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“Improve Your Collection” Contest

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

PurePhoto is giving you a chance to win a $500 credit good towards the purchase of Fine Art, Limited Edition, or Emerging Artist prints available on PurePhoto Collections. Use this credit to buy an amazing fine art print or makeover a few rooms with collectable prints from some of the top photographers around the globe.

How It Works
Entering the contest requires just 2 simple steps:

1. Sign up for our newsletter at http://www.purephoto.com/newsletter where we showcase one new artist each week.

2. Tell your friends! Post the following links on Facebook or Twitter…or both if you want to increase your odds of winning!

On Twitter:
Enter to win $500 of great art from @PurePhotoTweets. Sign up for the newsletter here http://bit.ly/ppcontest and retweet!

On Facebook:
Enter to win $500 of great art from PurePhoto. Sign up for the newsletter here http://bit.ly/ppcontest and “Like” PurePhoto at facebook.com/purephoto!

You will receive one entry for signing up for the newsletter PLUS one for every time you post the contest promotion on Facebook or Twitter. We must be able to track these posts so only exact copies of the text above will count as an entry.

The contest is running until September 30^th, 2010. The prize will be awarded by October 15^th, 2010 and the winner will be announced on the PurePhoto blog.

There is no limit to the number of entries
so start now and post often!

Official Contest Rules

No purchase is required to enter any PurePhoto giveaway or contest.
The entry procedures for each contest are announced individually on www.purephoto.com/blog.
Our contests are generally open to anyone who is at least 18 years of age and who does not reside in an area where such contests are void by law. In cases where the contest or giveaway requires promotion on Facebook or Twitter, you need a free account from either of those providers to be eligible. You need to follow PurePhoto on Facebook (www.facebook.com/purephoto) or Twitter (www.twitter.com/PurePhotoTweets) to be eligible. Use of those platforms is subject to the terms and conditions of each service provider. Lastly, persons who have had their accounts on Facebook or Twitter blocked by PurePhoto due to misuse are not eligible.
Employees or their immediate families of PurePhoto are not eligible to win our contests or giveaways.
Unless otherwise noted, the termination date for eligibility is the final day of each giveaway at midnight PST. Posts made after this time will not be counted as a contest entry.
All prize information including prize value is listed with each contest announcement. In each contest or giveaway, we reserve the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value in the event that the original promised prize becomes unavailable. Some prizes may be awarded via gift certificate.
The odds of winning will depend on the number of entries. Unless otherwise noted, all contests and giveaway prizes are awarded via random drawing.
The winner does not have to be present for the drawing unless otherwise noted.
Winners automatically grant the use of their name and likeness in the promotion of this and other PurePhoto contests.
For a list of winners, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: PurePhoto, Contest Winners – (Contest Name), 3835-R Thousand Oaks Blvd., Suite 249, Westlake Village, CA 91362
Winners are responsible for applicable state or federal taxes (winner must pay any taxes due directly to a government entity). If you live outside the US, you are responsible for any taxes, custom duties and shipping costs in the event you win.
All contests and giveaways are void where prohibited by law. It is your responsibility to refrain from entry if our contests or giveaways are illegal in your jurisdiction. If you are declared a winner but contests and giveaways like these are illegal in your jurisdiction, your prize will be forfeited and given to a runner-up.
Rules are subject to change without notice.

Tags: Buy Art, Contest Rules, Photo Contest, PurePhoto, PurePhoto Collections, Win Art, Win Photography
Author: John Ellis, Posted in Check it out!, Latest PurePhoto News | No Comments »

Color Motion Pictures – The Earliest Days: 1922

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Kodak recently discovered a piece of film footage that was one of the earliest tests of color motion picture film. It was made 13 years prior to the first color film being produced and is a great window into the past.

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Here’s a quote from Kodak with more info on the clip:

“In these newly preserved tests, made in 1922 at the Paragon Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, actress Mae Murray appears almost translucent, her flesh a pale white that is reminiscent of perfectly sculpted marble, enhanced with touches of color to her lips, eyes, and hair. She is joined by actress Hope Hampton modeling costumes from The Light in the Dark (1922), which contained the first commercial use of Two-Color Kodachrome in a feature film. Ziegfeld Follies actress Mary Eaton and an unidentified woman and child also appear.

George Eastman House is the repository for many of the early tests made by the Eastman Kodak Company of their various motion picture film stocks and color processes. The Two-Color Kodachrome Process was an attempt to bring natural lifelike colors to the screen through the photochemical method in a subtractive color system. First tests on the Two-Color Kodachrome Process were begun in late 1914. Shot with a dual-lens camera, the process recorded filtered images on black/white negative stock, then made black/white separation positives. The final prints were actually produced by bleaching and tanning a double-coated duplicate negative (made from the positive separations), then dyeing the emulsion green/blue on one side and red on the other. Combined they created a rather ethereal palette of hues.

