Great photos are born in the camera.

You’re here because you love taking pictures. Read on and you’ll find helpful hints and tips for turning your snapshots into gallery quality photographs as we show you how to get it right in the camera. All of these tips are short and right-to-the-point. Click on tips in the sidebar FIND ARTICLE BY CONTENTS.

You’ll also find other eZine articles based on our long experience in the field of photography. We happily share our know-how with you so in hopes that you’ll discover new ways to enjoy your picturetaking even more.

Note: You can click on any of the photos to enlarge.

Shortly after World War II broke out, a group of U.S. military recruiters visited New York City’s Chinatown. They were forming an all-Chinese battalion to serve in the China, Burma, India theater. Dad was among the hundreds of recruits who volunteered (including three other men who would later become his brothers-in-law after the war).

Of course, Dad told us many stories about his early life. One of his stories took place during their advanced training at Camp Crowder, Missouri. Tired of eating the army-supplied mess, he and a few of the soldiers went into the nearby town to buy fresh poultry and groceries to prepare their own meals. Some of the townspeople were taken aback by these Chinese soldiers marching into town – they thought they were being invaded by the Japanese!

Soon they traveled by train to the West Coast for deployment to the Asia. Dad said that the military was experimenting with a new transportation method. Instead of sending groups of ships in convoys, they were using unescorted liberty ships to stealthily avoid the Japanese navy. Their battalion was placed on one of three liberty ships which would leave Wilmington, CA bound for Calcutta, India a few days apart. Dad was on the second ship, the SS David Gaillard. As it turned out, the first and third ship were torpedoed by Japanese submarines and never made it to India.

As part of the 987th Special Signal Operations Company, they were to travel from Calcutta to Kunming, China to support General Clair Chennault and his Fourteenth Air Force “Flying Tigers”. To reach Kunming they would travel on roads though the Himalayas. On several occasions Dad would mention the Burma Road on which the soldiers traveled to cross the mountains. He described the roads as being so steep, treacherous and narrow that if one of the vehicles became disabled they would have to push it over the cliffs so that the other vehicles could pass. Dad’s description has remained in my mind for many decades. Last week I unexpectedly received an email from a friend from my high school days. I remembered that Ann’s father was the the noted photographer Arthur Rothstein who had a long and distinguished career as a photojournalist, editor and director of photography, teacher and mentor. His iconic images of the rural America are well-known. Annie’s email had me browsing through her dad’s collection where I stumbled across a group of photos in which he documented the war effort in the China, Burma, India theater. His photo perfectly captures the image that Dad had verbally drawn in my mind for so many years. Seeing the stark road snaking its way up the mountain was enough of an impetus for me to write this story. Thanks to Annie and many thanks to her father.

Like most other World War II military units, the Fourteenth Air Force has held many reunions for their members. The 55th Anniversary Reunion was held in 1997 and included the veterans that served in the China, Burma, India theater during World War II. In the reunion program guide, I found this family photo. These four standing men are my father and his three brothers-in-law whom I referred to earlier. They are my uncles having married three of my mother’s sisters. And all four of served as part of the CBI theater.

This short story illustrates the reason that photographs matter to me. These two photos are valued keepsakes.

There’s a wonderful story behind many photographs. It’s not just the image, it’s the memories and emotions that accompany the image that matter.

 

To see Arthur Rothstein’s work, please visit his archives.

 

Written by Arnie Lee

 

 

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Tomorrow marks the 42nd anniversary of the first Earth Day. (Note: I’ve redated this article so that it corresponds to an April 22 date.) This is a personal recollection of some of the memories that have followed me since this global movement was in its infancy. I also take a short look at both conventional film and digital photography to describe their effect on the environment.

Usually my daily thoughts are centered around publishing, software, grandkids or one of many other diverse topics. But as April arrives each year, a newspaper article here or a radio broadcast there reminds me of Earth Day.

Stick with me for a few paragraphs as my mind drifts back a bit.

From the time I first started reading his black humor, novelist Kurt Vonnegut has been one on my favorite authors. He died in April 2007 shortly before the original version of this article was published.

The news coverage of his life and death took me back to the late 60′s when I was a student at the University of Michigan (U of M) in the city of Ann Arbor. Vonnegut was asked to be “Writer in Residence” at the University. As one of the most widely read authors of the 1960′s generation, he was sure to have a large, welcoming audience among would-be writers studying at the U of M.

He sometimes frequented a small, local campus restaurant called “The Brown Jug” where he’d have breakfast and smoke lots of cigarettes. Back then, it was popular lore that Vonnegut declared smoking to be the slowest form of suicide.
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Jigsaw Puzzles – a do-it-yourself kit

 

On a recent holiday out West, I snapped a lucky group photo of our some of our grandkids. It was a lucky shot in which all of the kids were posed nicely, facing the camera.

When we returned home, my wife remembered that she had stashed away a couple of do-it-yourself photo jigsaw puzzles that would make a nice souvenir of our vacation.

