Category Archives: Off Street

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

August 16th, 2014 … Fuji X100s … Observations from Philly Streets … Or Zone Focus Tip

August 16, 2014 streetshooter 6 Comments

So I guess I have to continue working because Andre’ the Fuji X100s told me to get off my darn azz and get to work. So we went down town on Market street like we did a million times, who’s counting?
I guess it don’t matter. I mean, I’m not trying to find any photos. I’m not seeking magic. I’m not really doing anything but trying to find pieces of my soul.

Well, maybe that’s fine and dandy for me but Andre’ the Fuji X100s had a different idea. He says to me….”Go and sit down, we need to have a chat and you can’t walk and talk at the same time”. He continues as soo, “look, I like working with you, your a good kid… who likes kids? We need to expand the image rights so that we share the credit and responsibility equally. I’ll let you do a little more cause I don’t want to hurt your feelings but your firmware is like from the 60’s dude.

Ya know, you always write about how the camera works for you in different scenarios but let me tell you something young man. I’m preparing a series of post about how you work with me. It’s no longer a one way street.

So, here’s what we are doing today and I’m not asking, I am really telling you what to do. Maybe you brain goes on vacation but mine doesn’t… not at all.

I want you to try to use your mind and just hear me out. We are going to explore the DOF potential as applied to street shooting. Now I know your some kinda Streetshooter and you know what your doing, we all know that but you don’t really have a clue as to what I’m doing.”

Well, I dunno if’n youse talk with yer camera and maybe you do. The thing is this. It’s ok to talk to your camera. It’s even ok to have your camera talk to you. as long as you know it’s the camera talking to you, it’s ok, if you think it’s someone elsse… my DR has an open appt next Wed at 1300EST.

So, now that we are clear on the talking with camera procedures, let’s get on with this.

The X100s has a very well designed Focus Scale. The DOF scale….eh, needs garlic.

Here’s a table from DOF Master that makes sense on the street…….

The focus distance stays at 10′ and Set the camera to MF. This way you have control of the Focus Scale.

F/4 6.86 – 18.4

F/5.6 6.07 – 28.3

F/8 5.22 – 118

F/11 4.36 – Infinity

Who the heck needs that F/16 thing?

So at a focus distance of 10′ now we see the Zone of Focus and adjusting exposure we can apply this scale at anytime to get a real fast working camera. Now I love my Fuji X100s named Andre’ and I don’t wanna hurt his feelings but isn’t this a system of Zone Focus? Of course it is but now you have something to work on. Try making the scale for 7′ also and whatever turns you on. I prefer the AF on theis camera but all the photos in this post are with Zone Focus at 10′.

It’s Saturday and I’m taking Andre’ and Tanya out for the day. Notice Andre’ is first. See Andre’ reads my blog and is a subscriber and even buys the presets but Tanya, she couldn’t care less………

end transmission………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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

August 13th, 2014 … Fuji X100s … Observations On A Walkabout

August 13, 2014 streetshooter 11 Comments

Ya know, if ya ever been on a walkabout, well it’s the perfect time to do some observing. Better yet, have a camera at the ready and your good to go. Now I understand that not everybody from every country gets to do a walkabout but if ya have friends from OZ, well your qualified to be a walkabout camera toting shooter.

Don’t get this wrong, that Wouter fella is a Stroller. Word here in NE Philly is that Wouter invented the strolling procedures for shooters. It has caught on to millions and millions of photographers and other kinds of walking peoples, imagine that.

Sometimes when I’m on a walkabout, I think in terms of B&W and other times, not many but it does happen, Color. What does this have to do with the Fuji X100s? Good question and here’s the nitty gritty answer. The Fuji X100s can make either a B&W or a Color photo. I know, I know, hard to believe but it’s true. I hear tell other cameras can do this too but I an’t never seen one do it so I don’t believe it.

It should be obvious to you that my brain is on vacation and that’s why I’m posting like this. Sometimes we need to et the brain go on vacation because we start to over think what we are doing and how we are doing it and why we are doing what we are doing the way we are doing it. It can be a good thing to work without too much thinking. Luckily the Fuji X100s allows this non-thinking method of working because the engineers at Fuji thought about the thinkers and non thinkers using this camera.

