Thursday, April 18, 2013
Yet More Introspection
An unusual blog entry, listening to Nirvana, drinking a glass of wine, 33,000 feet, and about 45 minutes into a flight to Singapore. I never cease to marvel at the juxtapositions that modern life and in particular air travel creates, we move from place to place in the blink of an eye, from ice to sun, from never ending winter to perpetual summer. However, long flights provide a gap, a space, in which to ponder where I am and where I am going. For 12 hours I am absent and unavailable, in an undefined transient space that whilst not terribly comfortable is somehow comforting, a cocoon insulated from the world. So here is some random musing on photographic themes.
As I progress in my studies I am increasingly realising that art is not a theoretical study, an impersonal assessment or creation, but very much a reflection of the self, the individual. Roughly a year ago I was closing up on my landscape course, ending a period of study that whilst personal was a lot to do with developing an understanding of place coupled with shape and form. As I progress in social documentary I find that something of me must enter the photography, the problem I continually face is what and how. Too much introspection and my work might become unintelligible, too little and it is banal and bland. Recently I have gone back to shooting stuff that interests me, independently of whether I think it a subject worthy of "ART". (Metallica) Travel has become a theme, simply because I am traveling so much, but it is a part of me and one that I need to get into my work.
I feel that I am thinking too much about my work, not trusting enough in my own intuition. This drove me into a dead end with my study of the Fest, the project that almost undid my course. With Fest I thought too much about the outcome and not enough about the meaning. I started hunting imagery that would meet a specific need rather than discovering photographs that carried their own message (Stone Roses). This somehow lost me, I was shooting to order, my order, but not my soul. Where am I going with this, I guess what I am trying to say is that I can only produce art if it reflects me and not the genre I am currently studying. I can work within the confines of the course, I am a student after all, but I must produce stuff that I actually care about, there is little point otherwise.
In another 10 hours I will arrive in Singapore once more, a few weeks after I left, but this time it is a short stop off on a longer trip to the island of Negros in the southern Philippines, our annual 3 week vacation (Blur). Seat 35A, Heidi in 35C, Mum in 35D, a 3:3:3, config 777 belonging to Singapore airlines. Why, the detail, because it is relevant, it is where I am and where the people I love are. In a sense this is what photography needs to be about, the little details that record the life we lead and document something trivial that might become meaning at a later date. We are creating a progressive record of today, not tomorrow or yesterday, but today, this becomes more important to me as I get older and realise that time is a very finite element in my existence. This is the essence of photography, the now, that becomes then!
Philosophy aside, this is also my annual opportunity to practice a form of photography that led to the OCA and then became secondary, underwater imagery. For a change I am not pursuing any agenda with this trip, no assignment to follow, no world view to pursue, I want to get back to my roots and simply enjoy the challenge of capturing the majesty (too big a word, not sure) of the ocean (Lynyrd Skynyrd - new album?) My mantra is colour, pure and simple, saturated, mad, obscene colour, but natural and real. Recently I have tried to find meaning in my underwater photography, now I just want to enjoy the experience and create some memorable photographs. I have new lightweight kit, very pleased so far, but it is not about kit, it is about finding the situation, the animal, the angle, and the light.
Really not sure about this trip and what I will find, but for once I really don't care, I am open to whatever comes along, documenting the dive base, maybe, the people of southern Philippines, possibly, odd looking slugs, well that is a given - I am a slug hunter, although we give them a posh name, Nudibranchs.
I will post this monologue when I get to our hotel in Singapore, I hope it makes sense, I do not plan to edit. Oddly, though, I think this is where I need to be in this blog, less academic, more about motivation and soul. Somehow the art gets lost in the technology and the critical theory!
