Weekly Vocab

Zone System:  photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer; a systematic method of precisely defining the relationship between the way they visualize the photographic subject and the final results



Bromoil System: an early photographic process that was very popular with the Pictorialists during the first half of the twentieth century; soft qualities based on the oil print



Photo-Secession:  an early-20th-century movement that promoted photography as a fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular; belief that what was significant about a photograph was not what was in front of the camera but the manipulation of the image by the artist/photographer to achieve his or her subjective vision.

Red Bride

Day in the Life: Prom/Ball 2014

Weekly Vocab

Speed Graphic Camera: commonly called the most famous press camera; a slow camera. Each exposure required the photographer to change the film sheet, focus the camera, cock the shutter, and press the shutter, coining the phrase "Just one more!" since lots of shots were missed




Contax Camera: a brand of camera noted for its technical innovation and wide range of Zeiss lenses, known for their high optical quality. Its final incarnation was a line of 35 mm, medium format, and digital cameras 



Polaroid Spectra: Classic Polaroid camera with a manual flash and self-timer; produces images slightly larger than 600 and SX-70 images.

Top Ten Cal High

Social Issue: Anti-Muslim Discrimination

Weekly Vocab

EXIFF: Exchangeable image file format is a standard that specifies the formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras (including smartphones), scanners and other systems handling image and sound files recorded by digital cameras



TIFF: Tagged Image File Format is a computer file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry and both amateur and professional photographers in general



Geotagged Photography: photograph which is associated with a geographical location by geotagging. Usually this is done by assigning at least a latitude and longitude to the image, and optionally altitude, compass bearing, and direction the camera was pointing

Weekly Vocab

Prime Lens: Either  a photographic lens whose focal length is fixed, as opposed to a zoom lens, or it is the primary lens in a combination lens system.



Wide-Angle Lens:  lens whose focal length is substantially smaller than the focal length of a normal lens for a given film plane; used in architectural, interior and landscape photography where the photographer may not be able to move farther from the scene to photograph it



Calypso Underwater Camera: Conceived by the marine explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, camera operates down to 200 feet / 60 meter below sea level; composed of two black enamelled cast alloy body parts


Through-the-lens metering:  photographic term describing a feature of cameras capable of measuring light levels in a scene through their taking lenses, as opposed to a separate metering window; used to select a proper exposure and control the amount of light emitted by a flash connected to the camera

Weekly Vocab

35 mm film: film commonly used for stills and motion photography with 16-frame standard negative pulldown


Bang Bang Club: Composed of 4 main war photographers working during the final days of apartheid in South Africa, before the first democratic elections in 1994




Zoom Lens: Lens where focal length can be altered while maintaining focus; opposite of a Fixed Focal Length Lens



Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery: Historic art museum located in Washington D.C. as part of the Smithsonian Institution; collections focus on famous American images