You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.
– Ansel Adams
These are the two basic controls at the photographer’s command: position and timing. All others are extensions, peripheral ones, compared to them
– David Hurn
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
You want a horribly colored photo? Stick me in a room with incandescent lighting, and beige walls, and beige furniture. No matter how much I mess with the white balance, I can never quite get it right, under those conditions.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
While overall, I can be drawn to a photo for many reasons, there are some obvious trends in my favorite photos (taken by other photographers); as seen by looking at my favorites on Flickr.
Many of the Japanese photographers in my Flickr list have similarities in style. It’s a soft-focus, high-contrast style; often in black and white. It conveys an intense and intimate atmosphere. Bokeh is big; or at the very least, a short depth of field. Some of my favorite Chinese photographers are similar, but often with a deep, sharp focus, instead of the shallow soft of the Japanese.
Just Lost by Jon Siegel
Untitled by Junku Nishimura
Shooter by Tetsuya “Blues” Kusuyama
Other notables include Fabrizio Quagliuso and Tommy Oshima.
You pick up a camera. You walk out into public by yourself; or with a friend or two. And you take pictures of other people, other places, and their stuff. It’s very hard for most people, because not only are you outside of your own comfort zone, but you’re invading other people’s. You might be capturing beautiful pictures. You might be documenting the every day around you. You might be telling stories and sharing moments. But it’s all coming from the public around you with minimal staging and equipment.
naomi klien by Ronnie Yip
Untitled by Sara Flemming
West Thirty-seventh Street by Joe Holmes, (in my opinion, the King of street photographers)
Pro ERA demo, Washington DC, 1981 by Marcelo Montecino
(Ironically, I had a hard time finding sample of “street photography” on Flickr that I could use. These people whose livelihood as photographers relies on an open, public space, had all locked down their photos and disallowed uses like this entry. Don’t share with me? I won’t share my audience with you.)
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Just had another photo chosen as Photo of the Day on DCist. And immediately — and not for the first time — received some comments about photoshopping.
I adjust things like the lightness and darkness and sharpness. In that sense, yes it’s photoshopped. But these are the same things photographers have been doing in the darkroom since the beginning. (Ansel Adams was probably better known for his darkroom work than his picture taking). But I don’t add or subtract actual items in the photo.
Occasionally I play around with things like cross-processing and vignettes and such, for artistic effect. But I never promised you an unadulterated photo. I promised you an interesting photo. Photographer Clayton Cubitt had a quote something to the effect that “When he photographs something, he kills it. He has to adjust the image to give it back the life as he originally saw it.”
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Looking for people who’d like to participate in a (hopefully) fun project; writing a short piece — in any style — about a provided photo. To learn more, visit http://strangeday.net/projects/faces/faces.html
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
I’ve posted a collection from my most recent photoshoot: http://strangeday.net/shoots/rachel/
Sample:
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
If you’re a close friend, and want to share a photo I took, for non-commercial use, by all means do it. You don’t have to ask. But I would appreciate a photo credit.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
So I was recently in a photo show, at the Washington School of Photography. (I’m not a student, but it was an open call for entries). The theme of the show was “faces”… specifically human faces. I only had 1 day’s notice to select photos and mail them in, but 2 out of my 4 submissions were chosen for the show.
I’d been waiting until after the show opened to display the chosen images. One is old, and one is new to most people.
So what did I think of the show? Eh. I was kind of hoping… or expecting, that since it was hosted by a photo school, and in a city with so many photographers, that I was going to be lucky to get into a show and have my work surrounded by pieces much better than mine. That people would have wonderful concepts, or capture special moments, or show amazing skill. But I didn’t really see much of that. At least half the shots were travel photos, captured in the moment, and not with any great eye. Then there were some generic portraits. The only one I would have called ‘conceptual’ didn’t even have a face in it, implied or otherwise. And listening to the judge speak, it sounded like she made her selections on the way out the door to lunch.
I liked being in the show. I have heard good things about their other shows. So maybe it was just an unfortunate series of events.
I don’t think the photos have sold. If you’re interested in either, they’re both professionally framed.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
I just posted my annual collection of photos, for 2009. (Yes… a little late). Same as always: It’s a collection of photos I took last year. The criteria for inclusion is subjective. Some I liked for technical reasons. Some for aesthetic reasons. Some were important events or people, (or cats). Some… I just felt should be in there. They’re not the best of the best… they’re just 2009.
