Tag Archives: LCD Screen

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The Ricoh GR …. Freedom on the Street …. but a Camera Killer

July 30, 2013 streetshooter 6 Comments

I made a discovery some time ago that the Ricoh GRD4 was a camera killer. The reason I say this is because once I pickup the GRD4 and take it out, it’s days to say the least before I can even start to think about using any other camera on the shelf. Ya see, this camera is as close to perfection for a street camera as one can get.

The new Ricoh GR is a very close companion to the GRD4 but it maintains a few differences. I’m not getting into firmware wants/needs because that is outside my real use of the camera. Sure, I want some things addressed but I am a shooter first and a shooter second also. I must be able to use the camera the way it is and not dream of what it may become after a firmware update.

The camera does everything a concerned street shooter requires to be able to do the work. In fact, it may do things too well. The Ricoh GR has captured the KILLER Instinct of it’s mother, the GRD4. Yes, this camera has the ability to kill the desire to use any other camera on the shelf. This creates a real problem for me and maybe others. After a session with the GR and I mean just a day or two… I am hard pressed to pick up the Nex6 or GXR. This is the dilemma I created and now live in. Of course I visit this mad house regularly.

The break point for me is actually a simple but difficult thing called FOV. See, I use the Nex and GXR with MF lenses only. I am using the Voigtlander 21mm & 35mm. These give me a FOV of 31.5mm & 52.5mm. That may be the saving grace in this GR situation. The GR gives 28mm. See, there must be a justification for me to switch FOV other than just the availability.

I know many think I’m nutty and I probably am but I’m also a dead serious shooter. When I raise my camera, the image is already burned in my mind. I’m not struggling with distance, lenses, FOV etc….. I just SEE and Click.

Garden work today so I may be tied up for a day or so.

The Inspired Eye Issue 3 is just about ready to be published. Keep an eye out, it’s a doozey……..

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The Streets With The Ricoh GR

July 28, 2013 streetshooter 1 Comment

Ok, ok…so I didn’t dump the GR. Ya know…there’s a time and place for all things on this green earth. Even if your place isn’t GREEN, in one way or another…there’s still a time and place.

I have been working hard with Olivier to get the Issue 3 ready to publish. I have to say, the kid, ya know that Olivier fella, he knows his dew dew. So the Gr has been sitting on the shelf and probably somewhat nervous about being sold off.

I was in LR5 and working on some presets. It was this time that the GR revelation hit me. I am doing a few new sets and in the B&W I’m working on a gritty look that I love. I tried this on the GR a month ago and the images were too sharp and contrasty. That’s good for most but I want to be able to produce a look regardless of the camera. The NEX 6 is no issue at all. The files are extremely elastic.

So I pulled a few images from a month ago thinking they were from the Nex and started to work the Preset.

All the sudden, I started to see some mojo start to happen. A tweak here, some hot water there, a fire over there and nex thing I knew….I had some really cool presets starting. I said to myself in my usual excited tone, self….let’s get this saved and try it on some other cameras. Well, self said back to me…yo stupid….this is made on the GR. WAT? dskfhfkflghkhgdsmh!!!!!?

I was very surprised and extremely pleased. Ya see, I made a stupid mistake that my self figured out and now I have to admit that my Shrink at the VA is right about me not being too crazy but let’s not get carried away Don your still from from normal…..

So Iam now keeping the GR around me at all times, even the times that I shouldn’t have it with me because the Ricoh GR is not waterproof in the shower.

See, the most important thing about Presets is and must be embraced. Not every Preset will work on every file. That for me, would be too generic. I’m not making these for generic shooters, I’m making them for my friends and they deserve the best that I can do.

So I am working on a few exciting things. The GR has it’s new shot at staying in my pocket and won’t be sold.

The Inspired Eye Issue #3 is almost finished.

The New Presets are almost done and will be a knockout for street shooters….either B&W or COLOR!

More tomorrow when I get back from the VA.

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Nex 6 and Voigtlander 21mm Skopar & 35mm 1.4 Nokton

July 22, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

The more things change, the more they stay the same. What the heck does that mean….dunno?

I find myself walking the same streets, alleys etc. I see the same buildings, cars, buses yeas and even people. With some people I’m past the nodding stage and have moved onto saying, yo…or hey, or hi or something to acknowledge I recognize that person. That person but not all because Philly is a big city and has many people in it and most are human but not all for sure but that particular person I say yo, hi, what’s up etc to also says the same to me.

It’s a ritual on the street and must be carried out without failing to miss someone. This does not in any way allow you to make photos of anyone but it would help things along if you wanted to.

