Thursday I did a magazine shoot in central Connecticut, and Friday and Saturday I worked events, shooting a party in southern Connecticut and the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.
Now, of course, I have lots of photo editing to do.
A coffee-table book I worked on as photo editor has just been released.
"Fresh Wood v. 3: Reinventing Woodshop" features the hand-crafted furniture of 58 finalists from the AWFS (Association of Woodworking & Furniture Suppliers) Fair in 2008.
According to the publisher, the 4-color hardcover publication includes "project descriptions of each piece as well as informative essays on design, internships, tips for schools on working with industry and a supplement showing the breadth of class projects across North America."
The book is available for purchase at the AWFS website.
(Also, a public thank-you to my sister Ann Nicholson, who assisted me in the work.)
It's parent-day season again. Mother's Day is May 11, Father's Day is June 15. And a limited-edition fine art print is a great gift for either holiday.
The deadline for ordering prints for Mother's Day is May 1. The deadline for Father's Day orders is June 4. Gift Certificates, of course, I can usually deliver same-day.
And remember, prints are made in certified limited editions (most are editions of 25), and are made on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, one of the highest-quality photo papers in existence.
With over 425 photos on this website (soon to be over 500), each with two related pages, each with an artist statement, each with a unique set of linked keywords, and some with cross-reference links, the content of the Photo Gallery has gotten a little cumbersome to handle.
So this week I built a database to track it all for me; it especially makes the keywording easier, because all I have to do is place a check mark next to the keywords, and they'll be automatically included and linked on the corresponding webpage. In a nutshell, the database contains all the information that makes each photo page unique, and then exports a delimited text file that I can run through the page generator that my friend J. Broad built for me last fall.
It's all about making NicholsonPrints.com easier to run. With almost 1,700 pages on the site now, ease of management has become an important agenda.
When I was in Australia in 2001, I made a photo of a lizard in Nullarbor National Park, way in the middle of nowhere on the south coast of the continent. The slide sat for seven years in a pile of unidentified photos — pictures of trees and animals I haven't been able to determine the names of.
Two weeks ago I emailed a copy of this particular photo to John Fowler, a lizard expert who co-runs the The Reptiles of Australia website. John wasn't positive of the species, so he conferred with an acquaintance at an Australian natural history museum.
The verdict? The animal is the Bight Crevice Skink, or Egernia richardi.
The reason for my excitement? It turns out that I am one of the few photographers who's ever made an image of the Bight Crevice Skink. Pretty cool.
So here's a shout out, a public thank-you to John for his help.
Furthermore, this photo is one of about 90 images that I'm preparing to upload to my Photo Galleries in the next couple of weeks.
A 160 square-mile chunk of Antarctica just crumbled into the Southern Ocean, and because scientists noticed the collapse in progress, they were able to photograph it.
One satellite caught the break beginning, and then others were positioned to also capture the event on film (er, rather, on digital sensors). Researchers also got a plane into the air to photograph and videotape the break.
Alan Boyle, MSNBC.com's science editor, has written an interesting article about ghost photography. The article is pretty even-handed, exploring the opinions of those who believe and disbelieve that paranormal figures can be captured by photography.
I haven't been blogging much this month because I've been busy working on two big projects.
One is a book, and the other is a major update to the navigation of this website. Now all of the photo pages include keywords that link to galleries of similar-themed photos. Also, the menu at the left of each page is now a double fly-out that links to each of the 85 sub-galleries on the site.
I'm also prepping about 60 new images to add to the Photo Galleries within the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
Though I keep forgetting to mention it here, as planned, I did shoot the lunar eclipse last week. I don't know if I'll be posting any of it on this website, but I'll be sure to mention it here if I do.
The photo was made by Elizabeth Cecere while we were shooting together this winter at Silver Sands State Park in southern Connecticut. The portrait is my favorite of any "working" photo that's been made of me.
Coastal Living magazine has published an article that will be of interest to many wildlife and nature photographers: "Top 10 Wildlife Hotspots."
The article lists great spots in North America to view and photograph different wildlife, including Monarch butterflies, bears, sea turtles and elephant seals. (Though I disagree with their pick for the latter; really the best place to photograph elephant seals is California's Ano Nuevo State Preserve.)