Monday, April 1, 2013
Snow
It's the first of April and the snow continues to fall outside, the longest and coldest winter on record for my part of Germany seems to continue unabated. It is not that it has been excessively cold, we have had much colder spells, minus 25 being the worst I can remember. It is simply that it has been cold for such a long time, since the beginning of January we have had snow on the ground almost all of the time. On the 24th December I recall the sitting on the bench in front of my house in a T-shirt enjoying a coffee basking in the 20 degree sunshine. We joked about the winter that wasn't and the green rather than white Christmas. Well, it changed,
If I had been studying landscape this might have been a boon, although even a course based upon the landscape needs some variety in the weather. For Social Documentary it really began to limit what I could do, it just was not the right conditions for spending long days wandering the streets in search of the decisive moment. I took a break waiting for spring and Easter when people emerge from their houses and the beer gardens open. Some hope.
I did, however, take a few photos during the snow, many reflecting the rather bleak mood that I found myself in after Christmas, the recent shock of a family death descending into a melancholy that reflected in the photographs that I created.
I was interested in using the snow to change the landscape of my images by taking away most of the usual detail that fills the world we live in. To do so I heavily overexposed the pictures at the time of exposure and then in post processing pushed the contrast to the limit and dropped the saturation. The result was a washed out appearance coupled with patches of dark colour.
The photos became progressively bleak ending in the one above with its almost total absence of any detail, just a photograph of a snow field with tiny tonal variations in the white. Although this was a very introverted activity it oddly helped me to portray visually how I felt and in a sense was a way of mentally emptying the waste paper basket. In parallel I started to point my camera at people, again using the same bleak aesthetic, but allowing the people to become little points of colour and form in this barren world.
I found myself becoming attracted to the dog walkers and the relationship between dog and person. Children playing also made for some interesting patterns of interaction.
Finally I started to enjoy myself and took a few photos that attempted to capture the simply joy that children have in the snow.
If I had been studying landscape this might have been a boon, although even a course based upon the landscape needs some variety in the weather. For Social Documentary it really began to limit what I could do, it just was not the right conditions for spending long days wandering the streets in search of the decisive moment. I took a break waiting for spring and Easter when people emerge from their houses and the beer gardens open. Some hope.
I did, however, take a few photos during the snow, many reflecting the rather bleak mood that I found myself in after Christmas, the recent shock of a family death descending into a melancholy that reflected in the photographs that I created.
I was interested in using the snow to change the landscape of my images by taking away most of the usual detail that fills the world we live in. To do so I heavily overexposed the pictures at the time of exposure and then in post processing pushed the contrast to the limit and dropped the saturation. The result was a washed out appearance coupled with patches of dark colour.
The photos became progressively bleak ending in the one above with its almost total absence of any detail, just a photograph of a snow field with tiny tonal variations in the white. Although this was a very introverted activity it oddly helped me to portray visually how I felt and in a sense was a way of mentally emptying the waste paper basket. In parallel I started to point my camera at people, again using the same bleak aesthetic, but allowing the people to become little points of colour and form in this barren world.
I found myself becoming attracted to the dog walkers and the relationship between dog and person. Children playing also made for some interesting patterns of interaction.
Finally I started to enjoy myself and took a few photos that attempted to capture the simply joy that children have in the snow.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Singapore at Night
Later in this course there are some exercises around the use of cameras in artificial lighting conditions, one of which considers the city at night. I am not there yet in the course, but whilst in Singapore I set out to try and capture the colour and energy of the city. This is best visible at night when the brightly lit buildings contrasts against the black tropical night sky.
My goal was to have some fun and to see what my new camera was capable of, the Olympus E-M5 coupled with the kit lens and an 8mm fisheye. I knew the ISO capability would be good, but how good? As I have discussed in a previous post I am trying to travel light these days to lose the weight of conventional DSLRs. This also means not carrying a couple of Kg of tripod around, so being able to hand hold a camera in marginal light was going to be important to me, especially for travel photography.
So here is a little fun and diversion from the seriousness of documentary photography. And, by the way, Singapore is as much fun to be in as it looks!