There are times when I see people that I don’t know but still want to make a photo of them. Maybe they are doing something I find interesting. Maybe I find something interesting and want to make a photo and they are in the photo making procedure with someone else. Does that mean I am sharing the experience or does it mean I am just making a photo of their experience that they probably will never view the photo I made? Geeze, I’ll probably never view the photo that they made. They will but I won’t…..hmmmmmmm?

This Rocky fella, he don’t care about how many people make a photo of him and he’ll never see any of them. He just wants ya to pay money and come to see his movies. It’s ok cause he fought the Viet-Nam war better than I ever did.

Philly’s a cool place. we even got dads that drag their kid around cause he’s to friggin busy talking on the damn cell phone and he won’t stop the call so the kid has to get scraped from the concrete and bleed all over…… Nice Day Out With Daddy.

This is in the Visitor Center at Independence Hall. We got Ben Franklin, we gotz Geo Washington, Sam Adams (very famous Beer Maker), around the corner we have Besty Ross and her house. Don’t forget the LIBERTY BELL and the CONSTITUTION and all kinds of important historical stuff. Please don’t whatever you do….forget the Phillies…….

So everything stays the same here for me and maybe a few others. The faces change and my cameras and lenses change.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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The Challenge …. Re-learn Yourself …. Re-learn Your Vision

July 15, 2013 streetshooter 2 Comments

…. I know, I know….you know all this stuff….I do too so what? The other day I was rambling on about changing lenses FOV etc. Well, here’s some more good info that means much to your personal work.

We know that working with a FAVORITE focal length is nice, easy, not challenging and just plain good sense. So why rock the boat and how would you anyway? Glad you asked cause I asked this same question to myself.

Here’s the info in a nutshell. I’ll put it forth the way I work and hopefully youse will get it. If not, read again as I’m sure youse will get it.

I’m working with the GR which is very compact, very fast and almost thoughtless as far as mechanics go. The GR does allow an enormous amount of freedom to work with. So, I’m getting good work out of it and let’s just suppose that I get somewhat complacent in my thinking about my images.

It’s not boredom that comes around it’s familiarity that breeds contempt. This doesn’t mean that it has anything to do with the GR, it doesn’t …. it has to do with visual challenges. What I did to change the world was to start using a Nex 6. Youse know that already. What does the Nex 6 and how does the Nex 6 change anything?

The GR is a screen only camera. Maybe you use a finder on top but it’s a screen camera at heart. So I use it as such and I love screen cameras for many years. It’s got a 28mm FOV and some funky 35mm mask but it’s a 28mm at heart. I’m used to this to the point that I’m comfortably numb. I can see my photos on the street before I get to the street. That’s not being complacent, it’s experience.

The Nex 6 has a screen, it has a viewfinder that is unreal. It takes interchangeable lenses either AF or MF whatever you prefer. It has a different grip and that takes getting used to.

I like using my 35mm 1.4 Nokton. That converts to 52.5mm on the Nex. Uh oh……wait a second there fellas….I like 28mm, I love 35mm, what’s up with the 50mm? THE VISUAL CHALLENGE! I don’t take the GR out with the Nex because I will use the GR and not the Nex. I now have to SEE in a tighter frame. I have to adjust my FOV and perspective to accommodate the different lens.

I use the Peaking and the Magnifier so that requires me to FOCUS the camera by myself. I remember back when I hunted dinosaurs for dinner that my cameras were manual focus. Then I drank 6 pints of Guinness and when I woke up…everything was Auto Focus.

So now I am challenged, not just mentally cause the VA Doctors talk to me and give me drugs to stay here on the world but because I have to re-think a lot of what I always took for granted. So the Nex is my camera of choice to re-learn and re-thing all that there is in Shooterville.

I’ll be post a lot more on this and also I’m working on the BOOK LIST for my rare and vintage sale. There’s a new page up top and keep checking it out….

Thanks Friends…….don

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The Nex 6 makes Garden Dreams

July 14, 2013 streetshooter 2 Comments

The continuing saga of the shooter changing his vision but not really cause he sees that way anyway but now the cameras see with him is moving along. I love my cameras and they are my friends. If I don’t love them, they aren’t here and maybe you bought one off eBay or a forum. The GR is second nature to me because I spent a lot of time working with it for a new camera.

The camera that is demanding attention at the moment is the Sony Nex 6. This of course means that I have to find the vision I want from the camera. The GR is excellent at 28mm. The Nex doesn’t need that FOV for me but I do have the 2 Sigma’s…the 19 & 30mm.

