New Members

APG has added two new members to our group of talented photographers.


Tye Hardison arrived in August to replace the departing Peter Boehringer. He brings with him a dramatic and unique vision to the gallery. His love of nature started 30 years ago while hunting and fishing in northern New Mexico. Later, after he purchased his first camera, he went on to photograph the many enchanting landscapes of our state. More...

Mellany Herrera replaces Rebecca Golding starting this month. Mellany’s work is filled with color and imagination. Her vision is realized using digital tools and High Dynamic Range (HDR) process resulting in rich and detailed images. Check back at our website in the next few weeks to see more about Mellany.

We will miss Rebecca and Peter even as we welcome our new members.

Bill Brandt Quote

“It is part of the photographer’s job to see more intensely than most people do. He must have and keep in him something of the receptiveness of the child who looks at the world for the first time. Too much self-examination or self consciousness about it or about one’s aims and purposes may, in the early stages, be a hindrance rather than a help.”

-Bill Brandt

Hummingbird Photography Simplified

Each spring, New Mexico backyards are humming with black-chinned and broad-tails as they battle over feeding territories and entertain us with their aerobatics. A month later, the Rufous arrive with their bright flashes of red and orange. Photographers everywhere are scrambling to take “the best hummer shot ever”. They dream of the elaborate (and expensive) equipment they will need to accomplish their goal.

If you research hummingbird photos on the Internet, you will find most, if not all, serious shooters use strobes. As in LOTS of flash units fired remotely from multiple angles. While this undoubtedly produces some stunning and sharp images, it is also quite expensive and time-consuming to set up. But there are other ways to do it.

I have never used more than a single flash, sometimes with an flash extender on a 300mm lens, and found that approach is often more frustrating than useful. For one thing, the birds freak out at the moment of the flash and wind up in strange unflattering flight positions. Another disadvantage is that flash units must recycle, which prohibits using the continuous shooting mode available in most digital SLR cameras.

So this spring I decided to try a simpler setup with no flash. The main issue with any wildlife image is subject sharpness. And getting a sharp image means lots of available light. Why? Because you need both a high shutter speed to freeze motion, and a small aperture (more depth of field) to get more of the subject in the focal range. A fast lens is your best friend here. A 70-200mm, f2.8 is a good candidate. Or an 85mm, f1.8 will work well because you can be fairly close to the birds--if you let them get used to your presence and do not make quick movements. I even used a 50mm, f1.8 with some success, as can be seen in this image. Finally, use higher ISO than usual if your camera body can deliver clean images with it.

My backyard portal faces east, so about an hour after sunrise I have great backlight on the birds at my feeder, which hangs on the east end of the portal. This is great for silhouette shots, but not so hot for anything else. The key is to use a reflector. I improvised one out of standard foam board. The white surface reflects the sunlight quite well, but must be positioned close to the feeder. I used a ladder to hold the reflector, while I stood on the second rung and placed my camera with 50mm lens just above it. With a longer lens, you will probably need to be further back from the feeder. Also, it helps to be shooting at a horizontal or downward angle to get a dark background from trees or bushes since the sky will be too bright.

Experiment with different reflector angles, distance, and lenses until you get your own 'perfect hummer shot'.

-Tom Spross

Ernst Haas Quote

“The camera doesn't make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing.

But, you have to SEE.”

--Ernst Haas

Pinhole Photography

Taking pictures with a pinhole camera is like peering through a chink in a wall and looking into the past. The resulting photos look as if they have been taken at least a hundred years ago, which makes sense considering Leonardo Da Vinci was the first to use the pinhole concept with his "Camera Obscura." The basic idea is that light travels through a tiny hole and casts an image, backwards and upside-down, onto the negative. Exposures range from 30 seconds to nearly 2 minutes depending on the size of the hole.

To make this historic camera you can use an oatmeal box painted black, inside and out. The lens is a piece of aluminum pie plate pierced with a needle and taped over a 1.5 square inch hole in the side of the box. I use black and white photographic paper as a negative, which is placed inside the box (in total darkness) to fit the curve of the wall opposite the lens. The emulsion side faces the hole. It is this curve that gives the extreme wide-angle look to the pictures. Use a heavy piece of black paper secured with rubber bands over the lens as your lens cap. After setting the camera in position for the picture, with a rock on top to keep it steady, remove the lens cap for 30 seconds or so. You will need to try a few times to find the correct exposure.

Back in the darkroom, develop the paper negative in the normal manner (there are many good books that describe this process in detail) using black and white chemistry. Sandwich this negative with another piece of paper (emulsion to emulsion with the negative on top) and shine a light through it to produce the positive, which then must be developed like the negative. You can also scan the negative on a flat-bed scanner and create the positive in Photoshop. If done correctly the result is a photograph similar to the ones you see here.

There you have it, cheap and easy photographic thrills. Amateur photographers quite often ask me what kind of camera I use and how much it costs. They are impressed with expensive gear. I tell them it doesn't matter what equipment you use, a photographer can make a good picture with an oatmeal box.

I admit I still have a few bugs to work out here. With a little refinement and experimentation I could clean up some of the extra lines and strange flares of light in these pictures. But I kind of like them. It adds a little of the old world feel that these images have. And who's to say that the smudges of light in the cemetery picture are flaws in my lens and not civil war ghosts?

-Janet Worne

W. Eugene Smith Quote

“What use is having a great depth of field, if there is not an adequate depth of feeling?”

- W. Eugene Smith

Working Hard...

We are hard at work, getting ready for Karl Koenig's show, "In This Place...". The photos have been hung, the invitations are out, and we are preparing refreshments for the reception--this Friday, 6-9 PM.

This show is not to be missed. Karl's work is amazing and one-of-a-kind. He is the inventor of an alternative process he calls, gumoil, which exudes a very organic quality. He also uses the photogravure process with quite beautiful results. We hope to see you there!