Tag Archives: Garden

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The Nex 6 and the 35mm Nokton …. a Slimmer FOV

July 12, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

Word on the internet streets is that I am hanging up the GR and using the Nex 6 as a 50mm. Well, truth be told that’s partly true…but more importantly…it ain’t true at all. Here’s the truth as we know it here in NE Philly. By the time this reaches your neck of the woods, it might get changed or diluted….

When I made the switch years ago from 35mm to 28mm FOV, that was an ordeal that took time and was not easy. Doing that means that from any given vantage point we are seeking MORE info or seeing more info than from a 35mm FOV. Sure, we all know that Shooter….sooooooo? If you go the other way then it’s an easier transition because the info is already in the frame, just not as tight.

Let’s move to 35/50. Well, if your using a 28mm, it’s already got the info in it but to see it as a 50mm, it’s really lost because the 28mm will have much more details then the 50, spread out across the FOV. Seeing as the 50mm, will change the way you see because you need to be closer to obtain the best advantages from the lens.

So, I’m not dropping anything. I’m just paying attention to less space and more details in the frame. I have to learn this camera/lens combo so that I can use it with the GR.

I’m beat so I’ll do more later……

Share a little joke with the world……..

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ain’t no Blue Byrd of Happiness…

July 11, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

I’m sippin’ a cup of Kona. No, not the blend…the real Kona…anyway, I have the Nex 6 and the 35 1.4 Nokton on my lap….Sippin and then I see this byrd flying around my vegetable garden…..I wonder what he was after. Then all the sudden, I click a frame just to see how fast I can work. Sip, sip, sip…..splat. I feel something SPLAT on my head. No POW/MIA hat, no Nam Vet hat just the hair the Good LORD gave me.
Tanya told me that the BYRD was telling me to get a shower…..I think she was right.

ain’t no Blue Byrd….

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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 is like Josey Wales…….

June 13, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

Well, rain, rain, rain. I can’t get to the street until tomorrow and I’ll be there regardless of weather. So I said to myself….Self…you gotta work this here camera and find yer images with it. Tis a good thing sometimes to be trapped in a familiar place with a not so unfamiliar camera.

I know that i try very hard never to get complacent with my surroundings. The garden is the exact place to feel refreshed. I was just testing the Snap Focus Distances at different apertures so that I have a similar understanding as I have with my GRD4.

Of course, there exist a different dof due to the sensor size in the cameras.

At any rate….I looked at the grill that doesn’t work anymore because my friend wanted to fix it even tho it wasn’t broken so now it is and it’s a fine plant holder kinda thing taking up space and reminding me of how pissed I get when I can’t grill a friggin steak that I can’t eat because Tanya says it’s bad for me……

So that fond memory of forgotten memories that I don’t want to remember prompted the above photo. I like the photo but can do without those memories.

The GR is a fine camera. There are a few things with it that I don’t like and I’m sure that Ricoh will not fix those few things in a firmware update. I have learned to accept all things that pass by and thru my life as if it were a part of me for a few seconds. There’s things living inside my body that I don’t like and I have to accept that so I can deal with the Ricoh GR.

Tomorrow I’ll be working the streets. Well, making photos, the young girls will be making money….Yeah…young boys too…this is Philly.

I’ll definitely make a post about the camera and images. I’ll try to be more serious but to be honest, I really won’t be able to do that. There are a few things I need to work out and tomorrow is the Day of Reckoning. Until then, no doubt I’ll be talking to our flowers. I get sad when they show up and grace our lives with their presence… and then die and preserve life for the next generation.

I only hope that next season Tanya and I will be here to greet them…..

….all things are created equal and a like….those veins give me life just like the stems give the plants and flowers life……

The GR will give my images life…………..There is strength in your words Josey Wales………

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The GR as a Street Camera and Not Just Any Street…..

June 12, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

So I get my cup of Kona ready and of course I have to hide the Bokum because Tanya thinks I don’t need caffeine because I’m getting older and that stuff is for Olivier cause he’s younger and can control the energy.

I walk out to the garden to sip the first cup of Kona and then sneak the second cup because I can. As I’m standing there I can see a mass of critters looking at me.

The rabbits are on the left with the squirrels. The Groundhog is center stage. He’s the biggest but the meekest also……then all the birds in the world converge on my garden and I then realized….this is a shared garden. There’s slugs crawling around, worms digging holes, ants that take care of the Peony’s and some other things…like eat leftovers and such…..

The said to me….Yo’ dude…like this is a shared space and we let you use it to garden stuff in it. We have rights and….I then cut the speech off and said….Look….if this is a shared garden, why are Tanya and I doing all the hard labor and paying for everything?

