Saul Leiter - "In No Great Hurry"

Photographer Saul Leiter (Left) and Director Tomas Leach

Image Source: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/INGH7-Saul-Leiter-and-Director-Tomas-Leach.jpg

Here's a movie I'm actually looking forward to seeing. Director Tomas Leach was given a book of Saul Leiter's photographs, called Early Color. He decided to approach Leiter with a proposal to make a biographical film about him, and it was accepted.

 

Based on the trailer, which you can see by

 

(Clicking Here) on http://watch.innogreathurry.com

I'm convinced this will be an interesting film for me. Leiter seems like a very down-to-earth guy. The trailer is somewhat reminiscent of the film about Bill Cunningham, which I wrote about earlier. (Click Here) to see that post.

 

While Cunningham continued to use a Nikon FM2 camera for his whole career, we see in the picture above that Leiter at least toyed with more modern digital cameras, including a Panasonic Lumix G1, and an LX series (LX5), both excellent cameras in my opinion.

 

Use google image search to look for Leiter's pictures. There's a lot for me to learn from this man.

 

I learned about Leiter on Google+ in a post by Kent Forrest. The image above came from Eric Kim's photography blog. (Click Here) to see Eric's post about the film, which opens in the US in July.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

An Evening at The Morgan

While I was on a business trip in New York City last November, I decided to get out on Friday night on my own. Looking for a little culture, but certainly not up for a nightclub or anything extravagant, I did a quick search online for things happening around town. Of course, there were a million things going on in the City on a Friday night, but I chose to have a quiet evening at the Pierpont Morgan Library, where they showed a double feature of Edgar Allan Poe films - "House of Usher" and "Murder in the Rue Morgues."

 

(Click Here) to read about The Morgan library and the Poe program.

 

As I headed out for the evening, I locked my digital cameras in the hotel safe and grabbed my Leica IIIC, along with the fast Canon LTM 50mm f1.5 lens, which happened also to be my Whole Lotta Leica lens selection for November.

 

As we sat down for the first movie, I noticed this lady's fur hat, and had to get a shot before the lights went down.

Hat, by Reed A. George

Leica IIIC, Canon 50mm f1.4 LTM Lens, TMax 400 film

 

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Vincent Price terrorize his sister's young suitor in "House of Usher," but decided not to stay for the second film. Walking out of the theater, I noticed music coming from the library lobby.

Lobby, by Reed A. George

Leica IIIC, Canon 50mm f1.4 LTM Lens, TMax 400 film

 

I went back to the Morgan's website, but failed to find any information on the guitar duo shown below. I caught just the final minutes of their performance.

 

 

Guitar Performance, by Reed A. George

Leica IIIC, Canon 50mm f1.4 LTM Lens, TMax 400 film

Following is the only creative shot I made that evening, looking over the shoulder of an artist in the audience who was sketching the performers. I love the elements of the hat and glasses on the table.

Sketching, by Reed A. George

Leica IIIC, Canon 50mm f1.4 LTM Lens, TMax 400 film

 

I really enjoy the fact that NYC offers truly something for everyone. Knowing that I wanted to get out and experience something in the City that night, I was a little apprehensive about finding something I'd really enjoy. I even considered just hanging out in my room for the evening, as I knew I'd be walking all over the City the next day, which I did. I really liked the fact that I could get out, see some people, soak in a little culture, without having to do much or stay out late. Quite a nice evening overall.

 

The IIIC continues to do an admirable job for me. It's a great little camera to throw over my shoulder and walk around, and with 400 speed film and a fast f1.4 lens like the Canon 50mm LTM, I can even use it reasonably well at night.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Bill Cunningham of the NY Times

 

Image Source: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/behind-38/?_r=0

 

I just watched an incredible documentary film about Bill Cunningham, a New York City (NYC) photographer for the New York Times. At the time the film was made, 2010, Cunningham was 81 years old, and still riding his bike around NYC, shooting street shots (with a fashion emphasis) with a Nikon film camera and 35mm lens.

 

I did a quick search of the NY Times page, and it looks to me like he's still shooting! He's an incredibly soft-spoken man in the film, but pushes the "children" he works with to the limit to get his pages just right.

 

In addition to street fashion, Cunningham is in the NYC fashion scene, and attends many of the fashionable parties and events. He never eats or drinks at them, not even water; he's there to work.

 

Anyway, if you like photography, you owe it to yourself to watch "Bill Cunningham New York." It's on Netflix' online library, if you happen to be a member. Or, you can get the DVD from Amazon at the link below.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Long Live Film(?)

This subject has been covered so many times. However, it seems timely to address it today for me, since I walked into one of the few remaining local processing stores (a Walgreens) yesterday, only to find that they'd removed their film processing equipment.

 

Don't get me wrong - I prefer the mail-in service of The Darkroom most of the time. But yesterday, I wanted to see some results from a new camera, same day. I was not happy to find that the machine was gone. I guess I can't expect to send most of my stuff to The Darkroom and maintain local processing. I made the right choice. So, long live The Darkroom!

 

(Click Here) to see the excellent services The Darkroom provides.

 

(Click Here) to see an interesting video trailer about an upcoming movie about film photography, featured on the blog THEME.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com