Tag Archives: Street

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The Ricoh GR …. Off Street …. A Great Camera For Lasting Memories

August 1, 2013 streetshooter Leave a comment

One of my favorite photographers from way back to 1973 is Emmet Gowin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmet_Gowin

The reason was that he photographed his wife’s family usually with a large format camera. I immediately connected with his vision because I was doing the same thing but differently. His photos of his wife Edith sent chills down my back and sent film to my cameras. It would energize me all the way to this morning’s walk with Tanya in the rain. I had an instant realization of how important the Family Album was and is.

Someday I hope my archive of negatives will be found by a family member and they can have the history of our family printed. I even have negatives my Grandmother gave me from the late 1880’s of as many family members that were photographed and the images survived. My generation is the next to exit and I hope that my family album survives me but because it’s many negatives, the younger members won’t know what the heck this stuff is.

The Ricoh GR …. A Great Camera for Lasting Memories.

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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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The EYE, HEART & MIND …. Keeping Focused on INTENT.

July 25, 2013 streetshooter 5 Comments

The quest for me has always been to stay focused with my eye, heart and mind. I’ve managed to do so in spurts of time and energy and at the same time, get unfocused as well. I remember sitting against a tall oak tree with Minor White. The class was all about making photos that may or may not in time have or have not any value.

Minor related to me more so than the others because I was a combat vet from Nam and really because I was always asking him questions. He told me that the hardest part of living was not in finding subject matter to focus on but focusing on my inner self.

I came to understand what Minor meant but so far, I have failed to find the inner self and stay focused on it for a prolonged period of time. This is what he meant as explained to me. The words may not be exact anymore but the meaning lives in me and will forever.

The single word that maintains value above and beyond all others is...“INTENT’. So maybe I have photos of flowers as above. The thing is, to most they see pretty flowers. To me and other photo warriors, we see INTENT. I see that what I felt at the moment of exposure is realized in these images. No, it’s not The Decisive Moment. (I’m not a firm follower in that saying anymore. Besides there are about 3600 seconds in a moment here in Philly. YMMV. That’s not using any fraction of seconds. So, today shooters have destroyed the essence of what Bresson was talking about. I choose not to subscribe to that ruination.)

So, if one’s intent is intact, then whether another gets the photo or not doesn’t matter at all. Photography being a form of visual communication needs to communicate. But with whom? If the photo lacks intent, it’s just like writing hogwash with words. The words are there but there is no intent and thus no message.

Photographers are more prone to suffer a lack of communication than other communicative arts. You can buy all the cameras, lenses, darkrooms, lightrooms etc you can afford. Shoot countless hours, days, weeks months etc. Take as many workshops as you can all the while, what you need to succeed in your quest is just plain and simple…INTENT.

Intent is the focusing of your….Eye, Heart and Mind.

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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

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

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…..

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

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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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 Nex 6 and the 35mm 1.4 Nokton

July 9, 2013 streetshooter 2 Comments

Time comes in my photographic life that forces me to do things that I am uneasy with. At this juncture, I need as much support from my cameras as I can get. Yeah, I’m a sensitive shooter. So the time is here again for me to start using a 50mm lens. It’s the issue of seeing that rings the door bell to my vision.

This is a very stressful time for me. I have my vision working fine with what I have and don’t need or want any interruptions to my process. Well, the Yellow Mother, who is actually bankrupt but out of respect for her I remember her name and spread it around because all need to know how important KODAK was and is to the history of what we do.

She called and once again has made me analyze my stuff and seek with tighter eyes a new frame. This happened only 2xs in my past. First was around 1976 when I got the urge to shoot with a 50mm. I bought a nice Single Stroke M3 with a mint 50mm Cron.

I worked about 20 months using that camera forgetting my M4’s and 35mm lenses. I also used the 90mm on occasion as it’s perfect with the M3. I made a beautiful body of work that sold rather well, enough to pay for my first divorce. Then I went to the M4 and Cron or Lux again as I started Large Format again.

Second time was many years later, I guess around 1998 when I wanted to use the 50mm again. I worked feverishly for almost 2 years and did another nice collection of work, enough to pay for my next divorce. At this time, I went totally Deardorff in all sizes and carried an M4 and 35mm Cron in my jacket pocket or on a strap.

My friends Roger and Peter, both extremely wealthy….oh yeah…that wealthy interrupted my 50mm work again by giving me digital cameras….That took off to the point that I am at the Ricoh GR and fighting the 28mm nipple of the camera and I am now on the Nex 6 with the wonderful 35mm 1.4 Nokton. That gives me a 52.5 mm FOV. It’s just what I need for a spell. I compared the 35mm Lux and the Cron and they read more digital to me than the Nokton. I really like the creamy tones and sharpness it gives me. It reminds me very much of my 35mm Lux 1st Version. Anyway, her I am and here I’ll be for a spell…….

Street Photography Chronicles by Don Springer