Camera Work

PKR said:
Yeah, he has a very good eye and has been at the same subject matter for quite some time. Those villagers are his friends and look forward to his visits.

That's a great lesson in how to gain visual access and not have your subjects looking self conscious.

https://is.ambafrance.org/Interview-Ragnar-Axelsson-photographe

http://www.emptykingdom.com/featured/ragnar-axelsson/




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When you photograph people, visual access is everything. It trumps all the gear you can stuff in your bag or your forum ;) I’ll take ‘trust’ over a summicron any day of the week.
 
emraphoto said:
When you photograph people, visual access is everything. It trumps all the gear you can stuff in your bag or your forum ;) I’ll take ‘trust’ over a summicron any day of the week.
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I went looking for a really good interview RAX did in the Guardian, I think it was. It seems it's no longer on the web. I've seen a lot of stuff vanish lately. I copied the text of the Koudelka interview (above) for fear it would vanish too. So, now.. if they're good, they get text coverage, with all credits and links attached. Any others posting text material of value, please do the same.

emraphoto, yeah, anyone who's seen the great photos that can come from embedded work know that the time invested is returned ten fold in friendships and images. It's hard to get some to invest the time today, with the reported attention span of younger folks measured in under ten minutes. The TV Web culture has fostered this kind of thinking. Hardware won't fix this. It's not the nature of the process.

RAX cites Gene Smith as one he looked to as an example of how to do it. Smith was the example for many on image pay offs for time invested.

I know that we both know about this, but we are hard pressed to convince others of the value. Bob Michaels had this figured out long ago. Hopefully some others will catch on.

Here's another great example: Susan Bank, a good eye, one M body and a 28 ..that's it. And, a huge investment in time.
http://www.susansbank.com/

http://lenscratch.com/2016/11/susan-s-bank-piercing-the-darkness/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQIAS-b7IsQ

Edit: the YouTube with Bank is long. I found her very honest and pretty funny. Her comments on various workshops were very interesting and in one case really funny.

best to you emraphoto, pkr
 
Sally Mann Exhibit

Sally Mann Exhibit

Sally Mann has a new exhibit in the National Gallery of Art starting March 4. Here's a review and commentary.

Here's the National Gallery of Art link.
 
PKR said:
Sam Abell

When it comes to color, photographers like Sam Abell, Bill Allard and David Harvey are to my taste..

Bill Allard
http://www.williamalbertallard.com/
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Love WAA, especially his “Time at the Lake” book, all images from MN lake life. When I got a copy of the book, I was floored to see my uncle in one of the photos.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
dasuess said:
Love WAA, especially his “Time at the Lake” book, all images from MN lake life. When I got a copy of the book, I was floored to see my uncle in one of the photos.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Bill is a really good photographer and a great guy. It was Bill who helped get David Harvey recognized for his work, and I think his job at NatGeo.
 
William A Allard has always been at the top of my list. Even though i never photograph in color...I always see the perfect composition of his photos above all else.
 
PKR said:
I went looking for a really good interview RAX did in the Guardian, I think it was. It seems it's no longer on the web. I've seen a lot of stuff vanish lately. I copied the text of the Koudelka interview (above) for fear it would vanish too. So, now.. if they're good, they get text coverage, with all credits and links attached. Any others posting text material of value, please do the same.

emraphoto, yeah, anyone who's seen the great photos that can come from embedded work know that the time invested is returned ten fold in friendships and images. It's hard to get some to invest the time today, with the reported attention span of younger folks measured in under ten minutes. The TV Web culture has fostered this kind of thinking. Hardware won't fix this. It's not the nature of the process.

RAX cites Gene Smith as one he looked to as an example of how to do it. Smith was the example for many on image pay offs for time invested.

I know that we both know about this, but we are hard pressed to convince others of the value. Bob Michaels had this figured out long ago. Hopefully some others will catch on.

Here's another great example: Susan Bank, a good eye, one M body and a 28 ..that's it. And, a huge investment in time.
http://www.susansbank.com/

http://lenscratch.com/2016/11/susan-s-bank-piercing-the-darkness/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQIAS-b7IsQ

Edit: the YouTube with Bank is long. I found her very honest and pretty funny. Her comments on various workshops were very interesting and in one case really funny.

best to you emraphoto, pkr
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Bank is who I look to when considering what can be done with a 28. She amazes me with how close she is to her subject matter yet in her work she seems to vanish. We are left with people and their own chaotic spheres. A gifted visionary
 
emraphoto said:
Bank is who I look to when considering what can be done with a 28. She amazes me with how close she is to her subject matter yet in her work she seems to vanish. We are left with people and their own chaotic spheres. A gifted visionary
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I work with a 28 a lot when doing b&w work. I often prefocus and put a piece of tape on the focus ring to lens barrel meeting point, to keep my setting from moving (non auto focus). The camera becomes a point and shoot kind of rig. It was interesting to hear Susan Bank talk about problems with her vision and the use of a 28 in the same manor.

