Pushing Through

I have had this idea for a photo essay or series for a while. This photo is the first in the series. It is called Pushing Through I. The subjects of the series are plants that push through the holes and cracks in humanity's infrastructure. It is a metaphor for many things. A couple that come to my mind when I think about this photo are the persistence of life in general. There have been mass extinctions in the history of our planet, yet there is always some scrap of life that manages to survive. Recently, I saw a short film about the Nazi concentration camps and the genocide that happened there. Yet even in the face of that evil, horrific holocaust, there was a remnant of Jews who stayed alive, both in the camps and outside, hiding in attics and cellars. The life of an entire race squeezed through the cracks of hatred and violence. It is really about hope. I think I will work on this series with all of my cameras and see what sort of eclectic mix I can come up with. I hope you enjoy seeing it develop as much as I do.

Taken with Yashica Mat 124G on Lomography X-pro 200 film. Shot at 100 and developed in Unicolor C-41 chemistry using standard times and agitation.

Pictorialism

Depending on who you ask, you will get a different answer as to what 'pictorialism' means when talking in context of photography. I will offer a brief layman's understanding since it is an interesting genre to me. When photography started to become more accessible to a wider set of practitioners there was a feeling that it was not 'art', but merely documentation. For us in the 21st century, this is a bit odd and let me explain why. Today we have cameras and lenses that are capable of reproducing a scene/subject with virtual perfection. The colors are rendered precisely how our eye sees them, the edges of the in focus parts of the image are razor sharp, etc. To me that is documentarian photography. What was happening a hundred years ago was grainy emulsions paired with low-ish resolution lenses and variable processing chemistry, resulting in an image that was recognizable as a particular scene or subject, but it was soft and probably blurry from movement during the long exposure and finally it was in greyscale. Regardless of these 'imperfections', the fine artists of the day (painters, sculpters, etc.) decided that this new technology was not art. As you might imagine, photographers took umbrage at this sentiment and so began the pictorialism movement. This is what we would today call 'fine art photography' although some people hold a narrower definition. These photographers were taking photos of landscapes and flowers and still life that had practically no journalistic value and were meant solely for display. They were 'paintings' in silver halide instead of colored pigments.

Often these days, when you hear the term 'pictorialism', it will be attached to an image that is soft focus, out of focus, blurry or some combination of these. However, that is not necessarily pictorialism. To me the point of this style is to make something enjoyable to look at that is intentionally ambiguous or 'painterly' to some degree. It could be abstract like my photo of a puddle above or it could be well focused and objective like my image of the eucalyptus tree below.



Whatever style of pictorialism suits your fancy, give it a try. Start out with viewing some pictorialist images. There are lots of them as this movement is about 100 years old and going strong.

Look up Alvin Langdon Coburn...

or Alfred Stieglitz.

Portrait

I am not very good at taking portraits. I would love to learn how and maybe someday I will take a workshop on existing light portraiture. I don't dislike studio portraits, but as a photographer, I think that it is just a whole bunch of work setting up lights while the benefit of shooting for as long as you want without worrying about the light changing is, for me personally not worth it. I like changing light. I did an engagement shoot at the beach once. We showed up about 90min before sunset and the light started out good and just got better and better and there was plenty of time to get all the shots I wanted.

This one was just set in my living room. There is a window about a foot to the right of the subject. There is another window maybe 18 feet to the left and 15 feet up. The sun is shining onto a building outside the window to the right and there is a set of sheers covering it. That gives a directional, but diffuse main light and the high window gives a bit of highlight and fill. I shot this with my Speed Graphic press camera loaded with Kodak Tri-x 320. I used EI 320 and shot f/7.7 for 1sec. A cable release is essential in these situations. The tripod was sitting on a carpeted floor, so really any touch would have moved it enough to blur the shot.

The negative is better than my scanning skills reveal. The highlights aren't as blown as they look here. I might send this off for printing in which case I would just send the negative and have the lab do a drum scan and inkjet print. Then I would have a high res scan and a print. I could then do any editing I wanted on the computer and send it back for another print electronically.

Any pointers on shooting portraits with existing light are very welcome.

Boris

My dog is a greyhound. We adopted him in the Spring of 2010 from the Greyhound Adoption Center in the San Diego area. He is a very good dog although he is not the most friendly with strangers. Greyhounds have a reputation for being very laid back and tolerant. Boris is a little more... mmm... introverted. Among the family though, he is very loving and vocal. Greyhounds will bark, but not very much or very often. Boris only barks when a family member comes home or when someone knocks at the door. Once you open the door, he is fine. He just doesn't like the knocking. Greyhounds do what is called 'rooing'. It is sort of like howling, but it is lower pitched and they move their jaws so it sort of sounds like 'rooowrooowrooow'. Boris does this  when you walk down the stairs or down the hallway, especially if it is nearing time for dinner or his evening walk.

