Tag Archives: Streetshooter

Thinking Color … RICOH GRII

June 3, 2016 streetshooter 6 Comments

Well, I suppose that I ain’t all cleared in my mind yet. Oh, my brain is not on vacation so that’s not the issue.I don’t know that there is an issue and if there is an issue is it an issue I need to be concerned about?

I been enjoying roaming the streets of Center City Philadelphia with Mom the Ricoh GRII. It’s tourist season so I am feeling my oats, so to speak. Something that has been gnawing at my back is the reading of photos of B&W vs Color. I have been critiquing photos from some friends here in Philly so they can submit to various things. This is some shooters that have taken a workshop with me. I offer never ending support and most take advantage of that. The word I use, never ending, may be a mistake at times.

One of the most difficult things to work on is the way the print is assembled. I say assembled because that’s really what happens and always did happen. Every step from holding the camera to presentation is apart of the assembly procedure. So if that’s the case, and it is, any given point may add to or detract from the finished print. There are 2 main considerations that will control the eye travel of the viewer. The first is, Aspect ratio. This is the rectangle or square that you compose your frame in. The most common are 3:2 and 4:3. This is not so say that others aren’t important, just that these 2 are the most popular. In fact I have a natural affinity for 16:9 but haven’t perused it for long time.

So, the visual Dynamic of the box or frame has an enormous impact on eye travel and the final image. It behooves us to at least understand the frame we choose to work in.

Another very key element that really is taken for granted is B&W vs Color. This seemingly simple decision can and will make or break the image. I remember at the Museum with Ding, he showed me some prints and they were in color. I can’t recall the photographer but just the experience. See, this is KEY! I remember almost every photo I saw there in B&W but this group was in color and I can’t remember the shooter. Back then I was a Leica shooter and just used B&W films. I never cared for color. Now, I don’t distinguish between the 2 to the point that it mandates my thinking or feeling. Now, my only concerns are breathing and really spending time till the end of my life breathing.

I have the tendency to find my own tonal scale in B&W. I always did that in my darkroom and I’m told that i have a palate that is mine. Now it seems I have something similar in digital. I admit it’s a shared palate. So, me brain is thinking, maybe, just maybe we need to understand color in our own palate. So I am analyzing my thoughts and feelings towards color and the effect if has on my prints and more importantly, my vision.

Now, lets clear the air. I have done color in the past even with serious intent. Now with this new life cycle, I decided to do color with a new set of thoughts. I was asked a short while ago, why I write this stuff? Well, I guess because I have to and someone has to do it. I replied, if you need to ask why I write this stuff, you don’t belong here.

I suppose I’ll continue this but for now, I need to rest again.

Street Photography

Mind Clearing …Ricoh GRII

May 29, 2016 streetshooter 9 Comments

So, the thing about mind cleaning is that it’s never a finished job. Even when you think you really got it all nice and spiffy, well don’t bank on it. There’s residue that you really should investigate.

I have a guy I work with, kinda the way my shrink works with me. It’s just that I’m an old shooter and my shrink is an old shrink. Any way, he is always taking workshops and then contacts me to help him make sense of it all. He has to show 20 images and then the teacher goes at them in class. He said there was 8 people in the class and he felt uneasy because like other classes he attended, there was a definition placed upon him by the teacher that was to define the value of the work. This to me is a scary thought.

I mean, maybe we should make a photo that the teacher says is good and then give it to every shooter in the world so that allabody knows the idea of a good shot. What do we need individuality for? We should elect 1 single head of photographic curation for the entire world. This person will decide if a shot is good or not. If it’s good, walk tall amongst the few that have been graced by the premier curator of the world. And if it’s not valued as good but frowned upon because you failed to duplicate the exact thoughts and feelings of the successful shooters, well then… off with your damn head cause you don’t need it anymore.

Look, I don’t think anyone has the right to judge another’s work. Doing so, devalues the persons soul that you are commenting on. I will stand tall and say this. I have the ability to look at a Paul Strand and next to it a snapshot from aunt Mary’s Birthday Party and see equal value in the images. Collectors and buyers can make all the value they want and claim this and that but in the end, it’s the love of people and photography that stands tall even when we are gone.

So really, what do you think is more important, no… what is more satisfying? Doing work that satisfies you on a level that you are willing to die for, and we all will, or doing it to meet the standards others place upon us?

I remember Ding showing me prints and of course I wanted to breathe the Strands and Walker Evans etc. I did too. Then we were talking and he wanted to show me some portraits. He opened a box and pulled out about 20 not very big prints.

