Photography, Street, Street Photography, Streetshooter, Uncategorized

In Search Of: Intent

January 24, 2013 streetshooter 3 Comments

The way photography works for me when I’m really on it is….. I see something that would make an interesting image. Then with the image in my head, I frame and then release the shutter. Looking at the screen on the camera shows me a general idea of what will develop. When I get to the computer and open the file in LR…that’s where the magic is. The image will either be borne in LR or it won’t.

As the image is being processed, same as in my darkroom, I start to FEEL something emotional happening. I see the image that I feel. I hope you get that. It’s always been that way for me, hopefully always will be.

When I see the finished photo, I don’t care who likes it, who wants to buy it, who comments on it…..all I know is that the image has achieved my INTENT and that in the end is all that will ever matter to me.

We can all hide on forums, web hosting sites etc. It’s nice to get response from our efforts. We feel that we are reaching out to others with acceptance.

At the end of the day my friend, it’s you and your work. Nothing can strip you down and make you stand naked in front of your intent like the work you produce.

I hope you like what you see and if not seek out the method to find your intent, because what someone else does is nice for them but you……….click!

Photography, Street, Street Photography, Streetshooter, Uncategorized

The Olympus EP-3 is on the job.

January 22, 2013 streetshooter 1 Comment

It’s been some time since I used a Pen Camera. I’ve had both, the EP-1 & the EP-2. I must admit, the EP-1 was and still is my favorite digital camera…until now! All the things I wanted to see improved are installed in the EP-3. This is not a review. This is not a sales pitch. This is the lost and found of feelings for a camera and how it helped me work. I know, youse don’t care about feelings about your camera. I know, you don’t name your cameras either. I feel for you, I really do.

I got very attached to the Pen 1 because it never let me down. It always brought satisfaction when I processed my work. Nah it ain’t no high tech fancy schmancy camera. What it is, is a very elegant extension of your vision. The EP-3 is an updated version of a camera that worked great as it was. So you figure out what that means. I know!

I’m not saying the EP-3 is the camera for you but I am saying….when I stopped using the Pen 1 & 2…something got lost in the mix. No, not a case, not a battery, nothing tangible. That’s the problem….I couldn’t find what I was looking for because I couldn’t touch what I was looking for.

I set the EP-3 up last night. The menu confused me a little but I got thru it. After a few hours I felt comfortable that I was good to go. I dreamt of being on the street and below also. I could see myself using the camera making images….. I awoke knowing that the camera and I were on the same page and The Pen 3 was up to the task and also to carry on the heritage of it’s forefathers.

So I made these images today in 24f weather. I forgot one important thing about the Pens….. Metal cameras get cold as fast as hands…..

There exist little doubt about the Pen 3 and me. We traveled a long way together. Maybe different versions of a real camera but we were together for many a good images that will become part of my history.

Looking out into the light………?

Photography, Street, Street Photography, Streetshooter, Uncategorized

Enjoying Your Vision

January 16, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

There is such pressure to produce quality work that one may feel stifled. Lets face it, like it or not we like to have people LIKE our photos, FAVORITE our photos etc. It makes the reward of others equally or even more gratifying then our own. Don’t feel bad, just remember that photography is a personal journey and we answer to our own self…when we realize that.

The above photo could be seen as “Contrived”. Of course it is. That was my INTENT but I don’t care because I like the image and it reflects how I felt at that very moment. I set it up in a flash of a second and needed to make it look just as it does. I used Andre’ and made the photo knowing what it looked like before release. Oh’ sorry…Andre’ is my white GRD4. Of course you name your cameras also…..right?

Photographic INTENT is the single most important piece of the shooters LIFE. What I mean is….you must be in the HERE and NOW at the time of exposure. Bresson called this the Decisive Moment. We call it Awareness of Intent. It’s not exactly the same but it’s not exactly different either.

The above photo was next in the shoot that I was aware of my intent. The file number shows not far apart. I’m not explaining why I made the photo, only that my INTENT is realized by it.

This is for Alan Barr. He posted a photo the other day of this escalator and I asked him with a comment if it was from Snyder or Oregon Ave. Her replied quickly that it was in fact at 15th and Market. Talk about Visual Perception…..I have been on this escalator a million times…yes, I counted. I know it back and forth and have made countless images of it and it’s faithful riders.

