Tag Archives: Intent

Black & White, Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Philosophy of Street, Street Photography

Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 30 … Street … Namaste … Ricoh GRD4

November 3, 2015 streetshooter 10 Comments

Sometimes I am very lucky and I feel Mother Light blessing me. I mean it’s like I am not just connected with my vision but also my Mind and Heart. I have this warm feeling of being alive and of being aware that unto Mother Light, I have value that transcends my awareness of myself. It’s not about me being a photographer anymore but about me finding my humanity and having a camera in my hand. Why do I care about this stuff? Well, I suppose that I like to be in touch with my place in the universe and not to disturb anyone else’s. That’s not an easy task but I try anyway. I guess that if I feel some kind of cosmic connection, then maybe finding a connection down here on Earth might be easier to maintain.

Photography is about Intent. Photos are the realization of intent or the failure of the realization of intent. There are many ways that a camera can help or hinder the process. For example: The GRD4 for me is and always was a perfect union between photography, the camera and me. Other cameras are also but I’m talking about the GRD4 at the moment. When I have Penelope with me, there comes a peace of mind and heart. Other cameras also give me that or I wouldn’t have them. The thing is, the little lady Penelope fits in my pocket also. Hey, at my age, it’s nice to have a little lady in my pocket.

I think that after careful evaluation for many years, it appears that Penelope gives me peace that no other cameras ever did. Of course I love them all and they are wonderful friends but as far as the work goes. Penelope makes everything alright. I never care about what anyone says about about the photos. Well, that guy over there, I value his opinion and then there’s Tina, I must always respect Tina. I respect everyone actually but Penelope lets me respect myself enough that I don’t allow any judgement from others have a negative or positive impact.

With most cameras, I am aware that I am a shooter out making photos.

With Penelope the Ricoh GRD4, I am aware that I am a human being and glad to see what I see.

……………………………………………………………………see yas tomorrow……………………………………………………………………………………………

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

Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 28 … Street … Deciphering and Realizing Intent

October 29, 2015 streetshooter 14 Comments

Sometimes when I’m out making photos, I start to get a feeling of some sort. I mean I don’t try to define it emotionally or with words but I try to see it and make a photo of it. That must be my intent turning on and guiding me thru the world I am in and helping me to find visually what inside I am feeling. It is not an easy process but one I would never want to be without. So at what point do I determine if my efforts have realized what my intent was after. Well, it’s a process. I guess there are steps to realize intent and not always the same steps and not always the same order of steps. Not that is so ambiguous, but it tries to clarify the ambiguity of the image and even before it is captured at times, in fact, many times.

The above photo: I saw this steam coming from the ground. it was blowing out the highlights, perfect for me. I saw the light overhead and it made the steam into something more surreal, more of a piece of a dream. I’m under a tunnel so it’s dark all around, but the light shines into the darkness and makes it not so fearful. I love what I’m seeing, but I’m not seeing enough. I looked up and saw the light at the end of the tunnel, the glow was growing and I could feel the photo being formed and wanted it to be born. I looked down again and moved slightly left to create tension with the lines and then quickly looked up. I couldn’t believe my eyes. All the sudden out of nowhere the Photo Angel sent me a the Angel of darkness and I saw my photo…..Click.

The thing is, to have all three elements of the self-find and realize your intent. The Eye, Heart and Mind work together to find the subject and realize the intent. The entire process from start to finish is ambiguous and should be allowed to remain that way.

Some say that I am obsessed with death. Maybe that’s true but who isn’t. It’s the one question we never live to get an answer too. I was at the Frankford Transportation Center, my favorite place to work, and I saw this guy with a face on his belly. It looked like the face was coming out of him. I knew before release that this photo would require post processing but I knew what it would need. Click……..

When I imported the photos into LightRoom, I saw this one and it was ok but not finished. So I opened the Develop Module and started to relax. I remembered what I was feeling at release and open my presets. ( I got these Presets from a guy named Shooter. My shrink says he’s the same as me but I don’t believe it.)…. I clicked thru a few and hit this one. It’s Afterlife. A little tweaking here and there and I saw what I felt and wanted to feel. I realized my intent.

