Leica M9, 50mm F/2, f/4, 1/30, iso 150
Many of my memories of Cuba are about the people. The people are very colorful, and I believe more than anything else they love their music. You should see them dance!
This senor was part of a 5 or 6 piece band we enjoyed listening to, one very special late morning in Trinidad. A very good time of friendship, music and even some photography!
Leica M9, 90mm F2.8, f/5.7, 1/60, iso 800
As I'm sure with many exotic locations, it turns out to be the people shots that are most compelling. They tell the story.
In the case of Cuba, the story is "La Lucha" - the daily struggle. Children are oblivious, of course. But from adulthood, the failure of communism really takes its toll. I talked with many Cubans about this. I think this image tells the story well.
On Wordless Wednesday, you tell the story...
Los Manos
Leica M9, 50mm F/2, f/4.8, 1/90, iso 160
We have been back from San Miguel de Allende for nearly a week now. Photographically speaking, it was an incredibly rich trip. Defiitely met or exceeded expectations. We met a lot of great new people. Thanks to John Barclay and Dan Sniffin for another excellent photo tour.
I knew ahead of time that we would be shooting some "models." In this case, ranch hand families. I very much looked forward to this opportunity, you know how much I like working with models. This time there was a language barrier, but that didn't present as many issues as cultural. I'm sure us gringo photogs seemed like aliens to these people rich from the earth itself. This gentleman here was also deaf.
But no matter, I'm going to make a connection with people I shoot in a setting like this if at all possible. In our group of photogs, we had one couple with a great deal of people shooting experience, all the way to "have never done it before." Working together (including some Spanish speakers in our group) we all did pretty well.
This was the one pose I pre-visualized before even heading to Mexico. Mi amigo here was so accommodating, it was just a pleasure to spend some time with him and try to bring to the image his sense of place.
A few thoughts on this image. Natural light. You know me, my favorite. We were part of the rancho casa, with lovely afternoon light coming in. We used a reflector to get some more light into this area. The background is a concrete wall. Looks a lot like those canvas/paper backdrops that photography companies sell, doesn't it? I was going to present it SOOC, but in the end I lowered the dark area just a bit wth curves and gave the image the tiniest hit of Clarity in LR.
Lastly, the richness of images from the Leica M9... Luscious.
On Wordless Wednesday, you tell the story...
Leica M9, 50mm F/2, f/4.8, 1/180, iso 160
This weekend was "world wide photo walk," begun by the irrepressible Scott Kelby. See http://worldwidephotowalk.com/. Briefly, for those of you that aren't familiar: A published date/time/place for photographers to get together and just shoot. Walking in neighborhoods or wherever. There's a little bit of organization, sometimes some type of sponsor.They are limited to a certain number of participants.
The one I joined was affiliated with Adobe in Seattle. We met at their HQ (very gorgeous) in the Fremont neighborhood. Our destination was the Gas Works park that is nearby. But part of a photo walk is opening up your mind to the everyday, along your way. It was a hoot. The locals are certainly intrigued (all of a sudden you have 50 photographers snapping pics in all directions).
I figured it would be a great "trial by fire" for me learning my Leica gear. Mostly, during this shoot, I had plenty of time to manually focus. Except for this shot, taken when we were walking back to Adobe HQ. I was walking with two other photographers when this little girl just burst into the scene. I wear the M9 on a neckstrap, have never been able to do that with a heavy SLR. I literally just moved my hand to the shutter, aimed a tiny bit (without looking into the viewfinder) and tripped the shutter. "Shooting from the hip" as it is known.
A fun experience, great place. This week I'll show you more. What do you think of this one?
Canon 5D Mark II, 70-300mm, f/7.1, 1/800, iso 200
I love scenes like this. They always take me back to when my kids were this age. Doesn't it seem like life always gets more complicated? As an adult it would be hard to experience the singular joy this girl feels at this moment. I am making an effort to "live in the moment" these days, depending upon what I'm doing. But it is work for me, and I wish just once in a while I had the luxury of a child like experience. Thanks, precious little one, for reminding us of a simple pleasure.
