Photo By Nick Lancaster

In this Issue:

l Bluedog Photo News

l Workshops

l Exhibitions

l Checking Out Web Sites

l Photo Tip

l For Sale

l Photo Trivia/Dedication:

What's On: Workshops, Retreats and Outings:
For further details refer to Photography Workshops and Retreats
Don't forget to let us know if there is anything specific you would like covered in any workshop or during a retreat. Our workshop calendar will be on the web site and updated regularly as you make your requests and we are now trying to plan all workshops well in advance so you have plenty of time to prepare. Remember once you start with us, our advice does not stop when you leave the workshop you can e-mail us with questions and images for further continued advice.

The Bluedog Team of wonderfully talented professional photographers have a wealth of knowledge to share and have taught various aspects of photography throughout Australia. You may be a good photographer but that does not mean you can teach. We all continue to work as professional photographers and have the confidence and patience to take you on exciting paths with your work.

Registration and receipt of place is essential as numbers are limited. We want the workshops to continue to be very personalised so that you may gain the maximum from the workshops. Remember we do need you to book your place and after you book you receive a registration form. Once we receive this back with payment to secure your position then you are booked. View our terms and conditions.

An outline of each workshop and retreat itinerary is listed on Photography Workshops and Retreats

Photo Tip: Digital or Optical Zoom?

We have had a few enquiries on what is digital and optical zoom and which is best to use. Here is an explanation:

If you've used a film camera before, you'll be used to optical zoom. Optical zoom uses the lens of the camera (the optics) to bring the subject closer. Digital zoom uses clever software to digitally enlarge a portion of the image - thus simulating optical zoom.

If you've used a film camera, you'll be used to optical zoom. Optical zoom uses the lens of the camera (the optics) to bring the subject closer. Digital zoom is an invention of digital video cameras and uses software to digitally enlarge a portion of the image - thus simulating optical zoom. Digital zoom is not really 'zoom' in the strictest definition of the term. Digital zoom just enlarges the image. You will often lose quality because of the enlargement process so images taken with digital zoom won't look as good as those without. The same result can be achieved using editing software on your computer.

Our suggestion is use your optical zoom and leave you digital zoom alone. If you need to get in closer: use your legs, change your lens or crop and enlarge on your computer.

Most cameras you can disable digital zoom if not check it will warn you when it switches over to it. By using your optical zoom only you will be able to enlarge your images with more clarity than those taken using the digital zoom.

Checking Out Web Sites:
Thinking of buying a new camera then you may find these reviews by Zoe of help

http://digital_camera_reviews.protechltd.com/

If you have come across a great web site
send it to us and it may just be featured!

What's On: Photography Exhibitions

l 291 Photographers in the circle of Alfred Stieglitz
This exhibition, drawn from the NGV collection, brings together around 40 works by a number of the photographers who exhibited at 291 and includes the work of photographers Alfred Stiegitz, Edward Steichen, Gertrude Käsebier, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Adolphe De Meyer, Paul Haviland and Paul Strand. 
Venue: National Gallery of Victoria, Photography Gallery, Level 1
Date/s: 2 May – 28 September Entry Free

l Between the Flags – 100 years of Surf Lifesaving in Australia
Commemorating the centenary of surf lifesaving in Australia,includes surfing paraphernalia, costumes, photographs and paintings as well as historical and contemporary film footage.
Venue: Gallery 1, Gold Coast City art Gallery
Date/s: 24 May 2008 - 10 Aug 2008

l Picture Paradise - The first century of Asia-Pacific photography 1840's-1940s
The exhibition chronicles the developments in photography throughout South and Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific to the west coast of North America. Early photography in the Asia–Pacific region reveals the beauty and cultural diversity of the region.
Venue: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Date/s: 10th July to 9 November 2008

l Indigenous Connections: Sidney Nolan's Rite of Spring, photographed by Axel Poignant
Delight in this rare selection of Axel Poignant’s photographs of painter Sidney Nolan’s set designs and costumes for the 1962 Royal Ballet production of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Nolan’s work was inspired by Poignant’s photographs of several Arnhem Land communities in the Northern Territory during the 1950s.This meeting of creative minds resulted in a truly extraordinary collaboration between two Australian artists.
Venue: Philip Bacon Heritage Gallery, level 4, Queensland State Library
Date/s: 16 June - 31 Aug Entry Free

Photo Trivia: Did You Know?

Taken by Neil Leifer, this image is rated as one of the best sports pictures of the previous century. It shows Muhammed Ali standing over a floored Sonny Liston. The shot was taken in Maine, USA on 25th May 1965.

Dedication to the Masters of the Lens
Edward Steichen
(1879-1973 )

Edward Steichen is noted as one of the most important figures in the history of photography. He was renowned as an artist, fashion photographer, curator, writer, and technical innovator and was very passionate about photography as an art form. His career commenced when he was sixteen and he was self taught. Steichen was associated with a particular style of photography known as Pictorialism. The Pictorialists felt that the aesthetic promise of photography lay in an emulation of painting. Steichen would jiggle his tripod, cover his lens in glycerin and do various darkroom techniques to achieve many Pictorialist techniques. During this time he was an active painter but sadly burned all his canvases in 1922.

In 1905, with Stieglitz, he founded the famous Little Galleries of the Photo Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York (later the 291 Gallery) to promote photography as an art form in particular, and European Modernism in general. Steichen followed the new art movements and soon abandoned his Pictorialism in favor of straight photography with a strong sense of design and clean, uncluttered images and compositions. Steichen went on to command the photographic division of the U.S. Expeditionary Forces in World War I, and to direct the Naval Photographic Institute in World War II. During the 1920s and 1930s he worked as a commercial photographer for Condé Nast publications including Vogue and Vanity Fair, and from 1947–1962 was Director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1955, he organized the famous Family of Man exhibition which toured the world.

The Flatiron
1905
© Estate of Edward Steichen