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Jonathan Frost Exhibition Opens Friday

admin — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:05:38 +0000

I’m part of a new group exhibition opening this coming Friday, May 24th, at the Jonathan Frost Gallery in Rockland. I have three of my recent night photography photographs in the show. The opening reception is from 5-8 pm, and I hope to see you there!

Chaste Moon

admin — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:39:10 +0000

March’s Full Moon is often called the Worm Moon in the United States as it is the time of year when earthworms often first appear, but I chose the name of Chaste Moon from medieval England for this series of photographs from Maine’s Birch Point State Park. The Chaste Moon gets its name from the observance of the return of the Maiden/Goddess and the approach of Spring, when farmers plant seeds in hope of a later ripening and harvest.

This was my first time to photograph from Birch Point and its Lucia Beach and the moonrise was spectacular. In some of my photographs I captured what I thought was some sort of bird (the small dot in the middle of the next photograph) as their were many sea birds flying about, but upon closer inspection it appears to me to be a beaver. They are known to cross saltwater, but I haven’t seen it before — any better guesses out there based on the close up image below?

Chaste Moon II close-up – possible beaver?

Here is the moon first peeking up over the clouds (on the left)…

Here are two more of my keepers from this shoot. One of my favorite optical phenomenons is evidenced here in many of these – the blue band of the earth’s shadow below the purple sunset light. You can find more of my Adventures in Celestial Mechanics series here. As always, please let me know what you think!

Adobe Moves to Subscription Model

admin — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:39:36 +0000

If you follow any photography news sources, you’ve probably heard that Adobe, makers of the ubiquitous photo editing software programs Photoshop and Lightroom, is moving away from traditional stand-alone software to a subscription model.

This is causing much consternation and with good reason — this is (in my opinion) a move made to benefit Adobe (as is their right) and comes with disadvantages for many photographers and other users. Below I’ll try to answer some of the questions I’ve been getting from clients and photographer friends.

So what is Adobe actually doing? If you’ve bought Adobe’s software in the past you’ve bought what is called a perpetual license. You either bought it on a CD or DVD or downloaded it to your computer. You can essentially use the software forever if you so choose, though your ability to do some things like transferring to other people are limited. You buy once, but can use forever.

With the exception of Lightroom 5 coming out soon, you no longer will be able to buy Adobe software with a perpetual license. There will be no Photoshop CS7. Instead, you subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud and, in exchange for a monthly fee, you get to keep using the software. If you stop paying the monthly fee, you’ll soon be unable to keep on using the software, no longer how long you have been subscribing. It is a similar model to any kind of subscription, just like most people’s cell phone plan, Netflix, cable TV, and the like.

The cloud software is still downloaded to your computer and works in a similar fashion, but now requires occasional authorization from Adobe to keep on using it (which they are happy to give as long as you keep paying them money).

Adobe answers questions for photographers re: Photoshop here and Lightroom here.

Why is Adobe doing this? What are the upsides?

Well, the answer to this sort of question is always the same — because they think they’ll make more money. People will no longer be able to buy Photoshop once and use it for years without further payments to Adobe. They’ll also smooth out their income stream instead of relying on big chunks of revenue whenever there is a new release. I’m also guessing it will help reduce piracy of the software, too.

In an open letter to users and in various comments from their representatives across the Web, Adobe emphasizes various benefits of the change for users:

- New updates are quickly given to users rather than saving them for the next release

- Improvements and new features will only be on the subscription version, so users of CS6 are out of luck

- If you use Photoshop on two computers, your settings and such are automatically synchronized between platforms

- People who using many of the Adobe apps can save money with the subscription plan

- Updates and such are automatically downloaded, etc.

- You’ll have access to 20GB or so of storage on Adobe Cloud

Some of these aspects are indeed benefits to most photographers (automatic synching, the storage if you’d like that), but I really don’t see an enormous upside for most photographers at this point.

So what are the downsides for photographers?