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Here’s the do-it-yourself jigsaw puzzle. This one is called “Make-Your_own Jigsaw Puzzle” from Messisa & Doug, Item # 376. My wife bought the kit at a large craft store for about $7.
This kit is to be used with a 5″ x 7″ photograph. I printed a borderless photograph, cropped exactly as I wanted it to appear on the puzzle. The kit includes an adhesive sheet onto which you place to photograph face up. Turn the adhesive sheet over and you’ll see the outline of the twelve jigsaw pieces. Using scissors, you cut along the lines which mirror the shape of the wooden jigsaw pieces.
Finally, you remove the second paper backing from the adhesive sheet to reveal more adhesive. Each photo piece is then pressed onto the corresponding wooden puzzle piece. This all takes about ten minutes and then your photo jig saw puzzle is ready!

My wife ended up making two of these puzzles to send to the grandkids in the photograph. We’re hoping that it will help them remember our visit.

 

Written by Arnie Lee

 

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I’m a baby boomer. I was born after my father, like millions of other soldiers, returned from serving in World War II. Not long after, he married my mother and they started their family. My wife is also a baby boomer and her family was started similarly.

The census bureau says that children born between 1946 and 1964 are considered baby boomers. Since I was born in 1949, I suppose that I’m at the leading edge of the baby boom generation. Last week as I was returning from a trip to the West Coast, I picked up a copy of the Sunday Los Angeles Times. I was literally stunned to read Tom Petruno’s article in the business section who presents this amazing fact: “every 24 hours for the next 19 years an average of 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65″*.

a baby boomer with daughter and grandchildren

Wow. Think about that number: 10,000 individuals every day for 19 consecutive years. Grab your calculator and do the math and you’ll see that 69 million of us will reach retirement age between now and 2030. Are any of you surprised by this fact?
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28 Tips for Better Photographs

There’s nothing pretentious about this book’s title. We’ve packed this inexpensive eBook with a large set of easy-to-follow tips and hints that are guaranteed to improve your picture-taking.

What’s more is that these simple techniques produce great results whether you use a modern DLSR, a point-and-shoot or a cell phone camera. Those amazing photos posted by others on Facebook or Yahoo for example, are well within your reach. It takes just a short while to master these tips which can transform yours into amazing captures too. For each tips, we show you “before” and “after” photos so you can immediately see the result of each technique.

28 Tips for Better Photographs is available as an eBook for iPad, iPhone, Kindle reader, B&N Nook reader and universal PDF format. For more information, please click here.

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* Stay Focused is part of Abacus. Abacus has been publishing books and software since 1978 making it one of the pioneers in the industry.

More “goodies” at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show

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This article is a followup to Part 1 in which I describe a few of the photographic items that attracted my attention as I was scouring the venues of the Consumer Electronics Show. In this Part 2 article, I’ll show you some of the other items that I found interesting at this year’s record breaking CES.
I’m a geek at heart. And since I like touching, feeling and learning about devices and gadgets that perform some kind of magic, the miles of aisles taking up some 1.8 million square feet of exhibit space -are a playground for me. Apparently there are a few others that feel the same way; attendance at the show was north of 150,000.

NOTE: This article was originally written for the maiden flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in December 2009. I’ve republished it here since the Dreamliner has been in the news quite a bit recently and is now flying commercially as part of the All Nippon Airways fleet. Boeing is now ramping up production to deliver more than 850 of these new aircraft to some 58 global airlines. Here’s a short tale of a harried and hurried reporter.

A few short years ago, the Airbus A380 was the object of an extraordinary amount of excitement. During its years of development the A380 was the talk of the industry.  I recall my first sighting of the whale-like A380. It appeared to float in the sky as it made its first landing at Chicago O’Hare. A few short months afterwards, I watched as the A380 landed in Sydney, Australia after completing the first commercial flight from Singapore. In both cases, I was a lucky camper to be able to capture these moments on digital film.

Fast forward a few years and the object of excitement is changed. On Monday December 14th (2009) I arrive at the office in Grand Rapids about 7AM and open an email message telling me that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is about to make its first flight the next day from Paine Field near Seattle, Washington. During preceding months I had been planning to witness this event, but its date was postponed several times. To put it mildly, I am totally unprepared for Tuesday’s event and start to panic.

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The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show

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My first Consumer Electronics Show was in 1982 when the numbers were a lot smaller than the record breaking 150,000+ that made their way to this year’s event. This crowd was at CES to see more than 3,000 exhibitors displaying their new products.
You’d think I might be weary of CES after 30 years, but I still find excitement in talking to these exhibitors who are making cool stuff that will be on retailers’ shelves in coming months.

What’s in store for 2012?

The Consumer Electronics Show kicks off again in less than a week.

 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the CES, it’s a huge technology trade show at which the electronic and associated manufacturers showcase their new products. In recent years, CES has attracted more than 120,000 attendees to the Las Vegas Convention Center and surrounding venues.

