Landscape photography is the easiest?!! Oh you got that one wrong

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Photography is a contemporary art. And it has many forms as well. Fashion, Wild life, Landscape and nature, architecture the list goes on. Once you have a camera at hand the things that you can capture is limitless. But once you get the grip of it and start to realize that some things matter more than the rest when it comes to shooting them. For me Landscapes make me tick. For some faces does. And you can’t say one is superior than other.

By the look of it being a landscape photographer is easy. All you have to do is visit some place and shoot away. Hardly anything can go wrong. The mountains don’t run away or you don’t need any license to shoot it. And you don’t need to take an appointment with a mountain as well. It’s always there. Always camera happy. On the other hand working with people or shooting animals is much harder it seems. You need lot of patience and people handling skills equally to the skill of handling your equipment.

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara. Knuckles mountains Sri Lanka

But like any form or art or profession, just doing something for sheer fun and doing something for a purpose greater than that is always harder than it seems. When you want to make a picture which is jaw dropping good then shooting a still mountain or a moving face is equally difficult. And it requires careful attention and knowledge.

First of all a good landscape photographer must be physically fit enough to travel. Hiking up a nature trail to capture the best sunset over a mountain or climbing down a waterfall to capture its grace cannot be done by everyone. Furthermore baring up harsh weather conditions in places such as freezing cold mountain ranges to burning hot deserts is also not an easy endeavor. (I can remember the hours of walking I have done on mountains when it was raining heavy even the wildest animals was hiding in their dens.And the weird thing is that I can do it all over again if it comes to it)

A landscape photographer is a soldier fighting its own war carrying a camera in one hand, tripod in the other and a several lenses and other heavy equipment on the backpack. Not to mention the survival kit like food,water,torches,jackets or even blankets etc etc. When he sets his mind to reach a place on a specific time and capture that place he does not have the comfort of stopping and resting each time when he feels tired. Because that one shot with that perfect light is what he was aiming for. That perfect sunrise or the sunset with that perfect cloud formation will not last a life time unless its captured exactly at the right time at the right place.

As I mentioned earlier even though you don’t have to take an appointment with the mountain to shoot it nature can always make you to come later. And those elements such as rain, clouds, winds you cannot control. If so all the long tiring walking and money you have spend it just gone down the river for nothing. Which is a harsh truth yet must be digested by every landscape photographer some day in his long photography journey.

This is what a good landscape photographer does. We travel for the sake of photography with a certain objective in mind. And when that place is reached the rest of the world with time just stops. It’s you, your camera and the mother nature. I can’t think of another possible combination which sounds better!!

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara. Dothalugala falls Sri Lanka

Hold your breath and see Brent Stirtons photography

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Being a journalist is a tough task. While being a journalist being a bloody good photographer is even tougher. But Brent Stirton is one of them. I thought of featuring some of his amazing photography from around the globe. I hope they will move you as much as they moved me.

And here are some from the Tsunami taken in Sri Lanka

All pircures are copy righted to Brent Stirton

Brents Bio

Brent Stirton, 39, is the senior staff photographer for the assignment division of Getty Images, New York. Getty Images is the largest photographic agency in the world. He specializes in documentary work and is known for his alternative approaches. He travels an average of nine months of the year on assignment.

Brent's work is published by: National Geographic Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, The New York Times Magazine, The London Sunday Times Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, The Discovery Channel, Newsweek, Le Express, Le Monde 2, Figaro, Paris Match, GQ, Geo, Stern, CNN, and many other respected international titles and news organizations.

Brent also photographs for the Global Business Coalition against Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He has been a long time photographer for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), shooting campaigns on sustainability and the environment. He works for the Ford and Clinton Foundations, the Nike foundation and the World Economic Forum. He was appointed one of 200 Young Global leaders in 2009 by the World Economic Forum.

Brent has received awards from the Overseas Press Club, the Frontline Club, the Deadline Club, Days Japan, multiple P.O.Y USA awards, 3 times China International Photo Awards, the Lead Awards Germany, Graphis USA, American Photography, American Photo and the American Society of Publication Designers as well as the London Association of Photographers. Brent has received 5 awards from the Lucie Foundation and 5 awards from the World Press Photo Foundation and has also received awards from the United Nations for his work on the environment and in the field of HIV. Recently Brent won the 2008 Visa D’or at the Visa Pour L’ image Festival in France for Magazine photography. Brent was also awarded The Lucy Award for International photographer of the Year for 2008.

