The Ascendancy of the Ordinary

Sometimes something has really nothing going for it, but it just works.

I like it, you may not, but thats ok. I have been down this laneway on and off for most of my working life (I used to work in the building in another life) and always look for a new angle. It's full of graffiti, that tends to distract and I try to avoid using someone else's art to make my own images. Yesterday day the sky was giving me lots to work with, and it made me look up and see something that had always escaped my notice. 

The cameras was the OMD and the lens, the 25mm f1.8 at f5.6. The 25mm is my "if I only take one lens" lens.

USA Day

Finally made it to USA day.

Can't admit to being much of a car person, but I does like's me shiny things. Always attentive to the proud owners loving remarks, I am lost after the first technical references are made, but no harm done. Most of the images were taken with the OMD and 75-300. Absolutely in it's element with the brilliant sunshine.

Shades

Last Saturday, Meg and I went to the local farmers market. Something we have not been able to do together for the last few years because of work commitments. 

Vowing to take a camera with me everywhere now, I slung an OMD over my shoulder with the 17mm lens attached. This pairing allows me to shoot accurately from the hip, using zone focus* set to about 4 feet, at an aperture from f4 to f8 depending on the light available. The 17mm has the unique ability of extending the perception of depth of field by rendering it's Bokeh more coherently than the current fast drop off/super smooth look that is in fashion (notice the man in the far background). This is an old fashioned design principle, ideal for street photography. The photographer's job with this style is composition, timing and making some effort to keep things straight. With practice, there is little left to luck, but early on there is certainly a lot of frustration. This image is one of two. Both are in focus, but the boys head is turned away in the other image and the woman is partly obscured by another person.

*manual focus preset at a distance using an aperture that will capture a predetermined "zone" of sharpness.

Timing as a friend.

 My wife and I are walkers. We cover dozens of kilometres over our travels, often clocking up 15-20km in a day, just wandering. We like to get the feel of a place and its people by just being around them. We may miss some of the touristy sights, but we would like to think we come back with a different, deeper experience. I think this comes from our first trip away to the recently liberated Czech republic in the early '90's. We stayed with my wife's parents for several weeks living a similar life to the locals. I am pretty sure the roots of both a preferred form of travel and my love of candid documentary (street) photography came from this trip. 

Walking from the Yanaka area to the quiet side of the Imperial palace in Tokyo, we expected to see some of the less well known parts of Tokyo. What we got was a stunning walk through tall, pristine buildings bathed in late afternoon golden light, light traffic and a gentleness, quite odd in any major city.

I am not sure what the large metal tubes are that are found scattered through Japanese cities, but they always catch my eye. This one was the biggest I had seen. The shadow cast on the building behind was perfectly placed, looking almost like a contrasting paint job. 

The camera used was the EM5 and the lens, the 75mm at f5.6. This image really shows off the Olympus "filmy" look. I struggled for a long time choosing between Fuji (glassiness), Canon (colour) and Olympus (sharp, filminess), with a few lapses in discipline. Choosing one brand, based simply on accuracy, reliability and the best system choices (for me) has freed me to get the most out of the look I have available without distractions.

many choices bring indecision, limited choices allow focus.

Salvation

Previously I touched on my use of black and white to salvage a less than ideal file. Trawling through my image bank, I came across this image, taken the trip to Melbourne zoo that was one of two images that gained a life with the switch.

Taken through dirty and flare affected glass, through a lot of low angle sun haze and needing heavy cropping, this image started very humbly. I made the mistake of printing it once on my own printer. There is half a tank of black ink I will never see again, but it came up well enough. The other image in the series is of a grizzled old Lion face taken through a cyclone fence and some tall grass. Unfortunately I only have a print of that one as the original is proving hard to find (I have had hard drive issues in the past, like many). Having the prints though, highlights the need for printing as the only truly viable storage system for your most precious images. 

The camera was the 450d canon and the 400 f5.6L. A great combo in the right conditions.

Making your own luck.

Street photographers do a lot of things to make the most of their luck. Often the best images have a component of luck, made possible by being there and being ready. 

It does not matter how much you prepare though, luck is still the major player. Some streetogs will tell you they can grab "the decisive moment" whenever it presents itself, but to be honest, if you are going for the most spontaneous and natural images you do not have time to think, just react. If the street shooters style involves pre interaction, shock tactics or some staging, then they can probably claim some control, but the old school purists only get a blink to capture their moment.

"All eyes on her" is an image that was captured instinctively, but ended up having more layers than originally thought. The girl's face and her interaction with her father caught my eye and I snapped, nothing unusual there. The TinTin and Scruffy faces on the t shirt and her grand mother (?) also looking straight at her are all added bonuses, strengthening the girl's face as the central subject (talk about leading lines!). Having the vision to see a clever coincidence is a great skill (although the internet is flooded with talented street shooters relying on these shots so I am not sure how much more the genre can take), but I cannot claim this skill. It happens or not, naturally, with effort and preparation.