Leica M9, 50mm F/2, f/2.4, 1/125, iso 500
I have been reading about street shooting, and watching some videos on websites and youtube. The advice about shooting people is either do it and explain yourself if necessary, or ask. I was showing some friends around a town nearby yesterday. I wondered in to this old pastry shop, hoping perhaps for some interesting characters perusing the treats.
But no one happened to be in the shop at that moment. When this woman said "may I help you?" I immediately thought "wow, a face that has served a million pastries." She seemed very interesting and photogenic to me, in a street shooting sense.
Before I knew it I was blurting out "would you mind if I take your picture?" Somewhat to my surprise she smiled and said "not at all!" I had her back up against the racks of goodness in the back and (trying to manually focus quickly) fired off a shot. I looked at her and she began walking forward to me. That's when I had the sense that this placement of her and composition was going to be much better. I said "hold it," quickly raised the camera and tried to focus.
The M9 is manual focus. That's right, no pressing the button, hearing the beep and shooting. There's a little "patch" in the middle of the screen where the image aligns if you have the lens focused correctly. I should have chosen her eye, but I chose her lips. Who knows why? The whole thing happened in about 1.5 secs. So her eyes are a bit OOF. At this distance, a little more f/stop would have helped. Hey, I'm learning!
But viewing on the computer screen, her very appealing look, and Mona Lisa smile, still win me over. I'll get those eyes next time.
Canon 5D Mark II, 14mm F/2.8, f/4.5, 1/50, iso 800
Last day. I guess you have to be an architecture buff to have made it this far with the Perspectives series? I had some waiting to do in the various locations to get my shots without people in them. I would often wait quite awhile at the bottom or top of the escalator, for the people to clear out.
Then this couple came along. On a hunch, I jumped on after them. Somehow I felt that including a couple of people would humanize the building, in my images. This place is actually FULL of people all the time. Yes, I was shooting "perspectives," but to be true to the subject I think some people shots are important.
I clicked off a few shots with them looking down as we all do when riding an elevator. Then she slowly turned around and looked right at me. A moment of doubt, on my part. Do I just go ahead and be "a creeper" as the young people call older dudes looking or shooting images of them? Pretend I'm just shooting the escalator?
The strength of this scene overcame any shyness and I fired away. I could explain to them later what I was doing if necessary. This shot simply had to be taken. Maybe some of my street shooting has made me bolder. In the end, she just turned around and they went on with their day.
And that brings us to the end of this series. Please let me know what you think of this series, the comments are free for the forseeable future!
Canon 5D Mark II, 180mm F/3.5 Macro, f/4.5, 1/200, iso 100
In the Palouse last weekend I got to meet one of my photo heroes. I'm not going to name him because he was just there on his own taking pictures, not leading a workshop or anything.
On my first night there we were both shooting at Steptoe Butte (here is a previous post from Steptoe if you aren't familiar). I asked him if he was finding anything interesting and he said "Well, not bad, but I'm not so much into these big landscapes these days. Everyone that comes here shoots this, right?" I had to agree, and this is what keeps me away from the well shot places like Yosemite and Antelope Canyon to name two.
He then whipped out his iPhone and showed me a few images from earlier that day. "These days I'm into finding things that are different, patterns or scenes that are different, yet striking." Bingo, I thought, that's exactly how I feel. He showed me four images that really wowed me. He is seeing the same view as any person, but picking out unique and interesting compositions. That's really what I want my photography to be about.
On Sunday morning I went out to do some shooting of this type. I went really well, and I have to say I was definitely "feeling it." I was letting the compositions come to me, and I believe I got some pretty great ones. I was on a high walking back to the hotel when I crossed a bridge and saw this scene to my left. "Shapes and shadows" I thought. Looking through the viewfinder I gave it some tilt I felt belonged there, and fired a few shots.
In Lightroom, I liked what I had, but wanted to just emphasize the shapes, shadows and colors. I brought down the low tones, which richened them, then "de-clarified" with the clarity slider. I like this abstract feel. Looks pretty nice for a big concrete drainage ditch?
Back at the hotel I was having breakfast and some people asked to see the images I took out on Endicott Road. It was fun having my hero look them over and tell me the ones he liked. I was able to tell him that the columns he wrote back when I first started getting serious about photography back in 2001-02 were a big help and inspiration for me. Thanks again!
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