Minor White Quote

“Often while traveling with a camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose film, only time enough to expose our hearts.”

--Minor White

Living With Photography

You have acquired a stunning collection of photographs. Now what? There is nothing more paralyzing than facing that blank wall and wondering how to begin. The good news is that there are a few guidelines and suggestions that will help you make that commitment, hang the pictures and still keep the “Wow!” factor that drew you to the images in the first place.

Start by studying your collection and looking for patterns or themes. Are they mostly Black & White? Do you prefer color landscapes? Or is it an eclectic mix? How about your room décor? Is it traditional and formal? Or do you lean toward casual and unstudied? You can choose an arrangement that complements the space.

If you have one large eye-popping image, your job is a little easier. But a small or medium sized photo can look lost on a large wall. Grouping a collection of photos can have more impact than dotting them around the room. Group photos by topic (architecture, landscapes, rusting cars, etc), style (black & white, color, dark and somber, etc), or by frames (black metal, brown wood, barn siding, etc). And sometimes the unifying theme is its diversity.

This process is highly personal and there are no right answers, only results that make you feel good. Here are a few tips to get you started:

-Use newspaper or brown craft paper cut in the size and shapes of your art and try out different arrangements by taping them on the wall. Or lay the artwork out on the floor to help you visualize the result.

-A grouping of photos works best with 2-3 inches between frames, you can tack strings on the wall using a level to keep a consistent space between photos.

-Framed photos can be grouped on shelves.

-Arrange smaller pictures around a large anchor picture.

-A row of photos hugging a chair rail emphasizes the architectural detail.

-Anchor your art to a large piece of furniture. As a general rule of thumb, a large grouping of pictures over a sofa should be about two-thirds of the width of the sofa and about 6 or 7 inches above the back.

-When not anchoring to furniture, hang at eye-level.

-But the most important thing to remember is; always follow your gut and break the rules when it feels right.

--Janet Worne

Douglas Kent Hall Exhibit

The Albuquerque Photographers’ Gallery is pleased to host a very special showing of the work of the late photographer, Douglas Kent Hall (1938–2008). “Precious Metal: Rare Platinum-Palladium and selected Silver Prints” will be on display from November 2nd to December 5th, with a reception on Friday, November 4th, 6:00-9:00 PM.

Born in Utah, Hall went on to a prolific career as a fine art photographer and writer. After acquiring his first camera in the 1960’s, he photographed such subjects as rock stars, cowboys, Native Americans and bodybuilders, to name a few. He published twenty-five books and has taught and exhibited widely. He has won numerous awards for his photography, books and writing, including an Academy Award for a documentary film on the American Cowboy.

In the 1990’s, Douglas Kent Hall produced a small series of platinum-palladium prints. He chose some of his most evocative images of the American West to reproduce with this special process. Hall’s platinum-palladium prints display an astonishing amount of warmth and depth, including a purity of black tones seldom seen in these types of prints. Moreover, the photographer used a paintbrush in the dark to apply platinum-palladium emulsion to sheets of hand-made paper, so that each print appears surrounded by its own unique field of painterly strokes.

During this special show, the Albuquerque Photographers’ Gallery will display a selection of the few remaining platinum-palladium prints made by Hall. Individual images were only printed in multiples of two or three, and the last time they were available to collectors was over a decade ago at the Platinum Plus gallery in New York City. This will be one of the year’s most exciting events for local photography connoisseurs.

The Albuquerque Photographers’ Gallery is located at 303 Romero St., NW, Suite N208 in Old Town, Albuquerque.
For more information call (505)244-9195 or visit: www.abqphotographersgallery.com
For more information on Douglas Kent Hall visit: www.douglaskenthall.com

Henri Cartier-Bresson Quote

“Composition must be one of our constant preoccupations, but at the moment of shooting it can stem only from our intuition, for we are out to capture the fugitive moment, and all the interrelationships involved are on the move.”

--Henri Cartier-Bresson

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