I held them cautiously and gently along the edges, very carefully. Not everybody processed archival prints and the oil from your fingers will attack the paper even years later.Anyway, after looking at Strands, there’s not much to be said about anyone else’s work. That’s the truth and I may believe it but I never practiced it.

I held these portraits in my hand and Ding watched carefully, wondering what I would say and anticipating my thoughts. Them he broke the silence and asked what I thought. I replied, these are really great snapshots at first look. Most people would not get past the snapshot. Ding agreed. Then i said, I feel the photographers presence and that response by the subject. It’s like he’s doing what many others do but he’s just insistent on doing it his way.

Mike Disfarmer died in 1958 and his work became collectible and regarded as fine art years after his death.

There’s a major point I made and if your getting it, great and if not… maybe we just don’t click and that’s also ok.

Philosophy of Street, Street Photography

Mind Clearing

May 24, 2016 streetshooter 7 Comments

I have said many times that my brain goes on vacation and it does. The thing is, my mind stays put in me poor head so I can work. I’m kinda bogged down with all kinds of things and thoughts. Maybe it’s a welcome break cause I miss just loving photography. There has been many reasons for me to make photos but the most important one, because I have to because I love to, is on the back rail. Well, not any more. I am out working with only one agenda. That is that I am making love with light and life again. I think what got me to this point of realization is, that the tourist are here, and I mean here like all over the place. That’s my time to get busy and work.

Tourist are the blood line of creativity.Well for me at least. I find it a stimulating time to be in and around the Historic Park. Love working there. I get this feeling of complete happiness with photography. The Monk did not actually pose for me. He asked me when I made the photo if I was a tourist. I said yes, a tourist for 66 years. You guys know this but he don’t. Well he does now but he didn’t when I said it to him. I said, we are all tourist of the earth, no one gets a permanent visa. He looked at me and said, enjoy your journey.

So I feel that I am coming to one with myself again and working because I have to, and because I love to. After the end of summer I will sort the cream out and submit to my buyers. I’m still doing that Faces and Spaces project but not permitted to show the work. It’s ok, I got some good things already.

I will be out again tomorrow and Suzanna and Polly want to meet for Lunch. Nice, love them dearly and they are getting sooo fine tuned.

till we meet again…..remember, you live your life anyway you want…when yo exit, you exit alone. So, make tings count and cherish each breath as if it came from the Angel of Life….because it did. Mother Light will not forget you and you can make photos knowing you are at one with yourself.

Color, Street Photography

Ricoh GRII

May 17, 2016 streetshooter 12 Comments

One of the beautiful things with digital photography is that you have a choice of Color or B&W. Back in the day, I always carried 2 M bodies so I could have both films to work with. Now of course, most time you need 1 body. My friend Roger is an avid Leica collector for 50 years, with more cameras that any store. He sent me the M Mono when it came out and he was so excited. Eveyone was, a B&W camera, sooooo cool and soooo great…until you need a color image. Now ya get back to me with my 2 M6’s.

Anyway, the difference between the 2 is more in the mind then the film or camera. I figure it like this. Bear with me as I use terms maybe the wrong way but the way I need to use them. Photographs are on a 2 dimensional surface. The are born from an idea and maybe a scene or something in the 3 dimensional reality most of us share. There happens to be an abstraction from 3 dimensions to 2 dimensions. One of the mosr important things lost in this abstraction is, space or depth. So the photo is as some think, an illusion of the reality it was captured from. It is no longer the reality in 3 dimensions. It now takes on a new reality in 2 dimensions. It’s alive! It has it’s own life and energy.

Here’s some magic. I know youse all know this stuff but I need to write it down so it looks good, ok. If we now take our photograph, which is a new life and see it in color cause we made it a color photo, we have something to deal with on a conscious level. That is, the viewer most likely will use the color photo to transfer the reality in the mind of the image back to the sourse. For exaample….wow, yeah, I know where that is…..or…you nailed that green perfectly. I know that door.

Now, there’s never any one way to do anything in this world. But we are shooters and we are reading shooter’s stuff cause it’s better than washing the dishes. Color has a way of softening the abstraction to the 2 dimensional reality, better known as the photo. Color eases the translation of the visual syntax of photography. It helps to define the meaning and process.

If we were to abstract even more than 3 dimensions to 2 dimensions, and strip the color away, we would have a b&w image. What does that do? Well, it now makes our abstracted image even more distant from the sourse of reality that it was born from.

Ya know what I love about photography? Well, no answers so I’ll tell ya. Photographs give the illusion of being something they are not. A photo is an entity upon itself. It is not what it appears to be. It is it’s own seperate reality. Unfortunately, photos suffer from many things in the reality that they live in. Things like memory, sentiment etc. These things plague the life of our work. People look at the photos and recall a memory of something that the photo sparks. There’s nothing wrong with that and it’s a very powerful, iimportant thing to deal with.

