theGardener, by JwS
composed and posted with ecto
9.27.2005
9.25.2005
9.23.2005
9.22.2005
Sites to See
I found two, new to me, blogs today that I found very interesting and impressive. Both the words and the pictures hit home and offered good insights into the art and world of "Street Photography" The first 2point8 has great "lessons" and insight into how to do it! How to work in the streets and with what. Good stuff, please read it when you can. The second is newfacts, a blog by John Brownlow. In addition to being a great photographer, Mr. Brownlow is very big in motion pictures, check him out on imdb. John has an older sight that is also worth reading and looking into, it is pinkheadedbug. Go see all of these, read and look. Thanks to both of the photographers.
composed and posted with ecto
9.21.2005
Faces of Street Photography
I am looking at a lot of Street Photography in an effort to learn and improve my pictures. Looking at the Masters, the Pioneers, as an example; Elliott Erwitt, HCB, Salgado, Mary Ellen Mark, plus countless others and looking at todays photographers, the common element of success, of grabbing the viewer, are the faces and eyes of the people. This is the important feature of the shot.
Street Photography is not about the streets, it is the people in the streets. Their lives, their stories, caught in the blink of an eye, the snick of a shutter,captured in The Decisive Moment. It is said the eyes are the window to the soul. The eyes are the marker of the photograph. The eyes give the picture spirit and life.
To achieve this in a photograph, to make the soul of a photograph, to make it on the move, with no chance of a re-shoot, without apparent effort is very difficult. To photograph strangers in a public space is hard, to get close, to see the eyes, very hard. It takes guts and slyness, it takes friendliness and aloofness. The photographer must be patient and quick, the photographer must be open and stealthy, the photographer must blend in and yet move freely. The photographer must be mindful.
To attempt this time after time with even the feint hope of success requires total photography, work every day, do the work, live the
work, make the pictures. The camera becomes an extension of your arm, the viewfinder your eye. The success of this must come from the photographers heart. There are countless photographers doing really great work that will only be published by themselves on their own web site or on Flickr. They will never see the cover of Time Magazine or the back page of the local weekly.
In the vastness of the Web, these photographers work can be seen only by those seekers and random blog searchers. There is great photography being done because the artist must take the pictures, because the photographer is in the street everyday making their photographers. Thank you, to all of you.
composed and posted with ecto
9.18.2005
Soft Release
I just received my Soft Release from Tom Abrahamsson. Tom builds beautiful and very useful parts for Leica cameras. The Soft Release is a beautifully machined, domed button that screws into the cable release hole in the center of the shutter release. It provides a smooth and clean release of the already superb shutter. On and off for several years I have used the Leica soft release button, the one that is cylindrical and sets up about 1/2 inch. I really like the new Soft Release. There is one unintended consequence to the new button, because of its shape, there seems to be more frames exposed in handling the camera than there would be ordinarily. This can be avoided by not having the shutter cocked, but what is the point ?, what if Elvis or Jimmy hoffa walked by! One must be prepared at all times, film in the camera, shutter cocked, hyper-focal distance set, camera hanging on the wrist! The Street Photographer credo !
Thanks Tom, great stuff, and I look forward to buying the entire catalog.
Thanks Tom, great stuff, and I look forward to buying the entire catalog.
composed and posted with ecto
9.15.2005
9.14.2005
9.12.2005
9.04.2005
...the return
After years in other fields I have started shooting pictures for the Monroe Monitor, the weekly newspaper in my community. It is great fun and I am really enjoying myself. It is wonderful to be back to this kind of work. The shots may be seen here.
[composed and posted with ecto]
Long lens work
Most of my film photography is done on my faithful Leica M6 and the 35mm Summilux, has been for years. Recently I found the 50mm Summicron that my dad had given me years ago. I snapped it into the Leica and it was like I had a telephoto ! A whole new way of seeing ! This particular lens is very old and the aperture ring was very sticky, sooooo I thought I can fix this, I removed the front element and tried to lube the ring, then noticed the iris blades had become dislodged and no longer produced the classic round hole. Damn! After getting a quote to repair the lens and comparing that to ebay, I searched the web for a "Take-apart" or manual. I found a highly recommended book, reserved it at the library, and still think I can fix it myself. I post my progress.
[composed and posted with ecto]
Master Works
After much searching I found a copy of "The Decisive Moment", published by Simon and Schuster in New York and Editions Verve of Paris, in July 1952. This has become an increasingly hard to find book. I live in a small town, Monroe Washington, near Seattle , I received the book through an interlibrary loan from a small town library in Utah. I love libraries, but that is another post.
This was and still is a watershed book. The author, Henri Cartier Bresson, for all intents has become the father of modern photojournalism, a title I'm sure he is horrified to hold. I wanted to read and look at this book again after a long time to absorb and study the photographer that has so influenced my photography. I had read the book long ago, and there is almost constant reference to it on many photography sites that deal in "Street Photography", and 35mm, read Leica photography. We all have seen individual images from the book, but I wanted to see the entire body of work encompassed in the volume. Many of these pictures have become the standard by which others are judged, rightly or wrongly.
I find the insights to be as valuable as the images;
"...Sometimes you light upon the picture in seconds; it might also require hours or days.And to me.
But there is no standard plan, no pattern from which to work.
You must be on the alert with the brain, the eye, the heart; and have a suppleness of body".
"...We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished,
there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again".
"...There is subject in all that takes place in the world, as well as in our personal universe.
We cannot negate subject. It is everywhere. So we must be lucid toward what is going
on the world, and honest about what we feel".
"...There is a lot of talk about camera angles; but the only valid angles in existence are the angles
of the geometry of composition and not the ones fabricated by the photographer who falls
flat on his stomach or performs other antics to procure his effects".
"...Black and white photography is a deformation, that is to say an abstraction. In it, all the values
are transposed; and this leaves the possibility of choice.
"...Technique is important only insofar as you must master it in order to communicate what you see.
Your own personal technique has to be created and adapted solely in order to make your vision
effective on film".
"...To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance
of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression".
composed and posted with ecto
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)