PhotoDude.com

Not that terribly long ago, to complete an advertising photography shoot, you required vendors for specific supplies and support. Typically, you might buy some Kodak EPR film stock in a large format (120mm, 4×5, 8×10), along with a similarly large format of Polaroid (Type 669, Type 55, Type 59), to allow for “instant” viewing on the set.

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Andrew Sullivan has a post that says, in its entirety, “Whatever happened to the current generation of Matthew Bradys? Missing in action.”

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One year after 9/11, I wrote what was a very difficult article for me, “‘I’m OK, I’m with the firemen’: In Memory of Bill Biggart.” I’ve never claimed to be any kind of masterful writer, but of all the things I’ve put up on this site over the past decade, it’s one of the works of which I’m proudest. I wrote it from the heart. About a man I never met. But the story of his death that day rocked me to my core in ways I still can’t explain.

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You might wonder why I’d say this is my favorite photo of the year. To your eyes, it’s probably just a picture of a little girl in an old wagon.

But to my eyes, there’s a much greater context. That rusty red wagon was given to my Dad for Christmas when he was a child during the Depression. Long before he passed away in March, he’d said he wanted to pass that wagon on to his granddaughter. So on Christmas day, we made sure that happened as he wanted, and I made the photo above. I see the context of my whole year in that one photo.

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In September of 2000, I got my first digital camera, and started a “photo weblog” that I named Pixel Pile. Pixel Pile #1 was a “self portrait” of that first digital camera, a 3 megapixel Nikon 990. I had no idea what I was starting. I was just … starting.

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As Princess Caroli might say, “Yaayy!!!“

That is all.

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Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park is one of the most awesome viewpoints in this country. Anyone with an eye for stunning vistas is drawn to the place. Like Ansel Adams. And it turns out that I made a very small contribution towards the effort to find out the exact details of one of his more famous shots.

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Last year, I wrote an article entitled “PhotoTerrorists” about the suspicions photographers have often faced since 9/11. Over the course of this year, I’ve saved a few articles and news items about restrictions placed on photography in public areas. The reasons vary, from alleged protection of “copyrighted material,” to broadly defined “security concerns.” Though the recent attacks in London are what brought this issue to the front of my mind, rather than start with “the arguable,” we’ll start with “the ridiculous.”

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We’ve all known it was coming. And it’s not exactly “The End,” but’s it’s still a notable marker. Like when Kodak stopped processing Kodachrome film. It wasn’t “The End,” it was the beginning of the end. And now, they’re going to stop making black and white paper.

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While scoping the news over the past week or so, I noticed an interesting contrast involving the military, photography, and two magazines.

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Nate Steiner: “I’m proud to note that I played a small role in this first issue, authoring an article entitled DIY Photography on the cheap, which is all about setting up a low budget photo studio, and understanding the key photography concepts in order to use it. It’s written from the perspective of a non-photo-pro (me), with invaluable aid from my friend, and extensive photo blogger Reid Scott AKA Photodude.”

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On May 22, I wrote, “Imagine what will happen if they try to tell New Yorkers they can’t take pictures on the subway. There will be a web site created devoted to nothing but pictures taken on the subway. It will become a big joke.”

Well. That didn’t take long.

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Though I created a separate page for those Petroglyphs, Ruins & Arches, much of the page was about the guide. He was just a striking character, in a most humble and unassuming way. And over the past seven years, I’ve gotten dozens of e-mails asking how they could reach him to arrange a tour. I never really had an answer, other than a description of the man and a first name, Tom.

But not any more.

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It’s either another example of how errors can be quickly corrected on the web, while a printed newspaper is locked the moment it slides off the press. Or, it means the production staff in charge of converting the print paper to the web has better visual sense than the production staff that put together the print version.

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