47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

I seem to recall recently that it’s been discovered that one of the men in the Iwo Jima photograph was actually mis-identified.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

I don't know anything about your facilities or the number of student's an as such my answer might be modified by various logistical factors.

I think that It may be important to look at and use various types of cameras in order to better understand the photographers challenges in making images. Daguerreotypes has , as I recall, had an ISO around 0.005. The challenge might be met by actually making Daguerreotypes with a view camera. Alternatively, using using film cameras with heavy ND filters may work. Folks didn't smile because it was too difficult hold a smile for 15 min. People were absent from otherwise busy streets as they moved too fast to be recorder. Wet plate negatives also provide a challenge. There are internet resources by folks using this ancient technology today. The use of various types of cameras View Cameras, Twin Lens reflex , SLR, DSLR, rangefinder, Folding roll film cameras could help understand the limitations of these cameras. One could also use ND filters to limit the ISO to 10, 25, 32. Obtaining good photographs with low ISO is a challenge and indeed some types of images cannot be obtained with these technologies. Low ISO work can be done on modern cameras. Be sure to not use the light meter in camera. The beauty of large format film has not yet been achieved in the digital world.

Mark,

I apologize for the rudeness of some of the posters. Political opinions, especially regarding international topics, are not appropriate in this forum. You have a job to do and are asking for advice. You should receive a polite answer. Feel free to send me a private message.

Pumble

The darkroom experience was also my thought. Darkroom work developing pictures taught me more about photography than anything. Another couple of ideas.

Idea for light meter discussion whether in camera or handheld. To demonstrate how they operate, get a few small solar cells and a voltmeter. Wire them to the volt meter and vary the light to show how the cells react to different light or different color temperatures. You can show the directional aspect by coupling the cells to a lens or other directive device. If you have an old Yashica Electro 35 GSN or equivalent, they have a light meter in the viewfinder than was the direct product of the light sensor. This will allow them to appreciate the fundamental aspects. Also, take a camera with an automatic light sensor (i.e. Polaroid), cover the light sensor, open the shutter, count the time, then open the shutter with a lot of light and repeat. It shows that even early on, there was tech in the cameras that were driven with nothing more than 2 AA batteries.

Also if you have access to an old lens being disposed of, take it apart and show how the elements are combined in a convex or concave shape to direct the light. After all, when using any camera with a lens, composition aside, the quality is much about the glass.

For today's technology, breakdown the picture seem today into pixels and further into the binary stream that makes the actual pixel seen on the screen. When a student realizes the foundation which they're working with, they appreciate the upper level concepts of working with photoshop and the like.

Just a few thoughts.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Lookup, Hasselblad in Space.

*I'm proud to say that Walter Schirra jr. (Wally) spent time instructing me before he became an astronaut.

William Royer Loc: Kansas

To me it has always been interesting to look at historically well known photographers (Duncan, Capacity, HCB, Arbus et al) and what specific camera/model they used for specific iconic images. When one then considers the challenges of using a rudimentary-by-today’s-standards Leica II or a Graphic or a Contax IIA for the types of images achieved, it leads to interesting discussions.

petercbrandt Loc: New York City, Manhattan

My grade 6 teacher took 4-5 students to his own darkroom to show us how to develop film and to make a b/w print. I got hooked but had no money for equipment, fast forward to high school. They needed a photographer to shoot sports events, I came forward and ended up replacing the professional school photographer when got sick. I started my first paid photography jobs shooting graduation portraits. Fast forward I had a career of 45 years being a professional commercial photographer.

Take the students into a real photography situation.

YNY Loc: Youngstown NY (Western New York)

Ingenuity: A modified Nikon F3 with a motor drive and special back for 35mm movie film was used to film some of the chase sequence in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It was mounted on a scaled down mining car run on a special track.

Zooman 1

How about "Do No Harm" when involved with Nature Photography? Some of the early wildlife photographers did not!

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

I am a big fan of the bokeh and performance of early lenses. Early designs were nowhere near as "perfect" (in terms of sharpness and aberration correction) as today's lenses, but they sometimes have a character missing in modern lenses, which was certainly an important factor in early photography. I have a bunch of classic lenses of various kinds, made for various applications, which I use on a modern full frame mirrorless camera. For examples, have a look at my bokeh galleries here

http://toby-marshall.com/galleries/bokeh-tales/

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Hi, Mark.

One of the most influential people in my photography career was a teacher I met 50 years ago, when I was in the 8th grade at a combined junior-senior high school. She was the yearbook advisor, and had a Master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University. I took every course she taught — two journalism classes and a creative writing course — and joined the newspaper and yearbook staffs for four years as a photographer and writer.

She said some things that have always stuck with me, partly because of her candor, but mostly because they are fundamentally true. I'm paraphrasing here, from an adult's perspective on a teenager's notes:

"As a viewer or a reader, I don't give a damn about your camera, or HOW you do what you do. Technical competence is your responsibility. So, don't let technical flaws get in my way of appreciation. Pay attention to the details."