Because of this thought out fact from the thinking and non thinking engineers at Fuji, we have a camera that doesn’t interfere with our work whether we are thinking or not thinking, the camera just works and does what it is supposed to do about what we want it to do and what we think it should do.

Sometimes there is negative energy on the street and some one may not like me making photos of their storefront and after they learn that I have the right to do so and now she understands, I make a photo of her and that’s that. I don’t bully anyone but I never run from confrontation. If she didn’t yell at me and call me an old man, well I would have remained the Proper Gentleman that I aspire to be but yelling at me and making empty threats… well…CLICK!

It’s an interesting thing this Life Photography is. I find it most satisfying and I will attempt to do it again tomorrow.

Peace be with you and always believe in what you do and who you are…………….if you don’t how can you expect other to…….

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

August 6th, 2014 … Fuji X100s Proves Jimi Hendrix Wrong (more ramblings from the street)

August 6, 2014 streetshooter 34 Comments

Now we all know that Jimi had many things right. I mean a generation of people learned a new and brilliant way of thinking. Well, Jimi said one thing that I find as an untruth. “….ain’t no life nowhere….”. Well, here in Philly with Andre’ the Fuji X100s, if you look around “….there’s life everywhere….”.

When I was younger and had more innocence, hmmmmmm well innocence for sure, I would see the world as interesting place photographically. I adopted a premise for my work while in VietNam. See, I was surrounded by life of all forms but in a fraction of a second, the world was transformed to a place where nightmares are real and not dreams, friends I talked with and ate with and smokes with were no longer a part of this world and now they would be memories that would haunt me to my elderly age and still live inside my soul and mind.

The point of this is, that as many are taught to “See as if seeing for the first time”. There’s such a beautiful innocence in that statement and method of working, seeing.

I envy those that can live in a world like that and make photos.

For me it’s a different approach. I have no choice in how I work. I don’t want a choice either. I am doing everything wrong in my work and because of that, I am doing everything right in my work. I don’t ask opinions about my work and I don’t want or need them either. This work is my death, not yours.

For me, I works as if…”seeing something for the last time….”.

What’s the Fuji X100s have to do with all this? Think about it and then come back and continue reading. If I feel this way about my work, I need a camera that feels that way to. Ok, so the camera might not feel but it should let me feel, right. Well, that’s what Andre’ the Fuji X100s has to do with this. Andre’ lets me experience and photograph life as if I will never see the subject again. Try as hard as you will, you will never see the subject the exact same as you do right now. All things change in the blink of an eye or the beat of a heart.

Sound like sentimental bullshit. Ok, go look at photos of you family that passed on. I’ll wait for a min……………………………………………….. C’mon, dry the tears, we all have that emotional feeling for the lost moment. We all lost friends, family, pets, everything we get attached to or not attached to.

The assumption of seeing for the first time means that we can be arrogant enough in our work to think we have a power that if we blow the photo this first time, we can always get another later, better and more important… yeah, it’ll be better next time around.

I wish I had THE LORD tell me that my time is going to run for many, many decades and all be healthy years. I could go thru life not worrying about anything, not paying attention to anything around me and then the process of making photos would be different.

I do pray every night. I don’t pray for more time, more money, isn’t that being selfish? My prayers are my business but the point again is, I never got those messages from THE LORD or anyone else for that matter. So I figure that my time on the planet will run out someday I know this, I am ready but not yet. Doesn’t it make sense for me to make photos that are kinda like memories.?

So, If I photograph as if I’m seeing something for the last time, then when I look at the photos, they will have almost a private loneliness about them. lonely becaue I miss that moment right now and I will always miss that moment.

I wonder if that moment will miss me?

So I decided this summer I would just make photos because I can and because I want to. That’s what I’m doing and I’m doing most with my FujiX100s because that camera is a gas to work with. This of course doesn’t mean I can get away with bullshit because I can’t. I won’t let myself anyway. I will let myself work in a manner that pleases my soul and my heart.

Sometimes I wish I was the shooter that hated the camera being used. I mean, “this damn Leica, Nikon, Canon, Olympus camera never does what it’s supposed to do. I can’t get a shot right with this crappy camera.

Man o’ man.. lucky to be that shooter.

See, if I’m having problems out there finding my photos, it’s not the FujiX 100s at fault, it’s my fault. So I can’t blame anyone or anything but myself. I do that a lot too, ask my VA Shrink.