Early cameras were hand cranked, or hand wound, to feed the film through. This could result in slight variations in speed. Second, there could be uneven densities in the film itself because of its age. These two physical characteristics combine to produce the “flicker” that you see. There are digital enhancements that can be made to address this but we thought it better to keep it in its original form.”

Preservation was completed by the museum’s Motion Picture Department, a project of Sabrina Negri, a student in Eastman House’s L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation and a recipient of the Haghefilm Foundation Fellowship.

Thanks to Sean Percival for turning me on to this!

Tags: Color Film, Film, Film History, Kodak, Motion Picture, Sean Percival, Silent Pictures
Author: John Ellis, Posted in Check it out! | No Comments »

Ansel Adams | $45 turns into $200 million

Friday, August 27th, 2010

A short while back Rick Norsigian walked into a Southern California Garage sale and bargained the owner from $75 to $45 for some old photographic plates. Whether he new it or not (still up for debate) his $45 investment turned out to easily be worth $200 Million as they were all original Ansel Adams Plates. It took over 10 years to get them authenticated and it looked like it paid off…except that he is now being sued by the Ansel Adams Trust. Just to give you an idea of what the plates are worth, one Ansel Adams print just sold for $722,500 at auction. This is a new record for 20th century photography. Hmmmm. maybe I need a new career as a picker.

Tags: adams, ansel, ansel adamas garage sale, ansel adams, ansel adams plates, ansel adams trust, david streets, david streets gallery, david w streets, rick norisgian
Author: Ryan Phillips, Posted in Check it out! | No Comments »

Dove Commercial

Friday, August 27th, 2010

I am sure many of you have seen this before but I just came across it again. It is just plain fascinating! It goes to show the power of photography…

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YouTube Direkt

Don’t forget to check out the parody on it…

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YouTube Direkt

Author: Ryan Phillips, Posted in Check it out! | No Comments »

Start Collecting…

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

I found this great little story over on Apartment Therapy about a couple who lives above an Art Gallery that they run. The article likens them to Herb and Dorothy Vogel. If you are unfamiliar with Herb and Dorothy you should check them out. Herb worked in a post office and Dorothy was a librarian. Together over 40 years they amassed a collection of 4,700 pieces of art from some of the most famous artists in the world…before they were famous! They had paintings strung from the roofs, stuffed under the bed and packed in boxes. They donated the enitre collection to the National Gallery of Art but it could only accept 1000 of the pieces as it had no room for a collection of this size…which fit into the Vogels tiny NYC apartment. They gave the rest away to other musueums and then started filling their tiny apartment again.

Herb and Dorothy a film by Megumi Sasaki was just released to critical acclaim but it almost didn’t happen. Here is what the artist had to say about the film:

“They didn’t articulate why they like this particular artwork, why did they collect a certain artist,” Sasaki says. “The only thing they said was, ‘It’s beautiful. I like it.’ How can I make a film about art collectors who don’t talk about art?”

Sasaki had resigned herself to making a 20-minute short film until an interview with Italian artist Lucio Pozzi convinced her that part of the beauty of the Vogels is that they aren’t so academic about what they like. They act on intuition.

That intuition made them one of the largest and most astute collectors in the New York art scene. Collecting the likes of Christo, Schnabel, Koons, Lichtenstein and hundreds of other world class artists. Those who watched said Herb would just walk up to something and point like a hound. He just new what he liked…and what he liked turned out to be some of the most renowned contemporary art in the world.

Watch the Trailer…

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YouTube Direkt

Author: Ryan Phillips, Posted in Check it out!, Cool Photographs, Latest PurePhoto News, PurePhoto Collections | No Comments »

Edit In vs. Edit Out

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

These days, editing seems like a long lost art for most people other than professionals. Editing is the art of choosing your best pictures and then taking those to the next level. For most of my career I edited out, tossing what I didn’t want and keeping the rest. About two years ago a friend of mine forced me to try editing in. It was near impossible at first but after a few jobs it became second nature. Having tried both I could never go back.

Here is the basic premise: let’s say you have 6 similar images in front of you. If you edit out, you may pull out 3 but still have 3 left. In reality, only one is a hero shot. Now, if you edit in, you will pick 1 shot out of the 6 and it is the clear winner. It seems like a small shift in perception but it has a HUGE impact on your workflow. You will edit about 70% faster and have a tighter edit when you are done. This will help you tell the story of the event with less images. You will learn more from looking over a tighter edit and you will do more with the resulting images. In this manner, you can end the analysis paralysis that plagues you and choose good solid images and do things with them.