- Money. If you are a user of just Photoshop and not the whole Creative Suite, it sure looks like it will cost you more to keep using Photoshop. Your first year (if you sign up by the end of July) is $9.99/month for current Photoshop customers, but the regular price is going to be $19.99/month. So, just for Photoshop, you’ll spend about $240/year. The full suite price will end up being about $50/month if you want InDesign, Illustrator, etc., and the whole kit.

- You don’t own anything. If you stop paying, your right to use Photoshop goes away.

- Your software has to “check in” every 30 days to prove you are current on your subscription — it looks like right now that it will be 90 days before it is disabled, which would be an issue for some people who don’t have Internet access wherever they are. This sort of authorization can also cause issues when there are the inevitable glitches or hacker attacks, potentially leaving paying users in the lurch — though I think the 90 day time frame should make that a pretty unlikely event.

- It seems to be me that Adobe has less incentive to make big updates or improvements now. Under the old system, they had to make a new version attractive enough to encourage you to buy an upgrade. Now, you have to keep paying to use it no matter what they do, so they just have to make it good enough that you don’t cancel and go to some other software.

So what should I do if I have Photoshop now?

If you are using Photoshop CS6 or below now and it is working for you, my suggestion for most is to keep on using it under your perpetual license as long as you are able. You’ve already paid for it, and my own plan is to use it as long as I can. There are a number of things that might encourage you to upgrade, such as buying a new camera and a situation where your version won’t work with RAW files (as they won’t be updating old versions anymore for new cameras) or a new feature you don’t want to be without. If you use Adobe Camera Raw as part of Photoshop to process your RAW files, you will almost certainly have to switch to the cloud or Lightroom when you next buy a new camera.

Presumably Photoshop CC files will not be fully compatible with older versions, so people like myself who deal with files from clients may be forced to change sooner.

Adobe’s discounted pricing ends July 31st for current users, but since that discount only applies for a year, I would only jump on that if you planned to make the switch relatively soon.

I’ve never used any other photo editing software so I can’t speak intelligently about those, but I’m sure many people will jump off the Adobe train with this change and investigate those options. Adobe has probably made the calculation that the additional revenue they receive will balance out some loss of customers.

So what should I do if I have Lightroom now?

The new version, Lightroom 5, that will be coming out shortly will be available either through the cloud subscription or as a stand-alone. Adobe hasn’t said whether future versions will be cloud-based only or not, but it is certainly a risk that there will be no Lightroom 6 and that instead you’ll have to subscribe to Lightroom sometime in the future – it is too early to tell what Adobe intends with Lightroom and the cloud.

For the near future, you can choose to upgrade to LR 5 based on its own merits in the same way we’ve done in the past. All of the previous versions of LR as well as the new LR 5 have perpetual licenses, so you can use them as long as you’d like. Just like with Photoshop, though, these versions will almost certainly not support any new cameras coming out in the future, so you may be forced to switch to the cloud version at some point.

For me, I’ll have to see what the pricing and plans are, but I would certainly lean towards buying a perpetual license for LR 5 once it comes out.

What if I use both Lightroom and Photoshop?

For users of both, the cloud option becomes a bit more attractive, but it will ultimately depend on how they price the cloud version of Lightroom. They have also indicated they might do a “photographer package” of the combination at a discount. Until then, one popular option will be to keep LR up to date for processing RAW files and to keep your last perpetual version of Photoshop around to handle any tasks that are beyond the capabilities of LR. At least for a while, this should allow you to avoid having to sign up for Adobe Creative Cloud.

Why again is Adobe doing this?

Adobe is out to make as much money as they can, just like any business. I personally don’t like the trend towards cloud delivery of software, but I fear that it is coming for many things beyond Adobe’s software, too. All of us are free to stop paying Adobe, too, and there are definitely alternatives out there, too. I suspect they will lose many customers over this but I’m sure they’ve decided the overall change is worth it for them. Every photographer will have to decide for themselves whether it is worth it for them, too, based on your business (if any), the cost, and how much you use it. I know I won’t have much of a choice to start subscribing eventually as I teach using the Adobe tools and use them daily, so it is just a cost of doing business for me.

