Photograph What You Love

I just read a BBC article with the typical ten tips to bring your photography to the next level. Really, it must says one thing: photograph what you love.

Fishing With My Daughter, by Reed A. George

 

(Click Here) to read the article.

 

As I write this, I am about to board a flight to Honolulu. Travel is one of the things I love most. I intend to photograph it!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

The Rolleiflex and Attracting Photographic Subjects

 

My Rolleiflex 2.8F

 

Over the holiday break, I've spent a little time with my new Rolleiflex 2.8F, which I purchased a couple of months back from my close friend Charlie. Mine is a Model K7F2 with Zeiss Planar lens, manufactured in 1966.

 

Charlie, and another good friend, Alain, have recently taken up their twin lens reflex (TLR) Rolleis and done quite a lot of shooting. One of the things that excites them both about Rolleiflex is how warmly people welcome them shooting with them. So many people ask about the cameras, or remember someone who had a camera like that, etc.

 

I have certainly experienced the same phenomenon. In fact, Charlie and I were in DC over the weekend, when a lady at the table next to ours in a cafe said "Excuse me, I see you have a Rolleiflex." She then went on to tell us that she owns one herself, which she inherited from her brother. By the way, her brother fought in World War II, including Normandy, entering the military at age 14 with a made up birth date. This nice lady asked about our little photography group, which meets once monthly. She's invited to our next meeting, and I'm hoping she'll bring her camera along and let us help her start shooting it again.

 

In my opinion, this kind of camera recognizing is both blessing and curse. While I certainly enjoy welcoming photographic subjects, sometimes I want to go unnoticed. I find that a small 35mm camera, like a Leica rangefinder, is better for that. The truth is that subject reaction to the two types of cameras is just different. Neither is good or bad; they're just different.

 

I've written about this in the past, with regard to my Mamiya Universal Press camera. Very few people recognize the MUP, but it's so big, it's not going to go unnoticed. (Click Here) to see some of the "candids" I've taken with the MUP.

 

I recently found a post on the blog "TLRgraphy" about this automatic receptivity in photographic subjects when you're using a Rolleiflex. (Click Here) to read the post on TLRgraphy.

 

Anyway, I've now got two rolls of 120 film exposed with my 2.8F, ready to go off for processing at thedarkroom.com

 

Hopefully, I'll have a few good images to share with you in a week or so.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

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