Have a blessed day…….. end transmission …………..

Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Philosophy of Street, Street

Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 25 … Street … Memories of Future Past … Fuji X100s

October 20, 2015 streetshooter 8 Comments

Photography is one of the seductive means of making memories. So I wonder why many aren’t aware that they are making memories. Let’s face it, photography has many purposes and we can never meet all of them at any given time. So I guess it’s wise to get a grasp on what we are doing in the here and now and focus our attention and energy on what we are doing with our camera. We normally don’t think in terms of any specific intent other than making photos.

Well, photojournalist and wedding shooters are photographers and yet they have a different intent than a street shooter has. Well, for the moment right? Street shooters have a different intent than say, a portrait shooter. A portrait shooter gas a different intent than a landscape shooter. All are photographers and all have a different intent for what they are doing. The thing is…………:

There are common denominators with all. Well, cameras are common to all. Yet, that is not specific enough.

Surely there must be something that all not only have in common but that they may or may not be aware of what it is that is in common. Well, I think the single most important thing that all have in common is……:

……..the simple fact that photography does an excellent job of,……….. recording memories. Oh yeah, let’s just take that for granted, I mean after all.. I’m a street shooter and what the hell do I care about being aware that I am recording memories? If I’m making memories, fine…leave me the hell alone and let me do my work. If you wanna see memories in my work, go ahead but don’t bother me with this bullshit.

See, our brains have a really great filing system. It works flawlessly unless it is swimming in alcohol or breathing medicinal pot. Otherwise, it works well most of the time unless it goes on vacation. Mine does that more as I get older. Now at my age, I don’t need it too much anyway.

So we get clobbered with info from the world and then our subject matter and then the brain tells the mind to process everything and make a photo. So let’s say you are on the street and your making photos. Then an accident happens. You make some photos. You think your making photos because you see an interesting subject. What’s really going on is that you are making memories and maybe just maybe those photos will have importance to someone.

When I was in Nam, I carried my M4 and 35 Cron on a neck strap always. I photographed everything I could. In the morning for example, I would do some portraits of the guys. We might be on a fire base or whatever. Then maybe shit hit and we did our job and I made photos when I could. First duty was the M16 or 45. Then the Leica, usually for the aftermath.

Then I would get my Negs and small prints back and look at them. I’d hand out the photos to the guys and then…hmmmm I might have a photo of a troop that didn’t make it.

I became acutely aware that photography is about memories. It’s about other shit too, but memories are the main source of image information transference. I have many photos of what Nam was about. Many soldiers I made photos of are on the wall in DC and other places. I have been asked many times to publish a book of the photos.

See, they are not just my memories. Those soldiers that I made photos of lying dead, they are sons and brothers and everything to family. I won’t do anything with these photos. It’s disrespectful and too painful for the families. When I’m dead, but no hurry, then my daughter will have rights to them and she can do as she pleases. By then all will be forgotten of these warrior heroes that gave me life. All will be forgotten about a war in a foreign land that no one wins. All will be forgotten of the pain that still hurts 45 years later.

the photos, well… they are just memories…………..

Black & White, Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Philosophy of Street, Street, Street Photography

Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 22 … Street … Auto ISO … On Seeing

September 23, 2015 streetshooter 31 Comments

So I be explaining to Linda about the ZEN of Photography but really the Zen of Street. This does not apply to everyone and I am just explaining how I do things and how right it is. Photography is about light. This means that LIGHT is the main thing shooters need to be able to respond to and more importantly, understand. The way we feel and interpret light is what makes each of us different with the same tools and same things.

Back in the last Century I used mostly Leica M cameras and didn’t use a Light Meter too often. I just looked and felt the light and then set my exposure. I had many light meters but I prided myself on feeling my exposure. Some of my friends would test me when we were out shooting and ask me what the exposure was. I would quickly call back my interpretation of the exposure. 90% of the time i was within 1/2 stop.

