The day before I drove to Muir, I traveled to the California Coast just south of Half Moon Bay. I tried to chase the sunset, battling the incoming Marine layer to try and get far enough south to avoid it. I lost that battle, and ended up at San Gregorio Beach, where I grabbed this image. Photomatix and Nik Silver Efex together.
Bessa, Biogon, Fuji color film
Back from my trip to NYC. I didn’t do much posting (in fact, none at all) but did a lot of shooting. Took an Amtrak train from Pittsburgh to NYC (took some images on that leg, all film), then walked around NYC on the day after (took both film and digital), then more walk-around images during the week (all film). On Thursday I visited the Cartier-Bresson exhibit at the MoMA (more on that later).
Also while I was away I received back in the mail some color film images that I sent away for scanning. Above is an image from the Rio trip (the only roll of color film I shot on that trip). Sort of thought it would be appropriate for this first semi-official weekend of summer.
Is it volleyball or soccer?
I don’t know whether these men have dibs on the next match or whether they are just relaxing in the blistering heat with their Cachaça as they debate the skills on exhibit.
I developed three rolls of Tri-X last night from the trip to Rio. ISO 320, Fg7, 12 minutes at 70 degrees. Throughout the next week or so I’ll be posting images from those rolls.
Just as an opening thought in a series of them from this trip, there was something that really came alive for me using the Bessa rangefinder this time. I took only two cameras (the 5D for color work and the Bessa for b&w). I really wanted to limit myself when I was out walking, and just stick to one camera and one focal length. This really forced me to use the Bessa and the 35mm biogon. I had done this in San Francisco, but this trip I really worked it in the street and at the convention we attended.
I don’t quite know how to describe it, but I crossed some kind of threshold with the rangefinder on this trip. I had always liked using it, but the open rangefinder window with the frame lines had never been as comfortable as an SLR finder to me. This time I began to use the ‘outside the frame line’ area to anticipate the shot, which is THE big advantage of that kind of work. Also, as I walked the streets and especially when I wandered the show and the market we visited, the camera just didn’t attract as much attention as the 5D. The difference was really noticeable, and the size just felt better in terms of the actual work of getting the images. The more responsive shutter also started to feel right to me. I quickly looked at the negatives, and saw many images that I was proud of. I only had a few minutes tonight to scan frames, and the image above was frame #4.
On the flight back, I found myself really considering options I had never before, such as a) selling my Canon FD equipment entirely and putting any cash into a 50mm M-mount lens and/or a second M-mount body (Bessa or Zeiss), then b) selling the Nikon F100 w/lenses and doing the same thing, so that my digital system is centered around the Canon 5D w/ EOS lenses and the 35 mm film system is just M-mount bodies and lenses. (The Mamiya system is on a different level and purpose entirely in my mind).
Considering the history I have with the FD system, that I would even think about this is kinda a big deal for me.
This is my last day in Rio, and I had promised myself I would go down onto the beach at dawn to shoot before I left. So, this morning I managed to drag my butt out of bed at 5:15 and walk on the sand. One thing I hadn’t thought of was the humidity; the 5D was in the hotel room and the beach was, well, very humid. Condensation on the lens through me at first, and then I embraced it. These days with color I tend to add a Nik preset to emulate some film emulsion. These images are pretty straight out of the camera.
Just as I reached the beach, before the condensation had evaporated
Not the best image in the world, just wanted to show what it kind of looked like when I arrived
This is later, after the lens had cleared. Those people had been on the beach all night.
Leblon is Rio's old hollywood, the stars live on the hillside
So, today we check out and fly all night to get back home tomorrow by noon. Oh it will be good to be home, I’ll say that.
One of my readers asked me to include more color. The color out of the 5D is beautiful, and the color scans from North Coast equally so. Have no fear, I’ll post more color. Whiie I do love B&W, it is also a space where I’m teaching myself to see tones better, so that’s part of why my concentration has been there over the last year.
Looking East from my hotel
This image has a bit of ‘impressionism’ about it. The lens sharpness (the cheapest Canon 50mm f/1.8) isn’t the best wide open (which this was). It also vignettes, which adds a bit in this case. The teeny tiny point of light on the horizon is, I believe, a tanker in Rio Harbor. This image uses the Nik Color Efex Fuji 160 preset.
Mamiya 645 w/80mm lens
Captured this on the beach in La Jolla with my Mamiya 645e, hand-held (and if you knew who clumsy that beastie can be at times, you’d understand why I added that phrase). Fuji Provia, with the color almost as rendered by the scan (I goosed the Vibrancy +5 to better reproduce the chrome as it appears on the light table to my eye). Great to have medium-format images back.