When Alan posted the location to my question I felt like I was forgetful or better yet….stupid. How could I not recognize that escalator? That my friends is the concept of photography in a single image. It totally proves the separation of the 3 dimensional reality from the 2 dimensional reality.

Thank You Alan…your a gentleman shooter and I’m lucky to share the same streets as you.

With all this being said….sometimes ya just get lucky……

Till next time….

don

Photography, Street, Street Photography, Streetshooter, Uncategorized

The GRD4, The Natural Choice For Street

January 13, 2013 streetshooter 1 Comment

As many cameras as I have had and tested and used, the GRD4 stands above and beyond the rest. I do a 30 day test period with any new camera and I don’t use anything but the test camera.

I have been testing and using the Fuji X10 and it’s a very nice camera. It’s great for street with a learned intuitive interface. I passed the 30 test date a few days ago and I longed for my GRD4.

The Ricoh has such a NATURAL feel to that it’s almost an organic feeling. Funny, an organic digital experience.

I’m not going on and on about this camera but…..well….later….

Uncategorized

Shooter’s Pic’s

January 9, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

No, not my photos but pics from the shooters that I like and admire on Flickr.

You’ve all heard of Bresson, Kertesz, Adams, Weston etc. Well, I have a list of current shooters that have very interesting images. I’m going to post some here and some at the Street Presets Facebook page.

Some of these shooters I will invite to do an interview with. Please feel free to comment and PLEASE….do that LIKE thing at Facebook…we need the hits to stay alive….

If YOU want to be featured, let me know and we’ll get it under way. After about a dozen shooters are featured, I’d like to do a book at Blurb etc.

Thanks Friends, you are now returned to your regular scheduled programming………………………………..

Here’s the link to Eleni’s work.

http://on.fb.me/VmRFFA

Photography, Street, Street Photography, Streetshooter

The Fuji X10 … The Continuing Saga

January 8, 2013 streetshooter 2 Comments

“As you go throughout your life, brother whatever be your goal, keep your eye upon the donut and not upon the hole.” (Dr Murray Banks).

The point is this. I’ll discuss the camera and not the issues or things it doesn’t have or do. This is a users findings and not a review.

The X10 is really responsive. I use it in M mode and choose my Aperture and Shutter Speed. I use Auto ISO/3200 and this lets the camera choose the proper ISO based on my settings. I’m happy and the camera’s happy. Oh, X10 is named Walker after… WALKER EVANS. Of course GRD4 is named Andre’ after…. Andre’ Kertesz. WHAT! You don’t name your cameras?

A streetshooter ain’t no streetshooter don’t name a camera.

I like to use HD when on the street. This goes back to my early Leica M daze. So I look at DOF Master and set the camera according to it’s findings using a 2/3″ sensor.

Life has a sense of humor. Life even prescribes meds for that uncanny sense of humor,….well my shrink prescribes meds if life doesn’t. See, if you take everything literal in life you’ll make the same mistake I made about a 2/3″ sensor. Oh yeah….bulldinky, we all know the X10 has a 2/3″ sensor but I read the cinema 2/3″ and not digital camera.

Photography, Street, Street Photography, Streetshooter, Uncategorized

Thanksgiving Anti-Parade

November 26, 2012 streetshooter 2 Comments

My grand daughter wanted to see the photos I made at the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade. Come on, cut me a break….I live here and I’m not letting an event like this pass me by. So I load the GRD4 attach a strap, put a few batteries in my pocket and hit the street. See, that’s the word that gets me every time…”Street”. I’m a streetshooter. What could be easier then doing a parade? Well, if the parade wasn’t on the street…I’d be ok.

Unfortunately, when I hit the street, I go into work mode. I’m just waiting for an image to pop up and call to me. This may or may not be a good thing. I guess it depends on what part of the parade you want to see.

So I walk around making photos and try to keep from feeling like I don’t belong. I try to find what makes me feel like I fit in.

I never find that tho’ and just keep looking and making photos.

I guess it’s just that I’m a streetshooter…..

Photography, Street, Street Photography, Streetshooter, Uncategorized

Hipshot, Chestshot, The GRD4 It Still Smells of Street or How The 21mm Adapter Showed Me The Way Home.

October 17, 2012 streetshooter 9 Comments

Well the GRD4 once again proves to be a very worthy camera. It’s that I feel that any camera provides me the energy or inspiration to work, it’s just that the Ricoh lets me work and thing without intruding on me.