Technically the image is from the first time I tried zone focus with a 5Dmk2 and a manual focus Voigtlander 40mm lens. The lens allowed me to cradle the enormous camera in one arm and shoot by the markings on the lens at about f8. it was a successful day, but Canon was on the way out with me. I can now get the same result from a camera that looks like a retro SLR or a compact, is quieter and has AF with face detection or MF with markings and is stabilised. 

Memories of William Klein

Style is a fickle and ever evolving thing. It is a product of your vision mixed with the memories of yours and others' work, influence by the times you live in, the limits of available tools and your own practiced experience.

Style, if done right, forms itself from these influences. All you can do is let it. 

I first discovered William Kleins' images in an old Camera and Darkroom magazine (when it was new!). Klein openly broke with convention and said of his own work that it was in a way a manifesto of what not to do by the conventions of his time. His loose and hectic style liberated my own thinking (more often later than at the time), but remained dormant until I discovered street photography.

My own style comes from echoes of past masters, as I suppose do that of many photographers from the film era. They are the culmination of the photographs that have moved me in the past and the feelings they provoked, interpreted in my time with my technique.  Should I take on the work of more recent photographers? I do, but in ever decreasing amounts (I think everyone absorbs more early on in any learning process). At some point in the past my style was formed. It has evolved over time, like everyone's does, but the roots are easy enough to find.

 The image above, taken in dismal weather at a Shibuya train station entrance in Tokyo, is the result of "deliberate randomness". The  17mm was focussed at about 4 foot at f2-4, relying on the unique rendering of the lens to create the anticipated look. The main subject is the "middle distance", not a specific person. The only thing the photographer has to be aware of is timing and composition, very liberating.

The coherently formed, but abstracted girl allows your imagination to tell her story. The sharper, but anonymous man in the foreground adds hard reality and a sense of time, contrasting with the softer main subject. There were a few images taken in that crowded entranceway, but this is my favourite. 

I hope you find your style or already have.

The zoo made me do it

There are lots of arguments for and against black and white images. My choice of black and white is simple, pragmatic and thoroughly unromantic. I choose black and white when colour won't work and mono has the elements it needs.

Each time we visit a major city for any time, the zoo tends to be on the short list. Often the images are a matter of making the best of what you get with mixed light and limited time. After a particularly unsatisfying trip to Melbourne zoo (poor light and time constraints), I struggled with the resulting images and in desperation converted them to mono. It allowed me to salvage some pretty poor files to an acceptable standard. As time went on the black and white zoo series became a thing. Visits became about the images with mono in mind from the outset. Sometimes an image is as good or better in colour, and this leaves me with a dilemma, continue the series or deviate. So far mono has held sway.

The pelican image was captured 10 minutes into a trip to Perth zoo last year. it is not super sharp due to poor light and subject movement and the colour image is cool and flat, but mono allowed the textures, clean lines and personality of the bird to come out. Black and white images have fewer underpinning elements than colour images. They need tone and texture,  subject and compositional strength.

The image was taken with an EM5 and 75-300 lens at 300mm, wide open. the shutter speed was about 1/250, ISO 400. In hindsight a higher ISO would have allowed either a faster shutter speed and/or more depth of field. Removing unwanted clutter from the background also strengthened the image.

Wasted frames

I am forever testing lenses. I used to line up a camera with a book case in our old house and test all of the extremes of focal length, aperture and frame area, turning a chore into a bit of an art form. Lately the method has simplified to just taking some snaps of consistent subjects and viewing at normal size on a biggish screen. A waste of a frame really.

Poor Pepper or, as we also call her "Miss Daisy" has been my muse for the last few years since we adopted her from my brother in law. She is very photogenic, patient and has reliable habits as she wanders from room to room following the sun. This day I had the 75-300 in hand and noticed her winding up for a bark at a passing dog. The shot was the usual, aim for the eyes (Olympus eye detect works on dogs!), hold steady and shoot. The result is an image nearly impossible only a few years ago. A hand held 600mm equivalent focal length, indoors in fading light at ISO 400 and a slightly moving subject. The aperture is f6.7 (wide open on that lens and apparently its weakest point...hah!) and the shutter speed was about 1/60-1/125 of a second. IBIS on even the older EM5 is good enough that sometimes you forget old habits and try improbable shots. 

Conflicting emotions

One of the main draws of street photography is observing the interaction of people in their world. Going about their business with little or no awareness of a quiet observer, they show you the faces that often only close family and friends see.

In the same style as the last posting, this photo has been processed with the "cinematic" look to exaggerate the three stories. The sun lit business man, just entering the frame with a look of utmost practiced seriousness, the younger man receiving some good news and the lost expression of the woman on the bike all tell differing versions of a moment in time. I have always been drawn to the works of National Geo, Magnum and the early street shooters for this reason. They wanted humanity to open to them, spontaneously and honestly, something that is becoming ever less attainable in modern life. Everyone has a story, everyone has a life that is theirs, but a small insight into their world can make ours richer as long as no harm is done. 

