Bob's Photography Blog

When two photographers live in the same house, you have to wonder - are they competitive? DUH!  Of course we are!  If you are not aware, my wife is Julie Everhart.  She is an artist in every way!  I support her endeavors and projects completely, as does she mine.  So if we are so supportive, how is it that we say we are competitive? We challenge each other all the time to perform better.  One of our favorite means is through photo competitions.   Gurushots  is an excellent forum where photographers from all over the world compete in themed competitions running for 18 days where the photographers vote in a blind format on the photos of their peers. Four days into a competition themed "From a Distance", you can see that Julie is currently 20 votes ahead of me (although I currently hold one of the top photos in the competition).  She is in 7th place, and I am in 9th place.  This is out of nearly 7000 photographers and over 25,000 phot...

No, this is not some college prank post! 😁  Have you ever wanted to go out and take that perfect shot of the moon, but no matter how hard you try it just doesn't want to work?  Of course you have. We all have!  You even resort to the dreaded "P" mode, and this is what you get... And yet, you know that people are out there getting shots that look something like this... These were taken of the same moon, the same night, within minutes of one and other.  What's the secret?   First off - USE A TRIPOD!  Even though both of these were shot on the same tripod, there's still more. Second item of business is manual mode - across the board.  NO auto-ISO, NO auto-focus, No auto-aperture, and no auto-shutter control.  Yeah, I know - FULL MANUAL?  Absolutely.  And there is more. Third item - get your shutter release and set it up.  If you have live mode, use it.  You are going to be shooting a long exposure, an...

Many people think of photographers for weddings, special events, or even that "Required" family photo.  They think of that book that sits in the hallway closet or maybe even on the coffee table that showcases that special time.  They may even have a large framed print or canvas hanging on the wall over their sofa to honor that individual or group that holds such meaning in their heart.  Is that all there is to photography? Of course not!  Sure, we all see those ads in magazines or online showing that perfect product placement to promote whatever.  We see billboards and newspapers daily - all filled with photos.  Surely that is what photographers do. Sure, some - no, make that most - make their living providing the services mentioned above.  But there can be so much more to photography than that!  My wife, Julie Everhart, and I believe that these are all great ways to make a living as a photographer - they're just not "Our Way". We don...

The worst problem a photographer has, even at a casual level, is finding that ONE photo that you know you have, but can't remember where you put it.  Sound familiar? You can, of course, just dump all your photos into one or even many photo folders, but unless you really think through how you want them organized, that can still be cumbersome.  I just did a quick check, and see that I am currently sitting with 31,020 photos organized that I can cull through in moments to find the image I want.  Check out this screenshot of my "Pictures" folder.  Yes, over 6 TB of photos in almost 600 folders! How quickly could you find that one special photo? There are many schemes that people use to try to organize.  Years ago, I organized my music collection.  OH MY!  Was that ever a nightmare!  Let's just say I really like my music, and have either purchased digital or digitized all my old vinyl.  The project of organizing it took far more time that ...

Our new website has been receiving a lot of attention since it went "Live" just over a week ago!  We have had over 1600 views since that time, and have continued to work on it to improve what we can offer you! As part of that, Julie Everhart has been working very long hours on her Wearable Art and Gift collections.  We debated for some time on incorporating them into our website, but ultimately decided that Fine Art and Photography should include wearable art and other non-traditional forms of our work. So, we are pleased to add another menu selection (as well as a big header post) to link you to the stores on Zazzle and Redbubble.  Julie has been operating these storefronts for over 8 years, and has provided many people with assorted clothing and home goods that can not be found anywhere else. These are all original creations of hers, and we are pleased to present them to you here! Please click on the photo above to see all the various items that are available,...

While many people follow our work on Google+, Facebook, Gurushots, 500px, Flickr, our blogs, and a number of other sights, each one has it's own special crowd.  While we have always linked all of our sites and asked that people check them out, very few actually leave their "Safe Zone" that they feel comfortable in. Julie and I have spent many years creating photographs and artwork, but have never really found the right venue to call home. We created our own website about 2 years ago, but never really got the appearance or functionality that we were looking for.  I even began writing my own site from scratch. You can not imagine the time and effort that we have put into making our online home look and function the way we wanted it to. And now... We are happy to say that From Camera to Wall , our business unit for the sales and marketing of our work, has been totally torn down and rebuilt on a new platform!   SmugMug is a website provider geared specifical...

And the verdict is in!  In December, during all of the year end activities that keeps everyone hopping, Julie Everhart and I both stepped outside our "normal" photography realms and entered a competition that was themed "People in the City".  Having just returned from our trip to the UK, we each entered four photos and decided to see how we would do. . Working for Pounds by Julie Everhart Street Musicians by Bob Blankenship These were their top images by voting, and will be shown in the Berlin Blue Art Show, Berlin, Germany January 20-29th, 2017.  For more information on the exhibition, please click HERE . I think it is worth mentioning again - this is not the type of photography we normally shoot!  After all, that's why I'm writing about it!  5900 Photographers from all over the world competed for a chance to have their photo shown in this exhibit.  Over 20,000 photos vying for a chance to be one of only 400 photos in the entire sho...