Black and White Photography Blog, Vol. I

Been shooting in early (I mean early) morning light and then getting on with the rest of my day which right now involves printing. My Canon 40D continues to make me very happy.

I sold the Canon G9 to a fellow I met through the blog; and as you may have figured, I did sell off the film cameras; so I’m going full steam ahead into digital world again.

Yes, the Leicas, and even the Hexar classic - all gone.

I used the money I got for the German glass to pick up some lenses for the Canon, as well as enough supplies to last me for most of the year, another 2 TB of storage, a hub, more CF cards, and I still have some money left over to pick up the larger wacom tablet I’ve wanted.

I’m just no good at keeping cameras around that I’m not using. I do still have one lone EOS Elan film camera so that I can do infrared film when I’m in the mood.

I guess everyone’s different when it comes to the whole equipment thing. I may buy and sell a lot of equipment (cameras and lenses) over the course of my lifetime - but at the end I’m sure I’ll be left with one camera and one lens.

And did I miss the M bodies as I walked out of the small trading room at B&H? Not at all. In fact, I was happy to let them recirculate. Could I have gotten more money through eBay, yes, but I just wanted to pack ‘em up and get them out of the house. Let somebody get good use from them.

Current shooting equipment: Canon 40D, Sigma 30 F1.4, Canon 20 mm f2.8, Canon 50 mm f1.4.

There might be a connection between the pigeons enjoying cold pizza and getting rid of the film cameras - another form of recirculation I suppose. But I don’t think I’ve ever taken a loss on pizza. Well, I feel nice and light again - ready for my next adventure.

A blur sped by me. I turned, click - and she was gone.

Voices behind me:

Whats he doin’? I dunno. Takin’ a picture of sumthing. I know dat, but what of? I dunno. Oh I know what he’s doin’. What? He’s takin’ reflections. Dat’s what. Ya think? Yeah. Must me reflections he’s takin’ of dose people comin’ out wit dere coffee. Dat’s cool. Hey, mista. Is dat what ya takin’ pictures of? Dose reflections…

Of course I’m stooped on 2nd avenue, pretty much ground level, pointing the dslr gizmo at the puddle and just waiting for people to walk by and hoping for good ripples. My knees hurt after a while and without getting anything great, I stand up, smile at the three people who have been so filled with wonder behind me, and continue on what must seem a mysterious way.

* * * *

One thing about Lightroom. It definitely seems to be funky with large files. I know about the 10K pixel limit, and this was a bit short of that. 9500 pixels (more or less) on the long side. It didn’t preview correctly in the print module. In fact it just showed up as gray. It was a tiff, no layers. I closed Lightroom, and went into photoshop and printed it on the 7800 without a problem. It’s the first bug I’ve run into so far with LR. I suppose there are more that I just haven’t hit yet. That’s why software is numbered 1.x

A conversation with my sister’s friend that I met for the first time. She wanted to find out what sort of things I shot.

I told her: pretty much whatever is around me. I mentioned that sometimes I shot people on the street, sometimes statues in the park. She was listening to me when it struck her that I was photographing people, sometimes without their knowledge, who were complete strangers.

You know, we are in our own worlds sometimes and I’ve been photographing people with or without their awareness for so long that it just seems natural to me; the way an artist might see something, a face, or a table and pull out a sketch pad.

But the idea that I was photographing strangers shocked her and she wanted to know whether I thought it was right - morally right - to photograph people without asking for permission.

I didn’t have a good answer for that. I’m not sure that I ever thought about it. I was always too concerned with technique. How to do it.

Moral? I don’t know. There is a sense that you are doing something forbidden. There is no law against it. It is considered, part of artistic expression. But still - you are taking something - the person’s privacy - without their permission. You can get away with it, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.

Here, I take the baby’s privacy. Is it wrong? I would argue that it is can be seen both ways, depending on the scope of your approach. Not to be cute - but are you looking at the big or small picture.

Small picture involves you and the subject. At this level, a transaction has taken place and it is hard to defend the photographer. Why should a person agree to have their likeness used, even if they are in a public place, to adorn a blog. Have they given their permission by taking the train. By walking the street? No. It’s not a big sin, but at this micro level - it’s not that easy to justify.

At another level, think of what you offer the world with these attempts at art. You can show what the world is like. You can show moments that are funny, that are tragic, that are uplifting. Who knows how you effect the world when you drop a pebble in the water. You don’t own the pebble. You swiped it from the beach owner. But you send a ripple that can meet another ripple and somewhere in the world change happens for the greater good.

