Action photography refers to the taking of photographs of moving objects, typically at sports events. Action photography requires a camera shutter speed of at least 1/500 of a second, any slower and the action will be blurred. This implies the use of faster photographic film, generally recommended is 400 ASA or faster film, but this is low resolution and grainy, particularly when photographs are enlarged to A4 size or larger. Modern cameras often try to over rule the photographer with low light warnings, and refuse to operate if the camera believes the light is too low for the shutter speed. A method of avoiding this is to load the camera with 200 or 400 ASA film, but set the camera to a faster film speed, often double that actually loaded. Photographs may be slightly under exposed, but can be lightened after processing.
A long lens is essential for photographing sporting events. 500 mm or even 600 mm being ideal, but 300 mm will often suffice, and the lens needs to be of at least reasonable quality and aperture size, certainly no worse than F5. Camera bodies are least significant. But if using auto focus it can be found that cheaper cameras are too slow to auto focus, and quick manual focusing particularly with a long lens is a highly skilled craft. Research Action Photography
Factory Acts are acts passed for the regulation of factories and similar establishments. In the 18th and 19th century it was considered that women and children were not qualified fully to protect themselves against the strain of competition, and asa result the British legislature passed a series of acts to regulate the conditions of their employment in factories.
The immediate occasion of the first act passed to regulate factory employment in England was the outbreak of an epidemic disease which committed great havoc among the younger persons employed in factories in the district round Manchester at the beginning of the 19th century.
An act was passed in 1802, The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act, in which provision was made for the regular cleansing and ventilation of mills and factories, and also for limiting the hours of work to twelve daily and forbade night work for children, and made provisions for their proper accommodation.
In 1819 an act followed after Robert Owen, an important factory-owner in Scotland, demonstrated that it was possible to improve factory conditions and make profits at the same time, and later campaigned for State reform. This Act prescribed an hour and a half for meals in the course of a working day, and prohibited children under nine years of age being employed in factorywork at all.
Early Factory Acts were not enforced, and as such were impotent. In 1833 the first truly effective Factory Act was passed. This act applied to all textile factories, and stated that no child under the age of nine was to work in a mill; children under the age of 13 were restricted to working no more than nine hours in a day and children between the ages of 13 and 18 were restricted to working no more than 12 hours in a day. The vital feature of this Act was that it was successfully enforced by full-time inspectors, whose job was to see that it was obeyed in the factories.
Various acts were passed up to 1878, when a general factory and Workshop Act was passed, consolidating the previous series of statutes. Another general act was passed in 1901 and since then numerous regulations and acts have been introduced.
The original acts contained general provisions regarding drainage, sanitary conveniences, overcrowding, ventilation, fencing of dangerous machinery, etc. Addressing what we would now term health and safety.
Factories are distinguished from workshops as making use of, originally, steam or other mechanical power. In the 19th century British textile factories the hours of labour for women and young persons (the latter between 14 and 18 years of age) were restricted to 10, but only 6.5 on Saturday and 56 in the week. In 19th century British non-textile factories and workshops the hours permitted were 10.5 per day and 60 per week at most. Children (of 11 to 14 years) were still employed, but not allowed to be employed more than 6.5 hours on any one day. Provision was made for a certain number of annual holidays. Special provisions for particular kinds of factories were made by separate acts, and under these the employment of females and young persons was regulated in bleaching and dyeing works, lace-factories, manufactories of earthenware, Lucifer matches, percussion caps, cartridges, blast-furnaces, copper-mills, forges, foundries, manufactories of machinery, metal, India-rubber, gutta-percha, paper, glass, tobacco, letterpress printing, bookbinding, etc. The factory act of 1895 included laundries. Certain exceptions in regard to working overtime were provided for; thus women could sometimes work 14 hours a day. Before the start of the 20th century there was no direct interference in any of the factory acts with the labour of adult male persons but it was recognised that indirectly the position of the male-labourer was also affected by legislation of this sort, causing some consternation among the factory owners.
The factory acts were among the first employment laws formalised to protect workers, and while they originally sought to protect primarily women and children, during the 20th century they evolved into more general employment laws offering regulation and some protection to all employees, with the employment of children being stopped all together and later men being treated equally with women, an employee being considered a person irrespective of sex. Research Factory Acts
Asa Gray was an American botanist. He was born in 1810 at New York and died in 1888. He was appointed Fisher professor of natural history in Harvard University in 1842, and held the chair until 1873, when he retired from its more active duties. His works include Elements of Botany (published in 1836), A Manual of Botany (1848), and other botanical textbooks; also portions of works on the flora of North America and the Genera Boreali-Americana, a Free Examination of Darwin's Treatise (1861), a volume entitled Darwiniana (1876), etc. Research Asa Gray
Joseph Jefferson was an American comedian. He was born in 1829 at Philadelphia and died in 1905. He achieved a triumph at New York as Asa Trenchard in 'Our American Cousin' in 1858 which however, was surpassed by his role as Rip Van Winkle, first produced in Washington in 1859. Research Joseph Jefferson
Al Jolson (real name Asa Yoelson) was a Lithuanian actor. He was born in 1886 and died in 1950. Al Jolson went to the USA as a child, against his father's wishes, and starred in minstrel shows before becoming a singing star. Warner Brothers decided to star him in their first partly-talking-picture, the 1927 'The Jazz Singer' At the end of the 1930s Al Jolson's film career was over. This and the divorce from his wife, Ruby Keeler, had a negative influence on Al Jolson's health. During the Second World War Al Jolson sung for the American Military Forces like many other entertainers. Research Al Jolson
Photography is the art, and sometimes business, of taking and also sometimes producing and printing photographs.
