Share the story behind one of your best photos

[daveleo]

Ramona (my brother's wife) and Nick (his son) visited us one month after my brother died suddenly of an aggressive brain tumor. Nick is a gifted artist and struggles with a form of autism.
I took them to the Boston MFA, which they loved very much, even in grief.
Walking by the cafeteria, I saw this bench against a wall and this beautiful light. Asked them to sit there for a quick snapshot. Nick could not face the camera and turned away, Ramona got sad and looked up at the light, and I hit the shutter button twice.

Best personal picture I will ever take in my life.

(Fuji X100. I fuzzed it up to keep the viewer at a distance.)

 

[filmtwit]

So, this is taken in the last year* when Milo Y. was set to give a lecture at UC Berkeley. I knew based off the ruckus at UC Davis earlier in the week that the students were going to show Milo even more of a welcome then UC Davis did. What I hadn't fanthomed was that the local "Black Bloc" kids would show up. Actually I unknowingly followed them onto campus and ended up behind them when they took over the demonstration and started to pull apart the light barriers between the protesters and venue. The demonstrators around me quickly beat a retreat as I found myself next to one of these barriers while the Black Bloc kids pulled them out of the way. I got off about 5 stills of the mayhem going on next to me (left and right) before one of the kids mildly assaulted me to get me away and stop photographing (mainly it was a big body push and an attempt at a punch). I backed off, and found myself off to the side for the main assault on MLK hall and snapped a few more pictures, but none of them were a close and intimate to the hostilities as this one was. Political theater at it's best, and worst.

*as my style, skills and what not have changed over the years, I can't really pick a best. This one currently has the most resonance with me at thsi time.

 

[daveleo]

....... Hello Lynn! I'm trying to come back more consistently to RFF, so thanks for the intriguing invitation to leave my burrow ;-)
.........

Good to hear from you, Robert.

 

[Rangefinder 35]

Dream Lake, Washington Cascades,

[/url]WA_Dream Lake_002 by , on Flickr[/IMG]
Contax G2, 21/2.8 G Biogon. Gitzo Carbon Fiber Tripod, Velvia 50 film, Polarizer
I've heard about Dream Lake for years. The name itself promised a lot. However, there was no trail to it, but rumor had a fisherman's path leading to it. I tried to find it twice with my dog; once in the summer, when we got bogged down in the gigantic blowdown, and once in the winter, when we reached an enormous clearing with miles of snow before us and gathering dusk. Third time during another summer I convinced my neighbor Bill to accompany us. We got on regular trail to King Creek without any problem. Then we followed a faint path up the creek to the point where it just disappeared. From then on we just hiked in the creek bed up and up, jumping from rock to rock and skirting the waterfalls through the forest so thick, that it pushed one back. I got exhausted at some point. My dog wasn't doing much better. That was the point I would surely turned around if it wasn't for Bill and his enthusiasm. He forged ahead no matter what. After resting in the shade for a long time I heard Bill yelling way up the creek. With renewed vigor I followed the screams and there was opening ahead and placid waters of the lake. Next morning I tried to circle the lake, but it was impossible. If anything the density of the forest here was thicker than below. Luckily I found couple places to set the tripod and took this photo.

 

[robert blu]

Many interesting and good contributions to this thread, thanks to all of you.
robert

 

[biomed]

GX7, 35-100/2.8

My wife, son and I were photographing King Street Station in Seattle. I was sitting down to change the battery in my camera when I noticed this group waiting to board a train. The scene reminded of a Norman Rockwell painting. Four of the group are looking intently to the right and the rest are completely oblivious to whatever is happening. The heights of the individuals form a nice upward slope to the right leading to the unseen object of attraction for the four. I was trying out a new zoom lens at the time and was very pleased with the results.

 

[adamr1699]

http://adamranz.com/carnival-lights
(Fourth image down)

This is one of my recent favorites.
It was the fourth of July and I went to one of the biggest festivals in town with a friend. There were so many people there that the cell towers couldn't put a call or text through. Waiting for the fireworks to start, the two of us were walking around the kids carnival area. I got so distracted taking pictures that I lost track of my friend who disappeared into the crowd. After trying to find him (he was my ride) I stumbled upon a booth with orange-yellow lights that seemed to glow like fire, beneath which hung an American Flag. I lined up the shot, locked my arms and held down the shutter. Probably around a 5-10 sec handheld exposure.
As soon as I removed the camera from my eye, I saw my friend through the crowd.
The images from that night started a project for me called Carnival Lights, which is one of the most exciting project concepts I've had in quite some time.

(Shot with the Rollei 40mm f/2.8 Sonnar HFT and Minolta CLE, on Kodacolor Ultra Max 400)

adamranz.com

 

[Scrambler]

This was the photo that cemented my fascination with photography.

My wife and I were attending the final night of film projection at the local RSL (Returned and Services League) put on by Rick Carlson (https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/ric-shows-grandfathers-iconic-movie-at-cannes/2657373/)

The RSL felt that historic films being watched by young people was not the sort of activity they wanted to support. Or perhaps it was the drinking at the bar that was wrong... nah, that's the RSL way!

The article above puts some context around Rick. My wife and I had seen a few of the films he showed, a range of interesting older movies and shorts.

I had not long bought a cheap, dechroming Leica IIIc, and a cheaper Jupiter-8 lens. I took a few photos on the night - most troubled by the fact that lighting was dim, I wasn't used to working the metering in such poor conditions and focus was of course very thin. Plus the focus issues with a dim rangefinder view.

This was by far my favourite, as I felt the woman moving through was somewhat ephemeral with the long exposure, and I was just grateful to have something that worked. Lady Luck.