First, Korri Wass, a photographer who lives in my hometown, has launched a website: www.KorriWass.com. It's a great design that shows of some great photo work.
Second, Mike Luongo, a good friend of mine since high school, was in the news today. Mike is preparing to compete in the national Transplant Games for the second time since receiving his new kidney in 2003. See the Norwich Bulletin article "Norwich man to participate in Transplant Games."
For astronomy buffs and nighttime photographers in the Western hemisphere, this coming Wednesday, Feb. 20, could be a good night. Stargazers on both American continents will, weather-permitting, be able to witness a full lunar eclipse between 10:01 and 10:51 Eastern Standard time.
For more information on the celestial event, see NASA's Eclipse Home Page.
Of the photography-related stories making the newspapers, Web and wires the past week, two in particular caught my eye:
Recent news told of an old black-and-white snapshot that helped solve a mysterious death from almost 15 years ago. See the AP article "Old Photo Helps Solve Drowning Mystery."
Polaroid is abandoning the instant-photo product that made the company successful. In the digital age, this development (ha!) won't hit the consumer market that hard. But there are plenty of medium- and large-format pros who still use Polaroid film to check exposure and composition in studio shoots, and they'll have to make a major workflow adjustment. For more information, see the Boston Globe article "Polaroid shutting 2 Mass. facilities, laying off 150."
Sony, on the other hand, has a new product: a full-size 35mm image sensor with an effective resolution of almost 25 megapixels. As Sony is the sensor supplier for Nikon cameras, which I use, this is pretty cool to me; the rumor that Nikon will release a 24MP pro camera in 2008 is now looking real. See the press release at Sony's website for more info.
And speaking of Nikon, they're releasing a series of short tilt-shift lenses: A 24mm, 45mm and 85mm. These will be great options for landscape, portrait and still-life photographers who shoot with Nikon gear. Only the 24mm has been officially announced; see Nikon's press release.
Okay, I'm way behind in blogging. First I got busy with a book project, then this website moved servers and a lot of my scripts broke. But now I'm back.
I have a few items to catch up on, and I want to get started immediately. So ...
Some very historic negatives have been found after a long, long time lost. In fact, for years they've been believed destroyed.
The negatives belonged to Robert Capa, considered by many to be the father of war photography as we know it. At the very least, he did more for the genre than anyone since Matthew Brady during the U.S. Civil War.
The missing negatives were found in a suitcase in Mexico. Among the images are some priceless documentations of the Spanish Civil War.
To read more about the find, see the New York Times article "The Capa Cache" (what a great headline). (Unfortunately the Times website requires registration to view articles. If you'd rather not bother, see CNN.com's coverage instead: "Lost negatives may shed new light on famed photographer." But the former is a more comprehensive piece.)
Yesterday NASA's Messenger probe transmitted back to Earth 1,213 photographs of Mercury, the first pictures ever taken of the "other side" of the closest planet to the sun.
I've been busying myself this month with making a major change to the infrastructure of the Photo Galleries, and it's taking some time to complete. At the moment I'm stalled on the project, due to picking up a book job. But that will end this week, so I'm sure I'll be back to working on the site soon.
In the meantime, check out this article from Time; it's about people who hire paparazzi for special occasions, to make them see even more special: "Your Own Personal Paparazzi."
In another photographic nod to the 16th U.S. president, I relay this week's news story about four misidentified pictures of Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration being found by a curator at the Library of Congress.
I don't often plug other photo sites, but for anyone interested in a features breakdown comparing Nikon's and Canon's top-of-the-line cameras, here's an article worth checking out:
I'm not sure why the title says "biased," though. Despite appearing to have a growing affinity for a particular camera, the author does an excellent job of presenting a simple, factual comparison of features.
Why is this valuable?
Nikon and Canon both produce excellent cameras, so much so that a buying choice really does come down to which features a particular photographer wants or needs. Therefore, this article is a great reference for anyone making this decision now.
Second, the TSA has adopted new rules, effective yesterday, limiting your options for traveling with spare lithium batteries on commercial airlines.
Any photographer who carries extra lithium batteries would be wise to read the new regulations before his or her next flight. In a nutshell, you may stow extras only in your carry-on bag, not in checked luggage.