Well, color supports all that and more. B&W on the other hand has the power to stand on it’s own but we as shooters and viewers, won’t allow that to happen. Ideally, looking at a photograph, we only see the world that lives as the image. Even in b&w, we force the memory and sensory input to make the photo relate to some other reality. That reality is different from the photo. There really is a contradiction of terms but we probably don’t want to deal with it.

When I do a workshop, the single most important thing people want to understand, is:…the abstraction to a print. Making the world in a frame and flattening it out. Framing becomes something new because you become aware of the way things get flat. The illusion of space or depth is a stronger illusion in color. The eye travel not only seeks to learn about the subject matter, but also to understand the relationships of the color.

Our lady above is being seduced by a few things. The obvious thing to us is the color. After I made the photo, she asked my why I made it. I told her that I found it very interesting that she was wearing the T Mobile color. She said, “get out… I didn’t know that. I stopped here cause I was comfortable here.”

I have to get to rest….. I need my 3 hours sleep………. seeya’s later, be blessed alls……

……to be cont’d……….

Color, Street Photography

Ricoh GRII

May 15, 2016 streetshooter 4 Comments

C’mon, why do people ditch the Ricoh GRII? I haven’t a clue. I love all my cameras and even the ones I don’t have yet or the ones I had but don’t anymore. Camera discussion is over. If my photos don’t do what I intend, damn sure ain’t the camera’s fault.

….anyway, I kinda fell into a groove with things and am watching where it takes me. I mean there’s some kind of adjustment happening in my head without my shrink fiddling around up there…..ok, ok… true confession….I never really responded to color.I mean of course I can see it, Thank THE LORD but I never responded to it….

….many years ago a guy landed on earth, (No, not David Bowie)….and his name was Michael, for us Earthlings. now see, when I was younger, we all smoked some stuff that um… maybe back then wasn’t medical stuff….we would smoke some and talk and eat, and play instruments and eat and the get a shower, and eat and drive down the shore and eat…

well, this kat named Michael came from MARS, he had a word that summed up gaining and understanding knowledge…. that word was “GROK”.

So, if you read a camera manual and understood it, you GROK that. Even if you don’t smoke medical or non medical… it’ still GROK. Well, for some reason now, I GROK what I’m doing or want to do and I double GROK GROK color. (the double GROK is not a Martian term, it’s adapted from Martian to NE Philly, here on planet Earth.)

The thing is to stir your stuff up and shake it around and let it settle. Then look at the residue…(Paul McGuirk term) and see what’s left for you to work with. I guess one of the hardest things to do is to dislodge negative reinforcement, because many times it’s positive and not negative.

What I’m getting at it this….: if you post photos someplace and get nice responses in any form, then that’s positive reinforcement, or is it. Alright, keep an open mind for a spell. If you get positive reinforcement and you feel good about what your doing, you probably are in a safe zone and won’t do many things to change because… why fix something that’s not broken?

You have forged a safe zone that even you are apt not to tamper with. That creates an invisible zone of complacency. If you do that and trust me at my age, I’ve done that for decades….what will happen is you won’t grow. You will stifle it Edith.

You will think you are content and that you have found your place but for real, your on a dead end street.

I will continue this tomorrow but remember, before you can GROK anything you do, you have to GROK youself first.

Like the Ricoh GRII… GROK it and it’s a fine camera……

Hey, hey… I did this post with my brain on vacation dudes and dudesses

Street Photography

Fuji X100T

May 14, 2016 streetshooter 8 Comments

See, Andre’ the Fuji X100s was passed on to Olivier. Then I started missing him instantly. When we took Olivier and Andre’ the Fuji X100s to the airport, I had a sick feeling and a feeling of loneliness inside me. I felt empty.

Then as Olivier jumped out of the car, I felt a presence inside my soul. I knew who it was. Quickly I ordered a Fuji X100T and in a day, it was here. I loaded it with a fresh charged battery and turned it on…..

Then, then by the grace of Mother Light, I felt the presence do kinda like Astral Travel from my soul to the Fuji X100T and it gave life to the empty camera.

I watched as Andre’ did his magic to the camera. Now here’s the thing. Fuji cameras are wonderful and do a great job but they come alive when working with a shooter that gives them a name and creates a synergism with them. I did that, well Andre’ and I did that.

Clarification

Part of the idea of naming a camera is to:Unite the eye, heart and mind with the process of photography. Sure, you can be a knucklehead and just meander thru life and just not be so attached to everything. That’s called, it’s your life so do as you please and just leave me alone. procedure.