The camera was again the EM5 and the 25mm f1.8 set at f4. Auto focus was used with the central focus point only and was a little off, so on close inspection the front players are a little soft and the cars in the background are sharper. From then on I trusted the face detect and wide area focus system more for this type of work. I have a habit of walking out the door with a wide or normal lens and short telephoto. This day I chose the 25mm instead of the 17mm and found most of the images taken had a tighter tension to them and were technically harder to take. I had more hits that day, but also more misses.

Cinematic echoes

Almost as important as taking a photo is presenting that image the way you want to get your vision across.   

The above image, taken in Osaka last spring, attracted me because of the layers of different people, but I struggled with its presentation. Something was missing from the image's look. It reminded me of something, but I could not put my finger on it. Then one day a friend said "it's kind of cinematic. like the cast of Reservoir Dogs on a promo poster", and so began the cinematic experiment (basically semi panoramic aspect with rich colours, selective focus and dramatic light). Not many images work for it, but when they do, nothing else seems to do. It's easier to do with a lens over 100mm (full frame) as that mimics the compression of cinema better, but can be accomplished as this one is with a wider angle. The confident guy with a cigarette and his friends, the disinterested delivery man, the dog attached to an invisible owner, the yellow cab filling the blank space, the evenly spaced colour points and the slightly hurried looking business man work as the main characters in an untold story. 

The camera was the OMD EM5 and the lens the 25mm f1.8 at about f4 (50mm at f8 on a full frame), using autofocus with face detection. I love the light in Osaka. Its brighter and clearer looking than Tokyo, especially around the newer buildings near the station.

Hail Mary

Technical perfection is apparently overrated (says my wife). So against my better judgement, some images get printed....big and hung on a wall in our house. Some would not make it off the "cutting room floor" on a purely technical basis, so it's a good thing my wife practices what I preach about image content over technical considerations.

The image above is heavily cropped, poorly exposed and a bit soft, but it's a household favourite and prints quite well. Taken with a 450D canon and a 35 f1.4L lens wide open at about 1/20th of a second, holding an icecream in one hand, sitting on the freezing steps of a fountain in Rome, in January, it should not really have happened. It happened twice (the image in galleries is slightly different). Looking at the original file is not heart warming. I learned a lot about the limits of Lightroom and the 450D getting something useable out of it, but it's ok and hey, I like the image when I don't think too much about its flaws. 

Tough light, tough crowd.

Some places are beautiful and some photogenic. Sometimes the two are less than harmonious.

The Fushimi-Inari temple in Kyoto is a must see on the tourist calendar. A short, pleasant train ride from the main station and popular with tourists and locals, it is well frequented any day of the year. As with most temples in Japan, it is a working religious site as well as a nice place to be. 

We arrived mid morning in spring to an already solid crowd and it was building. The temple area is spread across the face of a large hill, broken into several circuitous routes, allowing people to see some or all of the pathway as they wish. As we climbed higher the crowds thinned, but it was still nearly impossible to get an image of the hundreds of orange gates without an unwanted element in the frame and the light was at times harsh and too direct. Resorting to compression and tight detail, using a 75-300 at the short end and wide open (f4.8), I compressed the cold stone detail against an almost silk like wall of orange flame. The bokeh of the 75-300 is very nice for a slow zoom lens and it occasionally made/saved images on the trip.

Lemons and the Kremlin

Every image you make draws its inspiration from sources that may go back a long way to your earliest memories. This is what makes us unique.

One of my earliest inspirations is the work of Sam Abell of National Geographic fame. Abell's work had a couple of things that drew me irresistably. The first was sublime balance and harmony, both things that all photographs require at some level. Secondly a "back to front" compositional style that emphasised all of the image elements, not just the main subject. His Montana ranch cow branding image is one of the best examples of his style and the effect colour has on the perception of depth in an image. 

When given an assignment to photograph Russia and specifically the Kremlin, Abell chose to compose the photo through an open, lace adorned window being used to ripen lemons. This had the effect of context for the Kremlin building in the life of the ordinary Russian. Brooding, mysterious, beautiful, but also just "there" as things are in daily life everywhere. I must admit to not getting the image at first, but it grew on me as the better ones do and is now a firm favourite.

Taken spontaneously while chatting with my wife in our tiny hotel room in Tokyo with an OMD EM5 and the Olympus 45 f1.8, the above image meant little during taking, it was just a careless warm up shot to check settings and the battery. When reviewed it reminded both of us of that Kremlin image in tone  and style (Olympus cameras have nice "filmy" colours, a bit Kodachrome like). The aperture used was f2-2.8 (roughly a 90mm at f4 on a full frame) due to the light in the room, but I left it there in response to the soft rendering of the background image. The curtains are razor sharp, but the woman in the background is almost entirely up to you to interpret, giving you the "idea" of her life without the detail that would stifle imagination.