APH Musseum

The American Printing House for the Blind has announced their Nineteenth Annual Juried Art Competition and Exhibition for Artists Who Are Visually Impaired or Blind. The exhibition, APH InSights 2010: Visions From the Mind, requires entries be submitted by April 1, 2010, for preschool through high school and April 15, 2010, for adults.

Make Your Dreams Come True! Enter APH InSights 2010! The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) invites visually impaired and blind artists of all ages to submit artwork to APH InSights 2010! This art competition and exhibition is exclusively for blind artists and draws entries from across the U.S. and around the world.

See APH Museum: Enter the InSights Art Competition for rules and forms.

Tim O’Brien is a regular columnist on Blind Photographers. Legally blind, Tim writes about accessibility, photography and, occasionally, both together. You can find out more about Tim on his blog or by following him on twitter.

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Note: This article is for photographers that have difficulty with achieving perfect focus while looking through a viewfinder and that adjusting the diopter doesn’t necessarily work. These camera, when focusing, zoom into your subject so that you achieve perfect and sharp focusing.

For more tip and camera gear news, you can check out ThePhoblographer.com, where I blog on a normal basis.

Olympus EP-2

If many of you have the EP-1, there is most likely a chance that you’ve already fallen in love with the camera. The reason why this one is being recommended is that it comes with an optional electronic viewfinder that allows you to focus better and shoot the way you would with a DSLR. For those of you that also love to take videos, you’ll be very confident in the fact that the audio delivered by this camera is some of the best in the industry. Additionally, the image quality is less noisy than that of it’s brother/competitor in the Micro Four Thirds category, the GF-1. If you prefer on-board image stabilization, you may prefer this model over the Panasonic.

Panasonic GF-1

Similar to the Olympus EP-2, this camera also has an optional electronic viewfinder. This and the EP-2 are very similar. The Panasonic takes better video and the electronic viewfinder for this isn’t as high resolution as the Olympus’s. Further, if you’ve already got a stock of Olympus lenses they won’t be able to auto-focus with the adapter on this camera.

Panasonic GH1

I still consider this camera to be the flagship of the Micro Four Thirds format. The reason why is because it takes stellar images and the video quality is phenomenal. Further, you can attach an external microphone to it and it has multiple video frame rates. To be fair though, the EP-2 also allows for an external microphone to be attached. If you want that DSLR feel, go for this.

Leica M9/X1

I tried both the M9 and the X1 at Photo Plus, and loved them both despite the high cost. The reason why these are here are because of the way that a rangefinder focuses. It’s much different than a DSLR and in some ways it’s actually easier. I can shoot with one without using my glasses. If you’re a film users, try to get your hands on an old Leica CL or a Canonet of some sort. You won’t want to put them down and in truth, I’d buy one if I could use it profitably as a photographer. However, film and the cost of a Leica don’t exactly allow me to do this. Nonetheless, shooting with a rangefinder is something that should be experienced by all photographers.

Canon S90

If you want something really compact and that still delivers nice photos, go for the Canon S90. While it’s not the highly-raved about Canon G11, it has the same sized sensor in a more compact form. The wheel dial around the lens will provide a wonderful feel as your hands begin to explore this camera.

What do you use?

Chris Gampat is a regular columnist on Blind Photographers. He’s been a photojournalist, events photographers, paparazzi,etc You can find out more about Chris on blog or by following him on twitter.

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Blind Photographers Guild at Photo LA

As we posted earlier, The Blind Photographers Guild is exhibiting their work this week in LA. I thought we could find out a bit more about this collective of excellent artists. Here is how member Pete Eckert and Douglas McCulloh  describe the group on Bruce Hall’s blog:

The Blind Photographers’ Guild is a small group of accomplished blind photographers. The Guild’s main goal is to place blind photographers and their work in the mainstream of visual culture. The group’s central premise is that blind photographers intrinsically operate at the ground zero of photography. Blind photographers by definition produce inherently conceptual photographs.  The best among them make world-class work that explores the difference between true inner vision and mere outward sight. These artists force consideration of a surprising thesis — blind photographers possess the clearest vision on the planet. “Heaven gives its glimpses only to those/Not in a position to look too close,” writes the poet Robert Frost. The artist members of the Guild achieve their goals through the production, exhibition, publication, and sales of high level photographic art.  En route, they attempt to aid the cause of the blind community.

Well done, guys. Keep it up.