Boris is not a great pet model. Generally, when I point a camera at him, all I get for my trouble is a noseprint on my lens. This day though, I had my Speed Graphic out, which is not very 'camera-looking'. Also, I didn't hold it up to my face. I set it on the floor. It was a long exposure (15sec) and I thought for sure he would move and blur the whole thing. But this day he was resting quietly and the only thing that moved was his right eyebrow (note a little blur there). Otherwise, his laziness played in my favor for this shot. It was taken on Kodak CSG x-ray film and developed in caffeinol-cl for 70min. I think it came out pretty nice. If you care to find out more about Boris, visit his blog over on Facebook.

Ted Forbes

Ted Forbes is a photographer among other things. I like his work. He is also a teacher. I mean that not in the sense that he 'instructs', but in the sense that as part of his persona, integrated into his being is the desire and ability to convey knowledge. Now I say this having never met him. I watch his show "The Art of Photography" on youtube, but just from watching him there, I can get a sense of this. I believe this is why he doesn't have a 'gear review' blog. He does do some teaching on the use of some gear, but that is more incidental to his teaching about photography. He covers the work of other great photographers (historic and contemporary), he talks about technique (I especially like his composition series). He covers darkroom, both wet and digital. The list goes on, but the underlying thread that keeps me coming back for every episode is his passion for the medium and his ability to convey and inspire the artistic substance of photography.

Head over and watch a few episodes. The production quality is good, the sound quality is superior and the content is top shelf.

Models... waddaya gonna do?

I wanted to do a simple test. Shoot a portrait using Kodak Tri-X 320 and then shoot the same using Kodak CSG x-ray film. Easy-peasy, right? Well, apparently not. I totally over-exposed (or maybe over-developed) the CSG shots. They aren't bad, but they can't really be compared to the correct exposures of the Tri-X.

Here is a shot of my beautiful wife with the CSG. High contrast, heavy grain, all the signs of push processing. Still, I think that the effect of her hair and eyes being contrasty and in focus sort of makes the shot. I wish the wall behind her were darker and the shadow side were a little darker, but live and learn.



This one is the Tri-X shot. It is correctly exposed, but still the lighting leaves it a bit flat. What makes this portrait a keeper is the expression. She is clearly losing patience with the 'process' of taking a photograph with a Speed Graphic. I didn't know she was going to do that, I just happened to look up from the camera and hit the cable release right at the moment she decided it was time to be done. She's not even looking at me. She's just rolling her eyes and getting ready to re-compose herself for the shot. Oops! Too late. I like this photo of Laura because this is an expression I see often. I am a big nerd and I try her patience on a number of levels and subjects. She is very good to me and all I have to tolerate from her is an occasional "did you really just make a Star Trek reference at a Van Gough exhibit?" look. She is the love of my life and I love this photo of her.

Crossing the Line

I read a blog entry by another photographer the other day and it really bothered me, but I couldn't put my finger on why. It was about a man who had the police called on him while he was taking some photos of his niece at a playground. The blogger thinks that's just fine. There are dangerous people out there and we should endure a bit of harmless discomfort in order to keep our children safe. What she said sounded sort of reasonable! I'm all for safe children. The following day, my wife mentioned the name of someone and the blog and a bunch of memories came flooding back. Wait! Something very similar had happened to me once! I was at a school camp-out at a nearby beach with my family. I don't think I was even taking photos (though I may have been) but just sort of hanging out on the beach while the kids played and my wife socialized. Then she comes over to me and says that someone reported me to the principle as "a creepy guy watching the kids". My wife works at the school, so the principle knew exactly who I was and put their concerns to rest, but suppose the principle hadn't been there and they had called the police? Then the police show up and start questioning me in front of parents and kids that I have to interact with on a regular basis. Then someone hears or mentions the word 'stalker' or 'pedophile' and I am pretty much done in that community. I've been labeled and there is no amount of explaining that will take away those words and images from people's minds. I am forever 'that guy the police were questioning in relation to pedophilia'. Maybe that is a tiny bit of hyperbole, but maybe not.

So here's my point in response to the blog I linked above. Don't knee-jerk your way into a 911 call. Walk up to the person you are concerned about. If they are a bad person, they will most likely leave once they figure out they have been noticed. If they are not a bad person, they will probably talk to you about their child and the playground and why they are taking photos. Frankly, the bad guys don't even need to get out of their cars these days with digital SLRs and long lenses. I doubt one would risk walking around the playground in the first place. Always be aware of the people around you (wherever you are), but be very careful about making or implying accusations of improper behavior toward children. That is a witch hunt that can't be undone. I for one will continue to enjoy photographing my kids as they grow up and I pray that people will talk to me before notifying the authorities.