I see it like this. Andre’ is not just a camera. He’s a metaphor for my existence as a photographer. So, when I say Andre’, it means every facet of my photographic life. Why do I do that? Why shouldn’t I and why don’t you. When there is an attachment like this, for me, it’s let’s me become at one with what I’m doing. It is a conscious awareness of the eye, heart and mind in the here and now.

I have had many cameras in my life but never kept a single one that didn’t allow me to name it.

Besides, we all need a place to put the guilt or blame for things, right? When a shot don’t turn me on, it’s not my fault, it’s Andre’s or another camera I was out with. See, not so stupid, huh, huh?

I hope you all have a blessed weekend, and life but really just this weekend and it becomes very productive cause I only get so many blessings to give out and can’t keep them so I pass them on to all youse and yes I may be crazy butt it’s all about life and being awake while you live it cause when we are dead I don’t think there’s battery chargers up there or down there so let’s keep things together here……

Dreamcatcher, Street Photography

Unheard Voices … Pt 4

May 10, 2016 streetshooter 10 Comments

….I gotta tellya’s….I thought I was the only one messed up and as it turns out, there could be maybe are others.I know it’s hard to believe and I don’t believe it myself but the writing is on the wall…..

Apparently there exist no real solution to this issue. Maybe we don’t need one anyway. What I propose is a work a round that is not to difficult to live with. I believe that being aware of a problem is more important than solving the problem. Just think, if you aren’t aware of a problem, than you can’t fix what you don’t know. If you are aware of a problem and even aware of problems that may arise in the future, you at least have the vision to tackle them.

So, we know we have all this baggage and stuff with us when we are working. We have to hold ourselves accountable and find a way to get the baggage away from the front of the lens.

I remember sitting with Minor White and talking. He said that the hardest thing to do is to see something for the first time. I really didn’t understand fully but I wanted to. This was maybe 1972. What he meant was that all that you are up to this point is in front of the lens at the precise moment that you make the photo. I started to think about that and ya know, 44 years later, I’m still thinking about this.

My answer is not the same as Minor’s. If you want his answer, read his photos and all will be illuminated. I see it this way.

1 Maybe we should see things as if seeing them for the first time.

2 Maybe we should see things as if we are seeing them for the last time.

3 I believe that neither is the proper stance. I feel that we should strive to be in the here and now. I talk about this a lot and this entire essay is about the here and now and how to recognize it and how to recognize when you have an intrusion or just fall out of it.

It all comes down to “The Stance”…..

c’mon, wait till tomorrow ok……….

Inspired Eye, Street Photography

Unheard Voices … Pt 3

May 9, 2016 streetshooter 16 Comments

So, to make things clear, there are voices of another kind that want to or do go out with us. Not all voices are perceived so easily. Some and maybe most have the possibility of influencing our vision or maybe thoughts, feelings etc. The camera could be seen as the number one culprit.

I know many say that it’s the shooter not the camera. The camera is a tool. The shooter is everything. To me that’s a very lazy way to address the issue.

See, if all those shooters are correct, I’m in for the biggest letdown of my life. Well, not my life but maybe a 15 min part of it.

Fact… doing underwater photography with a DSLR without a case is not a good idea…

Fact…doing sports with a 21mm on a Leica is not a great idea…

Fact… Doing street with an 8×10 Deardorff without a tripod is not a great idea.

Fact… you get the idea. So if the camera doesn’t matter and it’s only the shooter that matters, do one of the above practices and I can send you more if you need to torture yourself more.

I see this exercise as an awakening and a promise to try to dilute the garbage others have put into me. The camera absolutely matters. I name my cameras because I see and treat them as my friends. Each camera will introduce limitations or effect how you work.

So, many have stated that the Ricoh GRII has too many things like bugs going on. I love that camera. I named it Mom cause I wanted to have my mothers spirit in the camera. Does it work that way? Nah, not at all but it’s still a good name and I adore the camera. If I listened to the scuttlebutt from others, I wouldn’t experience the freedom that the camera affords me.

So, there are many obstacles to overcome and no one will stop poisoning your mind either. I hope I’m not doing that cause I would rather set it afire and provide inspiration. Oh and let’s not forget that you can’t be a shooter of any worth if you don’t use Light Room. If your not using those masterpiece pre-sets, well, your wasting your time.

This isn’t really a rant. I think we all suffer from over intoxication for info that is good but worthless. There is no washing machine for the mind. Well, the CIA maybe but not for our kind of shooters.

The idea of categorizing and cataloging information that is in our brain is not an easy idea to tackle but it’s one that must be attempted.

