Category Archives: Off Street

Black & White, Color, Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Off Street, Photography, Street, Street Photography, Street Presets, Streetshooter, Uncategorized

The Nex 6 and the 35mm 1.4 Nokton

July 9, 2013 streetshooter 2 Comments

Time comes in my photographic life that forces me to do things that I am uneasy with. At this juncture, I need as much support from my cameras as I can get. Yeah, I’m a sensitive shooter. So the time is here again for me to start using a 50mm lens. It’s the issue of seeing that rings the door bell to my vision.

This is a very stressful time for me. I have my vision working fine with what I have and don’t need or want any interruptions to my process. Well, the Yellow Mother, who is actually bankrupt but out of respect for her I remember her name and spread it around because all need to know how important KODAK was and is to the history of what we do.

She called and once again has made me analyze my stuff and seek with tighter eyes a new frame. This happened only 2xs in my past. First was around 1976 when I got the urge to shoot with a 50mm. I bought a nice Single Stroke M3 with a mint 50mm Cron.

I worked about 20 months using that camera forgetting my M4’s and 35mm lenses. I also used the 90mm on occasion as it’s perfect with the M3. I made a beautiful body of work that sold rather well, enough to pay for my first divorce. Then I went to the M4 and Cron or Lux again as I started Large Format again.

Second time was many years later, I guess around 1998 when I wanted to use the 50mm again. I worked feverishly for almost 2 years and did another nice collection of work, enough to pay for my next divorce. At this time, I went totally Deardorff in all sizes and carried an M4 and 35mm Cron in my jacket pocket or on a strap.

My friends Roger and Peter, both extremely wealthy….oh yeah…that wealthy interrupted my 50mm work again by giving me digital cameras….That took off to the point that I am at the Ricoh GR and fighting the 28mm nipple of the camera and I am now on the Nex 6 with the wonderful 35mm 1.4 Nokton. That gives me a 52.5 mm FOV. It’s just what I need for a spell. I compared the 35mm Lux and the Cron and they read more digital to me than the Nokton. I really like the creamy tones and sharpness it gives me. It reminds me very much of my 35mm Lux 1st Version. Anyway, her I am and here I’ll be for a spell…….

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Streetshooter’s Photo Book Sale

July 7, 2013 streetshooter 8 Comments

It’s time for me to sell off my book collection. I have many RARE and COLLECTABLE books that will be sold off.

I will post some in a few days and every few days thereafter. Paypal preffered but open to discussions.

Some titles are:

The Decisive Moment by Bresson…..first edition

Slightly Out Of Focus by Capa …. first edition

Winogrand, Friedlander, etc.

keep your eyes open…………………………

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The Ricoh GR Dances with that Streetshooter Fella in Philly.

July 3, 2013 streetshooter 4 Comments

Funny stuff here in Philly. I wrote the other day how I wasn’t going to do the low chest shots without seeing the screen. Ya know….problem is…I really enjoy that view sometimes for certain subjects. Problem again is that the GR, I’m not allowed to call her Tanya right now because she has an attitude. WTF! How to do an attitude adjustment procedure with a camera?… Right, …..!

So I told her to just work and we can play the silent game until she rethinks whatever is bugging her. I can wait and if she continues, I’ll pull the battery out and well…that’s a great way to silence a camera but my wife with the same name Tanya doesn’t have batteries cause if she did……he he he……..

Color works well with the GR and this is from a preset I whipped up in LR5. I don’t like color but the GR, (nameless at the moment) likes it. That’s why we are arguing so much. She wants to do color and I, well do B&W. She’s a smart camera also. he he he I told her that we do RAW and we could discuss the color b&w issue later in the LightRoom. She said that would not be correct because my INTENT would not be for color. hmmmm……….

So, this shot above is indicative of the Shooters Low Angle Shooting Procedure…….I bent down on one knee like I was tying my shoe. Then as they look at me….Pop goes the weasel. It appears that I may be in a submissive position but really it’s a very defensive position and I am better protected by any idiot that wants to kill or mame me but that doesn’t really happen because it just doesn’t but the GR doesn’t like this way of working but will adapt because I’m the boss because Da Wifey and Da Camera are bosses at home and I need to feel important sometimes but this ain’t it……but I’m still the boss on the street! whoooosh, that was a breath full…..

The point of all this is….when your working the street, you need to be able to improvise in any given situation at any given time. It’s a hard habit to break, this chest/hip shot thing. There are ways to satisfy the image view without falling prey to the lazy way of working. I say this for myself and not for any other shooter working the street.

