Photo Matters: An Educational Resource

Jon Sachs is the creator of Photo Matters, an educational resource for photographers who want to learn about creative photographic variables. Most of my readers are professional and semi-professional, and may consider an educational website such as this one to be for beginners...but that would be a mistake. Photo Matters is different, and aims at all levels of photography proficiency.

It's true what Sachs says on his website. Many times, we reach for a lens, or adjust the shutter speed/aperture value without even thinking...and can't explain it. We just know...or just feel it. However, Photo Matters explains it visually.

Trust me...you'll like this website. A lot.

Read more »

Daniel Berehulak: Holi

Photo © Daniel Berehulak-All Rights Reserved

Daniel Berehulak documented the kaleidoscopic Indian festival of Holi in the holy city of Vrindavan in February 2010, and the power of his photographs in terms of composition and color is enhanced by his website...large colorful photographs; who can resist?! His photographs are a feast for the eyes, especially to those who love pink!

Many of his photographs were made in the streets of Vrindavan, and in the temple of Bankey Bihari which is virtually subsumed in colored powder thrown by the devotees and the revelers. Holi is the Hindu festival of color, and Vrindavan is especially famous for its observance of the festival since it's said that Krishna celebrated Holi with his consort Radha there.

You can also see Daniel's photographs on The Frame.

Daniel Berehulak is an Australian photographer, who initiated his photographic career in 2000. He started working for Getty Images in 2002 as a sports photographer. In 2005, he assumed a staff position for Getty Images as a news photographer based in London. He's currently based in Delhi, covering South Asia and beyond. Apart from many awards, Daniel's work was featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, The Guardian and other publications.

Read more »

BBC's Human Planet

The BBC's Human Planet is a landmark series that marvels at mankind's incredible relationship with nature in the world today. Each episode takes you to the extremes of the planet: the arctic, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, deserts, rivers and even the urban jungle.

A word of caution...exploring the Human Planet website will take you a while. I've barely scratched its surface so far.

Human Planet crews have filmed in around 80 locations, bringing us stories that have never been told on television before. The team has trekked with HD cameras and state of the art gear to film from the air, from the ground and underwater.

For more on Human Planet offerings, check Human Planet Explorer Collections

One of the forces behind Human Planet is Timothy Allen. Timothy's work focus is on the remaining indigenous societies, and he devotes his time to documenting the diversity of humanity’s cultural heritage. He writes a blog for the BBC documenting his photographic work around the world for Human Planet.

In case you're interested to see what the cameras used by Timothy look like, here they are:

Photo Courtesy Timothy Allen

Read more »

The Coptic Man on "Tiananmen Square"?

Photo © Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

A photograph by Amr Abdallah Dalsh, a Reuters photographer, stopped me in my tracks. It shows an Egyptian young man (presumably a Christian Copt) menacing or hurling a piece of iron at the cowering Egyptian police. This came about as a consequence of the heinous bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria on New Year's Eve which killed 23 and injured 100.

Egypt is still reeling from the violence, and its government has quickly blamed external Islamist terrorism, promising to bring the perpetrators to justice.  I'm not holding my breath on that eventuality, and neither are the Copts, who have been subject to discrimination at all levels in their very own country.

High on the Copts' grievance list is Egypt's policy to make it extremely difficult for them to build churches.  The country's prime minister recently rejected demands for Copts to be free to build churches, claiming that the government will make sure that there are enough worship places for both Muslims and Christians. A joke.

And this is one of our so-called stalwart allies in the Middle East. Another joke.

But let's go back to the photograph for a minute. A half-naked man confronting a phalanx of well armed, well protected security forces...and seemingly single-highhandedly making them cower like rats. This is truly an example of a picture being worth a thousand words.

Photograph courtesy Reuters Full Focus Blog

Read more »