Mathew Brady's photos testify the viciousness of american civil war.

Brady's early photos were daguerreotype, and he won several prizes with his artworks; in the 50's ambrotype arised and launched the albumen print, a photographic paper produced from large negative glasses, used pretty often in the american civil war's photography. In 1859, the parisian photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri spread the "cartes de visite", and these little photos (visit-card sized) became quickly a popular novelty since millions of these pictures were created and sold in the U.S.A. and in Europe.

Brady's efforts to report the american civil war bringing his photography studio directly on the battlefield allowed him to achieve a position in the photography's history. Despite the obvious dangers, the economic risk and his friend's who tried to persuade him to give up, he said:

"I had to go. A spirit in my feet said 'Go,' and I went."

His first conflict's photo was taken at the first battle of Bul Run, where he went so close to the battlefield that he risked of being caught.

He employed Alexander Gardner, James Gardner, Timothy H. O'Sullivan, William Pywell, George N. Barnard, Thomas C. Roche and about other 70 persons and gave to each one a portable camea obscura to take photos of th civil war. Brady remained usually in New York to plan the work of his assistants, he rarely went personally on the battlefields. That was probably caused, at least partially, by the worsening of his eyesight around the 50's.

In 1862 Brady presented an exhibition of pictures of the battle of Antietam, his new york gallery, entitled "The Dead of Antietam". A lot of images portrayed corpses, making this display completely new for the U.S.A.. It was the first time that anyone could see the reality of war(although just in photographs).

During the entire war, Brady spent over 100.000 $ to realize 10.000 prints. He expected the U.S. government to buy ll that pictures at the end of the war, but when the government refused he was forced to sell his studio in New York and to go bankrupt. The Congress secured him 25.000 $ in 1875, bu he remained strongly in debt. Depressed by it's economic position and devastated by his wife's death in 1887, brady became alcoholic and died in misery in the charity ward in new yourk's Presbyterian Hospital, caused by a complication of a tram accident. his funeral was paid by the veteran of the 7th New York Infantry. He is buried in the Congress graveyard in Washington.

The G1 X is quite bulky for a compact fixed-lens digital camera, which is likely to be no surprise to those familiar with G-series cameras. Its size is necessary to accommodate the large sensor and zoom lens to match, but if you're looking for a camera that will let you be much more discrete than when using a full-size DSLR, this might not be the best choice -- instead, you might want to check out Canon's S100 or older S95. Still, it is in fact quite a bit smaller and lighter, and while you won't want to use it to shoot a sporting event or a wedding, it's definitely better than having no large-sensor camera at all. The G1 X includes most of the functionality you'll find in a DSLR, including a dedicated mode dial, full-size hot shoe, and a pop-up flash. What you don't get, however, is a through-the-lens (TTL) viewfinder, so you'll need to make due with the secondary rangefinder-like viewfinder that zooms with the main lens, but displays a preview at a slightly different angle, making framing a bit inaccurate. There's also no manual zoom ring, so you'll need to use motorized zoom instead.

Thanks to the revolution that digital brought in photography, now this hobby is acessible to everyone, because the costs have been considerably lowered compared to the times when film was used.

The first thought of any wannabe  photographer is the choice of his phoographic equipment, because the question "which camera should i buy?" it's one of the Existential doubts that never leave you.

The coming of digital brought with it a great confusion, mostly cause of the deceiving marketing.

I'll start making clear the vital features ofthe different kinds of cameras and i'll try to debunk the commonplaces.

We have to keep in mind what we need from oru camera, what is pushing us to buy it? We need it to take souvenir photo with friends or we have a true passion for photography and we want to make an attempt in this field? Wich photographic genre are we going to practice?

There are different "categories" of cameras, the one we are interested in are:

Compact: Suitable for souvenir photo, they are the camerasfor the "masses", there are many high level models that many professional keep in their pocket butthat can't obviously be compared to a reflex.

Bridge: characterized by a large forcal length. you have to pay attention at your choice because a large focal length involve greater optical compromises.

Micro 4/3 o EVIL (Electronic Viewer Interchangeable Lens): Like the refelx cameras hey present interchangeable lens but they lack the mirror wich reflect the image on the pentaprism and consequently on the optical viewfinder, they have lower performance than the reflex cameras but they are easyer to carry. this kind of cameras it's achieving a fair success and the technology of these system is rising up continously, the sensor's size of this kind of cameras change with the brand. Recently manufacturers decided to change the system name in "new system camera".

Reflex: these are the cameras used by professionals and best amateurs, they present interchangeable lens, a bigger sensor and higher performance than the other kind of cameras we already examined. Who buy this kind of device must be ready to spend a lot of money for photography, the basic lens, usually 18-55mm after some time isn't enough and you feel the need of something better.

If you are just beginning i suggest a middle-level compact camera, with an high forcal length and that give you the chance to use it in a manual mode. In this way you'll have a camera that will allow you to try differend photographic genres and make practice, obviously the quality shall not be very high and in some conditions will show all it's limits. This kind of camera will help you mainly to find out your favorite photographic genre and to discover if photography is your true passion.