This ability is ever so important now in the digital world. It’s very easy to get consumed by the ease and convenience of digi-cams. Even the lowest priced offers things that high end film cameras didn’t back then. The point is that feeling the light and making the exposure the way you experience it is a birth right to all shooters. The Auto-ISO feature supports this in a way that is more then anyone could think back in the day.

I was asked by some friends here to explain more about M Mode and I will with the next post. But for now, back to Linda and her quest. It seems her brothers filled her head with as much shit as anyone could and she was almost consumed by it all. She insisted she wanted to make photos the way she wanted to and not by the guidelines her brothers instilled in her.

So I realized the her creativity and more were encapsulated in a shell that I would have to find a way to crack open so she could emerge into her own being.

It seems that we all at one time or another suffer the same symptoms as Linda. Just meandering thru the world in a way that we feel lost or disconnected from the well-being of ourselves. We lose our individuality, our self worth and even out independent personality. We become a number and are forced to accept that as it is placed upon us. For photographers this is especially life threatening. We have the ability to record what is in front of us and that should keep us awake. The luxury of vision is share with other photographers and we see their work and that adds to the comfort and discomfort of our world.

In time we come up with a starting point for the definition of ourselves and seek to find it thru our work. It keeps us humble, sometimes and rattles our cage when we get to cocky and think what we do is all important. We continue on a life long journey of finding the self and we record and make photos along the way.

For me this process is one I hold Holy because in the end, I want my photos to survive me and to give a glimpse of what the world looked like thru my mind, heart and eye while I was here. Will those photos speak truth. No, it will be the truth as I have presented it to be from my reactions to and from my love of life and death. They will just be photos from another fucked up shooter that made his life’s work to entertain others. I think that’s a damn fine way to end it all.

I work as if the end is coming….but not yet my friends, not yet.

Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Philosophy of Street

Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 14

August 26, 2015 streetshooter 4 Comments

Ok, laffing is not polite and supportive to anyone except the patients in the Loony Bin. Well let me start by saying I have more camera bags in every imaginable configuration as every invented. I’m serious. Ok which one of you admits to NOT having the Perfect camera bag for every occasion syndrome. Damn right no one. So I decide that I wanna have Andre’ the Fuji X100s and Walker the Olympus Pen 5 together and have them in a bag. Now of course this is an impossibility because one of the 2 will be working and either in my hand or around my neck. The other one will be resting and absorbing the input from the street ready to process it into me poor brain.

So, I ask you, does this mean I need a small bag for one camera because I would never have both in the bag at the same time UNLESS! AHAA! unless I carried a 3rd camera. See, it’s confusing and leads to camera bag acquisition syndrome. Luckily I have enough in the closet that I shop in there and usually find what I need. Ya know, I saw this sexi azz bag on eBay….nah… forget, da wifey is home.

Market Street is a source of life for me. I used to be inspired just walking and looking around. Id make photos at anyplace I saw fit and usually be happy. I used to look at ppl sitting against a wall, standing on a corner, leaning against a fireplug, everything and was always nice to see them. For years I would see guys on the short wall at Burlington Coat Store.

Ya know I used to think, what are these people doing here all the time. Many familiar faces at the same places. I mean it was amazing, year after year I’d see these people. The other day I saw a few guys dealing their stuff and walked by and I recognized them. The been there for years. One tall guy looked at me and said, “What’s up shooter, peace brother.” Then I got to 12th street and a guy in a wheel chair said to me….”hey shooter, ya got that buck you said you’d have for me next time?” I walked over and handed him the buck.

I had a realization that hit hard to me. I realized that I am as much a part of the scene as they are. I mean they see me almost every day making photos and I’m just shooter making photos like they are Dennis dealing his stuff. Amazing realization to me.