Eventually, this will be another one that will go into my imaginary book about street musicians. I say imaginary because I can imagine it, but I don’t seem to be able to do it. In case you wonder, I do spend time with the musicians trying to get “the shot.” I hope that someone interesting will walk into frame; or that I can lower myself and do something with the subway lights; or that God forbid - the musician will actually emote something! It does happen, but I wait for it. And yes, I pay them. Always. And always up front. And usually with a fiver. I sold things on the street and it’s nice to know up front what’s you’re going to get from so-and-so.

I also buy CDs when they’ve got them. I bought two for $20 from the Peruvians today. I spent a long time with them. I put the funny shot up in the blog, but I have some moving ones as well.

I’ll leave the caption to Lester. BTW - they were playing the theme from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

What happened here was that the guy kept saying, two for $20 or $15 each. That was too complicated for the woman, who continued to ask, How much? How much? Eventually - the guy got a bit peeved and this shot happened. And yes, I bought two CDs from them in the middle of this transaction and then stepped back and took this shot.

* * *

Captions: my favorite so far: “19th precinct undercover. Now just move along and keep your musical criticism to yourself.” - Lester

3200 ASA

At least, sometimes the images arrive with titles. That’s usually the toughest part of this business.

Digital Phase II:

I splurged today on:

- WD MyBook 2 TB External Drive (that brings me up to something like 6 TBs of external storage).

- Firewire powered hub (8 sockets)

- 2nd 4 GB CF card (I’ve actually never gone through one card yet in a day)

- 20mm f2.8 Canon USM lens(I’ve owned this before. Not the greatest, but okay).

- 50mm f1.4 Canon USM lens (One of their best)

I looked at, and thought seriously about zooms, but they were either too slow, too big, or too expensive. Frankly, I’m pretty much of a one lens sort of guy. When I got back into shooting - I guess 20 years ago - I walked around with a used Canonet with one fixed lens (I think it was a little shorter than 50mm) - for an entire year. Yes, for an entire year I photographed with one lens and a $90 camera. Some of the shots are even in the for-sale gallery (such as Night Bus). So it’s not that strange that I’ve been shooting with the 30mm since I got the 40D - and now pick up two lenses that are sort of close in terms of focal length. The only time I get a hankering for other lenses is when I want to play with some effect - compression or expansion of space. But very few of these experiments have yielded any gold.

Anyway, I hooked up the 2 TB drive, setup the hub, and spent most of the day rearranging my backup scheme for the production files and the Lightroom catalogs. As many of readers know, this is my second infatuation with digital capture - first one was with the 20D roughly 2 1/2 years ago. This second go-around feels like it will last longer: maybe forever.

Improvements offered with the 40D, and Lightroom may have made this more than an infatuation. Oh, I don’t care anymore - no defense - I’m just doing what I want to.

Here’s the picture show from yesterday: Snow Day

* * *

I created a preset export in Lightroom that creates this jpg from the RAW file. So that’s one more bit of work that I’ve transfered over to LR. Now, I’m going to figure out how the web galleries work. I downloaded paypal templates from LightroomGalleries.com — but I’m just starting to look at them now. I think that with some work, I’ll be able to get a good paypal gallery to suit my needs. One reason, in case your curious, that I want to tackle this is because iViewMedia Pro (where I modified the templates) to make my web galleries — was bought by Microsoft. 1) I’m not eligible for the new MS version upgrade and 2) when I downloaded an early version, it crashed my machine immediately. Anyway, I like the idea of using one program to output everything - because it means that I am only making the modifications to image files once.

Ideally, I make the non-destructive change to the original raw file. From that I can output files at different sizes, and for different purposes.

When we’re young - how many of us can imagine that one day - just getting across the street in a snow storm will be a challenge. That a fall can send us to the hospital with broken bones. I’m afraid that this whole business of getting old has not been carefully thought out by the creator. I know that it’s pretty much the way things work around here - but I’m not happy with it. And please - no remarks about you’re as young as you feel - unless you’re in your eighties. I mean, face it — the whole boomer generation is going to need help getting across puddles soon - no matter what visions of retirement they try to sell you on t.v.

“I’m not tryin’ to cause a big - sensation…

Just talkin’ ’bout my generation…” The Who

(Although I should say - those guys are still going strong; as are the Stones; but I know that one day I’m going to be helping Mick cross the street… And the Stones are going to be wheeled on stage where they will literally become Rolling Stones)

NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINT STORE
2008

Had the big fat flakes; and I was shooting at 1/1000th of a second. When the snow finishes, I’m usually ready to go back home.

Cedar grove.

Had our first real snow today.

Well, at any rate, I’ve been having as much fun as this guy. Sure - 3200 - I haven’t figured out whether to have in-camera NR turned on or off for shots at this ASA. Will have to do a bit more systematic experimentation.

3200 ASA / f1.4

Accordian players from Eastern Europe have the most plaintive sound.