It’s the 4th of July here in the American Colony. It’s a time for celebration and a joyous time to make memories.

Remenber, things always appear greener on the other side of the fence……..true….it’s because there’s more S**T there to fertilize it.

As you go through out your life, friends, whatever be your goal…….keep your eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole.

in Fond Memory of Dr Murray Banks

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The Ricoh Gr …. Spreads it’s Wings and Learns to FLY …. and teaches me a few things……

July 2, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

It’s been a real ordeal for me to come to terms with the GR. She’s real stubborn and set in her ways, refusing to let me have anything I want even with compromise. I finally explained myself for the last time just a week ago and she, Tanya blatantly ignored my request. I told her for the last time that I will not fight with her or….let her intrude on my vision and work……..!

So I’m checking out my images for the last few years and something starts to come to the front…..

I noticed a pattern of working that made me uneasy. See, I’ve been using cameras on a neck strap and doing that low angle chest, hip shot thing. (not that there’s anything wrong with that)….but I saw many really good images and they were mostly the ones that I handheld the camera and used the screen at eye level or sorts. This is the way I worked for well over….yeah..that long.

So I decided that it’s time to get back to my personal roots and shoot as I see it and not using guesstimation visual procedures not fonding out what I got until later when I feel like a semi-real shooter in front of my computer loaded with that fancy dance lightroom stuff.

Shooter, your off in shooterspaceland……come in for a landing ok…so we can all get the point you’re making….

I looked at the Gr and the GR looked back at me. I said…..Tanya, methinks you got something in your firmware that I need to know about. Tanya said….Look shooter, with all due respect…I’ve been fighting with you for over a month. You keep insisting to wear me on your neckstrap and hang me out in the open against your chest because you think you know everything and you don’t even know hot to talk to me and I’m just a camera and everyone will think your crazy for talking to a camera but what’s that say about me talking to you like I’m supposed too……

(Tanya thinks and talks in run on sentences like I do.) So what the point is…is this! The GR is the first camera in a long time that makes me rethink everything I do photographically. She retaught me to get her up and out so that we can share the visual experience. She like me to use AF and sometimes One Press Snap. She told me to keep off that Snap shooting because it’s to easy.

I guess this is natural if one opens to the energy around him/her…… There’s a new day dawning and I know that I’m now ready to rise to the occasion. The GR has given me new meaning for what I already know and practice but didn’t pay attention to because sometimes I think I know it all and I don’t like to listen to ….uh…now I have 2 Tanya’s to contend with….

It’s a very exciting time for me and I hope for many others also. The GR is a wonderful camera…..just listen to it and don’t force it to try to be what you want….it will help you become what you are meant to be.

RICOH……I am open for endorsements……

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The Ricoh GR …. My UN-Real Reality Check

June 27, 2013 streetshooter 6 Comments

There’s something that happens when you bond with your camera. This is serious poopy…. Ya see, if we have issues with our camera as a tool, then we assume like many that we need to learn the tool to get the desired result. That’s a safe assumption but that also makes way for the reality of our vision. As long as we are learning a camera and how the 2 of us see together, it’s easy to just snap away and not be too concerned about the results. I mean after all….the freaking camera won’t do what I ask it to do and all these crappy images are the cameras fault because I won’t be accountable for my actions……BULL>>>t!

It’s easy to blame the camera or anything but ourselves for faulty image capturing procedures. I mean who wants to be accountable for our stuff? Well, sorry folks…I do and I stand accountable for everything. I don’t blame the camera, computer, darkroom, chemicals, digital chemicals or anything for my failures and also I claim credit for my success, whatever that may be.

Case in point. I’m training 2 cameras at the same time. They are the Ricoh GR and the Nex 6. They both have similar file sizes and output. They are different but the same. We are a trio making our way to the Dream Land of Shooter Images.

Sometimes when I’m on the street working, I feel a longing for my other cameras that have found new friends and or homes. I guess because I’m working the streets that I have worked with many, many different cameras. I try to stay focused on the present but I drift more and more to the other side of reality.

Sometimes as I walk I feel very alone. I feel the camera in my hand and the guilt of not feeling those that passed before us.

I guess in the end, all my photos and all my cameras will outlive me and then the cameras can get together and bid me farewell and maybe even send me to eBay………..

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All in a Dream …. It’s All Just a Dream ….