In 2009 he received a gold award from China International photographic awards, as well as awards from the National Press Photographers Association, Graphis and American Photography.

Brent received the 2009 ASME magazine publishers award for photojournalism for his work in the Democratic Republic of Congo published in National Geographic magazine.

Find more of Brents amazing work at http://www.brentstirton.com/index.php

Post processing is a big bad Wolfe? I don’t think so

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Right at the beginning I must say that what I'm about to post about today is an controversial subject matter regarding photography which was addressed by many before me. I myself have read dozens of blog posts, journal discussions and polls of this sort. And after so much argument and disagreements to technology still the human race has agreed and abide to use it for whatever the reason they can put their hands on. So yes the topic would be the ‘modern technology and its use in photography as an art’. Or simply saying is post processing photographs are fare or total on location photography process is?

If I explain the subject a bit more for the readers who has little knowledge over the specific terms which we photographers use I would say this. You go and take a picture of a sunset with your digital or film camera. On this particular location you give attention to the composition, focus and light and manages to come out with a good shot. And you are totally pleased of how it looks and thinks no further. This is on location photography process.

Another person takes the same shot go home and download it (or scan the negative if its film) to the computer and add some more details to the shot using a software. Most of you may call this Photoshoping just because it’s the most common software which is used around the globe for this task. He adds/enhances colors, lights and adjust the composition by cropping (cutting off unwanted areas) clone off (erase) unwanted details etc till he gets satisfied with the result. This is called photography post processing.

Post processing using RAW converter

So the eternal argument is what method is honestly photography. Many professional and veteran photographers and even newbie’s argue that on location photography Is what matters and the rest is cheating. And some say post processing is equally important because photography has come a long way and it needs to be tweaked and tested with the new age and technology. I’m sure you must have heard this before and was a part of this conversation somewhere with others or in your head for sure.

My intention here is not to get in to the pros and cons of on location vs. post process but to find the right balance of both these ends. I thoroughly believe on location part for any photograph is severely important for a good photograph. The reason is that even how powerful your pc is or advanced your software is some details when its lost on location you cannot retrieve or fix them at home. Same way even how powerful is your lens or advance your camera is some elements are hard or impossible to control in real location. This is where the balance between these two are important.

A modern day photographer should not be just a photographer. He must possess knowledge in photography and post processing both for him to be identified or to go beyond his limits and achieve the best work. To create the best photographs which will be forever embedded in memories of their fans. I agree once this was done purely on location. But the point which many now don’t remember or know is that there was also the place called the DARK ROOM in old age. Even from the beginning days of photography little bit of post processing was done using different methods and chemicals right inside this “covert “ dark room. So who ever believe that photos of world war i or the bombing of pearl harbor to be entirely on location and unedited, think twice. Little people know so they never complained that it was cheating.

Dark room - google images

Someone once told me that post processing is not acceptable because natural beauty of nature is what he is going after. If it’s what he wants that’s fine by me. But then again he should know that the very equipment he uses which is the digital camera has its own agenda of post processing once the light peaks through his lens and on to the censor. The camera determines the light values, color values and even the color temperature values and makes a decision to adjust what and to leave what as it is. Even you use the most sophisticated manual DSLRs this happens up to the extent which you don’t control all the aspects of the shot. So he believe that he takes a 100% natural photograph on location but the camera has done a lot for him which he gladly accept!! One photographer I know said if you don’t like post processing then go and shoot Polaroid’s. I agree with him.

There is no limit to post processing. It is completely up to the photographer or the editors choice to which extent he want to push the image. Some take a total natural shot and makes it a wonder of art in post process. Some just adjust minor details and leave it at that. Whatever it is the final result should be the image which the photographer is proud of. And the image which fans love. That’s all it matters. Even though some disagree when correctly done post processed shot looks amazing!! Each and every shot which you see on magazines and most respected websites are all have gone through some kind of a post process.

