for helping me become a better photographer.

Field Trip to UOP to View Senior Projects

We visited UOP to review senior projects for candidates for a BFA. We were hosted by Jennifer Little who also provided a tour of the photo facilities. In addition to digital photography, art projects included ceramics, oil paints, silk screening and sculpture. We were fortunate to have met three of the seniors. Two were collaborating on a advertising campaign for the Brickyard on campus with a series of large silk screens. Yolanda Cunningham, the other student artist we met, discussed her powerful sculptures titled "Drug Addiction." Yolanda is a reformed addict who is using art as a medium to get the word out to the world about drugs emphasizing marijuana as a gateway drug to crack cocaine and other drugs. Her life-size plaster images of drug users and the skeleton inside a giant plastic inflated crack pipe were very strong.

Ms Little showed us several of her pieces. She starts with a large format film camera, scans the negative, then prints digitally. The body of work involved landscape images taken from under bridges and culverts. The prints will be shown at Stanford University beginning July 8, 2010. She also has a second body of work titled, "Sightseers" that will be on display at UOP in August 2010...both a must see.

Just returned from four whirlwind days in NYC. We stayed in Hells Kitchen in Manhattan just a few blocks from Times Square and Central Park, which provided me a wealth of photographic opportunities. Everywhere you look - shapes, texture, contrast and color.

I spend a couple of hours at the Museum of Modern Art to view the latest photography exhibits, visited the worlds largest adult candy store -B&H Photo and Video on Ninth Ave (something like Fry's on steroids), took a "three hour tour" around the island (didn't see the Skipper nor Gilligan), and, of course, visited Ground Zero.

A memorable moment occurred when we took the C train to Patsy's Pizza (a favorite family eatery)on the West Side at West 74th St and emerged from the subway at the foot of The Dakota where former Beatle John Lennon was gunned down in December 1980. (I saw the Beatle's last live concert ever at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966)

Across the street from The Dakota in Central Park is Strawberry Fields with this mozaic...

Horizontal Diptychs

Vertical Diptychs

Retouch Before and After

An old photo of my maternal grandparents and the grandchildren at the time (circa 1961). Same photo retouched and cropped.