In past years, I’ve felt like I didn’t do much. But towards the end of last year, going through my archives, I was reminded of how much had gone on, and with who. Flipping through these photos made me very happy.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
by Lung S. Liu
In no particular order… There’s a wide range of tones here, from deep black to not-quite-blown-out-whites. And the overall tones are evenly distributed. The depth of field is very nicely handled. The subjects are sharp, and really pop out against a silky background. The stairs not only provide a nice place to watch the progression of the DOF, but the diminishing perspective on them leads my eye up to the faces. While they both bend at most of their joints (see past reviews), you have one more solid and upright, while the other folds in on herself and relies on her partner for balance. It’s a casual photo, in everything from the body postures, to the tree-diffused lighting, to the open door in the background. The poses do compliment each-other. The light on the main subjects is so perfect, I wonder if a reflector or flash was used. It’s a posed photo, but you get the feeling that it’s a very authentic moment. And as always, I like that the situation feels lived in. Leaves and dirt on the stairs. It’s not all pristine and new. And the people are reasonably framed — with the heads near the top of the image. And the stairs are given space to finish up. They’re such a strong directional line, that it would have been awkward if they had been cut off any sooner.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Whenever anyone asks me how I got the photographs I did, why I was often the only photographer present or got such unique access I reply simply, ‘Trust’.
– Jim Marshall
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
A good general rule of thumb for photography in DC:
“Get Closer”
It appears to be an almost universal impulse for tourists to stop when they see a famous building in DC, and take a picture or have their picture taken in front of it. And by in front of it, I mean 5 blocks away. So many people stop halfway down the mall, to take pictures of the Capitol building.
Stop it.
Get closer.
On an average camera with an average lens, you can literally be on the grass in front of the capitol before you fill the frame. And no one is going to be impressed by a photo of the White House taken from Scott Circle, 6 blocks away.
Get closer.
Combine this with the whole “stop centering people’s heads in your photos”, and you can actually get quite a lot in your pictures.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Often when I’m walking the streets at night, after being out with friends, (or while still in the act), I really have this urge to just wander and take pictures. Cities take on this whole new life at 2 or 3 AM on Fridays and Saturdays. Crowds fill the street like it was rush hour. And cars line up from corner to corner.People are loud and boisterous. Instant connections are made that last 30 seconds. The police can be seen around the edges, not so much strictly enforcing the law as encouraging people to keep the mal-drama to a minimum.
Sounds to me like the perfect place to take pictures.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
It’s come up in several discussions with friends that they don’t always bring their cameras into questionable areas, or places they could get damaged. It’s reasonable. But for myself, my choice was always to bring the camera just about anywhere. I’d rather run the risk — especially since these are often the more interesting situations — and get some great shots. Cameras can be repaired, but moments can’t be relived.
Though honestly I wasn’t too worried about having my camera out in a nice hotel room in downtown Atlanta. But even so, while at Dragon*Con, a rather large, solid, intoxicated man landed on me, and knocked my camera to the ground.
A 3 month old lens. Ultra-wide angle, so not exactly cheap. By the next morning, when I went to pick up the camera, I noticed the lens body separating into two pieces. And it’s been getting slowly worse ever since. As of this afternoon, the auto-anything was dead. I couldn’t zoom, and it was still sagging.
Took it into Penn. $150 estimated repair, though that’s just their average for this kind of lens. 4 to 6 weeks wait. And even then, I won’t be surprised if it’s not salvageable.
Eh. I’m not really too upset. I did get plenty of wonderful shots that night with the lens. And none of the damage was intentional. Even in his drunken state, the first thing the guy worried about was wether he’d damaged the camera. It sucks, but life goes on.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
So I was in a fairly bad mood by the end of the photoshoot this weekend. Normally on these shoots I worry about many things, and they always turn out much better than I expected. But in this case, to one extent or another, every concern I had expressed in the previous months came true. And that’s about as specific as I’ll get about that. So I went home and fell asleep on the couch because I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone.
