An ongoing list of awesome photographers :: PYKtures Flashes

In my search for inspiration for my Wonderland project through some amazing blogs, teacher references, friend references and books among other things, I found a set number of photographers that keep a flow of continuous awesomeness on their part. Here's a small list of legendaries I crave for today.


Gregory Crewdson

image source: http://cityzenart.blogspot.com/2010/07/gregory-crewdson.html

It was my friend Champ that showed it to me at first, then my teacher featured that photographer in our photo class. There is clearly something I really adore about him: the narrative each image creates, a great knowledge of artificial lighting, a painting effect that surrounds the images. Aahhh, if I want to become a good photographer one day, I wish if anything to follow his footsteps.

wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Crewdson
aperture.org article: http://www.aperture.org/crewdson/
other links:
http://www.emptykingdom.com/main/featured/dont-be-crude-son-be-gregory-crewdson/


Kanako Sasaki

image source: http://www.oneroll.cn/photographer/kanako-sasaki.html

As I was doing my wonderland project, my teacher suggested me to look at her work. I was so inspired by her creativity on the subject I was exploring. One day, I aim to become as good as her.

Her website: http://www.kanakosasaki.com/index.html
Her wonderlust project: http://www.oneroll.cn/photographer/kanako-sasaki.html


Julia Fullerton-Batten

image source : http://www.popphoto.com/Galleries/Personal-Work-Category-Winner-Julia-Fullerton-Batten

There is so much imagination and technical brillance to her photographs. It just blows my mind

her website: http://www.juliafullerton-batten.com/

Ann He


15 years old girl wonder. I'm speechless of her talent. There is so much flow in her pictures that make me go Woahhh everytime.

her website: http://www.annhe.com/
her flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quicklikesilver/

Tamara Lichtenstein


I really really really love her subjects and how she makes them look sooooo beautiful. I wish I was able to do that. For now, I can only envy and admire. She also manages to pull of some sweeeeeettt double exposures.

her flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamgutlich/
her website: www.tamaralichtenstein.com


Jill Willcott


She is sooo lucky to have such beautiful environment and subjects to shoot with. Eyes can't stop looking at her pictures.

her flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillwill/

Danny Taillon


He's the Champ, a schoolmate and great friend of mine that I admire, over-admire and idolize. Zen and serious, highly selective, showing only but the strongest of his pictures, there is something about his series that speak so much to me. A scary level of consistency, technicality that inspires and drives me to make my series stronger.

His amazing flickr: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/dagitaisight/


Ellen Kooi


I love her narratives. Very vivid, quite huge (when I look at the size of the prints in the rare videos that showcase them).

Her website : http://www.ellenkooi.nl/
Feature on 500 photographers: http://500photographers.blogspot.com/2011/01/photographer-197-ellen-kooi.html

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A small reality check on the State of the digital camera :: PYKtures Point of View

Today, digital photography has evolved to a point where the difference between consumer and semi-professional camera bodies isn’t significant anymore. We have arrived at an era where image quality from daylight to low light has been achieved and perfected. In the mildst of the Holiday season lets take a look at the generalities of the end of 2010.


State of the cropped sensor dSLR (1.6x, 1.5x)

The useable ISO performance of a dSLR goes up to 3200

This means we can shoot in low light now. When we use an f/1.8 lens at ISO 3200, we can nearly see as good as the human eye in the dark. People can stop panicking now.

One type of sensor powers the entire range of bodies
This means, regardless of entry-level or semi-pro body size of the same brand, all will produce the exact same image quality. It is usually the semi-pro bodies that receives the technology upgrade first then you can be sure than the entry-level camera will inherit the exact same technology. For example, the Canon T2i will produce the same exact image quality as the Canon 7D.


The 10 megapixels barrier has been breached (today’s lowest resolution is 12,3 megapixels and climbing)
This means image quality for quality 12x18 prints is guaranteed. A higher resolution won’t change a thing. Besides, most consumer digital photographers will not print their pictures as they rather prefer stocking them in hard drives, uploading them on photo sharing website like Flickr or Facebook where the picture will be displayed in low-resolution or at worse, display them full screen on electronic screens of max 1080p.


