Photography Online

Over the summer, my interest in photography and photographic blogs/websites grew exponentially, which eventually lead to me creating a 'photo-only' twitter account for myself (my normal twitter account was getting way to overcrowded).

As ridiculous as this may seem, it actually turned out to be a really good idea, because while I almost never post anything on it, I use it to get instant updates on deals at B&H and other such sites as well as daily examples of great photography — either through the people I follow posting their own work or any number of photographic 're-posting' sites/blogs, whose sole existence to to re-post images they have found else where to just give more people access to beautiful images that they probably would never see.

Of these photo re-posting sites/blogs, one of my favourites is probably the Amazing Pictures twitter feed, which is simply a twitter feed that is run by a photographer who just posts links to... amazing images (surprise there). What really separates this feed from hundreds out there is the the person running it doesn't constrain hierself to one genre but instead posts thing from all manner of topics, meaning it never gets boring.

However, there is another site that is definitely worth mentioning as well, and that is EarthShots.org. This site is a daily photo contest dedicated to the beauty that surrounds us on our planet. Basically, everyday the visitors to the site submit images and at the end of the day, one is chosen as the 'Photo of the Day.' The incredible thing about this is that they have such a huge amount of repeat/new visitors everyday that the photos they choose are never mediocre but instead are always stunning.

For my requisite weekly photo essay, this week I have decided to post 5 images selected from each of the sites. The first five from AmazingPics and the second five from EarthShots. As usual, the credit is listed below the picture.

AmazingPics
Found at: Discovery News
Found at: Instant Shift.com
Found at: The Sacramento Bee
Found at: Webdesigner Depot
Found at: The Boston Globe

Earthshots

Tiger Stripes — Credit: Tad Bowman

Surfers Dream — Credit: Corey Wilson

Whrrrr — Credit: Kiran Ghade

Neversink Pit — Credit: Brian Masney

End of the Road — Credit: Dean Zulich

Zone Zero

During my photography class, I was required to check out a large variety of photographic textbooks, publications, databases, and websites. While this could sometime be pedantic, the one great thing about this was that it really gave me an appreciation for a variety of shooting styles and motifs in photography. More over, it really re-enforced the fact that, like many art forms, photography is fairly subjective and what you may consider fabulous, could be seen as absolute shit by the next person.

One of the most fascinating websites that I had look at was a site called Zone Zero. The website, an online repository for photography, is named after the Zone System popularized by famous landscape photographer Ansel Adams. Its name, though, is also a metaphor for the transition from analog (film) to digital photography and thus tries to present images that are beautiful and important not because of how they were taken, but why.

Acknowledging subjectivity and inspiration, I choose the following three portfolios from Zone Zero, one nude, one landscape, and one of street photography because I think they show a good range of style. Also I think that all of as works are very interesting and beautiful.
*For the full portfolio, click on the name of the artist*


Gisele Gomes - Nude
credit: Flotando (Floating)


Adrían Markis - Landscape
credit: Lago Negro (Black Lake)


Stephen Harrison - Street Photography
credit: Untitled