Monday, June 30, 2014

Making Street Photography Automatic? Oh, Boy, I Don't Like This

Library, NYC, by Reed A. George
Leica M9, 50mm Lens
iso 400, f8, 1/125 sec.
 
I just read a post by member katrak on Rangefinder Forum, about how you can use the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 camera to record video at 24 frames per second with each frame having 8 megapixels of resolution. The title of the post is "Taking away luck in street photography?"
 
(Click Here) to read the post on Rangefinder Forum.
 
Technology may have finally come too far for an old traditionalist like me. One of the things I really love about photography, and street photography in particular, is the game. The game includes finding the scene, getting close enough to the subjects (who you don't know), and most importantly, capturing just the right moment. I would hate for this to be lost. It's like hunting with a machine gun or a bomb.
 
As you probably know, I'm a fan of Panasonic. The GH4 looks like a wonderful camera. So, it's not the camera that is the problem; they're simply pushing video technology to its limits.
 
However, I think this post could be renamed in multiple ways: "Taking away skill in street photography?" or perhaps "Taking away fun in street photography?"
 
I suppose since photography is a hobby for me, and because very few people make money on street photography, I can continue to shoot my old one-at-a-time cameras as long as I live. I'm only competing with myself to capture the moment. There are plenty of those moments to go around, including to people just recording every 1/24 of a second and selecting their favorite from tens of thousands of images later on.
 
DMC-365.blogspot.com

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