I started out in the Boat Quay area, a strip of small quayside restaurants backed by the skyscrapers of the business district:
I started in the twilight. Key was to correctly balance the exposure in the photos, managing the sky versus the buildings. Something I have learned is that it is important to deliberately underexpose the photographs, by 2-3 stops as the cameras own exposure meter will keep trying to lighten the background darkness.
Later in the evening I was back at Clarke Quay with its canopies and creative lighting. The canopies cover the streets to permit outdoor seating in an area where daily thunderstorms are the norm. The canopies are then illuminated with a changing light scheme.
Added to the overhead lighting the bars could also be quite creative in how they lit there seating.
Time to bring out the fisheye. Really not a good choice for buildings, the curvature can be quite distracting and looks overly styalized, but at night the lens does something different. It enables the whole scene to be captured - the angle of view diagonally is 180 degrees. This creates a sense on inclusion within the image, but care needs to be taken to fill the frame
Indoor shots are a little trickier, but I think this works, or at least having been there it captures the sense of the place.
Back to the kit lens and a boat ride. A real test for a camera and it's image stabilization - full dark and a moving platform from which to shoot
At the size I have presented these images they are OK, I think I could print to A4, but much larger and the noise will become apparant. However, as a documentary tool when grabbing the image in low light is all that is available I am very happy with the camera and again it is so much fun to use. Small, lightweight and discrete.
My last two shots from my Singapore trip are once gain with the 8mm fisheye, this time the view from the balcony in our hotel room.
We got very lucky as only a handful of rooms had a balcony. The bridge leads to Clarke Quay.
A bit of fun and again an attempt to enjoy photography, but also to make a serious stab at capturing the essence of a place, combining (I hope) the eye of the photographer and the tourist.
My goal was to have some fun and to see what my new camera was capable of, the Olympus E-M5 coupled with the kit lens and an 8mm fisheye. I knew the ISO capability would be good, but how good? As I have discussed in a previous post I am trying to travel light these days to lose the weight of conventional DSLRs. This also means not carrying a couple of Kg of tripod around, so being able to hand hold a camera in marginal light was going to be important to me, especially for travel photography.
So here is a little fun and diversion from the seriousness of documentary photography. And, by the way, Singapore is as much fun to be in as it looks!
I started out in the Boat Quay area, a strip of small quayside restaurants backed by the skyscrapers of the business district:
I started in the twilight. Key was to correctly balance the exposure in the photos, managing the sky versus the buildings. Something I have learned is that it is important to deliberately underexpose the photographs, by 2-3 stops as the cameras own exposure meter will keep trying to lighten the background darkness.
Later in the evening I was back at Clarke Quay with its canopies and creative lighting. The canopies cover the streets to permit outdoor seating in an area where daily thunderstorms are the norm. The canopies are then illuminated with a changing light scheme.
Added to the overhead lighting the bars could also be quite creative in how they lit there seating.
Time to bring out the fisheye. Really not a good choice for buildings, the curvature can be quite distracting and looks overly styalized, but at night the lens does something different. It enables the whole scene to be captured - the angle of view diagonally is 180 degrees. This creates a sense on inclusion within the image, but care needs to be taken to fill the frame
Indoor shots are a little trickier, but I think this works, or at least having been there it captures the sense of the place.
Back to the kit lens and a boat ride. A real test for a camera and it's image stabilization - full dark and a moving platform from which to shoot
At the size I have presented these images they are OK, I think I could print to A4, but much larger and the noise will become apparant. However, as a documentary tool when grabbing the image in low light is all that is available I am very happy with the camera and again it is so much fun to use. Small, lightweight and discrete.
My last two shots from my Singapore trip are once gain with the 8mm fisheye, this time the view from the balcony in our hotel room.
