1. AUG - OCT 09
PORT OF HARLEM22 AUG - OCT 09
PORT OF HARLEM
AUG - OCT 09
PORT OF HARLEM 23
Hometown: Memphis, TN, North America
www.miccolo.com
202-387-6525
Walking home from downtown Memphis at about
a half-hour before the sun dipped behind the mighty
Mississippi River, I could tell by the crayon colored sky
that it was going to be a gorgeous sunset. In those
days I carried my camera with me everywhere. That
evening was no different. I positioned myself about one
hundred feet from the river’s edge and framed the old
Tennessee-Arkansas Bridge in the background. The
sun-setting crayon colored sky dominated the top one-
third of my horizontally composed image. The bridge
comprised the middle one-third while an empty,grassy
area formed the bottom one-third of my masterpiece.
About a week later, I saw all of the images that
I had taken of the sunset and was quite pleased.
The blackened silhouette of the latticed steel bridge
sketched a memorable backdrop for the egg-yoke
orange sun as it floated down through clouds of purple,
red, yellow, orange, pink, and turquoise.
After deciding to have an 8x10 made of the best
shot, I soon realized that what was sharp at 3x5 was
not so sharp when enlarged. What had gone wrong,
I thought to myself? Upon additional reading about
photographing in low-light situations, I discovered
it is always best to have a camera mounted onto a
tripod and use either a self-timer or a cable release
cord to fire the camera. It was not that my photo was
out of focus; it just was not very sharp. My hands had
moved slightly while taking the photo at such a very
slow shutter speed – 1/30th of a second – enough to
cause the photo to look softly versus sharply focused.
We all learn to take better pictures by trial and
error. After that experience I learned that if I wanted
to take sunsets or nighttime photos, I would need to
use a tripod to keep my camera steady. Additionally I
learned to place an interesting object or person into the
empty foreground to add depth; and to include more
of the water in the picture.
Patience; however, was the biggest thing I learned
from my early sunset photo. Years later, patience
paid off in taking the photo of Little Richard. I had to
wait until the right moment when his body language,
facial expression, and the light falling upon him all
cooperated to reveal a special moment in time. For me,
photography’s purpose is to capture special moments
in time or‘frozen actions’ that will stand the test of time
when viewed decades later.
JasonMiccoloJohnson
Hometown: Washington, D.C., North America
www.PasleyPlace.com
202-581-4114
I took my first memorable photo when I was about
14 with a 35mm camera that my father gave me as
a gift. He even showed me how to develop film; that
was a wonderful father-daughter activity. However,the
story surrounding taking my first memorable photo and
the outcome is a Cinderella story.
The story starts with my cat taunting the dog that
lived next door. It was quite exciting for me to watch
her sitting next to the fence while the dog was going
berserk on the other side. Since they amused me, I
took photos of the two.
One day, my cat was sitting on the fence rubbing
noses with the dog. A few seconds later the cat
swatted the dog and ran. Luckily, I managed to get
that episode on film, too. The best of the photos were
several stops overexposed meaning that the bright
parts were effectively all white. So in the darkroom, I
masked the parts of the image that were dark enough
while burning the uncovered parts so they would
become darker. Manipulating the print into a good
image took a lot of patience; the extra work paid off.
I entered the photo into a Scholastic Arts Magazine
contest and won the gold key prize!
Though it was an award-winning photo,there were
things I learned from this experience. Now, I check
my camera settings continuously and position myself
for even light on the subject before getting caught up
in the moment and just snapping away - - especially
when doing pet portraits and catching backyard critters
in action.
In this portrait, which I call Groucho, the cat’s
texture and my eye contact with the animal were
important. Unlike my first memorable shot, this one
was somewhat staged. I put treats in a spot where
I wanted the cat to be and waited patiently until she
looked me in the eye and asked for more. It was
more work than it looks, because without much more
prompting she kept running to me for more treats
instead of staying put. Finally, she figured out that all
of the treats would be placed on the tree and she did
all of her begging in the desired spot.
CamilleMosleyPasley
By Wayne A. Young
Cover photos
by Johnson
Soul Sanctuary, the #1
Christian photography
book in America,
by Johnson.
Cover photo
by Mosley-Pasley