I’ll be back tomorrow my friends.

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

August 4th, 2014 … Fuji X100s … Works Hand in Hand With … Ricoh GRD4

August 4, 2014 streetshooter 12 Comments

Penelope my Ricoh GRD4 was very angry but more than that, she was hurt because she felt neglected. Rightfully so I might add. Since I have the X100s, I haven’t really used any other camera at all. Not because I didn’t want to but because there was no reason to use anything but Andre’ the Fuji X100s. I feel real complete with this camera and even my Leica’s and Roger’s Leica’s don’t entice me to do anything.

It’s been a slow time for me shooting wise but not for The Inspired Eye. Time consuming is not a strong enough statement. Thing is, I am actually enjoying all the work for The Inspired Eye that Olivier and I put our hearts into.

I’m not getting much time on the streets but the little time I have is being used up by Andre’ and then penelope stopped me dead in my tracks the other day. She knows she has power love me with her pale white skin, sexi little body, feeling great in the hand….Of course, we have a love affair ever since we found each other a few years ago. So when she abruptly influenced me to take her out, well…who am I to question?

So, Penelope got me wanting to be working again and I promised her that I would get out more often and take her and Andre’ together, well, each in their own pocket. So I will start back seriously tomorrow and try to keep things going.

This is someones home. It’s at the 676 Underpass near 7th St. I mean I’ve seen and photographed many street homes all over the city but this was different. I crawled back thru the brush and then I saw like a living room, well designed. This house had cover from weather, protection from police or intruders. I saw on the ground a box that had supplies in it. So I put $20.00 in it and crawled out. On the sidewalk there is a fire hydrant. I saw the wrence in the weeds, smart person. Able to do laundry, bathe and have drinking water.

I’m gonna go by this house as much as I can to try to meet this person.

So I know those reading this blog are anxious for me to get back to work and I promise, I’ll start tomorrow.

Please remember that the OPEN CALL FOR THE INSPIRED EYE BLOG IS STILL OPEN.

Shooter out…. seeya tomorrow…..peace, whatever the hell that means anymore……

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

July 23rd, 2014 … Fuji X100s… Dedicated To The Souls Lost In Flight MH17

July 23, 2014 streetshooter 19 Comments

Well, if your a regular follower of this blog, you’ve noticed that I haven’t posted too much in the last few weeks. No excuses either. No, I’ve been making some photos, not many but some. Nah. Not really sick, The VA with all the bad press, takes good care of me. We’ll i do have a passing but recurring illness. It’s a case of Igotlazytopostontheblogitis.

Olivier was no help during this time of perpetual laziness. He just kept telling what needed to be done and the deadline. Ya know what I need from the world at this point of time is not photography and it’s not my intent to say everything is just a pretty picture.

I am and have always been a CNN addict. That just means that I want to know what is going on in the world. The new effects me in different ways. For example, I am near to the Cold War in the Home front. Tanya and I don’t see eye to eye on the Ukrainian War. What does this have to do with photography? If you even need to ask this question, well… there’s other blogs you should visit. See, I have friends from almost every country in the world. I care about my friends. I get concerned about how things are effecting them. So just because something isn’t happening in your back yard, doesn’t mean that you get away unaffected, you don’t. No one is that lucky to just be safe and comfortable and not feel what the world is doing to people.

So I look at myself and think that maybe I am lucky and then realize, no one gets off without feeling for others. No one is immune to the world. I remember my friend/brother Paul McGuirk saying to me back in the early 1970’s….”Most people look at the World thru Rose Colored Glasses. I look at a Rose thru World Colored Glasses.”

So in a time of what seems to be numbness, maybe it’s just a time of self reflection. I mean I’m extremely effected by the Human Condition. I can’t escape it and actually don’t want to. The camera is an interesting friend for me. Andre’ keeps me in touch with myself better than any living being alive or dead. See, Andre’ keeps me in the here and now and because of that, with all the just going on in the Human Condition, I am at peace. Maybe it’s just a brief passing dream but when I’m making photos, the world and all the crap seems to dissipate and just lets me be at one with mother light and just work.