I went out today and used the 21mm adapter. It’s normally to wide for me but I need photos for an upcoming workshop on freeing the self and also editing. The camera is on a neck strap hanging as low as I can get it. I don’t use a finder even tho I have the Leica. I hate putting the camera to my face and covering life in front of me. There’s a magic in working this way without a finder and using your internal eye.

I think the beauty is in the discovery of a shared vision. The camera and I work together to make the images. Yes, it’s always like that but working this way is more of a conscious effort in the collaboration between the two of us. I can’t make claim to 100 percent of the result. The camera gets it’s say as much as I do. This being the way I think and actually the way it is, is liberating and visually exciting.

With the camera hanging in front of your chest, theres a very cool non intrusive presence to the subject. I let it hang and when getting ready for an exposure, I place my hand on the camera and my thumb gets the duty the finger usually has.

The strange this is, the photos show eye contact but yet the camera is hanging down low. If in fact it was true eye contact, then the eye would not meet the viewer right on. This means that the subject looks at the camera but mostly never sees the thumb release the shutter.

I find it interesting that so many people walk around with their head in a low position. Of course the camera loves this kind of positioning.

So, even for straight street, this is a great setup. In all the photos, I never looked at the screen. I just feel the frame and then move my body slightly to make the frame the way I want.

It should be noted that the GRD4 has a sense of humor and proves itself in some photos that I won’t publish.

More tomorrow as the 21mm adventure continues……. It’s tomorrow…strange how that works….hmmmm

This is more mainstream for me but it was because I met a shooter downtown from a forum we both belong to. She asked me to show her how to feel the frame. A good question I thought to meself.

I said, self…we need to help this lady out. Her issue was that she didn’t understand how to relate the subject to the background. I explained that, that is the entire thing about photography, painting etc. What lives in the fram must relate to everything in it good or bad.

Taking the elements of the frame and putting them together makes the image. Just as important is the presentation of the image.

All photos processed in http://www.streetpresets.com/ my presets for Light Room 4 & Nik Silver Efex.

Saturday Morning…. I had an appointment at the VA Hosp for more treatments. I’m not excited about that but it gives me a reason to get on the street and work.

I’m still doing the chestshot with the GRD4/21. It’s interesting. I can just about see full frame now and that’s neither good nor bad, not sure. I don’t like being predictable but I love consistency. Beings a Libra, balance is always my goal. The above photo was made on the spur as this new work is. I saw the image come together in my head in a fraction of a second. I knew how to process it to get my result. and new the framing about as good as I could get it.

I get these images sometimes that are more like dreams to me. I mean I am conscious when I make them but when I get them finished….it’s just a dream….. There was this kid named Jasper at the bus stop with his dad and sister. Jasper was about 10 years old. He liked my white camera and asked if I had a white camera because I was white. I asked him if he had a black camera because he was black. He smiled and said his dad did but he was allowed to use it at partys. Then he used my camera to make a portrait of me…..hmmmm

Photography, Street, Streetshooter

The Ricoh GRD4

October 7, 2012 streetshooter 14 Comments

This is not a review but an ongoing journey with this camera at my side. I’m not interested in comparing this to the GRD3 or anything else. What I am interested in, is the way the GRD4 works with my vision.

There is a new found sense of freedom for me. I’m not saying that the GXR doesn’t set me free, I’m simply stating that the GRD4 fits in my pocket. Doing that creates a sense of freedom because it’s always there and at the ready. What that means is….the camera remembers the last settings before being powered off or going to sleep. I can’t do that!

We all know that Ricoh has the finest most intelligent User Interface of any camera. So as shooters, we now have a camera that won’t intrude on the process of making images. I have a white camera because I look more like a tourist then with a black one. I find that getting close is easier then before because the white camera has a very innocent look to it. Besides that I just wanted the white version because it was more sexi. Ok, hey….hey….it’s a sexi litte thing dammit!

I’m pretty close to this guy and he didn’t wake as I moved thru his space. Of course that’s not in the Ricoh Firmware, the silent approach, but it is important because I didn’t have to look at my camera at all to make the photo. I can change anything on the GRD4 without looking at the screen. It’s a great interface.

