Mirrorless cameras are fantastic with all the high-end technology they’ve got stuffed in them. But they also encourage us to think a lot less than before. This is one of the reasons why we highly encourage photographers to shoot film. But even so, if you started with a DSLR camera, you’ll find that you made better images when you used one. Why? Well, there are a few reasons — and the biggest one involves simplicity. However, there’s a delicate balance involved here with becoming more a part of the image-taking process.
“In all aspects of my life, I like to own every step, do it all, and it took me a long time to learn how to delegate, rely on other people, ask for help,” says photographer Desiree De Sade to the Phoblographer in an interview. “The process and the learnings that come from it are just as rewarding as the final product, and it definitely makes me protective about my work because genuine passion went into it. Like I can’t imagine outsourcing editing no matter how much time it would save me. I’d feel it wasn’t my work anymore.” Desiree is a photographer that’s been shooting with Sony cameras since they were Minolta. Knowing how they were, we were curious to know how she made these photos without Photoshop.
“Maybe I’m old fashioned but I am just as much in love with the making of the photo as the final result,” photographer Reuben Wu tells the Phoblographer in an interview when asked about AI imagery. “The hiking at night, brunt wind denting my eyeballs, watching the moon eclipse the sun, the passage of time, seeing an image appear after a long exposure, and that ecstatic feeling as the light changes. AI is an awesome tool, but if I could make that same image by prompting, why bother?” For him, he loves the feeling of the finished image and the accomplishment — which hits even harder when you’re working with Mercedes-Benz.
Yup, it’s the Contax 45mm f2! In the month of April 2024, the Phoblographer is giving away vintage gold! We’ve got a Contax 45mm f2 converted to Leica M Mount — and we’re giving it away to one lucky subscriber in our giveaway that’s available exclusively to our members. When we reviewed it, we said …
Like most people switching careers, photographer Grace Chon found herself miserable. She was a stressed-out art director at a large advertising agency. Like someone in wet clothing stuck out in the cold, she needed a change while still being authentically herself. “…I ultimately decided to return to my childhood love of photography and bought an entry-level DSLR,” Grace tells the Phoblographer in an interview. “I started volunteering with a dog rescue by taking headshots of the dogs to help them get adopted, which turned into a side hustle pet photography business. After about 9 months of juggling my full-time job art director gig and the photography side hustle, I went all in on photography and never looked back.” Unlike the myth of Orpheus, she succeeded — clearly.
The way that Mpix’s Framed Textile prints were described to the Phoblographer leads us to believe that they’re a completely different way of displaying your photos. Made from similar material to what you see with trade show banners, Mpix describes them as an “Ultra-soft pigment coated fabric featuring a matte finish and subtle fine art texture.” After this, you use a metal frame. Essentially, it’s like the ultimate version of a canvas print. And when you realize how large these prints are, you really start to understand why this is the case.
Exiting the elevator on the 7th floor of Pace Gallery thrusts a person right into the latest solo exhibition of the incredible Josef Koudelka. But it doesn’t prepare you for what you’re about to experience. It feels almost like you understand a secret language only true artists and photographers speak. Specifically, one must also understand the Koudlekan dialect — which should be a romance language in which one must forget all they know about landscapes and documentary photography. One can stare at Josef’s images the way one stares at the stars at night in amazement and wonder.
Tamron’s latest sale involves lenses for full-frame cameras. That means that you can get great discounts on lenses for both Sony and Nikon cameras. And we’ve got the roundup for you right here. The Tamron sale is running until April 28th, 2024. Here are all the deals you care about.
Photographer Joel Meyerowitz is a pioneer in a way that many photographers don’t even realize. Indeed, without his work, it’s possible that many others might not have ever taken your photographs seriously. With his exhibit at Huxley Parlor ending very recently, the famous documentary photographer will be showing off his photographs at the Howard Greenburg Gallery in NYC. But that’s not the really fascinating part. “…the show presents six unique dye sublimation prints from the first ever museum exhibition devoted to digital printing technology at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994,” says the press release. “These prints are permanent and display a uniquely beautiful color palette not unlike traditional dye transfer prints.”
In 2009, Canon launched a camera that started to change what the public thought of point-and-shoot cameras. It was called the Canon S90 — it was fantastic in so many ways. I wrote about it before starting the Phoblographer for Photography Bay, and it was the first time that a camera this special had been announced. The S90 had a large sensor for a fixed lens digital camera, an f2 aperture, a zoom lens, and a ring around the lens to mimic the feeling of a lens aperture. This little camera changed everything — and most people reporting on cameras these days don’t understand how significant it was.