The illusion of peacefulness plays deep in my Eye, Heart and Mind. I am attracted to the people and things that are inside my head. I mean, I don’t make a photo unless I feel it. Maybe it’s not gonna be a masterpiece but I know one thing for sure. It’s my photo and it represents my time in the here and now while I walked upon the Earth.

And just when ya think your alone and feeling kinda desperate and lost, ya come across a gentle soul that looks at you for the comfort you are looking for.

This Post is dedicated to all those souls effected in The Horror of Flight MH17. May you all find Eternal Peace in the Hereafter and your souls be forever blessed by THE LORD. Amen

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

July 4th, 2014 … Fuji X100s … More Thoughts

July 4, 2014 streetshooter 10 Comments

First off, Happy 4th Of July to all those that celebrate it and all those that don’t. It seems that it’s July 4th all over, imagine that. How’d they do that hmmmm?

Well, I did an open call for work to be published on The Inspired Eye Blog and I got a very satisfying response. The first post will go up sometime this weekend.

Of course doing things like this takes away from my work on the streets but I feel doing for others is more important than doing for myself. Hey, not claiming to be an angel, I just want to help get some exposure and positive energy flowing.

Ya know… I have a battle going on with the thumb grip. Oh yes, it’s nice but the camera feels more like my friend without it on and when it’s on, it feels more like a tool. So I go back and forth trying to find my way. I guess in time I’ll just not carry the thumb grip in my pouch at all. I started testing MF and hyper focal distance and it’s a great way to work. Many cameras allow this but with the X100s, it’s no different than any other camera, it just has the distance scale that is setup for the f/stops.

I actually like the AF in this camera because it gives me a fraction of a second think time before exposure. I’m using the OVF so when I raise the camer the AF there’s a slight pause that allows me to double check things.

MF gets me into a zone of being more intuitive. See, in MF the camera is ready at all times with no lag at all. This allows a very fast intuitive response and to release. Wonderful but at my age, I like a slight lag……

There is a very nice feeling working with the Fuji X100s. Well, Andre’ likes to work and always supports my decisions and I do him. The above shot was made right in front of this guy and he didn’t care what I was doing. It amazed me that I could be standing there right in front of him and he thought I was invisible….NADA…..

After I made the exposure I turned to see what he was looking at and got lost in whatever it was, so much so that he didn’t see the Stealth Streetshooter in front of him… well….

There, there right in front of us, in plain sight, walking real close to us, was a woman that could be Halle Berry. *Sigh*… Him and I shared a moment, noooo not the camera or photographic byt the Halle Berry got close to us and rattled our cage moment.

Well, I off and running cause Tanya is coming up the stairs and I have to delete the Halle Berry photos plastered all over the desktops on my computers…..

Have a safe and happy 4th of July and I’ll seeyas shortly

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

June 30th, 2014 … Open Call To Be Featured On Inspired Eye Blog

June 30, 2014 streetshooter 21 Comments

Olivier and I want to extend a warm welcome to all of our followers and especially the followers of my blog. The idea is for you to be featured on the Inspired Eye Blog and try to promote your work.

For those interested, send me a request and I will send you the info. There will be like 5-8 questions and you can put around 6 photos in also. I would like a brief description of the concept and execution of the photos to show the world what and how you think and do things.

We will post the blogs a few times each week and it will be listed on the newsletter and podcast.

So let’s get going and I’ll be watching out for youse…

shooter

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

June 26th, 2014 … The Fuji X100s Saga Continues

June 26, 2014 streetshooter 14 Comments

It was January 1970. I was a grunt in VietNam. I carried an M16 like everyone and also 45ACP because I could hit anything at 100 yds. I also carried a Leica M4 with a 35mm Summicron. I met a Photojournalist from Australia and he took a liking to me and told me to use his Nikon F with a 200mm f/4 lens. He told me it was safer because I could be further from any action. I really appreciated his well wishes for me but my friends were up front so that’s where I was gonna be. My photos were at the front and not at a safe distance.

……move forward in time until now and things haven’t changed for me. I’ve spent a lot of time on the streets, I guess it’s life more than street but there are those amongst that need to label so I’ll humor them by being a streetshooter. Anyway, The Fuji X100s has the ability to transform your way of working and thinking to more of a cerebral experience. It’s the way the camera frees me up and let’s me work without intrusion. See, I kinda get into a zone or region that isn’t maybe so safe sometimes in different ways but the camera stays with me and supports what I get into.