A bit of fun and again an attempt to enjoy photography, but also to make a serious stab at capturing the essence of a place, combining (I hope) the eye of the photographer and the tourist.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
P17: holiday
Not quite a holiday, my recent trip to Singapore did , however, offer a welcome change of location and routine. Heidi had to attend a workshop Tues-Thurs in Singapore, so I decided to tag along and work from Singapore for the week. We took a day of vacation as well, but most of the time I was locked to my desk, although my desk being in a hotel on Clarke Quay made for a more interesting location than home in Munich. The evenings belonged to us and I was able to take an hour or so every day to wander around with my camera.
I kind of had this project in mind at the time, but my primary goal was to capture the atmosphere of the city and portray the vibrancy of the night life. I will post another entry that looks at the city in the night. As I was doing this I also tried to capture the Singaporeans in their daily lives and at play in the evenings. This was far from my first trip to the city, I have lost count of the number of times I have been their since my first visit 18 years ago. We will be back in 2 weeks from now, Singapore is such a useful stop over on the way to the dive sights of South East Asia.
As with many photographic projects there was far more material than either time or energy to capture, so I concentrated on a number of aspects of the city that were accessible to me. Apart from the commerce that fuels the city Singapore thrives on 3 primary activities, tourism, shopping and eating/drinking. Indeed, most of my Singaporean friends would agree that shopping and eating are the bedrock of Singaporean society.
First off I start with tourism and where better than getting their. This is the economy cabin on board one of Emirates brand new A380s. Not much more space than any other flight, but very comfortable and I really liked the huge seatback flat panel monitors. And yes, this was a try out for my new 8mm fisheye lens. Not the most realistic view, but an interesting tool for working in a confined space.
A popular pastime with tourists is taking a picture in which you appear to be holding up the top deck of the hotel. I become more and more interested in the process of creating photographs, especially the social aspect as portrayed here. The curving white line behind them is the Grand Prix circuit.
Shopping, everywhere there are shops. This is a very swanky shopping mall adjacent to the Sands and a former subject of mine for an assignment in DPP. The tea shop was especially beautiful.
Within every shopping mall there will be a food court offering cheap and very tasty freshly made food.
As well as imaging the visitors or the staff at work I also managed to capture two chefs taking a break before the evening rush.
Clarke Quay is a center for bars and resteraunts, expensive but great fun with a fabulous night time atmosphere. Ir is one of my favorite locations, anywhere in the world. The bars compete with each other to attract customers, the price of drinks varying very much according to when you go there. A pint of beer can go from 3 to 12 Euros in a few hours.
But the prices do not stop people from enjoying themselves, many of the bars opening out onto the street and offering an interesting frame within a frame that attracts me.
Clarke Quay is, however, too expensive for many and as a result many locals bring their own food and drink and hang out on the bridge that crosses the river in the middle of the Quay.
The ubiquity of the Irish pub:
My final shot is the best capture I have of the atmosphere and bustle of the place.
Not quite a holiday and not really to somewhere with all sorts of cultural activities to gawp at, but a real place with real people out to enjoy their lives.
I kind of had this project in mind at the time, but my primary goal was to capture the atmosphere of the city and portray the vibrancy of the night life. I will post another entry that looks at the city in the night. As I was doing this I also tried to capture the Singaporeans in their daily lives and at play in the evenings. This was far from my first trip to the city, I have lost count of the number of times I have been their since my first visit 18 years ago. We will be back in 2 weeks from now, Singapore is such a useful stop over on the way to the dive sights of South East Asia.
As with many photographic projects there was far more material than either time or energy to capture, so I concentrated on a number of aspects of the city that were accessible to me. Apart from the commerce that fuels the city Singapore thrives on 3 primary activities, tourism, shopping and eating/drinking. Indeed, most of my Singaporean friends would agree that shopping and eating are the bedrock of Singaporean society.
First off I start with tourism and where better than getting their. This is the economy cabin on board one of Emirates brand new A380s. Not much more space than any other flight, but very comfortable and I really liked the huge seatback flat panel monitors. And yes, this was a try out for my new 8mm fisheye lens. Not the most realistic view, but an interesting tool for working in a confined space.
