Commentary
Commentary, Slow Photography
As we have now reached the end of the first month of this little exercise it is time to reflect and ponder some questions.
-What is the point?
-Is this costing too much?
-What about the Deardorff?
What is the point?
Well the point is to enjoy photography. And I have to say I am doing that. I am enjoying taking things slowly and trying to find good pictures, not just snapping away and seeing if I get lucky. I am enjoying the moments when I turn on the lights in the darkroom and start pulling negatives out of the fixer. I am enjoying the excuse of this exercise to get people to sit for portraits. I am enjoying working on a single image a day (multiple exposures) and trying to pull the most out of it with the tools at hand.
I am enjoying working with the simple/complex camera that my Bender 4×5 is. Taking time to focus, and shifting the focus around the way you want it. Pushing movements to see when things start to go wrong. Composing in colour, but shooting in black & white.
I may be making lots of mistakes, but I am learning. I am learning not to make operator errors with the camera, but more importantly I think that I am learning to take better pictures. Practise is the key, and practise is what I am getting. Practise in moving slowly and seeing the image before you snap the shutter. Practise talking to real people and getting them to laugh naturally before the lens.
Is this costing too much?
I have self doubts about this exercise, why don’t I just use one of my digital cameras? Or if it has to be film, why not a 35mm camera where 36 exposure only cost $4. I don’t think these doubts can be completely overcome. But I am taking steps to keep costs down, for example I am developing everything myself, and HC-110 is really inexpensive developer.
But ultimately I will watch my costs, and if this costs “too much” I will stop. But in the meantime the results are worth it. The pleasure I get from looking at the prints on my wall makes it seem very worthwhile.
What about the Deardorff?
The Deardorff is not forgotten. The ribs are ready for the Bellows. This exercise has not lessoned my desire to finish the Deardorff. I am looking forward to using the Derdorff itself for this project. To be honest I am overwhelmed by the next step in assembling the bellows. I need pause to practise it in my mind, and I need not rush what is a complex process.
Commentary, a photograph or a snapshot
I often feel embarrassed to have people looking at my flickr photo-stream. It is such a hodgepodge of different things, where are the good photos, and what is all this crap?
There are an awful lot of snapshots in my photo-stream. People looking to see whether I am an OK photographer are flooded with:
Hunting trips and trips to the zoo.
Vacation snaps, and the first day of school.
Wedding snaps and trips to African Lion Safari.
Snaps of the kids birthdays, and Christmas concerts.
I could separate photos and mark some as for friends and family only, but honestly most of my friends and family don’t maintain flickr accounts so they wouldn’t get to see the family snapshots meant for them, so that doesn’t work.
Now with my ongoing large format photo of the day project sometimes there will just be plain crappy photos posted. Despite what a lot of photo bloggers may think, you cannot make a good photo every day. Ansel Adams was happy with 12 a year. So since the goal is to get out and shoot, the result is going to be a few good things, a lot of mediocre things, and a few bad things, if I am lucky there will be one or two great ones. They all need to end up posted, or else the framework of this motivation exercise fails.
So be warned, I am still learning, there will be rough spots in the road.
And if you want to skip the crap and snaps, don’t look at any of this year’s submissions or this blog, try some of my “Best of…” sets from recent years past.
Best of 2010
Best of 2009
Best of 2008
Best of 2007
Commentary, hard work
7 Days in,
7 Photos taken, developed, edited, posted, (more than 7 shot)
1 week down!
24 days left for the first month,
358 days left for the full year.
So here we are at day 7. This is proving to be pretty hard. Ignoring the fact that I’m shooting film, and ignoring the fact I am using only large format cameras, and ignoring the fact that so far I have actually developed the film the same day it was shot, this is hard.
Well if we ignore all that what is so hard you may ask.
These days I work at home most days. The morning is busy helping get the kids off to school. When you work in a downtown office you expected to get away from your desk at lunchtime, when you work at home people expect you to be home. When you work downtown you have a walk each day from the train to your office, 10 minutes extra on this walk can take you down completely new paths.
A big factor right now is the length of the days. With the winter solstice just past, by the time I finish work the sun is already setting.
So when do I get to shoot? Well I squeeze it in when I can, and in many cases that is after the kids are in bed. So don’t expect too much street photography, but I’ll see what I can do.
I am enjoying this, and of the 7 photos printed so far, 1 is good, 2 are nice, and none are bad.
Some general thoughts on the process so far, and ahead:
-I don’t plan to always develop and print my film the same day it is shot, this is just the way things have worked out so far.
-I do plan on only posting a photo for a day that was shot on a given day. So if I shoot nothing tomorrow I won’t ever have a photo 8/365. But if I shoot something tomorrow, and develop it tomorrow or next week or next month, then there will eventually be a photo for tomorrow labelled with 8/365.
-While I think I’ll be shooting a lot of Ilford HP5+ and developing in Kodak HC-110, I have other films in the freezer, and plan on using them.
-So far everything has been black and white, there will be some colour coming, and I am planning on getting an E-6 kit from Henry’s and trying it myself.
-Not everything will be scanned film. When I start shooting 8×10 I also plan on contact printing some of them and scanning the prints.
-I picked up a gum bichromate kit last year, which I have not opened yet, and at some point this year I am going to use it, so expect to see some scans of that eventually.
Commentary – Why Photography?
“In the end it’s all about making yourself happy.”
– Kirk Tuck, the Visual Science Lab, Monday Feb 28th.
Kirk said he was taking a couple of weeks off from his blog to finish writing his latest technical photography book, which is to be on the topic of LED lighting. After a week of absence from the web I guess he needed a break from writing the book, and it seems he went out and bought a new lens, hooked up with a model, and shot a few thousand frames to see how the new lens would perform.
This resulted in two posts in quick succession on his blog, both being some of the best writing I have seen from him. These articles really connected with me. So I felt a need to share links and quotes here.
The first article appeared to be on the topic of lens testing. From my perspective however the central message of this post was not really about lens testing, but photography in general, and something every photographer needs to remember, you cannot take a nice picture unless there is something nice in front of your lens.
In the context of lens testing this is about getting out, and using a lens out the the real world. In the general context of photography it is central to understanding how to take beautiful pictures. Buying the latest most expensive camera equipment does not make good pictures, finding interesting subject matter to photograph is the first, and likely the most necessary requirement to make a beautiful photograph.
Kirk’s second post was a bit of a rant but it was again really about how to take beautiful photographs, and a key message being it is you who has to decide what is beautiful, not some external judge or jury. You need to follow your own lead, and do what you want to do, not what somebody expects you to do. The second post is the source of the quote at the top of this post, my blog post, about Kirk’s blog posts. And it is the answer to so many questions that people ask me such as why don’t you sell your pictures, why did you take that picture, and why are you carrying that tripod?
So why do I do all of this photography stuff? Why don’t I spend time trying to monetize my photography? Why am I shooting the way I am? Why am I writing this blog? In the end I am just making myself happy.
Island in the fog, Aug 20, 2010