“Dumpster 250”    Ocean Grove. By Paul Goldfinger © 2014. Click the images to enlarge.

By Paul Goldfinger,  Editor. Blogfinger.net

We recently talked about different schools of photography and we mentioned the latest approach which uses digital cameras and special softwear.   Some of those effects can be achieved in-camera by using menus that offer a variety of novel ways to alter your images, but much more can be done with post-camera processing on computers using Photo Shop or other programs.  But many photographers today still favor traditional ways to express themselves visually through photography, even though they may still use a digital camera.

The photo above is a straight night image with natural light.  New digital cameras allow the ability to do low light images without flash. Post camera adjustments of the above photo were minimal involving some minor cropping and color enhancement.

Below is an example by Moe Demby of digital alteration of a photograph.

Self portrait by Moe Demby, BF staff. Digital manipulation using an iPhone photo App. © 2014

The photo below is by Barry Underwood whose work is currently being shown the Sous Les Etoiles GAllery in New York City.   It is yet another kind of contemporary photograph where the artist stages the event.  In this case he created sculptural shapes as well as  lighting with LED’s.  He than combined those elements with a regular color photograph to create the finished product “Rodeo Beach 2009”

“Rodeo Beach, 2009.”  By Barry Underwood. Photo from the magazine “Photograph.” Image on exhibit in NYC. 2014.

Then there is Gary Winogrand who created a form of street photography in the mid 20th century that paid little attention to composition or image niceties. He was after scenes about how people lived their lives, and he produced hundreds of thousands of pictures. Below is one of his typical images from the J.Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.  It was obtained with a simple 35 mm camera and black/white film .

This photo is from a current show of Winogrand’s work at “The Getty.”  It is the simplest form of photography, and yet it is, in some ways, the most complicated.

LA International Airport 1964 by Gary Winogrand. J. Paul Getty Museum.

Elvis drives into Vegas for the first time. This digital photo is taken off the moving imagery by Paul Goldfinger. Modern camera sensors helped me with this one.

So, if you thought that photography consisted only of snapping pictures, this review gives you a tiny idea about a variety of ways that photography can be used to express an artist’s ideas and to convey them to the viewer.

By Paul Goldfinger,  Photography editor @Blogfinger.net

HAROLD HASTINGS AND JILL HAWORTH:   If you want to do photography you have to go where the action is–Life is a Cabaret.