I also think Lightroom will become the primary tool for even more photographers now. Each version brings more and more functionality and makes Photoshop less necessary for most photographers, so perhaps will see even more of a shift towards LR for photographers. That may even be part of Adobe’s plan with all of this, too — Photoshop is overkill for many photographers out there, even if it is essential for some, and many people will use this opportunity to wean themselves from Photoshop.

Please feel free to jump in with any questions or comments!

Art2013 at the Harlow Gallery

admin — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:07:37 +0000

I just found out that I was one of the artists selected for the Art2013 show at the Harlow Gallery in Hallowell, Maine, their 18th annual juried exhibition of all types of visual arts. I’m excited to be included (with Pyrotechnic #35, the image above) and look forward to seeing everything else in the show as it looks to be a good one. The show opens up this Friday, May 10th, with an opening reception running from 5-8 pm. I’ll be at the opening on Friday and hope to see everyone there. For those who can’t make the opening and wish to see the show, the exhibition runs until June 1st.

Fish Moon

admin — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:02:19 +0000

April’s full moon goes by many names, as do all full moons, and I have chosen the Fish Moon for the name of photographs from last month. Coastal Native American tribes often called April’s full moon the Fish Moon in reference to the time of year when the shad swam upstream to spawn.

This year I photographed the rise of the full moon from Maine’s Popham Beach State Park. Because of low-lying fog and clouds over the sea, the moon was not immediately visible when it rose over the horizon, but it did rise above the obstructions before it became too bright to successfully photograph.

You can see many other photographs of the full moon as part of my Adventures in Celestial Mechanics series.

Below are two other full moon shots from the same shoot as well as two images of the lovely light on Popham Beach during the journey out to the shoot location. Enjoy, and please let me know what you think, as always!

Calls for Entries May 2013

admin — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:08:13 +0000

Here are some of the upcoming exhibition opportunities or calls for entries for photographers, particularly those in Maine and New England. This list is certainly not exhaustive and usually reflects ones of particular interest to me, but hopefully it will be helpful to many of you as well. This tends to be a busy time of year for contests, so you have many choices. The first one is due today (I’ve posted it previously), so move fast if you are interested!

The Soho Photo National Photography Competition 2013 has their annual call for entries up now, with entries due May 1st.

The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center has their 4th annual Contemporary juried exhibition coming up with entries extended to May 3rd.

The StoneCrop Gallery in York, ME has their annual Cell Phone Photography contest coming up with entries due May 7th. They provide free printing of accepted images for the exhibition to keep costs down, which is a great practice.

The BlackBox Gallery in Portland, OR has a call for entries entitled “Field Notes: Landscape and Architecture” due May 7th. I love that this gallery offers also free printing and framing of selected work, too, keeping costs reasonable.

Santa Fe Photographic Workshops has their semi-annual photography contest up with entries due May 7th — the subject for this one is “Animals“.

Lyceum Gallery in Lewiston, ME has their annual photography contest (entitled “Through the Lens“) with entries due May 8th.

Gallery Photographica has their annual San Francisco International Photography Exhibition with entries due May 8th. I was in a show in this gallery last year and can definitely recommend them.

The Grand Prix de la Couverte has their second annual International Fine Art Photography Exhibition for emerging and mid-career artists with final entries due May 12th. The cost is based on a per image basis and can add up fast, but this looks to be a pretty prestigious one (exhibition in Paris, etc.).

Vermont Photoplace Gallery has an exhibition entitled “City Streets, Country Roads” due May 13th and another entitled “Looking Back: The Art of Nostalgia” due June 10th.