The taste for art is purely relative from person to person. Same way creating of art is also relative from artist to artist. There for finding a perfect match between and art and a fans mind getting pleased by it could be a tricky task since the options are fairly large numbered. Yet due to the similar nature of human brain we do get fans and artists who are in one line and understand each other very well which creates art which applies to a larger audience. Therefore one art is graded as more successful or great apart from another art from the way it applies to the audience. More audience it grabs more it gets popular. This is the rock bottom rule in creating art which makes the whole point.

I will write some more on widespread post processing methods and use of software in future posts. Below is an example of artistic post processing which I have done using one of my work. Over and out!!

Before

After (post process applied Hue/saturation, Color balance, Gradient,Curves,Channels)

LIVING AFRICA

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AFRICA – where the oldest human being walked the planet yet suffers from the worst kind of hardships which other continents have overcomes 100s of years ago. It’s really distressing to see such graceful place filled with so many natural wonders have to undergo this much pain and suffering in recent time. poverty ,plagues, , war and hunger have become the key words which signify this massive wonder of mother earth in recent times.

However my intention today is not to write about the state which Africa is in at the moment. But to share some wonderful images which describes the alien (for many) lifestyle in Africa. I don’t know by whom these pics have being taken. Maybe they belongs to several travel photographers. Regardless of who took them the pure magic of travel and journalistic photography is what amazes me.

And this is my personnel favorite. Is that a Hyena?? Yes it is

Photograph have being publish without the consent of photographer as photographers are unknown. If any violation kindly let me know.

Showing art to the community 2 - Places you must visit

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Now that my facebook photography page is published and usable I thought of writing a bit more about showing art to the community. This will come as the extension to my previous post. Today I will express my thoughts (Or rather reviews) of some photo sharing sites which I had interactions with.

At the initial stage I have published my work on flickr. Many of you must be having flickr accounts and must be knowing how it works. I actually liked my flickr account and the feedback I was getting but there was something missing. At that time flickr was not very user friendly in interactions. Mostly about keeping track of your fellow fans and keeping track of artists. There was less flexibility in notification systems which helps you to track the new work uploaded by the artists that you currently interested in. And little options of messaging and ratings as well. And after some time flickr started to get pretty slow as well. Guess at that time flickr was one of the most busiest sites on the internet (Thankfully facebook was not invented by then!!) I can’t remember the actually time period but it made me a bit lazy to check out flickr as time went by

Don’t ask me how its pronounced coz I don’t think even all the admins know that lol. But the site actually is pretty cool. Caedes is more of a wallpaper gallery at the inception. Therefore it had limitation of uploading photos. Photos were resized to several sizes depending on the most popular pc desktop ratios. The good thing about that was that all the photos and artwork was in pretty big size. And the community was really friendly and chatty as well. I met some real nice people there mostly from USA and UK. Some of them still keep contact up to date. How nice that is. Later on Caedes gave a break to the artists by allowing to update photos as photo formats rather than wallpaper sizes. And they were once in the top 5 list of photography upload sites on PC.com (If I remember clearly. Correct me if I'm wrong fellas) Check that place out if you can. They have some stunning wallpapers if you’re hungry for any.

I have spent hours and hours on caedes for several months until one day I found the wholly grail of art on internet. DEVIANTART.

If I say Deviantart is just a site which makes you upload photographs and your other forms of art I will be just talking about a fraction of what you can really do there. In simple words DA (in short form) is freaking amazing and mind blowing journey in to a artistic wonderland. DA contains the most amazing.. I will tell it again.. the MOST AMAZING pieces of art and photography which you can never finish browsing on your whole life. Yes that’s how fantastic this place is. World’s most talented and upcoming artists of all kinds share their work in this place. Since I’m a big fan of drawing as well DA supply me a daily dose of art which keeps my artistic nerves pumped 24x7. If someone ask me what the best place that you can upload photo on internet I will say Deviantart. However because of the sheer awesomeness of this place there are millions of fans roam around and same way millions of artists who are hoping to get discovered. But getting discovered in Deviantart is that much harder because of the same reasons. DA is too big & too much to be handled by many. If you have enough time to surf around the net then go for it. It will take some time for you to really get the taste and learn how to find the best work there. But once you get that taste you will never look at any other place. And it will totally change the way you interact with the community and your views on any kind of art. Trust me!!