It was maybe 30 years ago and I met a guy named Jeff. He was connected at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He talked about photographs like I hadn’t heard since Ding McNulty. He had photos of Paul Strand and of Michael Hoffman cleaning Strands feet. He had photos of many famous shooters and I new some but most were from the turn of the century. He asked to see my work and I was excited because he knew what was going on. I never went to school and anytime I got some help I felt that was my education.

….anyway, I brought down many prints and he told me he was surprised because I had a real presentation. So we chatted and he asked me if I trusted him. Dude, Paul Strand trusted you man, fucking A diddly I trust you. (Sorry Tina) So then he took my matted prints that were so perfectly presented and so precious and tore the prints from the matt. (breathing heavy, panting, holding myself back from a place I never want to be again)

Jeff says… Don, you need to focus on this… hands me a print and not this hands me a matt. I said immediately, why can’t I focus on both? Because no one can, it’s impossible. He told me to leave and if I wanted to come back for a session again to call him. I asked him when do we meet again? Tomorrow 6:00pm for dinner, your buying. Ok man, see ya then. he hands me the 30 matts and keeps the prints.

The thing about ART is… Art is the Human. The fact that you created ssomething like photos gives them value maybe just to you but that’s the value that’s most important. The heart and soul live in your work. If others adopt a love of your images, that doesn’t change the value of you and your work, it just adds to the intrinsic value associated to you and your work. The basic core of love and acceptance is and should always be yourself. If this sounds like egotistical so what, fuckit… it’s your stuff and you better love it.

I will tell ya about Jeff and the Gambe’ Game my next post.

Till then…. don’t forget an extra battery and to always format your card… of course get the photos off it first……

Be blessed my friends……………………………………………………………………..

Color, Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Street Photography, Streetshooter

Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 9 … a Chat with Mother Light

June 26, 2015 streetshooter 9 Comments

Have you ever been intoxicated and consumed by Mother Light? Let me tell you, it’s a feeling that is beyond compare. She graces us with the elixr of photography and allows us to taste her sweet rays of life and allows us to appreciate the places she does not shine upon. Some have been known to call those areas, Dark or Shadows. Together with the Light, a world is created that photographers live in. There are of course other elements in this world like, graphics, depth and many other things that all work together to provide shooters a platter to feast upon.

I talked with Mother Light a while ago and it was something like this. Knock knock. Yes, who is it? Momma, it’s me shooter from Philly. Oh yes. hmmmm. Then I could hear a man’s voice….Mother, who’s at the door? Father Dark, it’s that shooter guy from Philly. Oh my, not again. Tell him I went to Zone 1 and need to adjust levels down there. POOF! So Mother Light opened the door and came out side. The sun was shining, things were in a very cool placement. I was very sure I could make a great photo and then she asked me….. Shooter from Philly, why did you come to me today?

Momma, she stopped me right in my tracks. Listen shooter from Philly, we will do a lot better if you just call me Mother and not Momma. If not, My sister Rain will visit you everyday for a loooong time. Ok Mother, I said. Well, here’s the thing.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

See, I understand about you Mother Light and Father Dark and Aunt Rain and Uncle Snow and all of that. I understand about finding the elements to make my photo and how to see how things may look and later how things will look. Mother Light said, yes,yes Shooter from Philly….what’s the problem? I bowed my head and I asked, the question that men and woman have struggled with for millions and millions of frames…. Well, all these elements are great and necessary but what about Emotions?

Shooter from Philly, what ye seek is not to be found ever in plain view. What ye seek can only be found inside your own heart. If you are not connecting all the elements and subject matter with your heart, you fail as a human being, not just a photographer. I felt as if I had learned a lesson that I had dreamed about for a long time.

Mother Light said to me, go Shooter from Philly and be on your way. Listen carefully to these words…. The grass is greener on the other side because there’s more bullshit to fertilize it. So you do what you do for you and be pleased you have the gift of sight and the love of something in your life.