I use snap focus most times. If I’m at f5.6, I’m good for about 1.6′ to infinity. I use M mode because I can set the camera to Auto ISO Hi 1600 and then…. I can do something like this… 1/125 f5.6. The camera will set the ISO to get proper exposure and that lets me choose the f stop and the shutter speed. This is a dream setup. I’ll usually maintain f8 or f5.6 to hold my Hyper Focal distance and I choose a shutter speed so that I won’t get too much blur unless I want it.

The macro mode is very useful and just requires a simple press on the dial. The lens is corrected beautifully and of course is a GR lens.

This is macro mode. The lens was very close to the flower. LIke really close. I handheld the camera and it’s ok.

The point is that, I saw this image in my head. It was of course the flower giving me the energy but it all came together very easy and the camera just did what it was supposed to do. 5 seconds later I made a photo of my cat Barsik about 20′ away. Just a click and that was all that was required.

Some call this camera a P&S. I guess for photography buffs as we called them in the 60’s and 70’s, it is. For shooters, it’s about as serious a camera as one would ever need.

Photography, Street, Streetshooter

The Non Intruding Camera

October 7, 2012 streetshooter 1 Comment

The Non Intruding Camera

Let me start by stating that I am not a strolling shooter. I am not a Street Tog, I am a walker. I am not out on the street in a hap-hazard way. I am out there intentionally seeking the images that are seeking me. I do not exist without them and they do not exist without me. That is, unless YOU find them first.
So, here’s the way it works sometimes. I’m out walking with the GRD4 in my hand with a wrist strap. A neck strap also works very well but one must learn how not to struggle with ones gear. Then something calls to me and I start to feel my finger get itchy.
The finger is the main organ in photography. The eye is secondary as it finds the image with the brain and heart but….the finger is the organ that makes the camera expose. It is crucial that the camera provide a nice resting place for the finger. It is also crucial that the camera has a very delicate sexy feel to the finger for exposure.

Anyway, what happens for me is that I start to feel the finger want to work. The other 3 elements, (eye, heart, brain) of the process are analyzing the scene so that the finger can go to work. What I mean is this….
The eye generally responds to the scene first. Then the heart or brain get involved. There is no set order to the finding process. Any stimulis could work with any of the 3 elements to seek the image. The danger is that the finger get started first. That’s why they made that stupid multi drive crap years ago that has flooded into our nice easy laid back digital imaging world. A motor drive is for the finger to work first. You start the machine gun and hope to find something in the holes you made. Mostly you don’t or maybe you do by accident.
Once the image starts to form and the 3 elements start to frame, the finger is ready and hopefully, the camera is just as ready as you are. Many times a setting was made wrong, focus wasn’t close or off, exposure was off etc. These things are intrusions. We must be able to detect and control these intrusions. For me, any of the above and about a gazillion other things are not nice and I don’t want them as a part of my process.

I’ve used Leica M’s for over 40 years and started with the M8 when it first came out. I was one of the lucky ones that got the bad sensor, magenta bullcrap and camera turns into a brick mode. It happened with 4 different bodies and that killed Leica for me.
Now, it’s the Ricoh GXR. Why, ok I’ll explain my thinking.
The GXR is a totally expandable camera. It can morph into different cameras very easy. I prefer the 2 A12 units. The 28mm & 50mm are both excellent lenses. They keep the camera very compact and maintain all the features of a full DSLR. I prefer AF and depend on it all the time. The GXR has a snap focus mode that is ideal for street work.
With the 28mm at f8, focused at 6.6ft….you have 3.3ft to infinity as your DOF. So, it dont get better then that.
I set the camera to A mode, f8 and adjust the ISO to get the shutter speed In the range I want. Now that Ricoh has seen fit to install Auto ISO on the GXR, that’s what I use. I now can set both aperture and shutter speed and the camera sets the ISO. Wonderful!
Well, I used a Fuji X100 because I thought that it would bring back that “M” feel. It did and that was the problem. The main issue I had was the finder. I know, I know…that’s the reason to get the camera. It works great and so does the EVF but not for me.
What happens is this….the camera intrudes on my vision and process because it’s up at my eye. It’s blocking my view and puts most subjects off as they are totally aware that you are making a photo of them. Your hiding your face from the scene/subject.

I have since abandoned the GXR cameras and have settled on the GRD once again. I will not say how many times in the past that I have had the GRD series but lets just say, I learned my lesson well. The GRD4 is home.

The street is about being an observer not being observed.

Street Photography Chronicles by Don Springer