June 26, 2013 streetshooter 2 Comments

There was a time when I didn’t worry about cameras. I didn’t need a lightmeter because I could see and feel the exposure. I didn’t worry about FOV or focal lengths. I never thought about batteries, USB connections…..All I thought about was just making pictures with one of my M cameras and a 35mm lens. I never thought that I’d ever have to change my organzing of photos. I didn’t care about how heavy my Canon 5D with the 24-105 was.

Geeze, thank the Digital Yellow Mother that time is gone………!

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The Ricoh GR …. To Snap or not to Snap ….That is the Question

June 25, 2013 streetshooter 4 Comments

As most of youse shooters know, I’ve been having issues of sorts with the GR. I think the biggest issue is/was my own expectations. So I decided to abandon the pre-conceptions I have from the Ricoh GRD4 and re-think the Ricoh GR. Probably the biggest reason that shooters respond to the GRD series is the Snap Mode. Yes, the GR has it also.

I have been having issues with the ISO in TAv and this is directly causing a problem in Snap Mode.

So I normally put Fn1 button to toggle AF/Snap. Then Fn2 gets to set the Snap Distance. It’s a very fast way to work but maybe that’s the problem. Maybe just maybe I don’t need to work that fast anymore. I ain’t no rookie out there on the streets. I like to SEE what I’m working on to make a photo. I also want the option to work fast if I need to and also again I might like to hang the camera on a strap around my neck and do chest shots etc. This creates a conundrum of sorts because my mind works faster then the camera because I take meds and the camera doesn’t but should because I think the Ricoh GR has a split personality.

So here’s what I came up with. Now you must understand that if I can’t resolve the issues I have with the GR, it’s gone. Here’s how I am working to resolve some issues.

The camera works best (for me) on TAv mode. I get to set the aperture, to control DOF and the Shutter Speed to control the amount of movement/blur I want in the photo. The camera will choose the ISO out to 25600 but I also get to set EV comp which I hardly ever do but will do because it’s available and Ray and Wouter and Craig and Jorge and…… think it’s a good idea.

At this point I would normally set my f/stop to the desired number to get the DOF I want. Ah hah….here’s the problem. By toggling Fn1, I can use Snap or AF at will. Ok…..but this is a 2 press procedure. I have to press Fn1 to get where I want and then release.

I am now using AF mode with Full Press Snap on. With the GR, the AF is very fast and accurate and the Full Press Snap is also. The difference is….. if I’m using AF because I want to get things focused the way I want and then decide that I have to work fast… I just have to hit the release all the way and BANG…the world of the GR is a safe place again.

This may sound like the obvious solution but as a shooter, we need to find the path of discovery by ourselves. Yeah yeah….bulldinky shooter…get to the darn point again….sheeeesh!

The point is this. In order to use the AF you need to look at the screen. If your looking at the screen and framing the photo, well that’s a great way to work. It’s not the only way but it’s a great way. Many things can happen. You could even face confrontation but you have to deal with these things or you’ll stay on the computer and play video games….yuch!

So now the GR and I are learning to communicate with each other again. I think at some point I’ll feel like a real photographer again. Until that time, about 30 minutes from now, I’ll just keep working to understand myself and my relationship to Tanya….not the camera…my wife…..

It’s freakin’ hot here and I gotta get off the computer….

see ya’s all soon…..

…………………….end transmission……………………………………………………………..shooter out

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Your Cameras, Friends or Tools

June 23, 2013 streetshooter 4 Comments

Here’s how I operate and always did. I’m not saying that this will work for you but I’d be willing to be that it does. There are cameras for any number of reasons to have and hold a camera. I break it down to two.

1st. The camera as a tool. When I was younger and had more body strength and less brains…(Inverse Square Law again).. I used a Canon 5D with all the nice “L” lenses. Yes, I used this camera for anything until one day I said….enough. See I had used many digital cameras but for WORK, this was the TOOL.

When I picked up the 5D, my mind automatically started to think about work and everything that goes along with that word. It’s a great camera and somewhat elegant even but I never found that many images with it for my PERSONAL work. Sure there were some but few and far between.

These photos are not from the 5D, I just wanted to post them so don’t even think about it…….

I made money with the 5D and I did a lot of work including for the Mural Arts Program here in Philly. I felt that I had the perfect tool for the task at hand. I was right.

