The Power of Less

I would add that limiting yourself to one lens only can help your photography up to a point, but if you have more than one lens available and shoot enough you will figure out pretty quickly what you gravitate towards.

I think the key to the one lens is the intuitiveness if nurtures. Nothing kills spontaneous photography colder than fumbling with lenses and making decisions. The 'imperfections' associated with using a 35 instead of a 28 for a unique image tends to be more than made up by the fact you actually got it or the expressions were right... or the interaction of elements more perfect etc.... I change lenses, bodies, formats etc when i have time. Thats great. Limiting yourself to one lens and on body is not going to help when you can see events slowly beyond your physical reach and a short tele is what you need, yet only have a 28.
 
I'd put myself as a 0/8/8 I own four different systems, Canon 5D+35F2+50F1.4+85F1.8+135F2.8 Bronica SQA+105F4.5, M4+50F1.5 and Bessa I. But for most shoots I pack one or two bodies and one or two lens and for the most part usually end up just using one body and one lens. These day's I'm trying to keep it really simple by just packing the Bessa and 4-5 rolls of film and the M4-2 with 1-2 rolls.
 
Most of this is a little beyond me ... maybe I am out of place in RFF - but I am dee'splaced everywhere , so what's new ?

I don't collect to display to anyone , just to surround / ground Autistic me in safe / familiar .
Crazy reason , but ASdee is crazy too .

Taking pictures is just for pleasure , so my digital cameras echo an interface which is familiar .

Using a 50mm , from Prinzflex STTL [ Chinon ] 1972 / Various Minoltas , has been such a habit over the years , that I can prejudge the framing ... though I took to 67mm nom on the M8 with delight - just a little closer for details . I am more than content with just '' Emma 8 '' and 50mm / 67mm Collapsible or 35/f2.5 Color Scopar ... I just seem to go with the flow - if I can't take the picture , I have still recorded it in my mind . Indeed , I think snapshots even without a camera , which helps me focus through '' lostness ''.

You can tell a pro Interior Designer and Illustrator by minimal well worn tools - scales / set square , trusted pens , pencils , paper etc .

I do not need this minimalism in Considered Snapshooting and am therefore free to experiment - more so with '' free '' digital .

123 ? How about 567 etc ? Surely there are as many numbers as there are people with cameras ?

I love these discussions though - helps me enormously to understand the WHY of my hoarding and snapshooting .

Thank you all
 
A long time has passed since I last looked at this thread and I suppose it's no coincidence that it came up after my weekly, Sunday morning meeting with a fellow photographer and our discussion over why each time we get stuck creatively we ponder which camera will save us...

We continue to show up each week pledging to shoot two rolls of film and make three silver prints. And most weeks we do but the pressures pulling us away from the appointed task are strong.

This week we bemoaned the time it takes to process and print and how much easier life would be if we just put the 3 Prints Project on hiatus for a bit and shot digital.

I left feeling unsettled and before getting home I had shot another roll of HP5 with the M6 muttering to myself how much I like film. Especially when it's just me, the M6 with one lens, and an extra roll of film in my pocket.

At work tomorrow I'll be working on an environmental portrait series and I have 6 Lightware cases packed and ready to go. A far cry from the freedom I feel with the Leica...
 
I think the power of less is a contradiction, and a self indulgence excuse...

If I can go out and make great shots with a 35mm RF and a 35mm lens, and then I go out with it and with another body/different lens set, and I feel I get less results because I have more options, the stupid conclusion would be "less is more", and the right conclusion is "there's something I must learn".

To me it's totally clear less is less.

Cheers,

Juan
 
^When you have decided before hand on every aspect of the gear and post processing, that is less. You know exactly what you want, you have the means to go after it and you have a plan how to present it. That is less.

In case you keep wondering if you have the right tools, the right process and of course the right pictures, your mind is full of contradictions and doubt, you spend more time agonizing over the means to actually give the end your best.
 
Different people work differently. Different approaches work for different people. Can we just accept that and put this to rest? It's getting as tiresome as film vs digital.
 