Also, Axelsson talks about using lenses from 50 through 21 on his M camera. Both of these people handle the information delivered from wide lenses really well. It takes more processing power (for me anyway) to frame well, quickly, with a wide lens, than something long. For the past 7-10 years, my favorite portrait lens has been a 50-60mm. I often use my old 60 Micro AFD on both film and digital cameras. The few remaining long lenses I still own, just collect dust.

I don't know if it's visual growth or just that my taste has changed over the years; I use a 35 and wider for most everything but portraits and, am attracted to imagery done with similar choices.

It's funny, writing this got me thinking of Larry Towell.
https://pro.magnumphotos.com/CS.asp...GO31_10_VForm&POPUPIID=2S5RYDYOMN2I&POPUPPN=8

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/...ry-towell-has-advice-for-photojournalists-519

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I know that bearded fellow. Lives down the toad a bit from me and his advice has been very helpful. I reckon a lot of folks don't know that about him... many bodies of work have gone through edits on the Towell table.
 
emraphoto said:
I know that bearded fellow. Lives down the toad a bit from me and his advice has been very helpful. I reckon a lot of folks don't know that about him... many bodies of work have gone through edits on the Towell table.
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He seems a good guy from his interviews. Yeah, guys like that can be of great value. Paul Fusco helped me tremendously when I was young. I haven't seen him since he moved back to NYC some years back. I hope I've been helpful to the few who have asked for help.

When you see your friend, please tell him he likely has a lot of knowledgeable photo people, maybe unknown to him, who have great respect for who he is and what he does with a camera.

pkr
 
PKR said:
He seems a good guy from his interviews. Yeah, guys like that can be of great value. Paul Fusco helped me tremendously when I was young. I haven't seen him since he moved back to NYC some years back. I hope I've been helpful to the few who have asked for help.

When you see your friend, please tell him he likely has a lot of knowledgeable photo people, maybe unknown to him, who have great respect for who he is and what he does with a camera.

pkr
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i gave a signed copy of the mennonites to my oldest son for the last christmas. inspiring another generation
 
emraphoto said:
i gave a signed copy of the mennonites to my oldest son for the last christmas. inspiring another generation
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That's really cool.

People who are interested in making photographic images (I won't use the word photographer..it's too broad) can benefit greatly from someone who's "been there" many times and on levels that are unimaginable to someone with little experience.

Paul, looked at my portfolio and asked what my day rate was. I told him and with out a pause he said, double it. On his advice alone, I did. None of my clients complained and I got more work as a result. He showed me his lighting gear. Small and light for the time. I bought the same stuff. In working locally, two photographer friends had the same lighting (I didn't have a lot of photographer friends and few had lights). We three all were after the same jobs from the same publishers, design firms and in my case AD Agencies. We were mature enough in our working style that our work differed greatly from one and other. We three knew we were being hired for the way we saw. So, with all of us just getting started, we loaned each other lighting gear if it was needed. It benefited us all. I think Paul gave me the confidence in my ability and imagery to not be afraid of competition. Years later, I found myself competing with Elliott Erwitt, Jay Maisel and Paul for annual report work. Much of this was because Paul unselfishly told me things I didn't know and couldn't have imagined about the photo business.

pkr
 
PKR said:
Here's another great example: Susan Bank, a good eye, one M body and a 28 ..that's it. And, a huge investment in time.
http://www.susansbank.com/

http://lenscratch.com/2016/11/susan-s-bank-piercing-the-darkness/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQIAS-b7IsQ

Edit: the YouTube with Bank is long. I found her very honest and pretty funny. Her comments on various workshops were very interesting and in one case really funny.

best to you emraphoto, pkr
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Really enjoyed the video. Never heard of her before. I really like her work. Thanks for sharing this.
 
I just finished to watch the Susan Bank video, great photos and great interview.
Once again a demonstration it's not so much the gear or the amount of lenses one has (mamma mia, what she did with a 28 !) but the idea, the project, the determination to work hard on it.
Thanks for the link
robert
 
robert blu said:
I just finished to watch the Susan Bank video, great photos and great interview.
Once again a demonstration it's not so much the gear or the amount of lenses one has (mamma mia, what she did with a 28 !) but the idea, the project, the determination to work hard on it.
Thanks for the link
robert
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That sane Youtube channel has a bunch of other similar videos from other photographers. I've been binge watching them for the past day.
 
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