From advertising to editorial, Michael Grecco’s work is continually raising the photographic bar. He is known for dynamic portraiture and capturing the essence of his subjects. Grecco works with an unrivaled technical ability and a rare sensitivity. The image he has created for himself is authentic, composed and always striking.

You can read a fascinating article by Michael Grecco here:

Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait by Michael Grecco

I’ve bought his book, but I haven’t had chance to read it yet.

This guy breaks all the rules, he does crazy things you aren’t supposed to do with light, he doesn’t produce well exposed sharp images. He produces edgy art, images that show the essence of the person.

He also teaches you how to deal with people, great portraits are not taken – they are GIVEN.

You can find his site here:

Michael Grecco

This is amazing, I remember this guy on blue peter years ago drawing a perfect version of the houses of parliament in a few minutes. Every window was perfect, all the ratios were correct it was immaculate.

He was about 10 years old then I guess, now check this out from more recently:

This is one camera money can’t buy.

In just 45 minutes he absorbs enough information to draw a 10 feet long panoramic view of Rome.

Simply amazing.

Check this out for some Bling.

Donwon Systems, Korean distributor of Pentax, presented ‘ASAHI PENTAX LX Gold’, world’s first water-proof and dust-resistant SLR camera which was specifically made to celebrate 60th anniversary of the company. The ASAHI PENTAX LX Gold was displayed together with ‘K10D’, Pentax’s newly launched 10-megapixels premium DSLR camera ‘K10D’ at a press event in Korea market.In 1980, shortly after Nikon introduced the third generation of the Nikon F3-series system camera, Asahi Optical Co. Ltd. Japan introduced a professional class system camera on their own; the Pentax LX .The year also coincided with 60th anniversary of the most respectful trade name and camera manufacturing business in the business-Pentax.

The Pentax LX gold was launched on August 25th, 1981 to celebrate the production of ten-millionth Pentax SLR camera. It was 18 carat gold plated with brown leather (also-called lizard skin or snake skin) and was equipped with an SMC Pentax f/1.2 50mm lens also with brown leather and gold finish.

The Pentax LX Gold package included a wooden box with red lining and white silk gloves to handle the camera without leaving fingerprints on the sensitive gold plating. Both the camera and the case were provided with golden carton boxes sporting 10million logo and 1981 lettering. Only 300 pieces of the LX Gold were manufactured, 200pcs for the Japanese home market and 100pcs for the international market. Serial numbers for the LX Gold ranged from XM001 to XM300 (XM meaning ten million).

Little People – a tiny street art project is an awesome photographic project of little people in realistic scenes.

It always includes the perspective shot too, so you can see how it was taken.

Urban Camping

Small Gods

Most were shot with a compact cam, so once again it shows it’s the photographer and the ideas not the gear that makes the picture.

http://little-people.blogspot.com/

Sometimes known as the Indiana Jones of Wildlife Photography – Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols is a superb and innovative National Geographic Photogher.

I’ve been taking pictures for close to 30 years, starting when I was 18. It started with my Photo 101 course in school, right before I got drafted in the Army. I had studied fine art, but the camera was more immediate, and I knew immediately that’s what I wanted to do.

Right after school, I got the draft notice. I was a hippie, so I was really ashamed of wearing the uniform. I was planning to go to Canada, but this was towards the end of the war. So instead of leaving I decided to give an extra year to the Army so I could be a photographer instead of wasting my time in the infantry.

In that time I learned how to print black and white, and got to use equipment that I couldn’t afford. One of the things those guys used to say was “f/8 and be there.” Because they never used a light meter and, as far as I could tell, they didn’t care about quality. But I liked the concept of not depending on the technology so much and using your instincts.

From: Nick’s Take On..How did you get started?

He is one of the pioneers of ‘Camera traps‘ and has stunning pictures of wildlife around the world.

If you want some interesting stuff I recommend checking out Nick’s Take On..Recommended Reading and his complete list of articles is here.

His gear used is here, he uses Canon, Nikon and Leica.