It really doesn't matter what camera I pick up, or how much gear I carry (or don't) my photos look like my photos. And "great photos" (whatever that means to each of us) are few and far between.
 
i'm a KISS guy - keep it simple, stupid.
i tried telephoto; i don't have a telephoto eye.
i tried wides; i don't have an eye wider than 28-35mm.
i tried macro; i don't have a close-up eye.
i just do not see creatively with anything much longer than 50mm, or wider than 28-35mm, or closer than a foot or so. composition dissipates rapidly on either side of 50mm.
oh yeah, i ain't no pro, so i just do not need anything wider or longer. give me a solid slr with a bright viewfinder that i can focus easily and a good 35-50, or an RF with a viewfinder/rangefinder i can focus easily and a good 35-50, i am good to go, period.
 
GSNfan said:
^When you have decided before hand on every aspect of the gear and post processing, that is less. You know exactly what you want, you have the means to go after it and you have a plan how to present it. That is less.
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I think I don't understand what you mean...

Say I'll photograph a young model for her beginning portfolio. She needs close-ups and half body portraits in general. We decide two different looks for the session, with clothes for color and clothes for B&W. We'll do it outdoors on overcast sky light. For the B&W shots I plan to use my Leica 90 2 on my Bessa T at around f/2.8-f/4 with a distant background. Film will be TMZ for visible grain on 8x10 prints, and with my Bessas' 1/2000 I won't need an ND filter. For color I'll use Astia with warming filter on my Hasselblad with my Sonnar 150 2.8 at around f/5.6. I'll pick a couple of 35mm B&W frames to be wet printed, and a couple of slides to be scanned and digitally processed and printed.

Why would it be less? Compared to what?

That for planned scenes. Now for unexpected scenes. Say I'm shooting street. There's direct sun. For sunny scenes I have my R4M and 28 3.5 ready at f/11 (8 feet) and 1/250 with Tri-X for short development with yellow filter, so all sunny scenes require just taking the camera to eye level and shooting. For shadows I have my R3A prefocused at f/11 with my 40 1.4 ready for normal to very low light with Tri-X at 800. Being street shooting, my relevant DOF will be just a few meters around camera. Most soft light scenes require just aiming and shooting. If light is too low (almost never, basically indoors), I'll just open the lens and focus. This way with very light equipment I can shoot immediately on any kind of light and place, having one camera in my wrist and the other one hanging from my shoulder. I can even use a real wide and a normal on both bodies if a scene really requires it... My shooting depends on the image I decide to create after seeing a scene, and not on the gear I have with me...

How would less be more? How to be faster and how to have more or the same possibilities for respecting my visual interests with less equipment?

Cheers,

Juan

EDIT: Sorry, Frank... I didn't see your post because I was writing... OK, I'll stop it. Maybe GSNfan and I are just agreeing: what's relevant is to have clear how to act with a certain equipment... I think his use of "less" confused me coming from the use of "less" in "less is more"... I guess he meant "well decided, simple gear is perfectly enough". True.
 
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OH! I Get it!

Having 200 lenses and 100 cameras to choose from, I have to choose less of them to go out and take some pictures...

Can't take all of them at once.
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
That for planned scenes. Now for unexpected scenes. Say I'm shooting street. There's direct sun. For sunny scenes I have my R4M and 28 3.5 ready at f/11 (8 feet) and 1/250 with Tri-X for short development with yellow filter, so all sunny scenes require just taking the camera to eye level and shooting. For shadows I have my R3A prefocused at f/11 with my 40 1.4 ready for normal to very low light with Tri-X at 800. Being street shooting, my relevant DOF will be just a few meters around camera. Most soft light scenes require just aiming and shooting. If light is too low (almost never, basically indoors), I'll just open the lens and focus. This way with very light equipment I can shoot immediately on any kind of light and place, having one camera in my wrist and the other one hanging from my shoulder. I can even use a real wide and a normal on both bodies if a scene really requires it... My shooting depends on the image I decide to create after seeing a scene, and not on the gear I have with me...

How would less be more? How to be faster and how to have more or the same possibilities for respecting my visual interests with less equipment?