This is not just a pro-technique, it is probably even more useful for consumers. You come home with a camera full of images and throw them on a hard drive. Maybe you share a few but you get overwhelmed by it all and they just sit there. If you take a few minutes to “edit in” you will reduce the number you are storing, only keep the best, and be more likely to actually print them. Remember life with film? You always had prints and ALWAYS put something up in your home to display, whether on the wall or in an album. Editing In will help you actually do something with your images again so you can truly enjoy your memories.

Below is a screen shot with similar RAW images and the one with the box around it is the winner of the bunch. The reason I picked it over the others should be obvious – it is sharp, it has the best facial expression, and the composition and lighting are great. Maybe I would pick one other that is serious but this is a happy, fun bride and this shot sums up a portrait of her in one shot. Why bother keeping the rest? Neither of us will ever use them.

This is also a cool feature of PurePhoto that may help you organize. You can use our split screen feature to split a CF card into multiple galleries. For example, you may have the Fourth of July parade, bath time, and some winter scenes you shot all on one card before you download. With our split screen feature, you can easily drag and drop those images into different galleries to keep them organized. Now they will be easier to “edit in.”

*On the left is the gallery with the 3 different events, on the right is the main library. You can add new sub galleries as you drag and drop the images from the left panel to the right panel. EASY!

Tags: choosing images, edit, edit in, edit out, editing, picking images
Author: Ryan Phillips, Posted in Check it out!, Photo Retouching, Photography Tips | No Comments »

Alin Popescu Now On PurePhoto Collections™

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Romanian Photographer Alin Popescu is now on PurePhoto Collections. We will be doing a full feature on Alin in a few weeks in our newsletter. If you are not signed up for it, click here to make sure you are added to our list. Alin is a great artist who has accomplished so much in the past 4 years since he first picked up a camera. Here are just a few of the highlights and some of his work. To see all of Alin’s wonderful images go to PurePhoto Collections.

2006

1 st prize at “Fotogeografica” 10th edition, under patronage of National Geographic Romania
Grand Prize winner of Microsoft Future Pro Photographer
Second prize at National Saloon of Tourism “Travel and holidays”
2 articles published in Romanian Photomagazine (one about HDR photography and one portfolio presentation)
Upgraded to Nikon D200, keeping the “old” D70s for Infrared photography after a major modification on camera sensor.

2007

Nikon bought his “Sunrise Over Village” photo to appear in their Nikon International Calendar (appeared as March photo in 2009 calendar)
A new article published in Photomagazine, about IR photography
winner of photography camp “Sancrai Ecvestru” – equestrian photography
Third prize and honorable mention at “See Orange” photography contest sponsored by mobile company Orange

2008

Grand prize winner on “Chivas Regal” photography contest by photographing their 18 y.o Chivas Regal whiskey at its launch in Romania
Official photographer when Chivas Master Blender Colin Scott launched the 25 y.o Chival Regal whiskey in Romania
Bronze FIAP (Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique) medal on International Saloon of Photography “Premfoto”
Personal exhibition “It’s Almost Quiet”
Photographs accepted at International Saloon of Photography “Dan Mihai Calinescu” under patronage of FIAP and AAFR
Personal assistant of well-known Romanian photographer Narcis Virgiliu

2009

Invited to become Established Member of AAFR (Romanian Association of Artist Photographers)
Silver medal on SIAFRMP 3rd ed. International Photography Contest – under patronage of AAFR and MFZS (Romanian and Hungarian artist photographers associations)
Upgraded to Nikon D700
Two articles published on Nikonisti.ro (official Nikon Romania community)
Third prize at National Saloon of Tourism “Travel and holidays” – Legendary Mountains category
Gold AAFR medal on 4th ed. of International Saloon of Photography SIAFRMP under patronage of AAFR and MFZS
First prize at Velvel Live Art party – live fashion photography
Photographer of the Year for commercial photography and Gold AAFR medal during national contest “Photographer of the Year”

2010

Honorable Mention on Spider Awards 2010 Black and White photography contest and 3 nominated photographs during ceremony.
… more to come!

Tags: alin popescu, national geographic romania, romania, romanian photographer
Author: Ryan Phillips, Posted in Check it out!, Cool Photographs, Featured Artist, Latest PurePhoto News, Member News, PurePhoto Collections | No Comments »

