Staff

On The Cover
This month, in addition to our usual run of product reviews, we are presenting you with a bit of software magic, as we share new tools and tricks we uncovered in the latest image-editing applications. We are also featuring an assortment of photo essays by photographers who realize the power the black-and-white medium holds.

Our Picture This! assignment this month was Handheld Pan, a shooting technique that involves a long shutter speed and some sort of motion while shooting on the part of the photographer. We generally do everything we can to keep the camera steady and make sure there is no photographer-induced motion in a shot, including using image stabilized lenses, often elaborate tripods and heads, and even mirror lockup. The assignment requested just the opposite—adding motion to a shot that might include following a subject in motion across a plane, jiggling the camera to make lights record as lines rather than points, and even moving the camera in a circular motion to completely abstract the color and form.

Our Picture This! assignment this month was Industrial Design. While nothing can beat the variety and beauty of nature, where patterns and designs have their own rhythm and pace, certain objects have a beauty and grace that speak to an aesthetic that is inherently human. Products of handmade origin or the Industrial Age that satisfy the need for function while maintaining a beauty of form are sometimes taken for granted, and sometimes, with a photographer’s keen eye, transformed into sculptural objects that seem to transcend their utility. We can contemplate them less for something we would use as a tool and more as objects of wonder or beauty that appeal to a deeper aesthetic sensibility. That’s what we sought, and found, in this month’s readers’ images.

Being a musician, a visit to the historic Sun Studio was a must-see tour on a recent trip to Memphis, Tennessee. I selected black and white on my Nikon D300 to capture an authentic feel of the 1950s era inside and outside. Upon leaving the building, a 1955 Cadillac pulled up to drop something off. I had just a minute to get set, compose, and snap off a couple of shots. This classic car under an historic landmark reminded me of one of my favorite country songs, “Guitars, Cadillacs.”