The groundhog was the spokesman and said…we let you eat everything we don’t want…we never criticize where you put things so…….

We want to negotiate a contract. We want the garden to be as important to you as the street is. THIS IS OUR STREET and you don’t pay enuff attention to it.

I tried to negotiate a clause to ban the mosquitoes but no go…..something about they keep me in check…..

Here’s a few from Garden Street…….

It takes all kinds of critters to make a world….even a street….

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The Ricoh GR …. an Elegant Street Camera

June 9, 2013 streetshooter 2 Comments

Elegance! The one word that describes the camera and the experience of using it. Elegance!

I was out yesterday for a few hours on a practice run with the Nex 6. I say practice because I am just trying to see how the camera and I work together. I had my NewsWear Fanny Pack on. This is an elegant way to wear and use a camera bag. I put a Billingham double insert in side with velcro and it’s the best camera bag out there. Anyway, the GR was in one of the pockets.

The Nex 6 is a nice camera. I’m using the Sigma 19 & 30 and I gotta say, this is a very good combination. So as I was getting the communication link established with the Nex, I kept feeling the camera bag bumping against my waist.

The GR is getting impatient. Beings the woman that she is, (Gr is named Tanya after my wife)….she’s very impatient and wants to get out of the bag and see the light because that stupid Nex thing of a camera has taken up the day and now it’s time to work with a real elegant camera so open the damn bag and LET ME OUT. ….NOW!

Well, it’s hard to resist and pointless also…so the Nex went to the bag and Tanya was set free. She was right.

I have the neck strap on because Ricoh makes great cameras but the stupid engineers use that asinine way to attach a strap to the camera so it’s impossible to switch from neck to wrist with any real elegance at all and your forced to use one or the other and every time you take the time to switch you realize in 5 minutes it was a wrong decision and that leaves you in Ricoh Strap Limbo…and that my friends ain’t a pretty picture.

So a couple of my friends on Flickr invented this place to make photos. It’s called…”Inter-Alios”. Now I’m not the smartest shooter on the street but dang it….I do know my way around Philly. I’ve done all that an Inter-Alios shooter is supposed to do and I haven’t found that place yet.

What I did find was myself with the very capable, very Elegant Ricoh GR.

Friends, I hope you find yourself in a similar situation with the GR. I know it’s hard to get and you may get impatient. Trust me, it’s worth the wait and it’s even worth the work but that’s another story and that I’ll tell soon.

It’s Sunday morning here in Philly. I’m told it’s the same in many places but I don’t believe that. I think everybody should have their own favorite place and time and the GR will help you live in it.

That place is the Here and Now…..

Go in Peace but go with a camera in your hand….don

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The Ricoh GR and the Nex 6 work well together.

June 6, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

I just love testing 2 cameras at the same time…..NOT! The GR is an amazing camera that fulfills all that one expects from it and more. The same is true true of the Nex6. Both are very intuitive and I was amazed at how easy the Nex works. I had a Nex 5 when it came out and Ray Sachs and I wrestled with them but figured out the way to make them work. No such issue with the Nex 6. Roger forget to send me the manual so I went solo and it all works in the end.

The GR needs no such thoughts…well, if you ever used a GRD#…you’ll feel right at home.

I never opened the manual……

I really need a break and I am having a naming issue for the Nex. I guess something will twist my brain……….

For Eva

I have a lot to say and post but I have to process images and gather my thoughts…..the last part is scary…..

don

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A Streetshooter off Street is still a Streetshooter

May 31, 2013 streetshooter 3 Comments

Ya know…. I never get bored with photography. I never feel that there’s nothing to make photos of. If I’m not on the Street, I’m off Street. It’s more dangerous around the house then around junkies, hookers, cops, he men, she men whatever. Around the house is a cat that is all to used to having a camera shoved in his face….there’s this woman that resembles my wife but if I make a photo of her or even poit the camera anywhere near her airspace…well….it sure as heck ain’t pretty.

This photo is considered…Illegal photographic procedures. This photo means I order pizza for dinner and probably lunch the next day.

This is the photo that was presented upon the photographic inquisition. I explained that I didn’t make a photo of her and that this is what I did. See me in the mirror…well that’s what my camera and I looked liked before the camera was shoved down my throat.

The camera down your wind pipe is capable of doing very interesting Macro stuff but the flash won’t pop out because the camera is jammed against your lung or whatever they put inside of us.