As I was walking away on LightRay 167, I looked back at Mother Light and asked her, Mother, can I write about this on my blog. Sure silly Shooter from Philly, who would believe you, everyone knows your crazy….

Well folks, there the story about how I spent part of my day. Maybe you don’t believe this and maybe you think I am crazy but I’ll tell you what. When your outside and making photos, I bet your looking for Mother Light and Father Dark. You don’t have to admit it, I will be the crazy one here, no problem but inside you know and I know that I’m right about what your looking for.

In the window above is Mother Light and Father Dark’s daughter, Color. For many, she’s the most beautiful but for me, I only see her sometimes. She spread her wings and her Red and Blue and his Red and Blue just vibrated and gave me a gift I treasure,. By the way, Color wears the flag of every country of the world, I just happen to catch here her in the USA. If you look around, maybe you’ll find Mother Light and Father Dark and Color and even Rain and Snow……..

Enjoy yourself out there… it’s work but not supposed to feel like work……………………………………………………………………..

Black & White, Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Philosophy of Street, Street Photography

Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 5 … Dreamcatcher

June 18, 2015 streetshooter 12 Comments

There are reasons for each of us to make photos. Now I now that there are more then one reason and when we work we may have a few in our mind. This is normal behaviour and I am proud to say I suffer this photographic discovery illness. I learned along time ago that if you wear your heart on your sleeve, you have to be able to live with the bumps and bruises that will happen to it. For certain shooters, the heart on the sleeve is the only place to have it so that one stays in touch with your inner self and be conscious of how life is effecting you in the here and now.

Maybe I sound like some kind of metaphysical spiritual Zen practicing fool. Yeah, probably am but life has showed me that it will outlive me and I will not survive my death. So I choose to search for the reason to live and a reason to die. For me, besides loved ones, it’s making photos. The difficult thing is to accept your place in the universe. I had a friend Bill back in 1971. He was a photographer and he said to me one day, “Don, I don’t know anyone that takes photography as serious as you.” I thought that was such a nice thing to say because it meant that he saw me and my heart and my love of what I was doing was obvious. I was proud to be considered a serious shooter. We would go to NYC for the day or Philly Center City and Bill would call me, “Your the Man on the Street Donald Springer.”

I was only home from Nam for like 6 months and I was a bundle of C4 waiting to explode. Bill mentored me in many aspects of photography that I wasn’t aware of. He introduced me to Krause, Winogrand, Ding McNulty and many more people that I didn’t know I loved and respected. He took me to Minor White and all these experiences made me feel like I wanted to not only diffuse the C4 but unload it from the baggage I would carry for my life. We were friends for like 18 or so months and then one day Bill told me that he was moving to California with his sister Terry. I was completely heart broken. I didn’t know how my photography would survive. I was really depressed. One day I got a card in the mail with a picture of the rear of a Volkswagen Beetle going over a hill and the sunrise in front of it. That was the last time I heard from Bill.

I realized some time later that what I feared losing was inside me and I must be strong to make my photos and get them out there and never let anything take away the value the image has for me. I also learned that we as humans let alone shooters share an experience of photography and part of the responsibility is to support others regardless of whether we like or dislike their work.

So, I am in a kinda dead/alive period. I don’t mean depressed cause I ain’t and I know the difference cause my Dr at the VA is a good shrink and I feel comfy with him. But photographically, I am looking for a connection to something I can’t reach. I hope youse like music, I do.

I feel like Native American Flute or Gregorian Chant. Thats what my feelings sound like. So now I have to find those sounds in my photos. Sometimes I do and sometimes I might get close but no cigar. Fine, I stopped smoking 3 years ago so I doin need any cigar anyways.

I think photos make a reality that I would prefer to live in. I mean it’s just satisfying to me because my photos bring me pleasure that’s hard to get any other way. I see things that maybe exist or not or even on different planes.

The minister above with his Holly Family book in a spirit way, well kinda freaked me out but I made it anyways because I’m a shooter and a shooter with a camera in hand, on the street, ain’t noting better in life.