Currently I’m one of the most famous photographers in Deviantart who represent SRI LANKA. There are only few local talent in there. So why not join it and make use of it while its free. I'm here

Hmmmm facebook. Many hear this word even in their sleep these days. So no introduction is required. Currently the most famous social networking experience on internet. If you don’t know what facebook is go take a hike and ask some aborigine. Even they know!! I have my own profile page and recently launched fan page as well. The only good thing I like about facebook is that it made me to increase my interactions with local artists. Show them my work and get feedback. Therefore I like it. But as a place for an artist for his artistic requirement facebook is still not matured enough. Maybe in due course. But not just yet. My facebook page address is right on top of this post so check it out some time.

So that’s about it. There were some other sites as well which I had uploaded some of my work but most of them are stock photo sites and small size ones. There for I will write about them on a later stage. If you have come across any good sites which turns to be better than what I have mentioned above do share. Adios for now!

Showing art to the community

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What’s an artist’s greatest joy? Some may say its creating art. Some who goes a bit deeper might say expressing of his inner feelings via various methods. I thoroughly agree on both of these. But I would like to add one more, Which creates a more deeper warm sensation to an artist’s heart. FEEDBACK.

Balangoda - Photographed by Priyantha Bandara

If I say artists really do not care about the feedback they get from their audience that can be hardly true. There are some artist who would like to create and display their work of art for the sole reason of expressing them but not for getting any feedback in return. But that type of artists are seldom. Which is the reason why giving and taking feedback on all art forms including photography is highly effective and important. This truth must be kept in mind not only by the art lovers but the artists themselves. Because we switch sides so often that we don’t even realize.

How important is community relations to an artist? I will say A LOT. For generations, expressing of art was mostly done via exhibitions, books and some other similar forms of modes which mostly the art lover or the fan must visit the artists work putting some effort. Going to an exhibition or buying a book maybe something which majority does not do for number of reasons. Main reason would be the time factor. Every one’s life has become so tide up with many responsibilities and deadlines they find it hard to set up a time for them selves to enjoy the traditional art forms. And even though they somehow manage to get in touch with the art itself, getting in touch with the artists himself is nearly impossible. This goes same for the artist as well. Even though an artist would like to express themselves to the public and become more community friendly the same factors could limit his movements in the society.

Habarana- Photographed by Priyantha Bandara

However thanks to the internet and its web communities it has become a lot simpler and convenient for artists and well as art lovers alike to communicate within themselves. There are several very impressive art communities on the internet which quenches the never ending thirst of showing art and seeing them. We as photographers love some of these websites which has no strings attached and mostly let us show our art and get feedback from the community for totally free.

Habarana - Photographed by Priyantha Bandara

I myself have several places on the internet which I have put my work on display (look no further you are on one of it at this moment). This has given me immense exposure and opportunity to communicate with many individuals around the globe just by sitting comfortably in front of my pc sipping a cup of coffee at home. Furthermore these websites has provided me with great influence and potential in creating photographs which goes beyond what I some time back thought as impossible.

I would write some more about the community relations on the internet some other time. In the mean time you can check this link where I have a load of my work on display

http://www.farcry77.deviantart.com/

Happy surfing and opening up art accounts.

All photography in this post belongs to Priyantha Bandara. Illegal use is strictly prohibited

Vintage smiles

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Even though no one can really answer the purpose of photography, from the day photography was invented it was used for several purposes. Out of which journalism, advertising and as a medium of art are some key purposes which goes beyond the normal day to day photography. I mean the once who take pics of their own family at the amusement park!

The worlds recent history has become quite visually fantastic after it was started to get captured in photo medium. Photography has come a long way and managed to capture and stimulate all the rough and soft spots in day to day lives and beyond.

Thus I have decided to feature some rare yet watch worthy photography in my blog time to time. As a start today I have picked some vintage photographs which portray a bit of humor in them. I have no information on who are the original authors of this photos or the historic story behind them. But I find them interesting because they bring some smiles from the past. I hope you will enjoy them as well.