So to make peace until the next episode, I always make a few garden photos. This keeps Barsik the Cat and the Russian Conquistador happy and I get to make photos in LR and post them because I’m stupid and I think she will never read my blog because it’s a waist of time and we could be doing something else more important like shopping…..

So I guess I’ll sign off because Barsik the Cat is hot and I have to sweat all day until he needs the Air Conditioner.

Life is grand…..hey…Is that a new camera?………….uh oh….later……

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………of course the camera has a lot to do with it………

April 27, 2013 streetshooter 2 Comments

Many of my friends are writing on their blogs and in forums etc that it’s the shooter and not the camera. Well, not to be argumentative but I probably am as my wife definitely thinks so….. all the time. See the camera is much more important then most realize.

Barsik (the best muse I ever met)

It’s true that ones vision is the main ingredient in photography that needs the most attention. You can read fancy books, go to school, take workshops, classes whatever you like and it’s mainly about your vision. It should be….until you go to WORK!

Here’s what I teach. There is a process to anything, even drinking a beer. One should be totally into the here and now during the process in order to get the most out of it.

So lets move along and go to work. We will analyize the process of making photos. Now please don’t think there is only one way or even my way. My way works for me and I really don’t want you to do it that way….I’d rather you find your own method of working.

(the camera Don, get to the camera part…..) allright, allright.

Your on the street. Your eyes are like that of a hawk. Your walking and your in step with the life that surrounds you. You can smell the perfume from that young lady……over there,…to the right….you smell the exhaust fumes from the buses and the cars etc.

Your camera (I hope you named your camera by now)… is in your hand just waiting to respond to your every whim. Sorry, the guy over there has his camera on a neck strap….that’s fine…… ok….

You can feel something on the horizon but it’s not yet….just a little bit further down the street….

Then, out of nowhere this lady walks out towards you and the light behind her is perfect…click!

You didn’t get that, geeze, why are you fiddling with the controls to set exposure? You, over there…see…you raised the camera to your eye and she saw you and well….. there’s a million things to come between you and your photos. The one thing that can’t be tolerated is your camera. So if the camera is just a tool, then go hammer a nail with it.

Smack

Your camera must be an extension of your process. You must have a friend that your working with and not an intruder that just causes lost images. You should be able to make an adjustment in just a few seconds. If the camera is not an important part of your work, then your probably just looking for a scapegoat for you shooting failures. Yeah, this is heavy do do. It’s easy to say, my camera is a pain to work with.

The point is, you have to take responsibility for your choices in camera acquiring procedures. I have a Pen3 with the 25 lux and the 14 2.5. The Pen3 is a very good camera to work with….for me…. I can go back to around 1967 and I didn’t like SLR’s. I just didn’t like the form. I still don’t. I loved Leica M’s because they worked so well.

Flash to 2013 and I still feel the same way…almost. I had the Fuji X10 and really loved the camera. It reconfigured in a flash. Well, I never got a single RAW file to be processed the right way. I have all the goos processors..I make presets, right. I make photos right!

Now the Fuji X20 is at home and it does RAW like I love clams. The point is that this these cameras are mine and I use them. The offer no intrusion to my process, especially on the street.

I beg to differ with my friends. I state here and now that the camera may be a tool to them but to me and my readers….bunk. It’s an extension to our vision because we chose the right one……

No go and sit with you cameras and come up with names….cameras like names…..well…I do take meds for this sort of thing but my wife states that they ain’t working……

I saw this dude on my ride home. Dude didn’t see me on the ride home.

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More Preset Madness

April 25, 2013 streetshooter

Yeah…yeah! I’m stuck on the computer doing presets. Well, I’m really stuck on 2 computers that refuse to co-operate with me or each other. Me poor brain is starting to think in terms of color. My brain, not my mind. But I must admit that working in color is teaching me lot’s of things.

Oh yeah…. I’m learning what I already know. I don’t like color but I do like making the presets.

So because I don’t really care for color, I have to find a way to trick the ole’ brain into thinking it likes it. I have sent some of these presets out to shooters and have all good responses from them. I guess that means I might have my brain fooled.

What I am doing is this. When I work, streets usually, I see the world in color. It’s not my idea but they put color in everything. So, in my brain, I reprocess the image in front of me to be in shades of grey. This of course is happening in the mind….now enter my cameras. I have them all to have a B&W screen. If they can’t do that….they belong elsewhere.

So, if I take the color out of the scene and then make a B&W photo the way I want, then add color to it with a palate I can live with….I get what I have up top there….. see those up there……

I do this for those that like the color presets….for the rest of us……. up there is where it’s at….

don

Street Photography Chronicles by Don Springer