shadows

As you may have noticed, indoor lighting (especially industrial/corporate lighting) rarely makes things look good.  For a long time, I believed the marketing hype of the light bulb makers that this was due to the light’s color temperature – that if I used (more expensive) bulbs designed to simulate the Sun’s spectrum, I’d get better photos, and things would look better in general.

But now, I don’t see light temperature as the problem.  Instead, I think the problems with indoor lighting and photography mostly stem from a lack of shadows and contrast.  Lights designed to make sure everything is well lit prevent anything from being hidden or masked.  This makes photos inherently less interesting, because everything looks more bland.  Using a cooler light bulb won’t solve the fundamental problem!

gearhead and anti-gearhead

As I brace myself for shooting Fringe again (last year, I shot thousands of photos), I find myself surprisingly un-anxious about gear. I’ll be using the same Nikon D40 body I used last year. My primary lens this year will be a plain 50mm f/1.8 Nikon, which doesn’t autofocus on the D40 body. I don’t know if I’ll even use any other lenses. Since last year, I’ve invested in a split-prism focus screen, which makes using a manual lens much easer. I’ll also be bringing along a monopod for stability this time around. No flash, of course.

I’ve considered getting the new Nikon 55-200mm VR (although it’s awfully slow), but if I want some zoom it might make more sense to rent a pro lens. And I’ll bring along the stock kit lens for wider angles (it’s actually very nice). I feel slightly disadvantaged in that I won’t be able to use a long lens on a tripod like a “pro”, but getting in close is part of my technique. Go with your strengths, man.

I don’t really need more gear, or even much want it.  I’ve built my photography style around a sort of modernized Cartier-Bresson approach… small camera, “normal” lens, no flash, get in close and be unobtrusive.  As I’ve written before, I find long lenses for photos of humans make me uncomfortable, socially and politically.  I get good photos of people, especially non-portrait photos, but it requires me being close enough to the subject to get a feel for what they’re feeling.

Let the pros have their pro approach, I guess.  But it doesn’t work for me.

authority, meet responsibility

Last year, I took photos of many shows in the Minnesota Fringe Festival.  I planned to do the same this year, but was concerned about potentially tightening photography restrictions, or “helpful” volunteers interfering.  So I asked if I should get a press pass this year, and sent along a link to the photos.  Instead, they asked me to be a floating staff photographer this year!  They already have staff photographers covering most of the venues/shows, but it would be my job to fill any gaps, to make sure there are official Fringe photos taken for every show. 

It’s frankly an honor to be asked to do this, but.  It’s a bit disconcerting as well.  My photos are no longer just for my amusement, and that of whomever might look at them.  They’ll be OFFICIAL.  I’ll have some actual responsibility to the subjects.

This shouldn’t be a Bad Thing.  I know I’m capable of quality work, and I was invited to do this based on the strength of my previous work.  I think my concern isn’t about the quality of my photos so much as whether this newfound sense of responsibility will lead to unnecessary caution or second-guessing.  I don’t want to try to be perfect. Photography, at least performance photography, is a hard realtime process.  A moment happens, and then it’s gone, never to return or be perfectly restaged.  It’s risky, and photographing performances well requires accepting the risks.  I don’t want to be cautious.

edit: I’m even second-guessing my decision to discuss my feelings about this on a public blog. That’s not good. It’s a variation on what Burroughs called “the Policeman Inside”, I think. Well, I’m determined to leave this up, just to thumb my nose at myself. Or something.

a minor annoyance

I’ve started using Picasa to organize and edit my photos, since I don’t have the money at the moment to invest in Adobe Lightroom (the demo was lovely, though).  One gripe… Picasa can’t show EXIF data associated with a NEF (Nikon RAW) file.  It does seem to preserve it, because it’s there when I edit photos in Picasa and upload them to Flickr. Hopefully they’ll fix it in the next release.

How quickly I’ve turned into a degenerate digicam nerd.  And to think I used to be a proud film snob.

fighting your tools

Ig on the IG BLOG wrote about how you gotta fight your guitar a little.  I generally concur, but I think the idea extends to other tools as well… I like my cameras to fight me a little as well.  But it’s not just that I want my guitars/cameras to fight… I want them to fight me in useful ways, in ways that make me a better musician or a better photographer.  I don’t want just any old thing to be harder.  For example, if my Telecaster isn’t set up just right, it frets out on bends above the twelveth fret.  I HATE that.  It limits me, as opposed to fighting me.  On the other hand, I like using a manual focus lens on my autofocus camera.  It fights me, but it makes me more conscious of what I’m doing.

