I had a four-leaf clover in my wallet, a horse shoe hung on my rear-view mirror. I also rubbed my rabbit’s foot keychain every time I was about to press down the shutter release. That’s how I got so many wonderful photos. You should do the same. Continue reading
Tag Archives: hcb
Their Skills vs My Cameras
I know that there are no perfect camera in our photographic world. There aren’t any best camera either. The same go for lenses. In fact, all machines ever invented in our world have their flaws. Even humans have flaws…
The good thing is that camera makers continue to improve the imperfects. Slowly, but they do work on it.
In 2001, I was thrilled to get my hands on those 2.6 megapixels. I bet you, too, remember that feeling. Back then, we didn’t have anything larger than 4 megapixels until Canon made a huge leap in resolution with the low noise, low power consumption, 11 megapixels Canon EOS 1Ds toward the end of 2003. How many megapixel did the Nikon D100 have? Six stinky megapixels. Still, I was so happy with my Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F505V because there wasn’t that many DSLR for me to compare with.
Before I type up this article, I spent 5 weeks on dissecting the digital cameras in my possession. All 52 of them. I thought that I have learned all about digital cameras, but then Nikon comes out with their D800/E and the D4. Technology makes my head spin.
In 2006, I was one among the crowd who wished that camera makers would employ Dynamic Range, improve Noise Reduction, give higher ISO. Cameras now have all our wishes and even offer more. A lot more.
But we are still talking about limitations whenever a new camera is announced.
Why is that? From the turtle-speed to milisecond AF, multi zone focus and we’re still not satisfying? Will we be satisfied if they give us an AF system that surpasses the speed of light?
Let turn our time machine back to 1930s. How fast do we think the shutter speed on Walker Evans’s camera would go? What lens did Dorothea Lange use to get the creamy bokeh effects? Hah! If we have seen the cameras they used during their time, we would be grateful for all the photographic gears that we have today. Not many of us have the time and the patience like those photographers before our time did. Below are portraits of the Master who created some of the iconic images of the Great Depression era. Would any of us willing to trade our Canon EOS 5D MK III for a 4×5 Graflex? I don’t think so.
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange with her Graflex in 1936. Photo was taken by Rondal Partridge.
Dorothea Lange at work
Dorothea Lange
I guess that the most compact—and the best—35mm systems during the early 1930′s was the Leica A and the Leica II series. The Leica II is rather important in Leica’s history since it’s the first Leica to have a built in rangefinder, with shutter speeds from 1/20th to 1/500th of a second. I don’t think that ISO higher than 200 existed then. So how did war reporters like Robert Capa captured the Spanish War? Not to mention that Capa didn’t have a zoom lens with high speed AF to capture the image below in 1939.
Most likely, the main reason for them to choose Leica over other brands was the high quality optics, dependable mechanism and simple to use. Back then photographers relied mostly on their skills and experience. To them, cameras and lenses were photographic tools which helped them to transform their perceptions into images. Many of us think about cameras and lenses differently these days.
© Robert Capa
Although Capa’s camera didn’t have multi zone focus or ETTL light metering, this shot below showed accurate exposure and precisely focused. Without a concrete knowledge of photography, he would have missed this fantastic image while fumbling with the camera settings.
© Robert Capa
Robert Capa might concern about high ISO, but did he care about Dynamic Range or better Noise Reduction when he grabbed a shot similar to the one below? No. Technical terms like Dynamic Range and Noise Reduction didn’t exist in his time.
I bet that Capa, HCB and David Seymour discussed about cameras and lenses just like we do. But I think they rather enjoyed talking about their photographic adventures and the images they took more than arguing over which camera had faster shutter speed. Magnum Photos would never existed if its founders were total gearheads like many of us today, don’t you think?
