Lisa Cuchara - Create Fine Art Photographs from Historic Places and Rusty Things

DEDICATION

We have been blessed with enormous support from our family and friends, but we could not have become who we are today as people or as photographers without Toms mother, Julia Cuchara, Lisas mother, Sandy Kapela, and MaryLou Vianese, so we would like to dedicate this book to them. We have enjoyed meeting and inspiring so many fellow photographers at our programs, in our classes, and on our workshops.

Copyright 2017 by Lisa Cuchara and Tom Cuchara.

All rights reserved.

All photographs by the authors unless otherwise noted.

Published by:

Amherst Media, Inc.

PO BOX 538

Buffalo, NY 14213

www.AmherstMedia.com

Publisher: Craig Alesse

Senior Editor/Production Manager: Michelle Perkins

Editors: Barbara A. Lynch-Johnt, Beth Alesse

Acquisitions Editor: Harvey Goldstein

Associate Publisher: Kate Neaverth

Editorial Assistance from: Carey A. Miller, Roy Bakos, Jen Sexton-Riley, Rebecca Rudell

Business Manager: Adam Richards

ISBN-13: 978-1-68203-295-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939277

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded or otherwise, without prior written consent from the publisher.

Notice of Disclaimer: The information contained in this book is based on the authors experience and opinions. The author and publisher will not be held liable for the use or misuse of the information in this book.

The materials in this book pertaining to Grand Central Terminal are included with permission of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Amherst Media is not associated with the MTA or Grand Central Terminal.

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CONTENTS

Table of Contents

Lisa and Tom have an infectious love of life, embracing the Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of moments that take your breath away philosophy! They love taking photographs and do so every chance that they get. From UrbEx and HDR to newborns and nature, they appreciate the world around them and embrace the challenge of interpreting what their eyes see and their hearts feel via their photography. They often pre-visualize their photographs, seeing the finished image in their mind, sometimes well before its completion. They are storytellers, seeking to show the beauty of what they see (even in old dilapidated subjects) and depict what they feel through their art.

Lisa is a Professional Photographers of America (PPA) Photographic Craftsman and a New England Camera Club Council (NECCC) Honorary member (HonNEC), and Tom is a NECCC Master member (MNEC). Photographic Craftsman is awarded for service as an orator, author, and mentor and shows that the awardee has gone beyond the creation of images and dedicated their time to moving the industry forward and encouraging education.

The couple has had successful gallery exhibitions and won awards at the local, state, national, and international level. Their photographs have appeared in Adirondack Life, Wild Bird, Birders World and in calendars, and Toms photograph appeared on the cover of the Wolf Conservation Calendar. The couple have presented many photography and post-processing programs, classes, and workshops for numerous photography organizations and clubs. They love to teach and inspire.

Tom and I immensely enjoy photographing and post-processing. We were excited to have been asked to write this book so that we can share our passion for the art of photography with others. We love teaching and are so happy when we see someones eyes light up when viewing the back of their LCD during one of our workshops, or when one of our participants has an aha moment when they master a technique in Photoshop.

In this book, we will share with you our stories and explorations, as well as our equipment and techniques used to create fine art from pieces of history. Photographers need to know about equipment, aperture selection, post-processing, etc., and we will explain those details herein, but we also hope to inspire you to be creative and adventurous. Regardless of your skill level, we hope that the images in this book will ignite your passion for photography so that you are motivated to create visually interesting compositions and tell thought-provoking stories through your images.

Old, historic, grand, dramatic, uniquethose characteristics beckon us in our quest to capture the essence of historic and/or abandoned locations and the beauty in rust and dust. We experience reverence and admiration when standing in front of large manufacturing machines now mute and motionless, or when visiting grand architecture and viewing relics of bygone historical eras. We seek out old, rusty subjects to photograph during our pursuit to capture the beauty in history, decay, and abandonment. We were flattered when one of our workshop participants characterized us as encouraging, patient, and terribly creative people whose energy and passion make you never want to put your camera down.