Photography

The Why Of It

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Recently I was asked why portrait photography, or specifically portraits of people in various states of undress. My simple reply is always because I enjoy the challenge of capturing people in different light, angles and unique expressions. The fact that they were in various states of undress was moot. But then I also thought why keep doing it? What else is out there that I can find?

And that was it. I realized that I am again ambitious in my photography.
And curious.
And looking for different.

Different compositions, challenges, locations, adventures, formats and more.

I want to discover something from a new perspective and photograph it. To remember a moment, or document something for all time, or appreciate the subject more. I don’t want posed. I want candid, intentional, deliberate and authentic.

This is the why; a new challenge.

New Focus

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Over the course of capturing portraits for the past twenty years I have met so many good and beautiful people and have been made all the better for it. Recently I have been giving some thought to looking for new photographic challenges and have decided to hang up portrait photography for a bit. Especially the sexy shoots. There are some of those challenges I would like to eventually tackle but am limited not by my imagination but by a lack of studio space and lighting.

Instead, I’d like to focus on street photography and even outdoor photography.

Street photography can be an excellent combination of people and life in an urban setting. Win/win. Outdoor photography will serve my needs for working with lighting and element challenges.

I am pleased with this decision and I’ll admit I am a bit paralyzed here at first wondering where to start. So I’ll just jump right in and do it starting tomorrow. I’ll take my newly purchased Canon 110 pocket camera with black and white film and see what I can find on the streets!

I’ll be redesigning my photography website soon to match this new focus and will add more thoughts here soon.

Penny

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Say hello to Penny, the Pentax K1000 camera with a 50mm prime lens, a 2x teleconverter and flash. So looking forward to loading her up with some new 35mm film and taking her out on a nice day trip.

Creative Rebellion

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“Most of the world seemed to have moved on from film stocks, and the cameras were no more than vintage keepsakes of photography history. I would get strange looks whenever people figured out I was shooting with a film camera. We were seen as a bunch of misfits — or hipsters, as the wretched label came to be. But, the deeper I got into it, the clearly I saw what shooting film meant for those who did: it’s a form of creative rebellion in a world that puts a premium on perfection.“

Upgrade

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Looks like I’m in the market for a new Polaroid. My current is perhaps too old. The lens is scratched and the lighting is unbalanced.

I expect a little bit of surprises but not to the point where the images are almost unviewable.

Drat.


2019-12-15

December Downtown

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Trying out the new black and white 600 film during a photo walk.

2019-12-15
C:Polaroid
F: 600 B&W
A: F8
S: 1/1000
L: Landscape

36

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One roll of film, 36 black & white exposures and one hour to shoot it in. Chasing after light, shadows, textures, shapes and anything else of interest. Memories of a lifetime ago in the high school darkroom came flooding back as I blindly loaded the spent Ilford roll into a spool and tank in the pitch black room. Hand-agitating the negatives for forty minutes was both time consuming and time flew by at the same time. Washing, drying and stretching them out into a contact sheet over the light table and deciding which frames were worthy of enlarging them into prints. The excitement while watching the images appear like magic in the developing solution and the smell of fixer chemicals on my hands as the final images were dried.

I had forgotten this feeling because it had been so long. I promised myself my next visit will be much sooner. I had missed this.

Perfectly Imperfect

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Ever since I switched from film photography to digital (2001) it seems like there was this mad desire to shoot the sharpest, balanced images. New cameras carried newer sensors to help compensate. Shortly after the conversion though, a lot of us played around with digital filters, fake grain and distorted images all in an attempt to emulate film photography.

Ever listen to clear digital music and then long for the hiss and pops of an old vinyl record? Still notice that advertising relies heavy on customer’s nostalgia? Why do so many mobile photography apps try to emulate old film?

What is is about the tiny imperfections that make us want to see more of it? Because somehow they are more tactile than a clean, perfect photograph.

For clients, I want the sharpest, cleanest images possible. But when it comes to my hobby I appreciate and look forward to the unexpected surprises. I love the light leak, the color variation and textures from film photography.