Magnum Workshop Day 5/7 - Focus Pays Off, With One Usable Shot

Okay, at the end of Day 4 I felt pretty confident. I had a few images from the beach and the ladder shot, which reasonably tied in to my "end of the season" in Ptown theme. DAH selected a couple of the images, didn't like the beach exit picture I posted yesterday, and told me frankly that I had more work to do. He did suggest that I head back to the beach to see what else I could make of that.

 

I had in the back of my mind that I may once again find the surf fishermen, but that didn't happen.

 

I threw my Lumix GX7 over my shoulder, grabbed lunch to go in a bag, and biked back out to the shore. I went to the places I'd been the day before, met and talked with a few different people on the beach, and even got a young couple to let me shoot their relaxing day in the sand. None of these made it past my own filter.

 

Making a long loop ride around the seashore as shown below, I ended up at a bike shop near the west end of town.

 

Original Map Source: http://www.visit-provincetown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/parkingPtown.png

 

Sort of out of options after leaving the beach with no real good additions to show for my efforts, I decided to act on DAH's advice to find a spot and let the image develop. The bike shop had lots of "Sale" signs up, indicating the end of the season. The deli inside the store was already closed for the season, and I photographed that, but not to much effect.

 

Going back outside, I noticed one of the shop employees working there. I struck up a conversation, and found that he himself was a sign of the change of seasons in town. Having come to Ptown for the summer from Bulgaria, this young man was preparing to return home in a couple of days. While he had enjoyed Ptown very much, working very long hours (90 hours per week!), he was looking forward to getting home to see his family. I asked where he had lived during the summer, and he told me he'd shared a space with two other people on the property. Asking if I could photograph his room, he told me that he was not allowed to bring guests in. And, he was working at the moment, anyway.

 

Having to pursue it further, I asked him if he could grab his suitcase, and let me photograph him walking out the door of the shop. Not exactly what I wanted, and staged for sure, it would have at least been something. He politely told me that he'd already been on break that afternoon, and wasn't allowed to take another. I asked him if I could request that his boss make an exception. He replied that his boss himself was on break, and not available. He would not be back for about 30 minutes. I said I'd wait.

 

Now at this point, it was clear that I was pushing hard, and quite possibly had outstayed my welcome. This guy was extremely nice, but was getting a little uncomfortable about my persistence. Anyway, I decided to wait it out.

 

Sitting on a picnic table in front of the store, waiting, I shot a couple of pictures of people coming and going, but nothing with a story. And then it happened. A lady from the neighborhood who'd befriended this young gentleman over the summer came to say goodbye before he left to return to Bulgaria. She hugged him, and told him how much she enjoyed knowing him. Real emotion, finally! I asked her permission to photograph them together, and she happily obliged. Here's the one shot I got from a few hours of pursuit:

 

Goodbye My Friend

 

This one shot made it all worthwhile. In fact, it was the only useful image I got the entire day.

 

That evening back at the Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC), Costa Manos was our featured speaker. Like Bruno Barbey, Costa has been with Magnum for 50 years. Costa was the main motivator for the Magnum Days in Provincetown program. Costa walked us through his amazing career in photography, beginning with his early coverage of a South Carolina island known as Daufuskie. This was where Costa made his first "serious" image, in 1952.

 

(Click Here) to see that image on the Magnum website.

 

It is an amazing image. In fact, it haunted me. Haunted me to the point that I purchased a limited edition print of it. I am not an art collector, but I really wanted to have this image to put on my wall as a reminder of the workshop, meeting Costa, and all of the other great people involved in the workshop.

 

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Digital Photography School Presents "5 Important Components of a Powerful Image"

I really enjoy reading posts that remind me of the important things to consider when making a photograph.

 

Digital Photography School has a post about "5 Important Components of a Powerful Image":

 

(Click Here) to read it on digital-photography-school.com

 

As usual, I'll summarize it here, and show you what I think is most important in the article. First off, there's nothing new here. The components listed in the post are:

 

1. Subject
2. Strong composition
3. Moment
4. Light
5. Emotional impact

Pretty obvious, right? But, we can all use the reminder. I decided to look through one of my photo sets on flickr, and see if I could identify these components. I'm not saying I nailed each of these, but I did find pictures in this small set of images of the Tozai railway, a historic railroad that takes you up the mountainside in Hakone, Japan, which at least illustrate some of the concepts. So, here we go:

 

Subject:

 

 

Composition:

 

 

Moment:

 

 

Light:

 

 

Emotional Impact:

 

 

I certainly struggled to find any emotional impact in this set. The image I selected makes me feel the experience of actually riding the train. I have no idea if anyone else will get that from the image.

 

I shot all of these images on Panasonic Lumix cameras: the DMC-GF1, DMC-G1, and DMC-LX5, all now relegated to the past in favor of newer models. Actually, my wife now uses the LX5 for her real estate business, and I still have the GF1, just don't use it much at all.

