http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog www.JohnRobertPennington.com Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:00:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Metal Clay Artist Magazine showed up on my doorstep the other day with some photo work I did for Carol Hamilton, a metal clay artist. So the hamster in my noggin dusted off his sneakers and jumped on the Dual-o-matic Hamster Memory Bank Wheel.  I have been wanting to ... http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog/2009/12/jewelry-lighting-tutorial-and-printed-work/ Patricia Smith is an oil, acrylic, and mixed media artist at the Workhouse Art Center over in Lorton, Virginia.  Photographing Pat’s work is like opening up Christmas present in December, I am always amazed by the content she paints.  What an imagination! On a side note, Pat has always been so ... http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog/2009/11/artist-patricia-smith/ Dear User Not really… I have always been a big propionate of stating that all photography is “manipulated” in some fashion no mater what the era.  The photographer controls the composition, angle, subject matter (including or excluding),  pose, lighting, and mood or conveyance of a scene or person before ... http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog/2009/11/photoshop-has-ruined-photography/ [Note: Please read Part One and Two] 3) Would it be more cost effective to rent/barrow for specific occasions, or should this equipment be a mainstay in my arsenal of tools? We read about sports photographer Bill Frakes owning 29 Nikon D3 bodies and National Geographic photographer Joe McNally lighting the X ... http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog/2009/10/when-should-i-upgrade-financial-gain%e2%80%93part-three/ [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Image from my abstract series."][/caption] Some of you may have noticed some changes to my website and for that, you receive a high five.  If you haven't then you can check it out here.  My website and portfolio have needed face-lifts for some time now and over ... http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog/2009/10/johnrobertpennington-com-abstract-and-shenandoah-series-updates/ [Note: Part one can be read here] 2) Will I potentially loose at least 2-3x more if I don’t make this investment? This can be a “gray” area question, and therefore, needs a bit critical thought.  Potential future profit shouldn’t be confused with present potential loss. There isn’t any money to be ... http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog/2009/10/when-should-i-upgrade-financial-gain-%e2%80%93-part-two/ [Note: Because of this posts length I decided to break this post up into three sections. This being part one.] In two previous posts I discussed the importance for acquiring knowledge and considering technical limitation in regard to upgrading photography equipment.  In this section I will discuss the role of financial ... http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog/2009/10/when-should-i-upgrade-financial-gain-part-one/ Checking yahoo's featured articles has become a daily routine for me.  I get my news, entertainment, and sports fix all in the time it takes me to eat breakfast.  It gives me the opportunity to impress people with my superior pop culture intellect. Just kidding.  But really, it does help ... http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog/2009/10/photographer-protect-thyself/ My wonderful fiancée, Grace, and I will be displaying select paintings and prints at the Art in the Garden show at the Walney Visitor Center on Oct. 18th.  There will be fine art, a picnic, and you can even BYOB (bring your own bottle).  And if you do decide to ... http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog/2009/10/self-promotion-art-in-the-garden/ Earlier I urged the importance of knowledge acquisition over photographic equipment upgrades. I would like to continue the series of “When should I upgrade?” with the next topic of technical limitations. Technical Limitations More expensive, higher mega-pixels, bigger sensor, quicker frames-per-second is always better, right? I will argue that when ... http://www.johnrobertpennington.com/blog/2009/09/when-should-i-upgrade-technical-limitations/