A grab bag sent from Greece

I write this from Santorini, Greece, where the light simply is amazing. I am having so much fun during my first trip to Greece that this blog post is going to be limited to a brief grab bag of things I have been gathering recently. I hope you find them interesting.

In Greece, I have been up most mornings before sunrise photographing with my class until mid-morning when the light gets bad. (We know this when the sun reaches the Wells point.) During mid-day we are inside critiquing the student’s newly made work, talking about technique and looking at the work of master photographers. Then, as the afternoon sun approaches the afternoon Wells point, we go back out to photograph in the gorgeous afternoon light. Most afternoons we photograph through the sunset and twilight well into the night. Then we go off for a dinner of Greek food.

If you are not sure what I mean by the Wells point? Go to: http://thewellspoint.com/2008/09/24/the-wells-point-video/ in order to learn what that means.

Though this is my first trip to Greece, I suspect it will not be my last. The light is exquisite. I will be posting images form this work shop soon. In the mean time, can I suggest you look at three things on the web?

The Copyright Alliance (a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization dedicated to the value of copyright and its grassroots network of creators) is circulating a petition among individual creators nationwide. It is in the form a letter to President Obama and Vice President Biden, asking the Administration to pursue policies supportive of the rights of artists. Read more and sign on at: http://www.copyrightalliance.org/letter/

Regardless of your political persuasion we ALL should be heard on the important place of creative workers (like us) within our economy and culture. To quote from the Copyright Alliance:

“Artists and creators make important contributions not only to our society and culture, but also to our economy,” said Lucinda Dugger, the Alliance’s Director of Outreach. “Increasingly, creators are finding their work misappropriated, reproduced and distributed without their knowledge, consent or benefit by those who believe intellectual property should be free for the taking. It is important that creators speak up about their works and how the principle of copyright empowers and provides incentive for creators to earn a living with their talents and ideas.”

I was recently thrilled to be included in ASMP’s print and web articles featuring “the Best of ASMP in 2009.” The September edition of the printed ASMP Bulletin (American Society of Media Photographers) included a short article about my work and that of 19 other ASMP members (selected out of 100 applications.) The web version was recently posted and it goes into much greater detail. You can see that starting at: http://asmp.org/articles/best-2009-wells.html I strongly encourage you to look at the work of all the other photographers. This is a great resource to see the latest work of some of the most up to date publication photographers working today.

Also, the second article that I wrote for the on-line resource, Olympus Visonage, was just posted. It is called “Flash Photography, Using Remote Flash Units” and that can be seen on-line by starting at: http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/cp/olympus/technology/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004012161 It is based on a podcast that will soon be posted on this site.

I head back home on Saturday to New England for the best season of the year, autumn. The fall weather and color almost make up for the difficult winter ahead. Almost!