So I guess right before I die, I’ll make sure I have many photos of me that will live on and my ancestors will know that looking at them, they are my preferred way of life, in more than one way.

Bear with me as I weed thru these emotions and thoughts. It’s hard for me to take life light and even harder for me to not LOVE and LIVE photography with all that I am or ever will be.

shooter out …………………………………………………………………………………………..

Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Philosophy of Street, Street

Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 4

June 16, 2015 streetshooter 4 Comments

Andre’ the Fuji X100s has been a loyal friend for over a year. So again today we went out together. I know many think that it’s all about the photographer and a good photographer can make a great photo with any camera.I agree with that totally but I choose my camera carefully and test it carefully and some, not all get a name. I don’t want to go thru life with just having tools and things that don’t get named. I want to love the experience of living and love making photos with a camera I’m in love with. I want to love seeing and relishing the gift of sight. I want to love making photos so much that without doing that, it’s not happening for me. I’d be dead inside and lot long after, outside.

So Andre’ is in his favorite place, my hand. He’s comfortable there and I won’t think about putting him somewheres else. there’s many people walking around, it’s 93F and lots of exhaust from the vehicles. Then I see this black truck thing and this guy that’s like 1500lbs and 20′ tall. His hands are like baseball mitts. He’s got like size 50 sneakers on and the sweat is dripping off him like a river. I mean the street is getting soaked. I see the windows open as he walks away. The ground shakes with every footstep he takes. Buildings shake in fear of collapsing. But Andre has no fear. (See if you name your camera and then get caught making a photo and someone don’t like it, just tell them that Andre’ did it, not me). If that works, please let me know.

Well, the windows are open and being the smart street shooter that people think I am, I know there’s some one in the truck cause in Philly if you walk away from your truck with the windows open, well, you need to take the bus home cause even if your a 1500lb giant, they get your shit. Just then, well a bit before then but just then, this woman sticks her head out and looks dead at me. I lower the camera because I want to see and not be seen. So she looks away from me and is looking for her 1500lb giant son and then she just doesn’t see me and CLICK!

I’m walking on Market heading East, that’s the opposite of West. This young girl walks past me and says, “Thank You Sir”. See, I wearing a POW/MIA tee shirt, like I would wear anything else for the last 30 years. I said thank You Hun and as she passed me, cause shes young and not a shooter so she gets to walk faster and not see anything just look for things that may hurt her cause she’s a pretty girl and believe it, there’s ppl and things that want to hurt young girls but if I saw it happen, well I’d be in court for fucking someone up.

Then I see her back with the Tat on it and I scurry to make a photo. She turns and says, it’s my brother. He died in the war. So now I don’t care if anyone likes this photo or not, it’s important to remember those that have fallen and that are STILL MISSING so that we can be free to live our lives.

For the kitten, he’s a hero but for him, he’s a waste. That’s how society treats people that get in financial trouble. It’s not always drugs, many times it’d because the Banks take everything from you and your still in debt for 2045 more years. I wonder what the schedule is for the Presidential Candidates to come and speak with the homeless. The they homeless won’t have to worry because the lying bastards won’t waste their money or time.

Oh, I’m sorry, did I get off track?

Yes, I remember ……………

Black & White, Inspired Eye, Philosophy of Street, Street, Streetshooter

Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 2

June 9, 2015 streetshooter 4 Comments

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The place is where the cultured elite citizens of the region come to enjoy mostly Classical Music. It’s the Academy of Music. So maybe this guy isn’t really homeless. Perhaps he is a token patron of the arts. See, maybe the good people that frequent this place have him laying around so that all can see how the wealthy cultured people take care of the people of the city. He’s doing his job and doing a good job at that. They gave him a place on the nice hard concrete and even a bed of news papers. Oh, how lucky he is. I know you think I’m being sarcastic and maybe even making a joke. I’m not. Did you ever see a down on his luck homeless man with clean white socks. Of course not silly.