2nd. The Friend. The camera that is your friend it the one that provides a few things. It makes you think about what your doing and not what it’s doing. (BIG DIFFERENCE). It feels like you are with a buddy, friend, brother, sister etc when you go out together. There is a closeness that can only be felt and not verbally described because it’s more than just a feeling….

When the time is now to go and MAKE images, you get your friend and go to WORK. There’s a difference in the definition of the word WORK. I’m sure you get this. Here we are working for the very essence of our being. Too heavy? No it’s not….

My wife Tanya, not the GR but the GR is named after her because I have to keep peace and harmony in the home front because she takes care of me and keeps me from going overboard and crappy stuff like that so I do her honor as a life partner and name the Ricoh GR after her.

Anyway…I’m back…..when I was working…for money,in business, I would come to the kitchen door and she made me take my shoes off immediately. Then she gave me a pair of soft slippers. Of course a hug follows, maybe a kiss but not too much, we don’t want to start any bad habits….

One day I asked her a question. I asked her why she made me change my shoes to slippers almost immediately. She looked at me ad said…”American’s, you know nothing about life”. When you come into the house, you must change your psychology. Changing your shoes is the start. Leave your work stuff on the job and enjoy being home and with me. Ya know, no one has ever explained anything close to that to me and kept it so simple and direct. Of course now, I don’t question that ritual or others anymore, I just GROK the meaning and live it.

GET TO THE POINT SHOOTER!

When I go to do a shoot for work or business, I pick up my working camera and immediately I am in the frame of mind for the task at hand. My INTENT is clear.

When I go out to do my personal work, I pick up a friend and my INTENT once again is clear. There are a few things to work out here and I’ll explained what I learned and pass it on to you. Take it with a shot, a beer orr lemonade I don’t care just think about the next few things.

GAS is a problem many have and there’s only one cure….depleted bank account…Oh, one more A RUSSIAN WIFE. It’s easier to deal with the bank account then the …well…you get it.

One of the feeding factors for GAS is fining the right camera etc. Is there a cure for that? Heck ya, easy. If you can define the purpose of your cameras then you can find a STOP for GAS. Not a cure but a real reason to not enter the GAS arena.

I am assuming if your reading this that your more serious about your photography than the ones not reading this. Try to arrange your thoughts about your INTENT and what camera leads to that fulfillment.

I have one camera that I consider Transitional and that’s the NEX 6. Oh, hold on…. The Nex is a close trusted friend but I could do work with it because it’s an AZZ kicking camera. All the photos on the post were born from the NEX 6 and the OM 24mm 2.8.

I gotta run cause it’s Russian Tea Time…I must oblige because Tanya watches WWE and she’s learned some good moves and I’m not into loosing a match.

More tomorrow…..later friends……don

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The Ricoh Gr …. Has to Learn From the GRD4!

June 20, 2013 streetshooter 18 Comments

I really like the GR and I want our relationship to go further but I’m not sure. No, I ain’t ditching anything and I’m not talking bad about the camera I’m just expressing what I am missing from my work and I guess the GR.

I like surprises for meals, maybe for friends calling or showing up….., maybe even the surprise of a photo that tells me do it in color…..These things and more mind you are acceptable surprises.

What I don’t like is the surprise that the GR with it’s sense of humor provides because the Ricoh engineers started dancing with the Pentax engineers and so as not to be rude with each other and make a more perfect union in their eyes but not in the users eyes because the camera doesn’t do what we WANT OR NEED it to do creates a surprise that will eventually cost them most Ricoh users because like me they will sell the camera because we doin’ need no sense of humor from our camera when we’re working.

Youse peoples know me….I am very much into my photography and it is my life’s work. Fact it, many of youse all’s are in the same boat. The issue for me is this. I want to be able to set my shutter speed and aperture and TRUST the camera to set the ISO. This has to be done without me being FORCED to look at the screen to guess what the camera is doing.

There is a mode on the camera, GR, that is called TAv. It’s on the mode dial…yeah, that one up there. TAv is almost the perfect mode for any camera but it isn’t yet. Here’s why.

As stated I have shown my preferences for exposure. I always test my cameras so that I know how the ISO will effect the image.

TAv gives us this… We get Shutter Speed and Aperture. We also get EV adjustment. We even get Auto ISO BUTT!!!!!

On the Auto ISO we don’t get to set a limit. I’d like to limit the high ISO to 4000. Ray goes to 6400. I want the option to set that upper limit on the fly…well on the walkabout. The problem is that we can’t set the upper limit on ISO in this mode.