I had these processed and scanned at North Coast, along with a roll of 120 Velvia and two rolls of 35mm Ektar. The box with the CD and the developed film was waiting for me when I got back from the airport tonight. I’ll post more images from those rolls over the weekend.
Just for kicks, I took the image and loaded it into Nik Silver Efex. The image below is processed in NSE with the ‘underexposed 1 stop’ preset and using the FP4 film type. I also added a u-point towards the bottom of the frame to bring up the exposure there. I’ll be interested to see which of these two you like better.
As above with some Silver Efex thrown in.
Tri-X, Tmax Dev, F100
This image is a bit grainy as it is a tight crop from a larger frame. I followed this guy around on the beach that morning. He took me to all his favorite places.
FTb, Velvia 50 North Coast
Here’s a nice little image of sun and beach on this snowy day. Captured the day Colin and I shot the sunset in Pacific Grove. While my 5D was on the tripod, I walked around with the FTb and the 28mm FD lens, loaded with Velvia 50. The gent had a camera in his hand, capturing close-up images of the rock, or his foot, or something.
It's a little bit weird, I admit
One year ago I began blogging. One year and 176 posts later, this is where I am.
Thanks to all the friends I’ve made and the people who have posted as well as the people who lurk.
Whether my images are good or bad or in-between, I hope at least I’m not boring.
And yeah, for the pixel peepers, this image contains noise in the shadows I couldn’t get rid of. But there’s something about this image for me I just had to post it.
Enjoy
5D and Nik Silver Efex
One of my favorite photographic pastimes is to read posts on APUG and, well, learn more about my craft. For anyone interested in film photography (heck, interested in ANY KIND of photography) the discussions there are amazingly illuminating. Sometimes I even have been known to participate (grin). But I think there is hardly any area of my photographic journey that hasn’t benefitted from my time spent there.
Here we had a discussion a few posts back where I talked about Jay Meisel’s use of the word ‘gesture’ when talking about photography. Ray, who, in case anyone didn’t know, is a very accomplished sculptor (sorry for calling you out, my friend) and has a strong background in the fine arts, mentioned that since Jay comes out of that training, the word made sense.
This morning, while enjoying a rare day of sunshine and balmy temperatures here in Western PA (it might actually hit 50 today) I was reading this post about the intersection of drawing and photography, and how learning to draw a little can make your photography better (hey, Paul L, there’s yet another activity you can pick up! — grin). There, right smack dab in the middle of the discussion, was a post by a photographer who had a background in the arts. The poster’s forum name is ‘bowzart’ and he says:
Your exploring drawing/painting can be nothing but really good, as far as I’m concerned. Nowhere near enough photographers have the spirit to do that, and I think they don’t know what they are missing. There is an added dimension that comes of working with the hands in service to the eye. Photographers can become rather parochial; it often does not serve them well. Experience in other media tends to open the mind; the world gets bigger.
If I can suggest one thing, it would be drawing from the figure in a managed drawing group using models and varied timed poses. Short poses (you use a lot of newsprint fast) help train the eye to discern the important formal/gestural elements quickly. The longer ones enable one to develop a vision that perceives how forms work together and acquire a more subtle understanding of the relationship of surface and form, as well as detail.
The italics and boldface are mine, btw. This gent was trained in drawing/painting and also taught photography on the university level. Needless to say, I really agree with this thought. I think if there is any single area of photography that fascinates me, it would be this connection of photography and drawing, which, while I was in school, I never considered. I viewed them as two separate areas. Very short-sighted of me.
On my last trip, I had dinner with a friend while in SF and mentioned this to him. He is an accomplished filmmaker and worked for a while with David Lynch. When I off-handedly mentioned this connection to him as an area of interest to me, he kinda dismissed its importance (mind, he is a BIG fan of b&w photography and has asked me, when I visit again, to take portraits of his family, which, given his eye, was a great compliment). I was kind of stunned that he wouldn’t see/appreciate that connection, so stunned in fact that when the conversation moved on, I didn’t pursue the topic because I wanted to think this through before I went back to the topic. I still wonder why he hadn’t considered this.
BTW, I am proceeding in my exploration of the DeWolfe book, and some of my b&w images of late have ben consciously trying to apply some of this thought processes. The image above was worked with DeWolfe’s suggestions in mind. Any failures in the image are my, of course.
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