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I found these Annie Leibovitz videos to be interesting. Unfortunately, I had accidentally hit the publish button early. Also, unfortunately, the audio sync is horrible in these, but I this is well worth watching.

Intro – Covered again in Video 1, but if you aren’t going to watch the series,

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Here is Annie Leibovitz on Amazon

I found a link to this on apug.org. It’s a video showing the construction of a 40x40cm ultra large format camera. This video is by Ivan Sakharov.

A new life of an old format from Ivan Sakharov on Vimeo.

That last post about Wynn Bullock’s abstract photography made me think of a post that I’ve meant to make for a while now.

It’s about painting… and photography.

It’s kind of obvious, but you can learn a lot about photography by observing the master painters.

How are their scenes composed?
What is their lighting like? How does it set the mood?
How do they place shadows for more effect?
Where is the horizon?
Where are people placed?
How tight is the cropping of the subject?
What is the relative size of the subject to other lesser objects?

There’s a whole lot to learn and a lot of enjoyment to be had by looking at paintings.

Here are a few videos to get you started. Don’t just watch them. Try to find paintings that are similar to the kinds of photography you do. Find ideas. Think about the questions I posed above and about your own questions and interpretation.