The Garrison Art Center in Garrison, NY, has their PHOTOcentric exhibition, their annual juried show, with early bird entries due May 15th and final entries due June 14th, and juried by Cig Harvey and Robin Rice.

The very prestiguous Prix de la Photographie Paris (px3) awards are coming up, too, with entries due May 15th.

The Art of Photography Show in San Diego is a pretty good show to enter, and it is due May 18th.

Photo Center NW has their 18th annual photography competition, entitled “Musings”, with entries due May 18th.

The Schooner Gallery in Milbridge, ME has their second annual “44 degrees North” call to artists — artwork from all within about 50 miles of Milbridge are welcome to drop off May 20th and 21st.

The Kiernan Gallery in Lexington, Virginia has a call for entry coming up entitled “Portfolio Showcase 2013″ due May 23rd.

The Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson, NY has two calls for entries for their portfolio showcases, with “Animals Real or Imagined” due May 23rd and “Glass: Through, On, Reflected” due July 6th.

PDN (Photo District News) has their annual portrait contest, entitled “Faces”, coming up with entries due May 25th. Their contests get a ton of entries as they are a big deal, so they are high risk, high reward.

The ipa (International Photography Awards) have their prestigious annual contest coming up with entries due May 31st.

The Photo Democracy Award for Fine Art Photography in the UK is being offered with entries due May 31st – winners will have their images represented by the Chris Beetles gallery in London. They are looking at saleability as a primary consideration, for better or for worse.

The Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition has entries due June 18th. If you interested in this one, make sure you read the copyright section carefully, as all entries (not winners, but everything) result in granting them a license to do pretty much anything they want with your image…they are a non-profit dedicated to education, which makes it a little less concerning, but be forewarned.

B&W Magazine has their 2014 Single Image contest coming up again with entries due June 30th.

PhotoAlliance and Rayko Gallery in San Francisco have a call for entries entitled “Me, Myself, and I” juried by David Hilliard with entries due July 9th.

The Epson International Pano Awards, which seem pretty prestigious, have early bird entries due July 14th.

The Aesthetica Art Prize , an international juried contest based in the UK, has entries due August 31st.

Full Pink Moon and Lightroom 5

admin — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 03:38:27 +0000

Tomorrow (Thursday) is the full moon and the weather is looking favorable here in Maine to actually see it (finally!), so hopefully the same will be true wherever you are. This Full Moon is commonly called the Pink Moon (named after pink phlox blooming) as well as other common names such as Egg Moon and Sprouting Grass Moon. Last year I used the Egg Moon for the name of my resulting photographs (one is above). You can find my full moon gallery (a/k/a Adventures in Celestial Mechanics series) here.

Digital photographers out there have likely heard that Adobe has released the free beta version of Lightroom 5. You can read more about it and download it here. Based on what I’ve seen so far, this upgrade is relatively small over the current version of Lightroom 4 – there don’t appear to be big increases in image quality as we had last time around. Some of the new features, such as the improved spot correction tools, seem very worthwhile. My advice with these sort of betas remains the same as always, though – if you’d like to play around with the beta version to see the new features, go for it, but I would not recommend using a beta version for “real” work. I would also not convert my LR 4 catalog to play with it, either – just make a new catalog with only a few images and work with that.

I’ll definitely take a look at LR 5 in more detail myself as we get closer to the release date to see just how worthwhile the new changes are…so stay tuned!

David Brooks Stess and his Blueberry Rakers at the PMA

admin — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:11:22 +0000

I’m also very excited that the Portland Museum of Art is exhibiting David Brooks Stess‘ Blueberry Rakers series, as he is one of my favorite photographers around. The exhibition runs from April 5th to May 19th with a public opening on Friday, April 5th, from 5-8 pm. I’ll be at this opening, too, and hope to see everyone there. (edit – great article in the Portland Press Herald about David and the other rakers, as well as blueberries)

David has spent 23 years raking and photographing in downeast Maine, and his work shows that commitment and dedication. With over 50 of his silver gelatin prints of his in the show, it is definitely a must-see.

