Chautauqua Institution, located in Chautauqua, NY., offers a weekly morning lecture series on topics of interest to many.

Week Two of their summer program highlights five National Geographic photographers that have worldwide recognition in their photographic fields.

The following photographers will be speaking at the Chautauqua Institution at 10:45 a.m. at the amphitheater.

Annie Griffiths Belt begins the National Geographic lecture week. Belts photography deals with the environment. She tries to hold the wonder of the world and capture it in her photography. She also is involved with fundraising events, which help communities or raise awareness for all to give back to the world.

Wade Davis is known for his strong interest in the environment. He wrote “In Search of One River” which was made into a film.  He also starred in “Grand Canyon Adventures” a movie about Davis and Robert Kennedy Jr., which follows their trip on the Colorado River. Davis, Kennedy and Kennedy’s children took a trip on the Colorado River and their adventure brought to attention environmental issues.

Kobie Boykins, an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will be discussing the challenges and triumphs of mars exploration. In his lecture he will share images, current discoveries and his love for the Mars Exploration Project.

Ronald Johanson has a background in fossil exploration, which included the famous “Lucy” skeleton fossil”. This fossil is unique in the fact is has ape like qualities along with human qualities. Lucy, the 3.2 million year old skeleton is now being displayed throughout museums in United States.

Mattias Klum has dedicated 20years to flora and fauna of Borneo, He is a highly regarded natural history photographer with his work dealing with nature, culture and history. His recent trip to Borneo in 2008 documents the massive damage by man to the lowland rainforests.

Photography has been a way to share culture, history and images otherwise not available to millions of people. This series of lectures will carry you to far away places and make you aware of current environmental issues that shape our world.

If you are unable to catch the lectures tapes are available on their lectures at the Chautauqua Institution Kiosk or through the Chautauqua Institution.

Whether you use a digital camera or a manual 35 mm film camera, Photoshop is a wonderful asset to help correct or add detail to your photographs. If you have a photos with a problem, such as litter or red eye, Photoshop will turn these images into better photographs.

Years ago if you wanted to fix a photo you either had to airbrush the image or use photo-retouching techniques applied with a brush and matching dye. Today we have Photoshop and other programs that can alter a photographic image. These changes may be made in a matter of minutes.

By far Photoshop is the more popular photo editing program, but its also the more expensive. So many photographers have to balance cost versus how much you will use the program. For the weekend photographer you may decide to use a cheaper program or retake the image. For the professional photographer, being able to fix or save an image is a “must” at times.

Using Photoshop is easier with a digital camera where you download the image to the computer and click on your photo-editing program and proceed to work on the image.

With a manual camera, you need to develop the film and get the images onto a computer. This can be achieved by requesting your images be put on a disk when being developed or by scanning the photographic image and adding it to your image file on your computer.

A few of the more common reasons to use photo shop is to crop an image, take out an item from the photograph, fix red eye caused from a flash or even combine two images. Many artists use it to creatively alter an image and turn it into art. And Photoshop is a graphic artists best friend.

Learning how to use Photoshop takes time and patience.

If you have a college close by that offers a photo shop class you may want to sign up. It will save you time and offer shortcuts in learning the program. There are also several books available on the subject and a few excellent you tube videos.

Below is a beginner’s tutorial video from you tube for Photoshop. It is extremely informative but this video is over 50 minutes long so grab a beverage, get comfortable and take notes. This video takes you from opening the program for the first time to explaining and showing you how to alter an image.

Photography has changed much in the last few years and with new cameras and computer programs it continues to change almost daily.

Photoshop will add a new dimension in fixing your photographic image. And having an understanding of what all Photoshop can do for you will make photography more exciting and add to the images you create.