Monthly Archives: January 2015

The President’s Year

Photographs

Lovely images.

A friend sent over this link to the White House site where the President’s year is illustrated in pictures, most by his chief photographer, the always excellent Pete Souza. These images show time and again a man of great dignity yet surprising warmth and empathy, and one who is finally hitting his stride.


Click the image for the site – it takes a while to load.

If you have not had a chance to tour the White House, there’s a full size replica of the Oval Office in the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, north of Los Angeles. You will be amazed to see just how small the room is, despite being the cradle of power for the greatest nation there has ever been.

Robert Capa: The Paris Years 1933-54

Book reviews, Photographers

Fine photojournalism.

When the effects of America’s Great Depression swept across Europe, the revolutionary fervor of the French manifested itself in strongly held opinions. As the author of this book, Robert Lebrun, puts it “You were either ‘for’ or ‘against’. There was no ‘neutral’ “. Many of the street demonstrations of the time were captured by three of the greatest photojournalists the world has seen – David Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa. You could not hope for better documentarians and this tome includes many of Capa’s images which ran in the vibrant French press of the time. Later sections deal with the far better known images from the Spanish Civil War, WWII and Viet Nam, but it’s these early Parisian images which really resonate.

Click the image for Amazon.

If you love great photojournalism – for goodness knows it no longer exists – this book is for you.

Modern trends

Photographs, Photography

Smaller is better.

The trend to ever smaller cameras and cellphones continues, and I’m by no means immune to it.

Here are data for my 2014 ‘keepers’:


2014 data from LR.

Now compare with a year ago:


2013.

The bottom line is that the immense weight and bulk of the FF DSLR no longer solves, a result compounded by age (mine!) and the excellent sensors to be found in Panny’s GX7 MFT bodies and in the iPhone 6. I expect the huge Nikon D3X will move along to a new home in 2015 given my principle of only keeping what I use.


Three and three. iPhone 6 snap.