Steve Scap Photography

Self Portrait - Vivian Maier

Around late 2008, John Maloof, a Chicago photographer purchased a lot of 20-30 thousand negatives, including some 1000 undeveloped rolls of film, from a small auction house in Chicago.  The photos were taken by French-born street photographer Vivian Maier. Little is known about Vivian, but John has managed to uncover a few facts about her.

John was able to find someone at the famous Chicago camera store, Central Camera, who remembered Vivian and then was also able to contact a family she worked for as a nanny during the 1950s and early 1960s. Vivian was born in France and moved to New York in the early 1930s, where she worked in a sweatshop when she was 11 or 12 years old.

Most of Vivian’s photos were taken in and around Chicago and give a black and white view of life in a post-war urban environment.

John Maloof found Vivian’s name on an envelope of negatives and decided to Google her name.  Sadly, the only result was her obituary, posted a few days prior.  It’s a shame that Vivian never shared her work during her lifetime, but luckily John is processing and posting her work on his blog. View Vivian Maier’s work at: Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work.

2010 is sure to usher in many new products, innovations, and creative endeavors.  Even more exciting than Jersey Shore returning for another agonizing season, is the batch of new technology just over the horizon! Welcome to “Tech in the Tens,” an on-going series of predictions and observations about photographic technology in the 2010.

With an overwhelming amount of technological innovation occurring on a daily-basis, and in order to avoid carpel tunnel for another week, I’m going to focus on two new technologies in this post. The Apple iPad and HTML5.

Every Apple fanboy this side of the Milky Way was glued to gizmodo’s liveblog hoping to catch a glimpse of Steve Jobs holding up his newest creation, the iPad, like Moses with the Ten Commandments tablets. But as with any new product as hyped as the iPad, there are bound to be haters.  A lack of flash support, no built-in camera and other shortcomings were instantly noted by both fans and foes. I predict that once application designers get some time to build iPad specific Apps, nobody will miss these initial “shortcomings.” With proper integration of HTML5 the iPad will be one of the best way to view media-rich content.  

The exclusion of Adobe Flash support seems to be biggest negative point people are concerned about, since the vast majority of web videos, and some websites are flash-based.  But exactly one week before Jobs’ iPad announcement, YouTube turned heads by announcing it’s beta HTML5-supported video player.  This is just what the iPad (as well as iPhone and iTouch) needed, as now videos embedded in HTML5 will play seamlessly in the browser window where Flash videos would show only as an error icon.  Prior to YouTube’s beta launch, Vimeo made the same announcement of an HTML5 beta. Imagine being able to stream hi-def videos or sideshows on the iPad’s screen virtually anywhere! This could prove very beneficial for photographers and videographers.

Keep an eye out for more Technology in the Tens posts dealing with things such as Micro Four-Thirds Cameras, USB 3.0, CSS3 and the Drobo.

I had a lot of fun working with Ryan Budds for my latest shoot.  Based on a closing-joke of Ryan’s, he decided to name his upcoming DVD “No Wrong Way.”  The hardest part about this shoot was finding a Wrong Way sign.  In a city like Chicago, you’d expect to see these everywhere, but besides on highway off-ramps, this is the only one we could find!

Check out Ryan’s website and buy his new DVD when it comes out!

If you’re an advanced amateur photographer contemplating the jump from consumer Point and Shoot digital cameras to a Digital SLR, there has never been a better time! With the current life cycle of an entry-level DSLR being about 18 months and prosumer DSLR about 2 years, there are great deals to be had for past models.

I’m going to skip entry-level cameras and go right to the mid-level prosumer models.  My reasoning behind this comes after upgrading my camera many times to a higher model.  Take my advice and shell out the extra money up front, you won’t regret it. The added features of a mid-level DSLR such as upgraded rugged magnesium body, weather sealing, faster FPS (frames per second), and advanced controls are well worth the slightly higher cost.

The two cameras that I’m going to highlight are the Nikon D200 and the Canon 30D.  Both of these cameras are not the newest models out there, but for the feature they offer at price they are going for currenty, you can’t beat them.  You may be daunted by the low (by today’s standards) megapixel count, 10.2 for the D200 and 8.2 for the 30D, but keep in mind megapixels aren’t all that important. These cameras are fully featured DSLR’s that will not dissapoint anyone.

Upon first inspection, you will definatly notice the larger, more rugged magnesium body compared to their entry-level counterparts. They both feature 5 frames per second shutters which are quick enough to capture fast moving sports and action, and the 2.5” LCD screen that they both boast will be great for checking focus and composition.

All in all, the Nikon D200 and the Canon 30D are fully featured mid-level Digital SLR Cameras that will impress even the harshest critics.  Pick up the Nikon D200 body for $599 at Best Buy, or grab the Canon 30D Body with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 refurbished by Canon for $549 from Adorama.