Who's talking about photography and literacy?

Check out this interesting blog post by Marvin Heiferman addressing the ubiquitous presence of photography in contemporary culture -- and the lack of conversation about what all of that activity could potentially mean.

Is academia addressing the changing practices in the medium and associated photo-literacy? Is the language of photography destined to a fate similar to Latin: assimilated into many other languages and rendered irrelevant on its own (except, of course, for academic study)?

This post by Charlotte Cotton from the Aperture blog addresses a related topic: Are institutions (schools, galleries, museums) addressing innovations in photography?

Time-lapse video of the effects of Photoshop "editing" on model's body.

So it's not just lighting and stuff?? Check out this short video . . .

Inside a Paparazzo’s Photography Bag: Cameras, Lenses and Pepper Spray

It is interesting how similar the paparazzo's motive is to the photojournalist's. Pay particular attention to what he has to say about lenses and "photographers" who do not know what they are doing (and how that affects the images they make).

100 - 300 pics to get one "photograph"

Check out this short video and post about how photographer Pelle Cass constructs his images.

Ansel Adams: Master Photographer, Master Marketer

An interesting post on NYT Lens blog about the challenges of being a photographer - then and now.

Photoshop Tutorial: Retouching Shiny Skin

Check out this video tutorial from Lee Varis. It's a rather technical explanation - but quite successful - and with some great smaller tips on retouching included.

A great little video about lenses for photo and video

This is a nice and humorous video about important lenses that you should consider for photography and/or video. With regard to lens quality, you do get what you pay for - however, for many of the specific lens models mentioned (high end and expensive) there are often less expensive models of similar focal length. The "nifty-fifty" is a great example - they (50mm f/1.8) can be found for a little over $100 new - which is a fraction of the cost of the "faster" and more expensive models (50mm f/1.4 or f/1.2).