You can call it the digital disease of photography or perhaps the death of photography. The reality is that digital has caused a decline in the quality of photography. There are several reasons, one of them being the speed of digital and the resulting lack of thought before the shutter is released. Quick on the draw and not enough careful consideration.This has been a hobby horse of mine for a few years and some have said get off and stop flogging a dead horse. They may be right and maybe a little wrong. But, there is a solution or rather a number of solutions. The one I want to consider is getting back to basics. In most vocations when skills diminish it’s time to get back to basics. This is where the problem lies in digital photography. The bottom line is that in order to learn digital photography you need to learn the basics of photography.There are two things that need to be done then. Get back to the basics or if you haven’t learnt the basics, begin with them. Here is where the big question lies. How do we get back or begin with the basics. The operative word is learning. Learn photography or learn digital photography. Picking up a camera and shooting doesn’t make you a photographer. So what do we do? Acquire the skills. This is much easier said than done.Our current generation is the most fortunate generation as we have the internet and the ability to read, read and read. Again easier said than done. What I would like to suggest is that acquire specific literature i.e. books on photography. The internet is full of them especially electronic downloadable editions. But lets go beyond this and back to the paper books. There are a number I’d consider to be fundamental to any aspiring photographer’s library. So here are a few suggestions:1. The Digital Photography Book by Scott KelbyScott Kelby gives you the simple insider tips pros use. It’s easy to understand and very simple to apply resulting in great photographs.2. Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) by Bryan PetersonExposure and how to use aperture and shutter speed always confused me until I read Bryan Peterson’s book on exposure. A must have book in your library.3. The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Michael FreemanMichael has been around for donkey’s years and handles a subject that every digital photographer needs. Composition. By understanding composition your photographs will improve a hundredfold.4. Learning to See Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography (Updated Edition) by Bryan PetersonFor some of us seeing creatively is a natural ability while with others it’s something we need to learn or acquire. This is one of the best books I have read on creativity in photography.5. Digital Photography Masterclass by Tom AngTom Ang has been around a long time and with this book takes you further along you photographic journey. Great assignments throughout this book. He will take you to a new level.6. Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second by Bryan PetersonThis book is linked with his other one on exposure and helps cement your understanding of how to use your shutter speed.7. Understanding Digital Photography: Techniques for Getting Great Pictures by Bryan PetersonGetting the shot is what it is all about. Bryan gets you thinking before your press the shutter button too quickly and succumb to the disease of digital. If there was a one man solution to this problem it’s Bryan Peterson.These are just some of my favourite authors and photographers who have enhanced my photography dramatically. By going back to the principles of good photographic composition and learning photography and not just digital photography you’ll become a better a more rounded photographer. Don’t allow digital to take you backwards. Take the principles of great photography and apply them to digital. Remember, great photographers take great photos using any medium, digital or film. Keep learning and don’t stop making great images.

The artists later formed their own group, the Society for Traveling and Exhibiting Art. In the late 1800′s, conflict became evident between three art styles, idealism, classicism and Ideological realism. Realism then took center stage up until the late 1900′s. This group would later dedicate their energies to populist themes set in realism.Realism is a painting style that encompasses nature in its natural form. Nature is painted as it is with no objectivity to the stroke of the brush. It is a somewhat conservative art style. The first art paintings depicted in realism were dominated in themes based on the Russian Clergy, landscape and Russian peasantry.18th Century Art: Ideological RealismThe Society for Traveling and Exhibiting Art Organization was known as Peredvizhniki in Russian language. It translates to itinerants or travelers in English. Peredvizhniki was the movement that caused the Russian art to follow realism from the mid eighteen century up to early 1900. Their goal was to enhance social reform and promote national consciousness.Other famous artists that enhanced realism include Isaak Levitan, Mikhail Vrubel, Ivan Aivazovsky, Samuel Adlivankin, Abram Arkhipov, Alexey Venetsianov amongst many other artists. These artists would paint portraits and nature in its true form. The kind of art produced was inspired by everyday life and its occurrences. Some famous paintings of the1800′s include “A Kolkhoz Celebration”, “The Blue Expanse”, “The Year of 1918 in Petrograd” and “Stalin and Voroshirov in the Kremlin” amongst other paintings.19th Century Art: Romanticism and Neoclassicism Art StylesOne artist in particular had a massive impact on Western European influenced art styles restrictions. He helped overturn realism styles and allow appreciation for romanticism and neoclassic styles. He did the famous painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”. His name was Karl Briullov, a master painter of fine art. The painting was done in a neoclassical and Romanticism style.19th Century Art: The Slavic RevivalThe Slavic revival period lasted throughout the late 19th Century. This was a period of revival in Russian national heritage with art acquiring a medieval nature that best represented the Russian culture and way of life. It reintroduced Ideological realism with more symbolism and beauty in the paintings. One noteworthy painter during this period was Victor Vasnetsov. Vasnetsov painted Russia in the Kievan History.21st Century Art: A glimpse into Russian Contemporary ArtContemporary art embraces all things objective. It is not subject to natural rules and goes beyond imagination. It may use abstract objects to portray life and use living things to depict modernization. Contemporary art is modern in all sense of the word. It was born in Russia out of personalizing art and moving away from Stalin’s norms and the soviet culture. During the reign of Stalin, contemporary art was seen as an act of defiance.When Mikhail Gorbachev came into power, the rules changed and contemporary art could be publicly exhibited. He granted artists their freedom and removed all limitations placed by Stalin’s government. The aesthetic gap that had previously divided non-conformists and conformists of art disappeared and both worlds merged their art to create a combined theme of modern art.Contemporary art embraces iconography. This is iconic painting, which has long been in historic art but has been modified to include portraiture fused with spiritual life and mystic tendencies. It ultimately brings art to a completely new level of pluralistic styles that have fused into one major style, the contemporary art style. One example of contemporary art is George Skripnichenko’s painting titled “A Man is the Eyes Good” displayed in the Museum of Contemporary Russian Art.