Michael Kenna has very high contrast images. His photography is often taken during dusk or at night with up to 10 hour exposures. I will have agree that the burned in skies in Michael Kenna’s work is gorgeous and works because of that soft hazy effect that is in many of his photographs.

Kim Høltermand does exactly what I hope to do with my own photography. I love the very graphical feel to his more industrial pieces and the dirty texture that the concrete has. The images pull the subject outside of their location, making it generic and recognizable to any location. And I know that Garth doesn’t agree with me, but I absolutely love blown out skies. I feel that they give the image a more bold and graphic feel.

Also, trees because Høltermand does awesome photography outside of his more industrial/architectural work.

http://www.behance.net/Holtermand

Another Iphone app I found! (So you can now stare at my PC keyboard instead of my laptop from my previous post about the instagram.)

Camera Awesome by SmugMug is essentially the same thing as instagram. You take your picture, then you have a list of filters you can choose from. Camera Awesome gives you more variety for your filters (although some you have to pay for). Once you’re satisfied with the result, you’ll probably spend about a minute twiddling your thumbs as you wait for the file to save.

In the end, Camera Awesome gives you more variety of filters then instagram does, but takes a bit more of your time and is less convenient. It lacks the function to post your images onto facebook/twitter with ease. If you’re really going to spend the time on Camera Awesome to create a pretty photo with some pretty filters you might as well bring your fancy camera and throw the image into photoshop.

CGtextures is another great resource that can be used in other mediums. It’s photography specifically taken in mind to be used in 3d models. The images are very accessible to artists looking for texture images to use for their works, “the textures may be used for free in 2D or 3D computer graphics, movies, printed media, computer games and 3D models. When bundled with a 3D model or scene you are allowed to sell it as a package.”I’ve used these images to create texture in a few of my illustrations. The images are very clear and crisp and ranges from anywhere from paper and paint splatters to landscapes and elephants.