The Photographer & The Blog; To Blog Or Not To Blog, That’s The Question Page 2

"Burning Man" (www.burningman.com) is another great collection and contains some of the best--maybe the best--photographs that I've ever seen of this event. Here Harding demonstrates a great sense of image dynamics with strong compositions applied equally to daytime or nighttime shots. Don't miss the "Splash Zone" with wet and wild images that often straddle dry and "water-based photography." Keeping with a wet theme, check out "Salmon River, California Aerial Photo Shoot" for a view of kayaking you don't often see--from above--showing the tiny craft surrounded by lots of dangerous water. These images dramatically show the context of the bravery and cojones needed for white water kayaking. Harding offers fine art prints of some of his images at reasonable prices given the high quality of his imagery, so be sure to check that section as well as "Published Work" for a clever way to display tear sheets.

www.jerrygolab.com
Jerry Golab photographs cars, among other things, but that's not why I featured his site. Anybody can photograph cars but what sets Golab apart is his old-school style. Ya see, Golab shoots cars and everything else using a "toy" camera and Ilford's Delta 400 black and white film. Remember that stuff? His website has a wonderfully warm and inviting look that elicits the same kind of retro feel as his images. They're collected into five different portfolios, including two for Classic Cars. The photographs in both of these portfolios show pieces of Detroit Iron, not entire vehicles, captured with a wonderfully nostalgic appreciation for their style and shape such as a Kaiser's (http://oldcarandtruckpictures.com/Kaiser) graceful C-pillar.

© 2007, Jerry Golab, All Rights Reserved

Clicking any of the large thumbnails takes you to a larger image in a screen that lets you navigate to and fro but, alas, displays no titles. It's in the "Antique Market" portfolio that Golab's style finds a home among photographs of vintage Coca-Cola signs and a flea market's flotsam and jetsam. The "Las Vegas" collection, too, is a wonderful time trip and features his evocative Palm Trees signature image. All of Golab's images are scanned with an Epson 1200 Photo and printed with archival inks on Hahnemühle German Etching rag paper using an Epson 1160 printer. This combination produces a warm-tone print and has the look, according to Golab of "Platinum/Palladium prints." I haven't seen one of his affordable prints, but the online images are gorgeous.

www.tanyarochat.com.au/
Sydney, Australia's Tanya Rochat brings her brand of classy wedding photography to the web wrapped up in a site design that's as elegant as the photographs it displays. If you like, you can page through an actual wedding album. Do this first and prepare to be amazed by a style that seamlessly blends color and monochrome imagery with portraiture and photojournalism styles. The design of the album and its photographs is breathtaking--it is not your grandmother's wedding photography. The Gallery looks just like a gallery, complete with digitally-framed pictures that you can click to see larger images and elaborate scroll arrows that let you go back and forth to see all of the images inside. Once an image is clicked the window has arrows that let you move back and forth without returning to the gallery.

© 2007, Tanya Rochat Photography, All Rights Reserved

Throughout it all, Rochat's images, whether spontaneous or posed, capture moments that we all wished somebody had done at our weddings. I have long been a fan of those wedding photographers in the American West who are helping redefine contemporary wedding photography and Rochat's elegant and eloquent images should serve as a source of inspiration for photographers everywhere. They raise the bar by showing what can be done in eloquently capturing events. She has a blog ("Updates and news about Tanya Rochat Photography") that echoes the design theme of her main site; it looks like she's found a method that works for her by keeping it brief.

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