I started with a Kodak (bridge) with 5 megapixel and a 12x zoom, i used it for two years, some pictures done with that are still in my gallery, they don't look cheap near those made with the reflex because what really matters is to catch the moment.

Ater a year or two if you want to groe as a photographer you'll sure fell the need of a reflex, a purchase that you can do from the start but with a considerable expense and the risk that the camera could become an object for display.

Translation by Alessandro Amante

The first photo was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 on bitumen of judaea (a material that becomes insoluble in lavender oil after being exposed at light).

The eight hours shutter speed was responsible of causing the impression that the buildings were lighted by the sun from both sides.

Telling the truth this wasn't the first photo taken by Niépce. In 1816 he obtained his first photographic image (which portrayed a corner of its studio) using a paper sheet sensitized, probably, whit silver chloride. However the image couldn't be permanently fixed unlike the "photo" made in 1826 with bitumen of judaea.

Some researchers sustain that the first real photo was taken by Thomas Wedgwood, an englishman, who performed studies on silver nitrate, if true, it would advance the birth of photograpy of about 20 years. 

The first certain photo it's Niépce's one, there aren't any certain Wedgwood's photo, some english texts suggest that he found a way to reproduce images through a photographic process, but that he wasn't capable of fixing them.

Translation by Alessandro Amante

DSLR vs Mirrorless which is better? 

In the first video of season 3 we compare an entry level DSLR - the Nikon D3100 - with a mirrorless camera - the E-P3 to see if there is still a point of having a DSLR.

In this video, Kai and Graham Uden take the V1 out for a test. But of course they both have very different opinions and also different subjects in mind.

I'm back to writing about the importance of social networks for a photographer and how to take advantage of them. Today I want to talk about Twitter and how you can use it to publicize your photographs both nationally and internationally.

Flickr and Twitter when combined together in the right way can become a powerful means to make known their photographic works.

Twitter unlike Facebook allows us to get in touch very easily and quickly with a large number of people who share the same interests, in our case, that of photography.

After that, open a Twitter account using your name, do not need to use special nick if your aim is to promote your photos; you'll be in front of a screen like this picture below (it will be a different background because I have changed it).

Analyze them, starting from our left: the first thing we notice is the name "Fotografia Tweets" which is different from the username "FotografiaBlog", in fact it is the latter that appears in the address of your profile, (mine is my http://twitter.com /#/FotografiaBlog). Just below the user name contains a description of our profile, you put it there during registration and may change at any time; still below you will find the history of your Tweet. In the screen to your right you will find the total number of your tweet, people who followed (Following), those who follow you (Follower) and lists that you have entered.

Now the most important part: go to the settings of your account and go to the Connections, opening another tab in your web browser click on this link: http://manageflitter.com/unfollow-who-unfollowed-me and http://twitterfeed.com/

In a few words you will use manageflitter to remove those who do not follow you or do not meet certain parameters; it is an essential operation if done manually would take a long time.

After enabling these services, I explain how to get so many followers and to promote our photographs found on a Flickr account.

1) Go to your twitter account and copy the address of your RSS feed.

2) Enter the RSS feed that you just copied to your twitterfeed account and connect to your Twitter account.

3) For many Follower is essential to publish information relevant to the niche of people who follow us, and is even more important to publish a good number per day. MC Photography Blog is very helpful because it is the best photography blogs.

Go to twitterfeed and over at the RSS feeds of your photo gallery on Flickr posted this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/McPhotographyBlog

In this way, your account will have the opportunity to be included in the lists I had already talked about above and your photographs will be seen even by those who are not your followers!

4) Now you just have to find other photo fans, use the form on Twitter Search and enter keywords like "Photograph" "Nikon"... and then move to people form, you will find profiles of Twitter, start following the English and their followers.

WARNING: After a while Twitter prevents you from following the other profiles, because a number of Following (ie, people who followed) must match a number of Follower (people who follow you). For example, after following 1000 people, twitter prevents you from continuing to be followed by others and you can do when others follow your followers will almost equates the following, wait a day or two and see how many will follow. Of course it is difficult that all follow the match, those who follow you can delete them with manageflitter and continue to follow people that interest you and that in turn will be interested in your tweets.

This is one of the early strategies for promoting themselves on twitter.

Now it's up to you to learn to use this powerful communications medium. I have almost 6000 Follower with my twitter account on photography http://twitter.com/#!/PhotographyMCB (which I invite you to follow) and I'm reaping the benefits of my work, I hope to be helpful, have a good light!

Fuji X100 vs Leica X1

The Camera Store's Chris Niccolls had a chance to use the very exciting Fujifilm X100 for a day. So he grabbed renowned photographer Tyler Stalman (www.stalman.com) and spent a day in the freezing Alberta cold taking photos. Chris and Tyler check out the innovative hybrid viewfinder, camera controls, and test out the amazing sync speed for flash photography.

Huge thanks to Stephen Lemmer and Sean Chamberlain for enduring the cold to help us out!