 
There are literally miles of aisles lined with home theaters, thundering auto audio systems, pulsating illuminated LED signs, massive large-screen televisions, deafening stereo systems and wacky computer game displays. It’s a crowded, noisy affair.

Despite the negatives, CES has been a “must” show for me. In fact, I find it an exciting place to be. So much so that I’ve been to attending this annual event (for a while it was held twice a year) for more than 30 years to learn and write about the new products that are applicable to our businesses. For the first time, the Photographic Marketing Association trade show is being folded into this year’s CES. I suppose this tells us that photographic equipment is now considered part of the consumer electronics realm. Merging of these trade shows into one makes it even more convenient for me to learn about new photo equipment as well.

On the photography side, I expect these will be the trend this year:

• There will be more offerings of high end interchangeable lens cameras (ILC). This relatively new breed are imirrorless and use real-time electronic viewfinders and are significantly smaller than DSLRs. The Nikon V1 and Sony NEX5 are current examples that have compelling and innovative features
• It looks like we’ll see big improvements in the video capability of both DLSRs and ILCs. The norm will be 1080p HD video, full-time autofocus amd complete manual control of exposure. These devices are reinventing the way in which video is recorded.
• Watch for even better images from cellphones. Some models already have large 8MP sensors with builtin flash. There is a striking difference in quality from last year’s models.
• Slowing sales of compact cameras hasn’t deterred manufacturers from improving image quality. In particular, the trend is towards better low-light performance by using more responsive image sensors and wider aperture lenses. This will most likely continue but at a higher price.
• Again with compacts the major brands are also competing aggressively on a feature basis. For example the Samsung SH100 has builtin wireless transfer and several company’s have cameras with builtin GPS. I expect that features such as these will become very popular.
• Last fall in China, I met with several manufacturers who were pushing easy to use, all-weather still and video cameras. This may become a popular category as the younger generation continues the YouTube tradition of recording and producing movies of their varied outdoor activities.

On the technology side I will be looking at these items:

• I just read that Microsoft will be showing their upcoming Microsoft Flight at the show This is of special interest to me as one of our other businesses sell software for their older Flight Simulator.
• There are likely to be a slew of new and improved tablet from a variety of manufacturers. Since the launch of the iPad, these devices have made a dramatic shift in mobile computing behavior. With the recent addition of reading devices such as Amazon’s Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet, the market is heating up quickly.
• Cellphones have made the most impact on consumer behavior in the last few years and I’ll be interested in seeing the new features that are upcoming.
• For several years, robotic devices have been randomly appearing at CES. For the most part, this promising technology has been confined to a few areas such as floor cleaning devices and children’s toys. I’m hoping to see new and innovative consumer-level robots at the show.

I’ll report back to you about the show soon.

Yes, I’m looking forward to another CES. By the way, I’m also looking forward to a few days away from the cold and snowy weather here in Michigan.

 

 
Written by Arnie Lee

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a compact camera comes in handy

Photography isn’t always about planning and capturing images during a photo shoot.

Life “happens” whether you plan for it or not.

If you don’t want to miss the chance to record life as it happens, keep a camera handy. Whether you use a small compact camera or your cellphone camera, it’s fun when you can capture memorable events on “film”.

Life is sometimes about the important and emotional moments. And at other times, it’s about the humorous, the “cute” or the interesting. You may discover that the spontaneous moments are among the most memorable.

Below are a few of the memorable moments that I was able to record by having a camera near at hand.

Food that I adore Sometimes food overtakes my senses. When this happens, I may snap a photo to remember just how good or different a dish looks and tastes. Later, I can just look at the picture and recall exactly how it tasted. Maybe I’m a little obsessed with my taste buds.
Interesting Faces Several years ago, my son and I were on a cross-country flight that we shared with Mohammed Ali. When he noticed a camera in my hand, he graciously stood up so that we could take this photo. By having a camera handy, I’ve been able to take dozens more interesting personalities and faces.
Humor While driving, I spotted these juxtaposed signs that made me smile. I stopped the car and walked to the corner with my compact camera to take this photo. No matter how serious you are about photography, not all of your subjects have to be serious.
Scenics For the most part, traveling from one side of the ocean to the other is visually boring. Every once in a while the flight path includes subjects like this one. This is Greenland as seen from about 40,000 feet. Since I had a small camera with me at the time, I snapped. Now this beautiful scenery serves as a reminder of a place that I’d like to visit sometime.
Children Here is where cute comes in. Keep a camera ready when the kids are close by and you’ll have ample opportunity to catch them in a variety of poses. Most of the time we are waiting for them to smile. But sometimes other looks such as a pouting face are worth remembering too.

There’s no need to make a New Year resolution to record your kids, family, friends and memorable events. By having a small compact or cellphone camera close by, you’ll be prepared when the moment is right.

 

 
Written by: Arnie Lee

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