Not all cameras can do this and many shooters aren’t aware that any camera could do this. Really, I mean if you use cameras that cause issues and after a while you kinda get complacent about those issues, if you used a real friendly camera, you may not notice how friendly it really is. We get conditioned by the marketing people and in order to break away, we need to de-hypnotize ourselves. Not easy, especially if you don’t know your hypnotized. What wakes me up most times is the camera. Yup, it’s true. See, I walked around the streets of Center City Philadelphia almost every day for decades and always found images to make. Sometimes I would walk and not see a lot of interesting things because I was over saturated by the places I’ve been to a million times. Well, Andre’ The Fuji X100s tells me, “Listen kiddo, you don’t get to be bored. lazy or complacent…I’ll kick your ass if you don’t keep working”. Now listen, anytime a camera tells me it’s gonna kick my ass… I listen. So even tho I have seen the places, light, views etc all these times, I have just begun to see them with Andre’. He’s challenging and helps me to see something as if it’s the last time I’m seeing it.

So I walk the same streets I’ve walked for all these years and I’ know the light bouncing off the buildings and I even see many of the same people I’ve seen and met many times over but how to do this?

If no two seconds of life are ever the same and there is a constant movement thru the universe and closer, the movement thru life, how is it possible to get bored making photos?

I’ll bet it has something to do with your outlook in life. If you have the outlook that you want to find yourself out in the world, and feel your presence pushing air and moving light and you want to breathe images, your a photographer, what could be better than that?

Only one thing is more important than being a photographer. Only one thing is better than being a photographer.

Be a Human Being with a camera, that’s what’s better and My friend Andre’ the Fuji X100s helps me be a better Human Being.

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

June 21st, 2014 … Fuji X100s … Honors The Gifted With Sight

June 21, 2014 streetshooter 10 Comments

There are times that beckon the call of just sharing the pure joy in the GIFT of SEEING with a camera. This GIFT of SIGHT should never be taken for granted. We as photographers tend to over indulge in seeing and we tend to take THE GIFT OF SIGHT for granted.

For me, I feel every living second is a gift, a gift of life. For me the simple act of seeing is most extraordinary and I dare not be complacent nor ever take seeing as a right of passage.

What does this really mean to a photographer? Well, part of it is, when you are shooting, enjoy the simple act of SEEING and recognize how fortunate we all are to do that with a camera in hand.

The 3 photos here are just about that, the joy of seeing and not to be represented by any other pretense but SEEING. They are not masterpieces, they are not amazing photos and they aren’t meant to be anything but a 2 dimensional representation of what the JOY, the LOVE, the GIFT of SEEING and VISION meant to me at the very instant of exposure.

If I think about the actual moment of exposure and I think about how most times I am GREEDY and insist that the photo be more than what it actually is, and I overindulge in my own bullshit.. well, then perhaps these photos represent the most Nobelist approach and result that I could ever have the honor of making….

The GIFT OF LIGHT AND THE GIFT OF SIGHT AND THE GIFT OF SHARING.

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

June 19th, 2014 … Fuji X100s is a Streetshooter’s Dream

June 19, 2014 streetshooter 8 Comments

Sometimes there comes a moment when I just FEEL an energy trying to grab me. This energy is very delicate and if I try to do anything but make a photo, it just vanishes like a leaf in the wind. At this point, I need my camera to do what is demanded buy this energy and just capture the image. I’m glad I’m using the X100s because it can capture a leaf flying in the wind.

For me there exist no Decisive Moment. There never was, it’a the decisive fraction of a heartbeat. It’s when you know your alive and that your photos need to be borne by you. These photos are fractions of a second at times but have the beat of your heart and the knowledge of your mind and the vision of your eye. This is your intent and your intent is brought to life by the photos you give birth too. Your mate must be your camera because neither of you can do it by yourself.

Sometimes we seek interaction from others to validate out time on the earth. The photographer validates his time on the earth by the photos he makes. Photographers record what the planet looked like during their visit. We are all tourist thru life, no one gets a permanent Visa.

The beauty of making photos is the beauty of making photos.

The X100s is an amazing camera and I am coming to terms with myself working with it….Peace……..

Street Photography Chronicles by Don Springer