I also printed one of the large display pieces for the exhibition (the 2′x6′ one) for the Museum and helped with the larger one as well. I can’t wait to see the print mounted — the last time I saw the big print, it looked pretty much like this:

Stess print coming off the printer for the Portland Museum of Art

For scale, the paper is 36″ wide…

UMMA’s I-95 Triennial 2013

admin — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:55:47 +0000

The wonderful University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor has their newest exhibition opening this weekend, with a Member Preview Reception 5-7 pm tomorrow, Thursday, April 4th, from 5-7 pm. The exhibition is entitled the I-95 Triennial 2013, featuring contemporary art of all sorts from New England. I believe the opening is restricted to members and their guests, but I’m sure they would be happy to have you join up if you are so inclined. I will be attending and hope to catch some of you there. The exhibition runs from April 5th to June 8th.

I’m particularly excited as three friends and clients are included in this show, among the other artists. Robert Moran (image above) has some of his excellent Relics series in the show (read more about this from the Flat File blog yesterday, too). For this body of work, Bob chose Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308 for the prints.

Charles Benner has two of his large-scale (20″x40″) and beautiful landscapes included in the show, too. You really have to see these in person to appreciate his impeccable technique. Charlie chose Canson Baryta Photographique for these prints.

And last but not least is Terry Hire, who has an eye for color and abstract forms that continues to amaze.

Calls for Entries April 2013

admin — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:30:51 +0000

Here are some of the upcoming exhibition opportunities or calls for entries for photographers, particularly those in Maine and New England. This list is certainly not exhaustive and reflects ones (usually) of particular interest to me, but hopefully it will be helpful to many of you as well. This tends to be a busy time of year for contests, so you have many choices. The first two are due today (I’ve posted them previously), so move fast if you are interested!

Please let me know in the comments if you have any other suggestions for this list!

The ViewPoint Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia has their annual International Photographer contest with entries due April 1st, 2013.

The Kennebec Valley Art Association is accepting artist submissions to Art2013 for their 18th annual juried show at the Harlow Gallery in Hallowell. Art2013 is open to all Maine artists as well as artists with a strong connection to Maine. This year’s jurors are Bob Keyes and Dan Kany, both writers on the arts at the Portland Press Herald. The deadline for submissions is April 1st at midnight.

The Danforth Museum in Massachusetts has their annual call for entries for their juried show with entries due April 3rd. This one is a bit steep, too, at $80 as you have to purchase a one-year membership with the museum, but could be a good fit for you and your work.

The BlackBox Gallery in Portland, OR has a call for entries entitled “Shadow and Light” with entries due April 9th and another entitled “Field Notes: Landscape and Architecture” due May 7th. I love that this gallery offers free printing and framing of selected work, too, keeping costs reasonable.

The Grand Prix de la Couverte has their second annual International Fine Art Photography Exhibition for emerging and mid-career artists with early bird entries due April 14th and final entries due May 12th. The cost is based on a per image basis and can add up fast, but this looks to be a pretty prestigious one (exhibition in Paris, etc.).

The Fence at Photoville is a very interest call for submissions for display at the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, and submissions are due April 15th.

Lens Culture, the popular online magazine, has their 2013 Student Photography Awards with entries due April 15th.

Vermont Photoplace Gallery has an exhibition entitled “The Edges of Night: Dawn and Dusk” due April 15th.

The Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson, NY has a series of calls for entries for their portfolio showcases, with “Landscapes – From Backyards to the Backwoods” due April 18th, “Animals Real or Imagined” due May 23rd, and “Glass: Through, On, Reflected” due July 6th.

The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO has a call for entries entitled “Black and White 2013″ with entries due April 24th.

The ipa (International Photography Awards) have their prestigious annual contest coming up, with early bird discounts available until April 30th.

The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center has their 4th annual Contemporary juried exhibition coming up with entries due April 30th.