That’s the advantage of a guitar that “fights” you, I think… it keeps you focused and concentrating, and not just doing something too effortlessly.

rule of thumb

NOBODY looks good in photos when they’re eating.  Take pictures of people with food, and expect to throw them out like last week’s leftovers.

idle hands

I haven’t touched my camera in days.  I’m not even sure the whether the battery is in the camera, or the charger at the moment.  This, after the Fringe Festival/wedding binge where I shot nearly 10,000 photos in a month. 

It feels weird, when I think about it.  On the other hand, I’ve spent a couple of evenings up to my elbows in my music recording stuff, which was being ignored while I was shooting so many photos.  So I guess it’s not that my hands are idle, so much as I only have two of them.

toys (cameras)

Although I’m usually down on getting too preoccupied with tools, I know people get excited about such things.  So here’s a rundown of my current photography equipment:

Nikon D40 – I really like this camera.  It’s my first DSLR, and the first one that gets around many of the things I dislike about DSLRs.  It’s small, light, and ergonomic.  I particularly like the seemingly endless battery life and the 4GB memory card… it is to photos what Indiana Jones’ gun is to shooting.  No reloading, ever!

Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens – This is my near 100% of the time lens now.   Unfortunately, it’s manual focus only on the D40, but I don’t mind too much – I often prefer manual focus anyway, due to my shooting style.  The effective 75mm length is very nice for the kind of photos I take, picking up individuals or small groups without decontextualizing them from the environment too much.  And I can always “zoom” by walking closer or farther.  Zoom can make a photographer lazy.

Adobe Lightroom – I’ve been running a demo version of this excellent software, but I think I’ll have to break down and buy it.  Besides being very convenient for photo editing, its library also keeps my photos organized, something I’ve been trying to do better lately.

Fuji F20 – This pocket camera has done a great job for me.  It’s small, does the Indiana Jones gun thing, and can shoot without flash in appallingly low light (noise is bad, but I cope).  If I want to be a sneak, this is the camera I’d use.  And at only $200, it’s a bargain for low-light photographers.

Olympus OM-1 – This is my main film camera these days, a pure mechanical, professional quality beauty from the Golden Age of 35mm.  I also own a more “modern” OM-2S with a spot meter, but I prefer the simple centerweighted meter and pure mechanical design of the OM-1.  Lens-wise, I use a 50mm f/1.8, a 28mm f/3.5, and a gorgeous Tamron 90mm f/2.5 macro (I might try this one on the D40 in manual mode, just for kicks).

Yashica Electro 35 GSN – I haven’t used this camera in a while, and the batteries are dead, but I’ll probably get it out of mothballs and use it again soon.  It’s a fixed lens, leaf shutter, aperture priority design from the early 1970s.  The exposure is always perfect, and the single-coated 45mm lens has a uniquely beautiful sense of color and focus – maybe not as “accurate” as sharper and more contrasty modern lenses, but it makes the best of everything.

doing, not being

Revisiting an idea from my earlier post called Choosing the Subject, I realize that I prefer to photograph people who are actually doing something.  Although formal portraiture can be quite moving, I’m by no means a studio photographer, and have very little interest in it.  I want to photograph people in context.  Often, the context is an event – a dance, a wedding, a party, a concert.  When people in such contexts become aware they’re being photographed, they’ll often “pose”.  They’ll stop what they’re doing, and try to plaster on a smile, or a serious face, or try to look cool.  The effect is that they decontextualize themselves.  They’re reacting to the camera, not the world.  It looks artificial, and is one of the leading causes of bad family photos (along with poor lighting). 

The only solution I’ve found is to be a sneak.  I don’t hide my camera, but I do photograph without permission, and I stick to unobtrusive techniques – no flash, no beeps, no large lenses, mechanically quiet cameras.

My daughter snapped this photo of me and her mother.  It’s not my photo, but it’s a good example of what I’m talking about here. The emphasis is not on us, but on the activity – in this case, a loving kiss. As she is a good sneak photographer, we didn’t know she was taking this.

organizing

I spent much of the day sunday cleaning up my studio.  It was a mess, junk all over the place, no places for things.  I also spent some time reorganizing some music software, and spent some time over the past couple of weeks organizing photos.

As a media artist (photos, recorded music), there are two key points where organization matters.  First, there’s the organization of tools, so I can create easily when inspiration strikes, rather than looking around for the instrument or camera or sofware I need in order to create. Second, there’s organization of the products of my work, the media I produce.  That includes both final products and works in progress.  And since it’s mostly software at this point, I need to concern myself with backups, long-term software compatibility, and other annoying technical issues.

Aside from these, there’s environmental organization – making sure I have a pleasant and effective place to work.  And there’s schedule organization, so I have time to work.

And then there’s organizing the mind, getting ideas in order so I can produce and improve my craft deliberately.  I need to meditate more.