Just a few minutes walk from the hotel was the Singapore marina and the new Sands hotel, quite the ugliest building I have seen, but impressive. The marina is one of the cooler spots in the city, the sea breeze a very pleasant relief in the 30 degree heat of the equator.
A popular pastime with tourists is taking a picture in which you appear to be holding up the top deck of the hotel. I become more and more interested in the process of creating photographs, especially the social aspect as portrayed here. The curving white line behind them is the Grand Prix circuit.
Shopping, everywhere there are shops. This is a very swanky shopping mall adjacent to the Sands and a former subject of mine for an assignment in DPP. The tea shop was especially beautiful.
Within every shopping mall there will be a food court offering cheap and very tasty freshly made food.
As well as imaging the visitors or the staff at work I also managed to capture two chefs taking a break before the evening rush.
Clarke Quay is a center for bars and resteraunts, expensive but great fun with a fabulous night time atmosphere. Ir is one of my favorite locations, anywhere in the world. The bars compete with each other to attract customers, the price of drinks varying very much according to when you go there. A pint of beer can go from 3 to 12 Euros in a few hours.
But the prices do not stop people from enjoying themselves, many of the bars opening out onto the street and offering an interesting frame within a frame that attracts me.
Clarke Quay is, however, too expensive for many and as a result many locals bring their own food and drink and hang out on the bridge that crosses the river in the middle of the Quay.
The ubiquity of the Irish pub:
My final shot is the best capture I have of the atmosphere and bustle of the place.
Not quite a holiday and not really to somewhere with all sorts of cultural activities to gawp at, but a real place with real people out to enjoy their lives.
P21: camera handling
Another of those rather odd basic skills projects that abound in the older OCA courses. It is this kind of activity that makes me wonder quite what the course designers were thinking and does have a tendency to diminish my faith in the education I am receiving. This in particular would make sense in TAOP, but halfway through a second year degree module? However, rather than explode in a fit of indignation I decided to have some fun with this exercise and use it to explore a variety of different camera handling techniques.
The suggested technique, the 6th image above, of supporting the lens with one hand and operating the shutter with the other is fine if using an SLR, clearly the author did not anticipate mirrorless compacts not having an eye piece, the advent of the camera phone, or even the use of a rangefinder. And clearly he or she did not give any thought to underwater use while wearing scuba gear, so thoughtless...
Technology has advanced a lot since the original design of this course in 1991 and even since the last edit dated 2006. A couple of things have actually come full circle. First of all the boxy integrated lens range finder style has reappeared, although now we refer to them as mirrorless compacts. This makes for a much smaller camera that can be firmly held in both hands without needing to support the lens. Secondly the introduction of articulated screens means that we can return to a style of camera use similar to the waste level finder from the boxy medium format TLRs. Both of these innovations have resulted in cameras whose use is far more discreet than the traditional DSLR with its huge zoom lenses and flower petal hoods.
When I started working on Social Documentary projects I found that my Canon DSLR was simply too noticeable, it drew attention and alerted my quarry to the presence of a photographer. DSLRs are also seen as "proper" cameras used by professionals, immediately raising suspicion. My Fuji X100 "rangefinder" is almost invisible to the casual observer, it looks like a basic camera, but captures professional level images. Its small size and fixed focal length make using it far faster. Alternatively I have a couple of interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras that have articulated screens, meaning that I can shoot with the camera at waste high. Even if noticed, the casual observer often thinks I am looking at an image not taking a photo. Finally all of these cameras are nearly soundless in operation, something I certainly cannot say of my 5D2.
Added to the changing format of modern cameras is the huge technological advance in image stabilization and high ISO capability. Much of the need for drawing in the elbows, pulling the camera close to face, and exerting a strong supportive grip comes from the limitations of ISO 400 film in non stabilized cameras. If I couple a good IS system to reliable ISO 3200 operation, I get another 7-8 stops of effective hand holdability. In other words I can shoot hand held at night time on a moving boat and produce acceptable results, more of which in a later post. This changes the game and permits both changes in handling and also environments in which a camera can be used.