Now I am the first to confess that “The United International Intergalactic Amalgamated Organization of Confederate and Non-Confederate Pixel Peepers” has a hit on me for making photos without due respect to the sensor, ISO, Lens and what the heck whatever it is that they or I do.

I am guilty of per-suing my vision with whatever means available to me to create the image that I see and feel. This means that by all rights, I should not mind the camera destroying my images because I might do it myself anyway by raising the ISO to to the region that no mane has gone before.

I’m damn sure not Cap’t Kirk. I don’t mind throwing the ISO up high but I WANT TO BE IN CONTROL OF THAT!

The GR will shoot the ISO up to 25600. Let me tell ya right here and now. It darn sure ain’t no pretty pictures living up there and that’s from me the guy that, the group is after.

Ray suggested I use A mode and for over a week I have done so. It works…..but not for me. I’m getting to many blurred photos. Don’t even thing about that…… I know what is causing the problem….In A mode I can’t set the Speed.

The thing is this. The GRD4, the best street camera ever published does it like this. In “M” Mode….you set the Shutter Speed, the Aperture and the ISO to Auto. I set the high limit to 3200. I set the camera to say….ohhhh uh…. 1/250 F/5.6…Auto ISO

So no matter what I do, I can just work and not have to look at the screen for those numbers and flashing lights and all kinds of things that distract my mind and create the INTRUSION I will not tolerate in any camera!

The GRD4 will just let you work. Check this out. We know the GRD4 is clean to 800. When I say clean i mean it’s gritty but clean for details. So If I want to, I could adjust my exposure, say speed from 1/250 to 1/1000 and the ISO will push to the max. I know that I want that look for this image aso I have the control in the camera because I trust the camera to do what we as a team set up.

So far, the GR does not do this. I know why too. It’s the new kid on the block. So of course it’s flexing it’s muscles and spreading it’s wings. I started to leave the GR on the shelf with the GRD4 by themselves. See the GRD4 is the MOTHER of the GR and my hopes are that she will teach her, the GR to behave and do what she is capable of doing and leaving her mark in the History of Ricoh.

The White GRD4’s name is Andre’, don’t ask…I think the GRD4 is Bi and that’s ok with me. I’m open minded but my wife Tanya is from Russia so she thinks I’m crazy telling youse that my camera is Bi. She’s very happy that I go to the VA Hospital and talk to the nice Doctors there.

There’s a few threads at DPR and Ricoh Forum that are an interesting read. Many are trying to come up with a workaround but…only the Ricoh/Pentax engineers can do it. I’m told that they are heavily medicated and locked in a room discussing things like firmware….can you imagine….

All kidding aside, this is a major setback for the GR and hopefully it can be resolved.
…..later…..

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The Ricoh GR is a Part of My Work

June 18, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

I don’t really like surprises when I’m working. It actually annoys me and breaks my concentration. Well I was heading to Independence Mall going East on Market Street. I hit 6th Street and the GR, (Tanya from here on) started shaking in my hand. What is it I asked Tanya. Well, ya gotta understand that where I’m standing there’s more Federal Marshall’s, Police and guys dressed in black because this is the location of the Federal Court House. I probably looked stupid standing there talking to my camera let alone calling it’s name Tanya….

Tanya is in my right hand and she’s pulling hard right. Just like a woman, she’s gotta have her way. Ok, I won’t fight anymore. I looked right and low and behold….there’s a poster staring me right in the face and the light is calling to me.

~~~~Shooter come hither Shooter~~~ well, how could I resist, actually how could I not obey. Oh yeah….I love that word OBEY! I’m looking across the street at this little girls eyes and I start to walk over to her. There’s a bench under a roof for the bus stop. I sit down and rest a second and the little girls eyes just pierced my heart to my soul. I sat as I watched people going about their business. The buses came, taxis drove by, cars, firetrucks, police cars and I wondered why no one stopped to read the words on the ad for fighting Cancer. I felt like she was all alone and not a single person cared about her or her plight.

Then a bus slowly started to come into the REFLECTION and I saw the wheels like her eyes and then this man walked right into the frame not even aware of this little girl. Tanya got pissed off and fired a shot. She told me not to put the words in the frame because if people don’t get the message from the little girls eyes…then nothing would ever wake them up anyway…..

So the photo above is going Viral at Flickr because people at Flickr and all the members gotz class….. Below is a shot Ray Sachs made of me the other day …..oh yeah, that’s Tanya around my neck……

Street Photography Chronicles by Don Springer