Piro Patton | Featured On PurePhoto Collections™

Monday, August 16th, 2010



Photographer of the Week: Piro Patton

Hole by Piro Patton Available Limited Editions: 8"x12" ($50) 16"x24" ($100) 20"x30" ($200) 24"x36" ($500)
Hello PurePhoto Fans! Piro Patton has been shooting for more than 2 decades. His work has taken him all over the United States and Europe shooting everything from street scenes to commercial work. He began taking photographs in 1990 at the California Institute of the Arts, where he was earning a degree in jazz performance playing the acoustic bass. Patton found himself increasingly in demand for photographic work.  So, in 2002 he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and set up a photographic studio, Piro Patton Pictures. Within a few months he was exhibiting at well-known galleries and has been a curator at the Bolinas Museum’s photography gallery since 2004. Patton regularly exhibits his work through out the bay Area and is held in private collections around the U.S.    To the casual observer he might seem to be wondering aimlessly through the city capturing moments at random but when you understand him and his art it is a vastly different story. His street work is bordering on genius, as is the method to his madness. Piro is an accomplished Acoustic Bass player and his work reflects the subtle nuances the way the notes of his bass might sound if they were pictures. His long history of Jazz mimicked in his artwork sets a fast paced shooting style but still displaying great thoughtfulness. What Piro seems to do, especially with Hole, is contrast subjects that may seem ordinary in their own right – like trees and a portal – but when put together make an amazing, thought-provoking image. One could say the same about music, especially Jazz. It’s the act of putting the notes together that makes beautiful music, not the playing of individual notes. His work is a wonderful piece to have in your collection, not just for it’s technical elegance but for the true meaning behind it. The dichotomy between man and nature is evident in most of his work. While thought provoking, it is very subtle. That’s what makes great art; the ability to deliver a message without having to beat you over the head with it. Behind The Image: Hole (Piro In His Own Words) Piro describes “Hole as a great metaphor; that both nature and beast can be beautiful. Taking that picture was conscious; if you look at it the other way it doesn’t work. The other way the metaphor is different. Imagine a lonely tree on a highway with trash around it. It is man’s abuse of nature. I’m an optimist and just don’t see things that way. Like music I see everything working together to from a symphony. By themselves the parts of Hole might not make a great photo but the combination of the two is a beautiful marriage. My aim is for you to understand the photograph without talking or thinking too much about it. You get the metaphor even if you are just casually looking.” He shoots exclusively with a Hassleblad 903swc, an architecture camera with no mirror. It is the perfect tool for this kind of patient work. The lack of mirror means that his camera never “goes dark.” He can wait for all the elements to come into play before he snaps the shutter. It is instantaneously preserved as intended. Much of Piro’s selected work from the past few years is available in PurePhoto Collections and you can pick up some of his pieces at great prices in our Members Gallery His work is offered in all 3 of our Collections and should be a staple for any new collector.
Additional work by Piro Patton:

More Great Art
View our Fine Art, Limited Edition, or Member Galleries to fill your life with more amazing art and make every room in your home or office a personal gallery of things you love. You’ll be glad you did! Looking for a unique gift for a friend? Find one that fits your price range: <$25; <$50; <$100; <$500; <$1000; >$1000.

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Author: Ryan Phillips, Posted in Check it out!, Cool Photographs, Featured Artist, PurePhoto Collections | No Comments »

500 Photographers…

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Check out 500 Photographers, a blog by Pieter Wisse. He has put together an amazing display of photography from all over the world. Beware, this is a total time vampire and you will lose hours looking at all the amazing work.

Author: Ryan Phillips, Posted in Check it out!, Cool Photographs | No Comments »

Paul Souders | Stunning Images

Monday, August 9th, 2010

I am pleased to announce that one of my favorite Photographers and a PurePhoto Master has given us a selection of prints to sell on PurePhoto Collections. Paul Souders has travelled all over the world and his images have been published on every continent. Paul was kind enough to offer 15 pieces he has chosen for us AND to also put them into our members gallery so all can afford to own work from this phenomenal wildlife shooter. Here are a few excerpts from his bio and some images. To see more on Paul and purchase his work, follow this link…

Paul Souders: “For much of my adult life, I have been lucky enough to get paid doing the things I love most. My work as a itinerant travel and wildlife photographer has sent me around the world and across all seven continents.

Over the last two decades, I have had ample opportunity to appreciate the absurdities of life on the road, having once spent 27 memorable hours during my first trip to Kenya digging a bogged safari truck out using only a sauce pan. In addition to my work in Africa, I have traveled extensively in Alaska, Australia, Antarctica and Asia.

I’ve done so many stupid things over my career that it’s hard to keep track. During my brief foray into international news coverage, I got shot at (and missed) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti during election violence there. I was once woken from a sound sleep in Kenya by a pride of lions pawing at my tent, and I have spent 27 memorable hours trying to dig my safari truck out of a swamp using only a sauce pan. On my last trip to Greenland, I slipped while photographing spawning shoals of capelin from some shore rocks, and found myself chest deep in ice water. I shredded my fingers trying to claw my way back out of the ocean before I froze. The time I got my boat stuck in the ice in front of a glacier was good for a laugh, especially when I started hoping between ice floes trying to drag the thing out by hand. Getting chased around in the water and head-butted by whales in Patagonia was diverting, too.

There are a lot of stories I don’t tell my mom.”

Antelope Silhouette | Kenya