 

It is useful to review basic concepts and components of great photographs. I think you really get powerful images when you can combine multiple components into a single image. Of these images, I would say the closest to accomplishing that is the first - the subject and lighting are pretty good, and the moment is right to catch the driver's face in the best light.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Saturated Colors and Emotion - A Leica Strength, I Believe

Me & My Balloon

Image Source: http://www.rangetraveler.com/me-my-balloon/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=me-my-balloon

 

This shot was made with a digital Leica M9-P and teh Leica 50mm Summilux. When I look at this, especially the saturated red balloon, and the enhanced vignetting, darkening the areas surrounding the child, I can almost remember what it felt like to be a little kid. Wearing my hood up, with my new balloon, in a world of my own. I think this image really succeeds in taking us elsewhere, in time and space.

 

There is clearly some significant post-processing in this image.

 

(Click Here) to see the original post on rangetraveler.com

 

The color here reminds me of what I get with one of my favorite old lenses, a Leica Summaron 3.5cm f3.5 thread mount (LTM) lens. Here's an example of what my lens produces, without boosting saturation, etc.

 

Autumn Colors, by Reed A. George

Leica CL, Leica 3.5cm f3.5 Summaron Lens

iso200 Film

 

I'll be featuring my Summaron at some point in the coming months on my M9, as part of my "Whole Lotta Leica" series. I'm always pleased with the images this tiny little lens produces.

 

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The Psychology of Photography - Published by Theme

 

Image Source: http://the.me/the-psychology-of-photography/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+themephoto+%28theme%29

 
Occasionally, I like to back up and think about why I (we) photograph. I put an enormous amount of time and thought into my photography, and it rewards me back more than I put in. Theme recently published a thoughtful article on the subject.
 
(Click Here) to read the story on Theme. Be sure to watch the TED video. There are graphic images in the video, but they're strong, meaningful ones.
 
Sometimes the "philosophy of photography" can seem dull and overly-introspective to me. I've read some books (including some famous ones) that I forced myself to finish, and then concluded that I was no smarter at the end than the beginning. So, I like short, thoughtful pieces like the one above.
 
A couple of concepts that stuck with me are that photography is a way of "...crystallizing one's own experience..." and a way to "...to less ignore the life we live in..."
 
Another touchpoint of this article and video is that good images force us to act. I believe that all good art evokes emotion (I'm not sure who said that, but it's not my original idea). That emotion is not always positive or good. And, I also believe that emotion drives action. So, I can go along with this concept.
 
Finally, the piece makes the point that a good image is made by the photographer, the camera, the object, and most importantly by the viewer. The viewer must get the point for the communication to have been effective.
 
I found this brief piece interesting. But, enough navel gazing. Let's get out and make some pictures.
 
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More Emotion - Neither Smiles Nor Grimaces

I spent a few minutes photographing my daughter on a "boring" Sunday afternoon. In order to get her to drop the canned front-on smile, I asked her to imagine things - testing for her black belt and the related anxiety, driving for the first time when she gets her license in a few years, coming home to tell me that she's wrecked the car...

Thinking - Wait For It..., by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Elmarit 90mm f2.8

iso 1250, f5.6, 1/125 sec

 
I can't help but think these types of images will mean more to me than school portraits in years to come. Just the detail of her superhero t-shirt reminds me of who she is.
 
DMC-365.blogspot.com
 
 

Emotions - Not Always Smiles or Stern Looks

 

Stage Fright, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Lumix 20mm f1.7 Lens

iso400, f2.0, 1/400 sec

 
I have mentioned before Chris Orwig's book on People Photography. I was recently reading an assignment in it about capturing emotion other than canned smiles or stern glares into the lens. It reminded me of the shot above, which I took at a Japanese Obon festival. I love the look on the little girl's face.
 
I also enjoyed a single image post on mu-43.com by user LC55.
 
(Click Here) to see the post on mu-43
 
I need to complete the assignment in Chris' book, and see if I can come up with some more shots of emotion.
 
DMC-365.blogspot.com
 
 

Luminous Landscape Article on Emotion in Photography - by William Neill

 

Goodbye Sunset, by Reed A. George

Leica M8, Voigtlander 28mm f1.9

iso 320, f stop not recorded, 1/250 sec

 
I just read this great piece on Luminous Landscape about how emotion can, does, and should affect every artist's work. Bill Neill describes how he fell into a 5' deep water hole with all of his camera gear at Zion National Park. The next day, he took a beautiful shot of water's effect on the desert floor, with the gear he was able to salvage.
 
(Click Here) to read his article on Luminous Landscape.
 
In my own experience, when emotion does affect me, it results in my most meaningful photographs. Of course, since I associate the emotion with the image, it is probably most meaningful to me. I have no real way of saying if that emotion translates to others.
 
In the shot above, I was driving around rural Maryland on my own, looking for something to photograph. I knew that my Grandma was quite ill, and it wouldn't last long. That said, we'd had a few false alarms already, so it was hard to tell just how serious it was. I heard later that night that she had passed on. This was Grandma's final sunset, even though she didn't get to see it. I literally caught it out of the corner of my eye, quickly pulled over, and shot it. It is not an ideal shot - a nice barn in the foreground would have helped. However, it was a vanishing instant, and was gone before I could relocate or recompose. For me, the shot has incredible meaning. I don't expect others to feel it. Actually, I'm quite happy experiencing that on my own.
 
This is why photography means something to me. I have no other way to communicate, or even remember the true feel of emotion at times like that.
 
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