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As a Blind Photographer, I thought that I had a slight disadvantage with shooting street photography. Readers of this blog and my other site PhotographyBay.com will know that I like focusing manually for many reasons, one of them is that it allows me to show people the way I see. For those of you that don’t know, Street Photography is the art of documenting every day life on the streets. It is candid. New York City, where I live, is a prime spot for this. The following posting documents how I’ve achieved some of my shots in hopes that you will go out and try them out for yourself. Don’t let your vision hold you back.

Street photography is sometimes combined with photojournalism. They both document life but they do have their differences. What I try to do it search for the elements of photojournalism on the streets: the news-worthy, the unusual, the emotional and the intimate. This photo displays an old Asian woman going through garbage. Many of them in NYC are often seen doing this. Additionally, notice that she is wearing a mask. The media and society teaches us that when we see a person doing this that they are sick with some virus that spreads through the air. It started years ago with Sars was a problem. Then it was chicken flu and today it is swine flu.

To take this photo, I used my Canon 5D Mk II with a 50mm F1.8 II attached. I shot at a higher ISO and focused while the lady was going through the trash. When she was done, she turned my way and I snapped the photo. I wasn’t very far away from her while shooting but I wasn’t extremely noticeable either because I stepped to the side against a building to shoot it. Things like these are important to remember in order to keep the candidness of the photos and not to disturb your subject.

It isn’t all about capturing the dark and gritty nature of the streets that most people want to see. Sometimes there is beauty as long as we pay attention to what it around us. As Blind Photographers, we can use our other sense to tune into our environment and train our eyes to look for the things that no one else does.

The photo above shows a candid moment. During the Halloween parade in NYC, the lady above was dressed as little Red Riding Hood. A man was taking a picture of her (hence why her mid section is lit up) and the wind started the blow. She tried keeping her skirt down, but ended up making it look like a homage to Marilyn Monroe. All this is on the streets, you just need to anticipate and pay attention to it. Additionally, know your camera and how to use it quickly to get the image.

Kids are sometimes the hardest things to shoot. They’re always moving around or they don’t display the emotions that you would like them to. In the above photo, the woman on the right was taking a picture of the little girl dressed up as a princess. The princess made a face. This is candid street photography showing the intimate bond between subject and photographer/mother and daughter/these two females.

To shoot this, I used my 80-200mm F2.8 L “Magic Drainpipe” lens. I got a bit further away so as not to disturb the two. The camera was set to aperture mode so it was an easily snapped candid. The moment captures the intimacy between the two during the chaos that is the parade.

Events on the street always provide for interesting subjects and photographic opportunities. During things like these, you need to get close. Getting close enables your viewers to feel like they’re right there in the action with you. This allows for great content and will make people stare at your images longer. The above image is from the annual Pillow Fight in NYC. At events like these, people dress up and literally beat the living crap out of each other with pillows. It’s fun, it’s silly, it provides for great street photography and candid moments.

This was shot with a kit lens on an Olympus E-510. I literally got right up to the two brawlers as they duked it out with one another. It was funny but also paid homage to the old days where you might see two people fighting on the streets of NYC.

This photo was featured here before on Blind Photographers. There is a lot of meaning behind this shot. In NYC, lots of people do not care for the poor. Granted this shot was fired blindly by just pointing the camera over my shoulder and firing directly behind me but still. Notice how the lady begging is perfectly in focus and how everyone else isn’t? They’re all just fading away and don’t care. They’ll move on with their lives to do whatever they want, but this lady will still stay there asking for money so she can probably afford another soda.

Of course there is also fun subject matter such as this last photo above. The man was literally just standing there in front of the two statues at Port Authority in NYC. Why was he standing there? Perhaps he got the best cell phone signal there. We don’t know. However, it makes for an excellent candid. For something like this, the subject is too interested in his call to care that I took a picture of him.

Subjects enthralled in what they’re doing always make for great shots.

What tips can you offer to us?

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Obscura

I came across a great video featuring discussions with three blind photographers. In Obscura, directed by film student Damon Stea,  you meet three of the photographers featured in the Sight Unseen exhibit currently showing at UCal Riverside. You can see them work as well as their final images. “Photographers Kurt Weston, Bruce Hall, and Pete Eckert all have one thing in common: they are blind. Each has a vision and style unique to their experience.”

It is well worth watching, which you can do by clicking on the image below.

I hope to interview Damon, the director, in the near future and post it here.

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