Geeze, how do they even make lenses soooo good for sooo little money? No answer required. So I pulled out a few of my older film lenses….what…huh…oh, ok…scuse me…my Legacy glass. I don’t like any of my Leica M lenses on digital cameras. Not even the M cameras. The images seem to0 digitized and artificial. I mean I used my lenses on the Eppy RD1s and even on the M8 & M8.2. I’ve used them on Rogers M9, M Mono and the M240 that is really a nice camera if they get it up and running. My issue is that I’m old school.

I want my photos to read as photos first and if the viewer cares to get into the technical aspects, they can afterwards. So I like a slightly not so sharp image, with liquid tones and as little pixels as possible to block the viewer from entering the image. It’s not a film reproduction but a way to make digital easier to read emotionally. So I know my Leica lenses are too sharp for digital FOR ME!

I guess it comes from my past and my non school learning from Ding McNulty that I want to continue to see my work the way I always did. I am very happy with my PP work and I need cameras that provide the files for me to realize my vision. The GR is a no question camera. It does what it is supposed to do better than any other camera ever invented or any that ever will be for 20000 years.

That being said…let’s talk freely. The GR doesn’t see 50mm like the Nex does. I hear tell it doesn’t see anything but 28mm perfectly and tries to see 35mm but that’s it. Enter my dilemma. I am seeing 50mm more and more as I work. I also see 35mm and that is my NATURAL FIELD OF VIEW anyway. The Nex 6 offers me something I really like.The files are very liquid, more so than any other camera I used. I love the Pen camera line but it just doesn’t cut it for what I want.

A qualifying statement. I write these words and put these photos in because photography is not a hobby for me. It is not something I practice. It isn’t something to pass the time. It is in fact, my life’s work. Being so, I have a responsibility to my work to do it as close to a faithful representation as I possibly can.

So for the foreseeable future I will be working hard on the multiple lens, multiple FOV scenario. There is also the Finder to deal with. Don’t for get the amazing Peaking….and how about the…..

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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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The Sony Nex 6 and the 35mm 1.4 Nokton are getting Streetshooter Wise

July 10, 2013 streetshooter 9 Comments

….. so I’m walking thru Penn Square heading to get coffee and breakfast and coffee….coffee…get that. I have the yet un-named Nex in my hand with the 35mm Nokton on. I figured just to relax, sip a few cups of coffee…COFFEE and this guy is inside this building talking on his fancy dancy cellphone and he’s looking at me like I’m nuts. So I raised the camera and focused with the red peaking as I did this and framed and CLICK! Not bad considering I was just trying to get a cup of friggin coffee.

The thing about using a 50mm for me is to change the way I see the world and my work. What I find most interesting is the Depth Of Field. Ok, so outside of the Metro Philly Area, there’s a thing called Bokeh. Yeah…yeah, I heard of it but I ain’t letting that SOB Mr Bokek get into my stuff. He’s not always in focus but he shows up sometimes. So what I like to do is Anti-Bokeh or Reverse Bokeh.

Of course none of this will mean a hill of beans to anyone else but my collectors and myself. The interesting thing for me is something like this. Just making the change to a 50mm FOV should bee as easy as changing lenses. Well, maybe for most it is but for me it’s not. I want to know about the DOF that is taken away from this change and how I have to compensate for that loss on my lens. My lens has a very accurate DOF scale…(Tested on a number of Leicas)…I want to be able to just switch f/stops and KNOW what I have for my DOF without looking at anything but the subject and the lens.

The field of view also leads me to thinking more. Oh yeah, my brain works on overtime…….but this funny enough seems to be the easy part for me. I SEE 50mm already. What that means is that it’s quickly becoming a Natural Field of View. So I guess the technical parts will be worked out in the next few weeks or so. I mean, I think I’m off to a good start being a rank amateur on this lens.

Now a word about photographic engineers. Why do I have to have another nice lens that sees 35mm, has the proper markings for 35mm and works just great as a 35mm field of view and DOF for a 35mm lens and yet I put it on the NEX 6 and youse idiot engineers make the lens see like 52.5 mm and the DOF is off and the scale is off and I get a headache every time I have to think about what I’m doing because you are the engineer and should be playing with you locomotives and not our cameras……

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The Ricoh GR Dances with that Streetshooter Fella in Philly.

July 3, 2013 streetshooter 4 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

in Fond Memory of Dr Murray Banks

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

July 2, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RICOH……I am open for endorsements……

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The Ricoh GR …. My UN-Real Reality Check

June 27, 2013 streetshooter 6 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

Street Photography Chronicles by Don Springer