Does anybody know why everyone's complaining about the price of gas going over 5 dollars a gallon? Soon Apple and AT&T want to charge $70 dollars a month to use your iPhone. Nokia's luxury subsidiary, Vertu, the under-featured, overpriced cellphone which does come in very cool colors sell in the over $5000 range. Now that's expensive and something to complain about. Can people really afford things like this? I did find one on Craig's List for $3,500. Much better. Thought about it and the 3G iPhone seems a better bargain brand new at the Apple store for $199 ($299 for the one you would really want) due out July 11, 2008.

Check out Scott Kelby's website. He has the final results from his, "Top 10 Things You Want Most in the New Version of Photoshop" poll. I still think a reduction in the price of the software should be number one. It didn't make the list.

Make sure you check out Deke McClelland's 101 Photoshop Tips in 5 minutes video below. It's very creative and informative. I can't even imagine how much time went into producing the five minutes of video. Other great stuff at his website at www.deke.com.

Check out the photo taken on 35mm Kodak Kodachrome film by my Dad in the 1950's and 60's. More details and photos to come.

Photograph by Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times

By Robert Lachman
My first thought tonight was to write a post about how using less high-tech gear and simple lighting makes the best photographs. This photo of Pat Marfisi in his Los Angeles hillside garden is a great example of the less-is-more theory. How simple.

Try using a $29 dollar Holga camera. OK that was my idea. That's 120 film meeting a plastic lens with great light. This is photography in the simplest form, no zoom lenses, no autofocus, no aperture priority mode, no custom functions, no white balance, no synching electronic strobe, no motor drive, no shutter speeds and no Adobe Lightroom. Actually the most important thing to remember is windingthe film. It doesn't advance by itself, so it's easy to make a double exposure.

Of course it was the perfect time of day, close to sunset seems to set off this dream-like scene. And, it's the beauty of film. You never know what you're going to get until you see the print. Though today, you don't know what you get until you see the digital pixel scan

I use my Canon Canoscan 8800F flatbed and negative scanner which does a great and fast job of turning the 2 1/4 color negative frame into pixels. The images scanned are perfect. No adjustments. The Holga with it's minor light leak, distortion and flare toward the outside of the image, and of course, the trademark vignetting around the edges for the cool black borders. All free of charge.

The biggest surprise to me, was the response to the photographs and story of the No-Dig Garden in the Los Angeles Times. Such a simple concept with such an amazing response.

Here are a few of the links around the world where it seemed to magically appear:

Apartmenttherapy.com
Rumormillnew.com
Fourwinds.com
Ramshacklesolid.com
Clipmark.com
USA Today.com

It is fun to see my photos whirling around the web. Does it get any bigger than Apartment Therapy and Ramshacklesold dot coms? It did make it in the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant and Newsday sites. Of course, it helps that these papers are all part of our newspaper chain.


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Photography by Robert Lachman

After clicking on my usually 20 to 40 technology or photography websites, I learned about a new one dedicated to Yousuf Karsh thanks to Rob Haggart's, A Photo Editor site. I photographed Karsh in 1988 for my photo column in the Los Angeles Times about his upcoming exhibit in Costa Mesa. What an assignment, photographing the most prolific and well-known portrait photographers in the World. He was so kind and friendly making the shoot go as simple as possible. Karsh died in 2002 and will be featured in a series of Canadian stamps to honor the 100th anniversary of his birth. For more information about Karsh and the stamps check out Canada Post. It seemed to me the perfect time to search through my piles of forgotten black-and-white prints and negatives to find my portraits of Yousuf Karsh.

By ROBERT LACHMAN (From 1988)

One of the problems with being a legend is that oftentimes you're not around to enjoy your celebrated status. Yousuf Karsh is the exception. He has not only outlived many of the rich and famous he has captured through his photography, but still keeps a busy work schedule as he nears his 80th birthday on Dec. 23.

Karsh, rated by most as second only to Ansel Adams, has maintained the enthusiasm for his work when most half his age have burned out. His portraits of such luminaries as Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso and many others have earned Karsh a spot in photographic history.

"Everything in this world I have seen and photographed has given me a thrill and satisfaction," Karsh said. "It's hard work but the aesthetic satisfaction I get from it makes it worth it." Karsh was in Costa Mesa last week to attend a reception in his honor at the Susan Spiritus Gallery. He was also in town to shoot a portrait of one of Orange County's rich and famous, although he declined to say who it was.

"I don't limit my photography to the famous," he said. "I have photographed the steel mill industry, the automotive industry, farmers and all types of the non-famous." However, it's his work with some of the shapers of world opinion that has earned him his reputation. One of the keys to Karsh's success is that he spends a lot of time learning about and getting to know his subject.

Karsh explained that each subject has a unique personality. "You don't have to ask Hemingway about his great safari in Africa because you see evidence of it all around you in his home. If you read one of his books, you realize you are in the presence of a very strong personality."

"You have to have a respect and appreciation of their talent, their role in life, their contribution to the world," he said. "I am at ease regardless of whom I'm with. My contribution as a photographer is that I don't give them any problems. At the same time you have done a great service to humanity and hopefully contributed something for posterity."

Karsh shoots most of his pictures with an 8-by-10-inch view camera. He can get the right shot in just two tries but he usually takes as many as 12. Even at a dozen, it is much fewer than many photographers today whose pictures on a photo shoot can reach into the hundreds.

"Some of my best pictures have been the result of two or three shots," he said. "I wish I could do that every day but it is not always possible to bring that much energy to bear (from the subjects). When I photograph someone, they give me as much time as I need."

Karsh is also very particular about the background in his pictures, although he seldom decides what it will be until meeting the person. "The person has nothing to do (with choosing the background) in my photographs," he said. "When I am there it is my responsibility. You don't ask these people how they would like to be photographed because if you do, you are already lost. That's why you approach them with self-confidence, but you must also not approach anyone unless you know what you want."

Karsh was born in Armenia and his family moved to Canada when he was 16. Shortly thereafter he got a job in his uncle's photo studio before serving an apprenticeship in Boston. At 23, he moved to Ottawa, which is where he now lives. It wasn't until December, 1941, when Churchill came to Ottawa that Karsh shot the picture that would soon change the photographer's life. His reputation as a portrait photographer skyrocketed after that as he gained international acclaim.

Karsh has several people who help him with his photography, including a technician who has worked for him for 37 years. While he no longer does his own printing, he does carefully supervise it along with the developing of his negatives. He checks every print before it leaves his lab. "I get the print I want," he said.
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