Mark Chen – författare

Finally, here is a photography textbook authored in the 21st century for 21st century audiences.Photography: A 21st Century Practice speaks to the contemporary student who has come of age in the era of digital photography and social media, where every day we collectively take more than a billion photographs. How do aspiring photographers set themselves apart from the smartphone-toting masses? How can an emerging photographic artist push the medium to new ground?The answers provided here are innovative, inclusive, and boundary shattering, thanks to the authors’ framework of the "4Cs": Craft, Composition, Content and Concept. Each is explored in depth, and packaged into a toolbox the photographic student can immediately put into practice. With a firm base in digital imaging, the authors also shed new light on chemical-based photographic processes and address the ways in which new technology is rapidly expanding photographic possibilities.In addition, Photography: A 21st Century Practice features:• 12 case studies from professional practice, featuring established photographic artists and showcasing the techniques, concepts, modes of presentation, and other professional concerns that shape their work.• Over 40 student assignments that transform theory into hands-on experience.• 800 full-color images and 200 illustrations, including photographs by some of the world’s best-known and most exciting emerging photographic artists, and illustrations that make even complex processes and ideas simple to understand.• More than 50 guided inquiries into the nature of photographic art to jump start critical thinking and group discussions.

Wedding photography is a highly competitive and challenging field for any professional photographer. And, as superior digital cameras become available for all to use, many photographers are discovering that their expert talents are sometimes overlooked. Mark Chen, a hugely successful businessman and photographer, shows readers how to succeed in a digital era. 10 projects - of differing levels of complexity and covering different skill sets - are demonstrated in detail, alongside illustrative screen shots. Readers are also encouraged to use practice files.

Pairing photographic creativity with digital-manipulation techniques, this unique manual teaches the use of Photoshop to design artful, distinctive, and compelling wedding albums. Showing that the artistic process need not stop at the click of the shutter, the steps for album creation are detailed reviewing the images, forming a story line, and conveying the tale through well-designed montages. Offering 10 projects with varying levels of complexity and covering diverse skill sets, step-by-step techniques are demonstrated with detailed screen shots--

Preparing wedding photographers to navigate these once-in-a-lifetime events, this resource acknowledges the highly emotional clients, shifts in natural lighting, and changes in location that come with the territory. Showcasing countless techniques for shooting with flash by itself, ambient light alone, or a combination of the two, the chapters provide elegant solutions to an array of potential lighting challenges that can surface on the wedding day. Postproduction remedies using Adobe Camera Raw are also included for those occasions when initial exposures prove insufficient. From selecting the right equipment for a versatile yet streamlined wedding-day kit to making smart adjustments to settings, all bases are covered. Numerous before-and-after images are explored, demonstrating common errors and how to avoid them. A wide variety of practical examples from real weddings round out the book, guiding a tour through challenging scenarios, illustrating the remedies devised, and explaining how they were quickly implemented in order to produce successful portraits.

Building on a professional photographer''s on-the-job experience using the high dynamic range (HDR) imaging technique, which captures an astounding range of tones that far exceeds the native abilities of any camera, this guide shows serious photographers how a more sophisticated approach to HDR can produce images that lack visual pretense, stand the test of time, and realistically capture details that would otherwise elude the photographer. It demonstrates the basic procedure for creating an HDR image step-by-step, then explores progressively more complex and refined techniques that can be applied as the scene dictates or the artist’s personal aesthetic requires. Ample image sequences with plenty of screen shots let the reader follow the entire process through from start to finish. Unique techniques are presented for the treatment of special subjects, ranging from landscapes to still lifes and portraits. Ultimately, the handbook demonstrates that HDR imaging is a powerful tool and the professional photographers who take the time to fully master its potential can mean substantial rewards, both creatively and financially.

The first-ever English translation of the most important masterworks of Chen Style Taiji, as originally published by its grandmaster and senior teacher to today''s masters, Chen ZhaopiChen Zhaopi (1893-1972) is universally recognized as a grandmaster of Chen Style Taiji, an ancient martial art that is the foundation of all Taiji schools. During his lifetime, Chen was lineage successor and teacher to Chen Village''s current generation of senior masters, including Chen Xiaowang, Wang Xi''an, Chen Zhenglei, Zhu Tiancai, and the late Chen Qingzhou. This book is the first-ever English translation of key selections from his seminal 1935 publication, Chen Family Taijiquan Collected Masterworks. Gathered together are Taijiquan''s most important texts dating back to its earliest period of development. These include the writings of its putative creator, Chen Wangting, its reorganizer, Chen Changxing, and the biographies of eminent family members such as Chen Zhongshen. Author and translator Mark Chen''s commentary provides readers with the most complete picture of Taijiquan''s origins, evolution, and theory to date. Also included is a step-by-step, pictorial exposition of Chen Taiji''s "old frame" first form, demonstrated by Chen Zhaopi himself.

Leet Noobs documents, for over 10 months, a group of players in the online game World of Warcraft engaged in a 40-person joint activity known as raiding. Initially, the group was informal, a «family» that wanted to «hang out and have fun.» Before joining, each player had been recognized as expert in the game; within the group they had to adapt their expertise for the new joint task and align themselves to new group goals. Through their shared activity, members successfully established communication and material practices that changed as they had to renegotiate roles and responsibilities with new situations and as the larger gaming community evolved. Players learned to reconfigure their play spaces, enrolling third-party game mods and other resources into their activity. Once-expert players became novices or «noobs» to relearn expert or «leet» gameplay. They became «leet noobs» who needed to reconfigure their expertise for new norms of material practice. Ultimately, these norms also changed what it meant to play World of Warcraft; some group members no longer wanted to just hang out and have fun, and eventually the group died in an online fiery meltdown.