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

1. No purchase is required to enter any PurePhoto giveaway or contest.
2. The entry procedures for each contest are announced individually on www.purephoto.com/blog.
3. 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.
4. Employees or their immediate families of PurePhoto are not eligible to win our contests or giveaways.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. The odds of winning will depend on the number of entries. Unless otherwise noted, all contests and giveaway prizes are awarded via random drawing.
8. The winner does not have to be present for the drawing unless otherwise noted.
9. Winners automatically grant the use of their name and likeness in the promotion of this and other PurePhoto contests.
10. 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
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. Rules are subject to change without notice.

“This extraordinary collection of color photographs taken between 1909 and 1912. In those years, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time – when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun.”

To see more of the photographs, click here…

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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!

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YouTube Direkt

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

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YouTube Direkt

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

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!

- joy harmon prouty.  see more on my blog.

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