Web Profiles

Out here in the real world there is no protection from thieves; heck, they've stolen Van Gogh paintings (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2552877.stm) from museums with tighter security than anything you and I can put on a website. The best protection is to make sure your favorite images are published all over the web; then it will be too recognizable and associated with you to steal.

Part of the problem, I think, is that too many photographers think--whether they will admit it or not--that they will never make a photo as good as that one of the (fill in the blank) again. I think my best images are ahead of me, not behind. I'm naive enough to believe that people are more good than bad, but recognize there are sociopaths who don't know the difference. Nothing you and I can do will stop a determined thief, so as my pal Alfred E. Neuman once said, "What, me worry?"

Visible Photography
I love great architectural photography and Michael Fiala, a working shooter in Toronto, Canada, brings a fresh vision to this time honored craft. Oh yea, there's other stuff on his site, too, in the Still Life and Assignment galleries, but the heart of the website (www.fialastudio.com) and surely Fiala's own seems to be in architectural images that leap out of the screen with their strong compositions and clever choices of lenses. In each gallery there are tiny black and white thumbnails showing images that, when clicked, appear in their own windows and in color. These images are dramatic, perfectly composed, and often exhibit Escher-like dynamics that can get you lost inside while exploring the details. Fiala's use of color is unique, flawless, yet never screams, "look at me." His page identified as "Places" contains more architectural images, although occasionally people wander into the photographs. There's also aerial images, one landscape, and even a panoramic shot that shows Fiala's tight grasp of the technical and aesthetic challenges of photography that he uses to produces architectural images like no one else's.

Michael Fiala's work shows a tight grasp of the technical and aesthetic challenges of photography that he uses to produce architectural images like no one else's. © 2004, Michael Fiala, All Rights Reserved