© Robert Capa
Considering advanced technology opens a new photography epoch, will practical methods like hyperfocal distance, zone system are still useful or they will become fossils in the next 20 years? Highly advanced technological developments make me smarter than I used to be ten years ago, but they also kills my photographic knowledge. I become more depending on my high tech gears. Like dinosaurs, what I had learned in photography school years ago slowly disappeared. This makes me ponder what will the next generations of photographers learn in future photography classes?
Until next time, my friends. It’s time for me to get a whiff of the mildew from my collection of the Life Library of Photography books again.
Observance and Passion
Street photography is the hottest trend these days. It become in vogue around the same time Flickr is at its peak. Then, I begin to see workshops. From Los Angels to New York, London to Tokyo. More workshops, more seminars on the subject. Every street I go, I see people with cameras in their hands. Every body wants to be a street photographer now.
How do you define street photography? Wikipedia specifies it as a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings. Still, after spending a lengthy period experimenting, reading and looking at the work from master photographers such as Gary Winogrand, Helen Levitt, Elliott Erwitt, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Vivian Maier, I find street photography is more than just a type of documentary photography. Street photography is personal. It’s not a hobby or a career. It exists since the day the first camera was invented. It’s a part of our culture in the photography world.
The photographs from the masters I mention above show more life than any documental photograph we see. They show not only the liaisons between the photographers and their subjects, but also the intuitive feelings of the surroundings. These masters give each of their photographs a soul. And those souls speak to the audience. Those souls are what capture our attentions. Not the photographs.
If you already read and studied these master photographer’s books and photos, you would understand that they spent a chunk of their days on the streets. They didn’t get on the street with high resolution cameras and fast speed AF zoom lenses. They didn’t have what we have in their time. They did not shoot thousand photos a day and hope to get one photo that would wow their audience. They observed their scene. They carefully chose their subjects. Then, they quietly shot their frames with passion.
Even Bruce Gilden, a street photographer who is famous for his uncompromising, in-your-face shooting style, chose to observe his scenes before he approached his subjects. Take a closer look at his photographs—not my favorite photographer, by the way. But I have to admit that I love his work.
Russian Gangsters. © Bruce Gilden/Magnum Photos.
Mafia funeral. © Bruce Gilden/Magnum Photos.
NYC. © Bruce Gilden/Magnum Photos.
The loud scream of a Russian gangster. The posh silence at a mafia funeral. The noisy crowd of the NYC beach scene. You’re not only hear the sounds but you also feel like you’re actually there, witnessing the atmospheric phenomenon with the photographer.
In contrast to Gilden’s audacious and direct-to-subject style, Winogrand often composed his frames loosely to include the surrounding. The two photographs below could easily be mistaken with the work from an average Joe; somehow, Winogrand turned these loose compositions into the magics that brought his audience closer to his depicted subjects.
Couple. © Gary Winogrand.
© Gary Winogrand.
I am marvelled by the way Helen Levitt froze time and captured the children’s activities in the photographs below. Her photographs don’t glare at the audience like what you see in Winogrand’s images. Instead of screaming for attention like Bruce Gilden’s work, these photographs silently whisper to your ears, quietly pull you into the world of these children.
© Helen Levitt
© Helen Levitt
© Helen Levitt
Street photography seems easy, but it’s just not intend for every body. Regardless how many workshop you take or how much you spend on your gear, you will never be success if you don’t have the passion and an observant mind. Without passion, you will never been able to push yourself closer to your subjects. Without an observant mind, you will never see that decisive moment, which every street photographer have been trying so hard to capture.
If I ever hold a street photography workshop, I’d rather talk about these two elements before I give lecture about composition techniques and gears. In fact, I may not even talk about gears. Gears would ruin the passion you have for photography. Gears would turn you into a snob instead of a successful photographer…
Now that I have shared with you the first essential elements of street photography, it’s time for you to utilize them into your work. Get personal. Give souls to your photographs. Allow them to speak to your audience.
Stop explicating so your audience can listen to what your photos have to say.