Early cameras operated upon the principle of allowing light reflected from a subject to fall upon a light-sensitive chemical impregnated plate, later plastic film. These plates or films were then treated with other chemicals to prevent further sensitivity to light, thereby fixing the image which was then printed. Later digital cameras evolved which used electronic light sensors to record the image in a binary digital file on a memory card.
If too much light is allowed in to the camera, the picture will be over exposed, and will look bright and indistinct. If not enough light is allowed in, the picture will be under exposed and will look dark and indistinct. It is less common for photographs to be over exposed, than under exposed.
Light is allowed in to the camera to the photograph plate, film or sensor through a quickly opening and closing door called the shutter. The size of the hole which is revealed by the shutter is known as the aperture, and is measured in F-Stops, such as F1.8, F4.5, F11 etc. Where, confusingly, the larger the F number the smaller the aperture is. Thus, F1.8 is quite a large aperture, and F11 is fairly small. A larger aperture, represented by a smaller F number, lets in more light than a smaller aperture.
The length of time for which the shutter remains open, letting light in through the aperture is often referred to as the shutter speed, and is measured in fractions of a second. Thus, a shutter speed of 500 implies that the aperture will be open for 1/500th of a second, while a shutter speed of 125 implies that the aperture will be open for 1/125th of a second. The longer the aperture remains open, the more light will enter.
How quickly the photographic plate, film or sensor reacts to the light reaching it through the aperture is known as the sensitivity of the plate, film or sensor and is measured in ISO or ASA units. The larger the ISO value, the quicker the plate, film or sensor will react to the light. Thus, a sensitivity of ASA or ISO 100 will react slower than a sensitivity of 200 or 400.
The aperture size, shutter speed and sensitivity, work together to determine the level of exposure that occurs when a picture is taken. Automatic camera settings will set these three values for you, so that the picture is properly exposed, and if it can not be properly exposed, will warn you. However, there are other effects connected with each of these three settings.
The higher the sensitivity of the photographic plate, film or sensor, the more grainy or noisy the photograph will be. Therefore, using the lowest possible sensitivity will give the best possible quality for the photograph. In order to use a low sensitivity, the subject must be as brightly lit as possible. For example a subject in bright sunshine or lit by powerful lamps or the use of a cameraflash gun.
The camera's aperture size governs the depth of the photograph. The smaller the aperture is, the deeper the field of focus. Using a large aperture size will result in only the subject being in focus, objects behind and in front of the subject will be blurred. Using a small aperture will allow objects behind and in front of the subject to also be in focus. The smaller the aperture size, the further behind and in front of the subject objects will remain in focus, and by extension the easier it will be to focus upon the subject.
The most noticeable effect of the shutter speed is in reducing motion blur and camerashake. When holding a camera, particularly one with a long lens every one will quiver their hand to a greater or lesser degree. When using a zoom lens, this quivering or camerashake is much more noticeable than when using a shorter or wider angle lens. If the camera is moved, even slightly while the shutter is open, the picture will be blurred. The more the camera moves while the shutter is open, the more blurring will occur. By using a fast shutter speed, the shutter is open for less time and as such less movement affect the photograph. Similarly, if the subject being photographed moves while the image is being taken, the resulting photograph will be blurred. Using a fast shutter speed of 1/500th of a second or faster enables photographs to be taken of action shots, such as footballers in mid-movement or in the air while heading the ball. The subject's movement being slower than the speed of the shutter opening and closing which appears to freeze the moment in time.
The best way to reduce camerashake is to use a tripod. If you can not use a tripod, try resting the camera on a firm surface, such as a wall, fence post or tree. It can not be over emphasised that using a tripod will result in better photographs as every one quivers ever so slightly when taking photographs. Even activating the shutter release on the camera can slightly jar the camera. To overcome this, many photographers use a camera with automatic frame advance or sequential shooting, whereby after activating the shutter release the camera takes multiple photographs until the shutter release mechanism is released. In this way, three images may be taken automatically, the first and last will often suffer from slight camerashake due to the action of operating the shutter release mechanism, while the second image will not. Research Photography
he Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is a British independent body set up and paid for by the advertising industry to ensure that its system of self-regulation works in the public interest. The ASA must have an independent chairman, who appoints individuals to serve on the council, two- thirds of which must be unconnected with the advertising industry. The ASA maintains close links with central and local government, consumer organizations, and trade associations. All advertising, apart from television and radio commercials, which are dealt with by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), must be legal, decent, honest, and truthful; it must adhere to the British Code of Advertising Practice (BCAP), which provides the rules for all non-broadcast advertising. This applies not only to what it said in an advertisement, but also what is shown. If it is claimed that one bar of chocolate contains 1/2 pint of milk, then the chocolate bar must contain that amount of milk. If the advertisement makes no claim, but shows a 1/2 pint bottle or carton of milk, then the chocolate
must still contain this amount of milk. The ASA controls the contents of advertisements by continuous monitoring of publications and by dealing with complaints from members of the public. Research Advertising Standards Authority
ASA is an abbreviation for Amateur Swimming Association
ASA is an abbreviation for American Standards Association
ASA is an abbreviation for Acetyl Salicylic Acid
ASA is an abbreviation for Advertising Standards Authority
ASA is an abbreviation for Advanced System Architecture
ASA is an abbreviation for American Standards Association
ASA is an abbreviation for Army Security Agency
ASA is an abbreviation for Automatic Spectrum Analyzer Research ASA
Grabetto is an Australian modern farmhouse fresh and natural rind hard cheese made from goat's milk. Grabetto is produced both as a fresh cheese, and aged and sold asa hard cheese. Research Grabetto
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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