Ultimately, though, the route to optimum stability is a tripod:
This was my set up for the shoot above. My 5D2 mounts a 24-70 f/2.8 zoom and a 580EX II flash gun. I have attached a remote trigger with a 10s delay on the shot. The camera is directly attached to my computer permitting me to see the images as I shoot to confirm focus and lighting. I prefocused the camera so that I would be in focus if I stood on a certain line on the floor. This had to be adjusted a little every now and then as different lens meant I was closer or further from the camera. The rest was simply to hot the trigger and assume a pose.
This was a fun project, a great way to while away a bank holiday morning. Recently I have written about stress and disillusionment with the current course. This project is one of the reasons for the latter, my approach was a way to deal with the former. Photography for me is meant to be fun, I want a degree and I want to do some serious work, but good grief, I am doing this for enjoyment and I really enjoyed this!
The suggested technique, the 6th image above, of supporting the lens with one hand and operating the shutter with the other is fine if using an SLR, clearly the author did not anticipate mirrorless compacts not having an eye piece, the advent of the camera phone, or even the use of a rangefinder. And clearly he or she did not give any thought to underwater use while wearing scuba gear, so thoughtless...
Technology has advanced a lot since the original design of this course in 1991 and even since the last edit dated 2006. A couple of things have actually come full circle. First of all the boxy integrated lens range finder style has reappeared, although now we refer to them as mirrorless compacts. This makes for a much smaller camera that can be firmly held in both hands without needing to support the lens. Secondly the introduction of articulated screens means that we can return to a style of camera use similar to the waste level finder from the boxy medium format TLRs. Both of these innovations have resulted in cameras whose use is far more discreet than the traditional DSLR with its huge zoom lenses and flower petal hoods.
When I started working on Social Documentary projects I found that my Canon DSLR was simply too noticeable, it drew attention and alerted my quarry to the presence of a photographer. DSLRs are also seen as "proper" cameras used by professionals, immediately raising suspicion. My Fuji X100 "rangefinder" is almost invisible to the casual observer, it looks like a basic camera, but captures professional level images. Its small size and fixed focal length make using it far faster. Alternatively I have a couple of interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras that have articulated screens, meaning that I can shoot with the camera at waste high. Even if noticed, the casual observer often thinks I am looking at an image not taking a photo. Finally all of these cameras are nearly soundless in operation, something I certainly cannot say of my 5D2.
Added to the changing format of modern cameras is the huge technological advance in image stabilization and high ISO capability. Much of the need for drawing in the elbows, pulling the camera close to face, and exerting a strong supportive grip comes from the limitations of ISO 400 film in non stabilized cameras. If I couple a good IS system to reliable ISO 3200 operation, I get another 7-8 stops of effective hand holdability. In other words I can shoot hand held at night time on a moving boat and produce acceptable results, more of which in a later post. This changes the game and permits both changes in handling and also environments in which a camera can be used.
Ultimately, though, the route to optimum stability is a tripod:
This was my set up for the shoot above. My 5D2 mounts a 24-70 f/2.8 zoom and a 580EX II flash gun. I have attached a remote trigger with a 10s delay on the shot. The camera is directly attached to my computer permitting me to see the images as I shoot to confirm focus and lighting. I prefocused the camera so that I would be in focus if I stood on a certain line on the floor. This had to be adjusted a little every now and then as different lens meant I was closer or further from the camera. The rest was simply to hot the trigger and assume a pose.
This was a fun project, a great way to while away a bank holiday morning. Recently I have written about stress and disillusionment with the current course. This project is one of the reasons for the latter, my approach was a way to deal with the former. Photography for me is meant to be fun, I want a degree and I want to do some serious work, but good grief, I am doing this for enjoyment and I really enjoyed this!
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