Any lens, regardless of zoom or aperture, is sharp enough for most consumer purposes.

shot with a Nikkor AF-S 18-105mm VR (the ones would wrote the lens to be unsharp are blind fools)

This also applies to image stabilized from 18-55mm up to 18-135mm kit lenses. When the proper photography technique is applied, they produce images that are clear enough to be uploaded in low-resolution on the web or printed at 4x6, 8x10, 12x18, etc… the extra things that other more expensive lenses will offer are

• - Bigger practical range that go from 18-200mm up to 18-270mm (resulting in bringing less lenses for a daylight photo outing)
• - F/2.8 apertures for low light shooting (resulting in smaller range pro-level zooms)
• - Aperture of f/2.0 or lower for incredibly thin depth of field (resulting in prime lenses)

State of the high-end compact camera

Almost all high-end compact camera are using a 10 megapixels CCD sensor
Canon S95, Canon G12, Samsung EX1 and Nikon P7000 use the same sensor. Main benefits are useable images up to ISO 1600. The difference is in the lens and operation speed.

• The S95 sports an f/2.0 lens for very low light shooting but heavily distorts when using RAW. Use only JPGs on this camera.
• The G12 has a slower lens (F/2.8) and doesn’t distort when using RAW (it stands today as the only Canon camera with useable RAW files)
• The EX1 has the fastest lens (F/1.8) and an amazing AMOLED flip screen but its operation speed borders on the ridiculously slow.
• The P7000 has the most versatile lens (28-200mm) but is as slow as the Samsung EX1 to operate

oh Canon S series RAW distorsion, we love you!

The Lumix LX series are still the only all-round RAW capable compact cameras

With camera ergonomics and sophistication that feel perfect in the hands of photographers, it has a fast super wide 24mm f/2.0 leica lens with no distortion and perfect edge-to-edge sharpness. Image quality offers a useable ISO range up to 800, pusheable to 1600. With its fast operation, it's the best compact camera ever for photographers.

State of all digital cameras

Weather sealed or not, Magnesium alloy or not, any camera of a decent brand (Canon, Sony, Lumix, etc...) can withstand ridiculously shitty weather conditions for at least an hour.
Honestly, I feel that cameras can withstand shooting in intense conditions a lot more than most photographer I know. Let me just present you some of the projects I did over the past 3 years in intense freezing snowstorms and cold pounding rain. CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW :)



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Advices on how to present a photo album PART 1 :: PYKtures Tricks

With digital photography becoming a common thing today, most digital photographers will tend to overshoot. Although such practices help getting the best shots (especially in situations where there’s a risk of camera shake), they also tend to create visual pollution due to the repetition it creates and confusion due to the variety of angles of the subject captured by the photographer.

This article is not the definitive way of doing things. It rather helps putting a good quantity of great shots in an album rather than spam our eyes to death and cause us to skip to the end.

You are the creator. You create for your own self-enjoyment.


Avoiding the Contact Sheet Syndrome

A contact sheet is basically a layout of all the shots you took for you to decide on which one to “blow up” (when you are shooting film and darkrooming) or in this case, process out of the many shots you took. In the darkroom, I’d spend at least an hour per print so when I choose carefully what shot to present. In the digital darkroom, it is important to apply the same mindset when looking at your pictures. Else, you’ll be presenting a contact sheet.

“Star”ing your favorite shots through screening
When facing a giant library of pictures, I go through then quickly by giving each of them a star just like I click the “like” button on facebook.

These are the questions that go through my head when I give the first star to my pictures:

• - Does that picture help to advance the album?
• - Do I like this picture enough to not get bored of it?
• - When I go back to this picture a year later, will I still like it?
• - Etc…

I then get rid of the pictures with no star and proceed to the addition of another star to the pictures I gave one star to and repeat the process until I get a reasonable amount.

Knowing the reasonable amount
You know when you have a reasonable amount when

1. Each shot takes the last shot’s perspective and really adds a new and interesting point of view.
2. Each shot is the definitive shot of the ideas you have in your head.

You failed to select the best shots when you have more than 2 shots of the same thing with similar point of view (horizontal version, vertical version etc…) that are really too close to each other. If this happens, either you select the best out of the repetitions or you find a reason to keep them aside from “I want to give them a variety of angles for them to choose which one is best” because your album will become a contact sheet rather than an album.

So there you have it: a way to keep your albums to the point and to make you remember the best views you could make.

Next part will cover the post processing workflow.

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