Playing Can Be Creative

The other night I went to the studio of a friend of mine. We are putting on a lighting workshop for a couple of local area camera clubs and we needed figure out what we were going to cover, lighting setups, as well as some other details.

Larry rounded up a couple of models to work with. It was a great time because we got to play with all kinds of lighting arrangements we wanted to try and to figure out what would work out the best at the workshop. If we wanted to try something to see how it looked we could.

We did a lot of "what if we put a light here" or "what about a blue or red gel on the background light" kind of things. It was very refreshing to just mess around with light without the constants of shooting for a client's needs.

We got to play.

My New Favorite Photographer

I like the work of many photographers both old ones and new ones. One of my all time favorites is Edward Weston. This has changed a bit. I had to move Weston over and make room for Vivian Maier.

The work of Vivian Maier, a french woman living in Chicago doing incredible street photography, is worthy of being shown in any great museum in the world. Her work to me is similar to Henri Cartier-Bresson, it has the same kind of "divisive moment" feel to it. I also like that the images were shot using an old TLR and they look to be full frame and in a square format.

Here is a prime example of an extremely talented photographer, working in obscurity, and producing an incredible body work over a long period of time coming to light. Her images were recently discovered by by a guy named John Maloof. Her story is on the blog he has created to feature her photographs. I ran across a link to this blog about a week ago and I subscribed to the RSS feed.

So here is the link to the "Vivian Maier-Her Discovered Work" blog http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

"The Seduction of Potential"

As I have said in the past I am a fan of Brooks Jensen the publisher of Lenswork. His most recent podcast really hit home for me. I really can't add too much more, so here is a link so you can listen for yourself.

"The Seduction of Potential"

What is the Best Camera?

OK so when someone asks you "what is the best camera?"

How you you answer?

This question is impossible to answer without more information, what are they going to use it for, what is their skill level, how much do they want to spend, and so on.

For me the answer is "The best camera is the one in my hands". I know this is a flip answer and it has been made by many other people, but there's a lot of truth in it.

What good is my $8000 DSLR with the most expensive zoom lens possible, sitting in it's camera bag back at my house doing me? What if all I have is the camera in the cell phone in my pocket and the mother ship from Alpha Centari lands 100 feet in front of me in broad daylight, which is the best camera in that case?

I take a camera with me a lot, and I always have my cell phonecamera. Bringing a camera with you as much as possible insures that you won't have the "boy I sure wish I had my camera" experience less often. I know that even if you have your camera with you can still miss capturing that great image, but without it it's a guarantee that you won't get the shot.

So like American Express says "Don't leave home with out it!".

Saint Ansel and the Myth of the Zone System

I am sure I will be crucified for this one, but here goes.

My friend and shooting buddy Steve refers to Ansel Adams as Saint Ansel. I think there are two reasons he does this, one is he is truly a fan of Adams and the other mainly is to piss me off. At least in a friendly way.

Don't get me wrong I like AA's work and if you were to ask most normal people who he was, they could tell you that he was a great photographer. I'll give odds that they probably have seen only one or two of his photographs. He has become larger than life, a cultural icon, a person of mythological proportions.

There are not many other photographers who have achieved that kind of recognition. I am not trying to take anything away from his accomplishments, but I think there are many other photographers who were his contemporaries that don't get the notice that they deserve.

When you put a group of photographers together especially ones who shoot B&W and the conversation turns to photographers, Ansel is generally the first name thrown out. It's sort of like recognising the Beatles and no one else. Rolling stones anyone?

What happen to people like Minor White, Wynn Bullock or dare I say it, Edward Weston. These guys were much more then just a footnote in photographic history, but Adams is the person that the myth was created about. I find this interesting.

We all have our favorites, but I think we need to expand our horizons. It doesn't hurt to look at the work others even if we are not that big a fan just to broaden our scope a bit. We could gain a new perspective on how we look at things.

Then again I could be full of it............

Who Sez Living in The Country is Boring

This past weekend I ran a lighting workshop at an annual photography summer school, put on by SWMCCC. It's held at Hope College in Holland MI.

I got home about 4 PM, put all my stuff away and I was just getting ready to take a shower.
When I heard a loud crack, like the sound made by a large branch breaking. I looked out the window and saw a car in the ditch in front of my neighbor's house. I had my mother in law call 911 and ran out to see who was in the car and to see if anyone was hurt.


When I got there an older man was climbing out on the passenger side of the car. He said he was all right. The air bags had deployed and he had scraped up his hand but otherwise seemed all right.


He said he thought he had fallen asleep. His car had come across the road into the ditch taking out the power pole in front of my neighbor's house. I spent the next the next 30 or so minutes directing traffic to keep other cars from running into the partially downed power line as emergency people and the power company arrived. Before too long I the road was full of plenty of help and so I went up the house and grabbed my camera.

There is excitement even in the country.

Persistance of Vision

I believe that I have a much better eye now then ever before, and it improves the older I get.

I don't mean that my eyesight has improved; I need glasses to read and for closeup work, what I mean is it's how I look at the subjects that I photograph.

Now I notice things that I am sure that I overlooked as a younger person. Sometimes that makes the difference if I trip the shutter or not.

Subtle nuances in lighting, odd things in the background are some of the things I just automatically notice. Most of the time that is.

I all just comes with experience, the more you shoot the better you see.

Your first step is getting past the learning how to use the equipment part. The next step is learning the photographic technique part of the equation. Then when you feel comfortable with those two parts you can concentrate your efforts on learning what makes a good image.

Like most things this all takes time. The more effort and time you put forth the quicker you will improve your vision.

Sparta Fire Deptment. Waterball Contest

Every year the Village of Sparta holds an event they call "Town and Country Days".

Activities start the middle of the week and wind down on Sunday when the have the fire works

display.

There are so many things going on it's hard to decide what to see and do.

This year I made it a point to shoot the fire department waterball competition.

The idea of waterball is to move the big metal ball down to your opponent's side using a fire hose.

The Sparta fire fighters invite other area fire departments to play in the water with them.

It is a lot of fun.