When I woke up the next morning, I realized I had spent the day taking pictures like the one below. And no matter what was bad, it still beats sitting at home, playing video games or something.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
I get a lot of benefit out of continually learning how to use my tools better. Today’s example:
I recently watched some tutorials by photographers using Lightroom. Picked up a few things I didn’t know. And because of it, discovered a few other variations that were even better. I knew this stuff in Photoshop, from back in college. But — as is the point — Lightroom has a much better interface for doing it.
Here’s the original RAW photo, from the recent shoot with Lea. Blown out, yadda yadda yadda. Won’t bother going into why it is this way… but it just is. A lot of missing details, though you could tell it was a beautiful look.
Thankfully, by shooting in RAW format, you preserve a lot of information that would have been lost in a JPEG. I lowered the exposure, and recovered a lot of detail. Still a bit light, but much better. Really pushed it, though. To the point where the boundary on the face between the light and dark has gone slightly yellow. But still a stunning woman.
After watching the Lightroom videos, I have been moving away from strictly relying on the exposure/black/fill sliders for color correction, and relying more heavily on various features of the Curves. It gives me much greater control over individual light levels in the photo. Transitions are much smoother. More details are preserved. And as I said, the interface to do all this is very intuitive.
I think this last photo is the best so far.
This — of course — is also why I tend to be so reluctant to pursue photography professionally. While I often think “These are some great photos”, somewhere down the line, I almost always look back and think “gawd… I am SO much better than I was when I did THAT!”.
EDIT:
Okay… this is what happens when you don’t proof on multiple monitors. New version, without the gray. (Thanks, Jenny)
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Strange.
I tried copying some photos off a CF card I haven’t used in a while. This card has never been used with the newer card reader. No matter what I did, it wouldn’t show up. Then I noticed a “hot” smell, and when I went to pull the card out of the reader, it burned my fingers. It had been in there off any on for less than a minute total.
Works fine in the old card reader. No heat.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Picked up a new toy, this week. Well, I picked up several, but this one is my favorite so far — a new camera strap.
The old strap — from Epic Software — itself was holding up fine. But the connectors for attaching it to the camera were failing one-by-one. The smallest leather straps actually snapped less than a week after I got the strap. But not big loss. I just merged a couple of the metal bits. But in the last month or so, the larger leather straps have been failing as well. One is already gone. And while I CAN again just merge a couple metals connectors, I lose the capability for the strap to swivel, so it inevitably becomes twisted. And the last leather connector gets worse every day. Every time I grab the camera out of the bag, I cringe and wait for it to snap.
And even if I was willing to live with that, because I’m now down to metal bits connecting the strap to the camera, it has been scratching the hell out of my camera body. While I’ve never been one to baby my equipment, I don’t feel the need to purposely deface it either.
Older cameras just had small swivel points with just a single small hole in them for mounting a strap. So ring connectors made sense. But newer cameras almost universally have slots for attaching straps. These nylon strap connections are less damaging, more flexible, and usually last longer.
But since I had neither the thin straps nor the sewing machine to attach them, I just went looking for a new strap. Can’t stand the straps you find at most camera stores or online shops. They’re all either flat black straps, or the come with the manufacture’s name emblazoned on them in bright, bold 150pt type. But almost no one makes more interesting straps. Epic’s straps were great looking… very retro. But I wasn’t interested in going through the same problems again. A little searching, though, and I finally found My Funky Camera. A woman who apparently buys the parts and makes her own straps — neck or wrist. Thy sounded pretty good, and I found some good reviews online. Her website is a bit lacking in details, but I figured it was worth the minor risk. My order arrived yesterday. Initial impression: I was impressed. It was actually made of much sturdier material than I expected. And it did indeed have the nylon attaching straps. I’m dubious about how long the extra neck padding will last, but it looks good right now, and could be easily removed later. It fit easily only to the camera. It looks great. I have a shoot tomorrow, and a major trip coming up in a couple weeks, so I will be putting it though it’s paces.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
While looking at pictures of a photographer who recently died, I notice in dozens of photos, he is never holding a camera. Old pictures of photographers… say… 1800s through approximately 1960s, when you saw a “candid” picture of a photographer, they had a camera in their hands or in front of them. But now? Not so much.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Playing with some TTV photography, today. (Taking pictures with a modern camera through the viewfinder of an antique box camera.) In this case, sitting on the fountain in Dupont Circle. Click the image for bigger.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!