Tomorrow, we start the cleaning and organizing the brain and getting the mind to be a separate entity.

shooter out…………………………………………………..

Inspired Eye, Street Photography

Unheard Voices … Pt 2

May 7, 2016 streetshooter 6 Comments

Well, to continue on our journey of, um maybe photographic madness….I think we need to address the unheard voices a little bit more. Some heard voices told me that it was imperative to do so. Now I may not always pay attention to the unheard voices but I like to address the heard voices even if I don’t pay them any mind, or if I choose to do so, pay them mind.

I think many are caught in the wave of trying to find themselves thru the masters. For instance, maybe you or someone you know admires Vivian Maier. Then you go to work and her work is in your mind. Maybe you decide to emulate her style and you start to get good stuff. Even if it’s just you that thinks it’s good stuff.

A few things. First and foremost, is the danger known or unknown of really trying to do work in her style. Then maybe you get some good feedback and maybe you start to think, wow, I can do Maier better than she did. Maybe you can and maybe, just maybe it don’t mean anything anyway.

Photography is a way of lie. It’s a way of living and satisfying the inner self and going for it.So, Life and photography and maybe a few other things like a real good orange, is not about living or doing things thru the mind.

Those who live life thru the mind miss the most important thing in all existence. THE HEART! Shooters get very wrapped up in the mind and how wonderful it is and how special MY MIND IS.

The shooter that is in touch with life or on the way to that plateau, is the one that lives by the heart.

So, doing your work and standing by the influences that you absorb, or adopt or just let in, will invariably cause much inner pain and dis-satisfaction. The hard part is to dissolve the barriers of what you perceive as success and allow yourself to become your own person and shooter. It’s not an easy task. It’s a task that not many will take and will eventually let it fall into the shadows of dark thoughts without feelings.

The shooter that wants to set freedom into the work will rely on the heart to direct the path.

more tomorrow……………..

Inspired Eye, Street Photography

Unheard Voices

May 6, 2016 streetshooter 8 Comments

Well, apparently I’m not the only one thinking about my work. I got some nice emails from readers here and even some post about the situation. Oh yeah. it’s a situation alright. It’s bi-partisan also.

I happen to really like the above photo. No matter what others think and or feel….I like it, I feel it and glad that I made it. Enter the Flickr crowd. No I am a Flickr-ite so it’s ok for me to comment about the madness there cause, I’m maybe the most madneser guy there.

It’s not easy to stand up for yourself amongst the crowd. We all want to be accepted and appreciated.To let that influence what and how and why we do things is a problem. Actually it’s many problems on a multitude of levels.

Ok ok… check this stuff out…… your looking at someones work. You check the meta data out and see that person is working with a Fuji X100T You don’t have that camera BUT YOU KNOW YOU NEED IT!

That shooter was in Paris and you can’t walk there….BUT YOU HAVE TO GET THERE! That shooter is very sensitive to the darkness and you always do bright sunny or overcast light…BUT YOU KNOW YOU NEED TO SHOOT IN THE DARKNESS.

C’mon, I’m the worst of the lot of us. I have 1400 cameras, airline tickets to every city in the world and a guide in each city to show me the streets cause I’m too fucked up to know ANYTHING ANYMORE!

Ok, so here’s something for youse to chew on. In my interviews for the Inspired Eye Magazine, I ask a question about going out to work alone of with others.

99% of the interviewed answer, alone. Now I find that a very interesting question and the answer seems so simple but it’s the most crucial question you will ever be asked. Your answer to that determines how in touch with what your doing you are.

Here’s what I mean. Photography is a 2 dimensional art form. I rather think it’s really a 3 dimensional art form and the 3rd dimension is not space but the mind. Of course those with a spaced out mind, are ok and this applies to them also.

When you go out to work and your alone, just you and your NAMED camera and your in a place you like to work, are you alone? Most of course will say yeah, I like to work alone.

You are not alone. You are out there with all the things people say about your work, all the things you see in other peoples work, all the stuff that you want to improve upon, all the energy that is churning around in your mind and much of it is placed there by others.

It’s the unheard voices in your head that will overcome you and make you surrender your self to them. Those voices dictate what you see and how you see and why you see it and what you use to capture it.. They do not have your best interest at heart. They are there and they force their will upon us in many ways, location, camera, processing, everything.

Ever hear the expression….”Misery loves company.” It’s true. Why do you think we all get married?

It’s the weekend. Olivier and I have the presses going strong to get the new issue out to everybody. I will seeya all very soon…

chew on this stuff and don’t be afraid to let me know your thoughts…..

….to be cont’d………

Street Photography Chronicles by Don Springer