I’m walking on Market street and I see this girl and she’s very pretty. I looked at her and she had this hair like I never saw before. She looked dead at me with that Philly, I don’t give a shit Mr, I’m the shit and you ain’t look. So I was about to walk away and she turned away from me and then her hair came alive. I moved in close with Andre’ the Fuji X100s and click. She must have known I couldn’t resist because she turned and smiled at me. I looked her dead in the eyes and said, I thank you Princess. That brought an even bigger sweeter smile.

Ya know we all search for pieces of our identity out there and for some reason, I felt a connection with her. No, not cause she was pretty, it was I think because we saw each other as humans and race and age didn’t mean anything at that moment. There are many things to discover on the streets but the most beautiful is Humanity and what’s left of it.

What I love when out making photos is the pure joy of being in life. I’ll be honest. I don’t care about what anybody thinks and I don’t think about anybody when I’m working. What I do think about is what’s going on in the world. I have an implant from CNN and BBC. CNN is on the left lobe and BBC is on the right lobe. So while I am walking, I can do a Samantha thing with my nose and change stations. The thing is that I hear many people teach about the street as if it’s a shooting gallery. I mean, go out armed with you camera and take photos. I almost do that too, no exception except the Make vs the Take. The important thing for me is to be in life and not on the outside of it, taking photos. So I see life as a reference point when making photos. It always is but we are talking photography. Making photos gets me into all kinds of moods and places and doing things. When I feel disorientated, I come back to life and start over.

That’s why my cameras are my friends and not my tools. When I’m working, my camera is an integral part of what I am doing and a part of me. Just having it with me puts me in a place that all things are together and all things are possible. I don’t get that feeling ever from anyone or anything.

Minor White taught about Pre-Visualization. The idea is to SEE the photo in your head just before exposure. So, back in the day, there were no digital cameras. We went out to make photos and then went to the darkroom and made the Negs and Prints. Now with the advent of Digital photography, Pre-Visualization is all the more easy and important. The above photo ws seen in my head before exposure. So I see the frame and get it with the camera… but before exposure, I see the image being born in LR. Once I see that in my head, it’s time to check frame and release. That most likely takes a second or so. There’s something very satisfying about pre-Visualization. The idea of seeing the image before exposure and then at the finished stage, it’s exciting.

A friend of mine decades ago said that it’s not Pre-Visualization but Preconceptions. I disagreed then and I still do.

Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Philosophy of Street

Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 1

June 7, 2015 streetshooter 12 Comments

They say that a picture is worth a 1000 words and that may be true but pictures don’t hold the viewer for the time that words do. They bot provide info to the viewer and both are beautiful so I suppose that’s what they compliment each other so well. This may be an observation others have had also, not sure. So I think I will just post some photos and then write my thoughts and feelings about them.

So I was in the Historic District walking around and there are always tourist from all over the world. For me, the tourist I get excited about the most are the Monks. Maybe not just Monks but those of the Spiritual and or Religious order. I am immediately humbled in presence of Tibetan Monks. I always bow my head and feel that the good of the universe is close by when I do. I walked by close to these 2 Monks, smiled and they smiled back. The one with the lighter robe looked at me and I realized he recognized my VietNam Veterans hat.

A few minutes later after walking around, I saw them again but this time in front of Independence Hall. I moved behind the carefully and as I did they were talking about the mysteries of photography and how this stupid camera worked. See, I don’t understand Tibetan language but we all know Photography is a universal language. I am pretty good in that language and as I got closer, Andre’ the Fuji X100s shaked in me poor hand and insisted we make a photo and we did. Then the Monks turned to me and without saying a word, handed me the camera and I went to the menu and put it in Single Shot. I made a photo of them with their camera and then we bowed and went out separate ways.

Believe it or not, every single breath of life has it’s own Zen to it. You may or may not believe that but it’s true. The faster we as Humans do believe that the more delicate and special each breath of life becomes.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The above images are some of the breathes I had recently.

Street Photography Chronicles by Don Springer