(My take on that is, "Don't LET the medium be the message. Let the message be the message and the medium be the transport mechanism." — i.e.; Marshall McLuhan missed the point. It's easier said than done, but practice anyway, and THINK about the MESSAGE before the application of the medium.)

"Readers and viewers care deeply about what your photos SAY to them. So have a point of view, and something to say about it."

"Does the image make me think, or give me joy, or show me a moment in history that causes me to see the present in perspective? Does it inspire, teach, remind, uplift, depress, or affect me at all?"

As admirable as good cameras are as shiny mechanical and electronic marvels, We photographers spend far too much time worrying about our technology and far too little time working on our messages. What do WE want to show the world?

One way to learn about developing perspective and a point of view is to study the great photos of the last 180 years or so, and find those that helped to shape our understanding of the past, or helped the photographers' contemporaries understand the challenges they faced in their present days.

Photography is one of two powerful, fundamental communications tool classes we have. There is, of course, language, applied as printed text, spoken oration or narration, and recorded audio... Then there is visual imaging, applied as photography, film (motion pictures), video, TV, VLOGs, and various other visual arts.

When combined, these two classes of tools have the potential to change minds, move people to action, make us feel good, teach us the lessons of history, and otherwise affect us in ways that alter our lives.

Looking back, I probably learned more about photography's purpose by looking at good photographs from the past, than I did from anything else. At 14, I started reading the Time Life Library of Photography books, and devoured them all. At 25, I read them again (and bought the second edition of the series).

As a teen, I would go to the public library and peruse the "coffee table" books of the day by the old masters. I subscribed to Rolling Stone, National Geographic, Modern Photography, Popular Photography, and Petersen's Photographic Magazine. In college, I went to every art show and photography exhibition I could find. But there, I also fell in love with writing, audio production, and radio production.

After graduation, I found a job as an audio-visual producer for a photography and yearbook company. I was both technically and mentally prepared for that job. It was EXACTLY what I had wanted to do at that time. for 8 years, I produced slide shows, filmstrips, video, multi-image, and photo illustrations for our creative services department. That led to a 33-year career in the school portrait and yearbook industries.

Later, mid-2000s, I resurrected that knowledge and experience to create training curricula for essentially the same company. The tools had changed, completely for the better, but the fundamentals were the same.

Looking back, I would tell a young person that any success I had was directly related to combining
past experiences in new ways, to do something different and better. My liberal arts education made that process understandable. My hobbies, combined with my education, gave me potential, and hard work made that possible.

As old folks, we can usually look back and remember the twists and turns in our lives, how one thing led to another, and how we took seemingly unrelated experiences and kludged them together to create something new and useful. Each of us has a story to tell, of lessons learned, successes, and perspectives gained. A reading of James Burke's *Connections* will amplify that statement.

Photography is no longer an isolated discipline, as it was for many just a few decades ago. Today, we live in a melting pot virtual world — a convergence of digital technologies. Photography and written/oral languages are at the core of it, and enabling complements are electronics — radio telephony and the Internet, combined with the computer and its digital audio, digital photography, digital video, digital graphics, and digital text. (Think: Smartphones) The more we learn about applying ALL of those together, whether as a team or as individuals, the more of a difference we can make.

John O.

PSA (Photographic Society of America) has on-line courses and one of them that I took is The History of Photography and uses the book "The History of Photography" by Beaumont Newhall. PSA's free course is 6 months long and has assignments that try to duplicate some of the things experienced with older cameras. I found this course fascinating! PSA is a worldwide organization. If you became a PSA member and took that on-line class I am sure that it would give you some excellent ideas for you on what you want to create.

Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

... and get China's blood-stained hands out of occupied Tibet.

cascom Loc: Redmond

Get photos from history Ali fight - look at all the cameras around the ring. Most were one shot

Nixon in Argentina - the photographer in front of the limo was down to one sheet of film. Does he take a shot with the crowds attacking or wait until something bigger? Take the kids on a walk - they get one shot to show.

photographers taking sports - look at the photographers at a baseball game sitting on the baselines.

JFCoupe Loc: Kent, Washington

in many historic photography books, it indicates the type of camera used to capture the image. You could make photocopies of the book images and then take photos of that camera used to make that image from your collection.

Then project the image and related facts and follow up with an image of the camera used. This combines, historical facts, camera technology evolution and historically significant images.

Best of luck with your teaching.

maxiu9

Hi Mark,

I am a Chinese Studies professor in the United States. If you are looking for China-centric material, there's a new book edited by Jeffrey Cody called _Brush and Shutter_. It covers the early history of photography in China. Lots of good images and useful info.

Cheers,

Matt Wells
University of Kentucky