 

[Mackinaw]

I took this pic last summer. A gal I used to work with asked me to take some “family portraits” of her and her family so I took along my Leica M240 and a few lenses, one being a Canon FD 15mm fisheye. I put on the fisheye and told her 8-year old daughter that it “would make her face look funny if you get real close to the lens.” Of course, being a 8-year old, she did. I pre-focused at about 18” and pressed the shutter button as she leaned forward. One of my favorites from the shoot (the mother too).

Jim B.

 

[Swift1]

This is probably my all-time favorite photo that I have taken. I took this in early 2013, and I had been living with ALS for around 6 years by then. At that point I could still walk very short distances, but I couldn't lift a camera up to my eye. I had just loaded a test roll into a recently serviced Pentax KM, and needed to shoot it to make sure it was working correctly. My 5 year old daughter was playing in the back yard on her trampoline, so I walked out, set the camera to 1/500 f/8 (IIRC), preset the focus to around 12 feet (35mm lens), and just held the camera at my waist and shot. I shot 2 frames, this is the 2nd one and is pretty much as shot with no cropping or rotation.
This September, this photo will be in two galleries (one in London, UK. and one in Johnson City, Tennessee) as part of a Film Shooters Collective curated group show.

 

[Talus]

So many fantastic images and I absolutely love the stories that go with them. Great thread and great contributions.

 

[Contarama]

Thanks to all for sharing the great photography and stories!

I am seeing that all of these photographs have one or two main things in common...good light and good subject(s).

 

[Corran]

It was early 1970 and I was a Junior at the University of Tennessee.

Very cool story. I wonder if such a thing would be possible today for a young photographer, with the ubiquity of phone images instantly on social media.

 

[pixelvandal]

This is probably my all-time favorite photo that I have taken. I took this in early 2013, and I had been living with ALS for around 6 years by then. At that point I could still walk very short distances, but I couldn't lift a camera up to my eye. I had just loaded a test roll into a recently serviced Pentax KM, and needed to shoot it to make sure it was working correctly. My 5 year old daughter was playing in the back yard on her trampoline, so I walked out, set the camera to 1/500 f/8 (IIRC), preset the focus to around 12 feet (35mm lens), and just held the camera at my waist and shot. I shot 2 frames, this is the 2nd one and is pretty much as shot with no cropping or rotation.
This September, this photo will be in two galleries (one in London, UK. and one in Johnson City, Tennessee) as part of a Film Shooters Collective curated group show.

This is one of my favorite photos that I have seen in the last 5 years or so. Such a great moment to capture. Thanks for sharing 🙂

 

[x-ray]

I do think it's possible but would be much more difficult. The good think is most of us have smart phones with pretty good cameras ready to go if we see something happening. The downside is news agencies aren't willing to pay much if anything unless you are the only person capturing an earth shattering event.

There's an old PJ saying,"f8 and be there." I was really lucky to be in the right place at the right time with 2 cameras, plenty of film, awareness of what was happening and the skill to pull of the shots. In 1970 I hit gold a second time shooting up close and personal president Richard Nixon, Pat Nixon, The Rev. Billy Graham and his wife and several thousand protestors as a background. I had some amazing breaks and got the attention of the chief photographer of a significant news paper who became the photo editor of the Chicago Tribune. Again I was so fortunate that people reached out to me because they say potential in my work.

I wound up as chief photographer of the the news paper. I hired some excellent photographers. Each of the people I hired went on to much bigger and better things. One went to the paper in Miami and stumbled into a Robert in progress. Michael did an amazing job of capturing the event and was launched into a career with Life and National Geographic. Later he opened a major studio doing ads for Apple among others. Again f8 and be there.

 

[Archlich]

Wonderful thread. Hope I could still contribute when I get back to my hard drive in September!

 

[Bob Michaels]

almost not taken, then sat on the shelf for 10 years

almost not taken, then sat on the shelf for 10 years

I passed by this farm house scene in rural Mississippi about 11 years ago thinking it would make a great photo for someone but not for me. I just couldn't see where it would fit into any series I was doing. But 3-4 miles down the road, I made a U-turn, went back and shot 3 frames.

Then the neg and file sat for 10 years simply because it did not fit, just as I originally though.

Last year I was reviewing old work for an upcoming exhibit in Cuba with photos of the US deep south culture and themed similarities with Cuban culture. Then it struck me. This was once the homestead of a family farm but the family had sold out to an agribusiness and moved away. The agribusiness had taken out the fences and merged the once family farm into their large land holdings. The once homestead of a family was now only storage. This was explained in my typical extended caption. The unspoken but obvious Cuban equivalent is the Castro government taking all private farms and combining them into a large government agricultural ministry.

I offered the gallery curator her choice of any of the 24 prints in the exhibit for their collection. This was her choice.

camera geek ****: Mamiya 7, 80mm lens, 25A red filter, Neopan 400, Rodinal

 

[Michael Markey]

What a good thread .... so many great shots.

 

[RobinWinter]

Scrambler, Love the photo, especially the irregular edges. I used to not crop my darkroom prints to get that kind of edge but cant get it scanning anymore. Is that a scan from the neg or from a print? I desperately want those edges back!

 

[rbsinto]

Brother can you spare a dime?
This shot was taken a day or two before Christmas 2012 here in downtown Toronto. It was bitterly cold and I was standing on the opposite side of the street from a large department store when I noticed an elderly man standing in front of a display window asking passersby for money. As is often the case, most people simply walked by without giving him even a glance.
There was a dark, brooding atmosphere to the scene offset by the brightly coloured display behind him that I liked, so using my longest lens, I grabbed this shot. Almost immediately after I took this, the man turned and walked away.
motorized Nikon F2AS
Tokina ATX 80~200 2.8 AIS manual focus
Fuji 100 ISO colour slide
2.8 @ 1/30th or 1/60th