Cheers,

Juan
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I cannot comment on professional photography, because I'm not a pro but just for simple street photography and whats the best way to be creative and do interesting work, I do have some ideas, even though I try hard to implement them myself and fail most of the time.

Its great how you explained in detail the way you work on the street, its very informative, but at the same time its clear how you have to think about so many variables while shooting on the street. What would happen if you were to just pick a P&S and some rolls in your pocket, go out there and just leave your self open to any photo potential that might come your way? Shoot without thinking; shoot as soon as you felt like shooting. In fact don't even think or see in terms of photographs, just wander randomly and let the camera be your guide... What if someone leaves every pretension of being a photographer and yet goes out there after photographs? I don't know if you agree but to me the approach which I described is the only way to find the power of less as it pertains to street photography.
 
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GSNfan said:
I cannot comment on professional photography, because I'm not a pro but just for simple street photography and whats the best way to be creative and do interesting work, I do have some ideas, even though I try hard to implement them myself and fail most of the time.

Its great how you explained in detail the way you work on the street, its very informative, but at the same time its clear how you have to think about so many variables while shooting on the street. What would happen if you were to just pick a P&S and some rolls in your pocket, go out there and just leave your self open to any photo potential that might come your way? Shoot without thinking; shoot as soon as you felt like shooting. In fact don't even think or see in terms of photographs, just wander randomly and let the camera be your guide... What if someone leaves every pretension of being a photographer and yet goes out there after photographs? I don't know if you agree but to me the approach which I described is the only way to find the power of less as it pertains to street photography.
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I really appreciate your deepening in this subject: I guess it's an important one that defines lots of what any person can get or not especially in vanishing moments street shooting...

When you say "...but at the same time its clear how you have to think about so many variables while shooting on the street..." it's necessary to point out that's PRECISELY to avoid thinking while shooting, that I use two bodies as set and ready as possible for different light situations... I do not think of many variables (or any) when I shoot, never... And I don't even have to decide which camera to use: I use one when I'm in a sunny scene, and another one if I'm inside soft light, so I have no second option: there's nothing to think of or to decide... I just compose and shoot...

About "What would happen if you were to just pick a P&S and some rolls in your pocket, go out there and just leave your self open to any photo potential that might come your way?" honestly that's all I do! Not even worries about focusing or exposure! I use my cameras as point and shoot ones every day as I explained... If the day is overcast, I'm out with just one camera because all my frames will have the same contrast and one roll can hold all of them for the same development time. And when there's direct sun, I use two "point and shoot" cameras and just think about what I see but never in my gear...

"Shoot without thinking; shoot as soon as you felt like shooting": again, the only way I shoot...

"In fact don't even think or see in terms of photographs, just wander randomly and let the camera be your guide..." Here we disagree: I do see in terms of photographs, and from that tri to bidimensional visualization, related to (a different than reality's) visual narrative, and considering a new flat geometry, I compose, trying to get things clean both visually and conceptually for the viewer. I'm pretty sure a good photograph implies decisions by a photographer who is not shooting randomly, and who clearly guides the camera.

"What if someone leaves every pretension of being a photographer and yet goes out there after photographs?" I guess being a photographer, for some of us going out there after photographs, isn't a pretension...

I believe in the power of less "gear considerations" while shooting, but not in the power of "less gear options at hand" while shooting... If I've been shooting a camera under bright midday direct sun with yellow filter and I know I must develop that roll for say 7 minutes at ISO200 for a controlled contrast with rich, clean shadows, I prefer having with me another body with another (even if the same) roll for soft light scenes because I know those look better with twice or three times the development time at higher ISO, and the difference in results on negatives is huge for wet printing... Indeed carrying two or three small, light bodies with different films and lenses makes shooting A LOT EASIER AND FASTER, and it's not -as some people imagine- because we can choose any of them for any given scene, but the opposite: because we already know, before being in front of the scene, which one of them is the best or only option, so instead of thinking and instead of mediocre negatives, we achieve two great goals: to act faster thinking less, and to get better originals on film...

Cheers,

Juan
 
One day I want to do extensive road trips (coast to coast / North South etc) on a Vespa with camera and voice recorder.

I subscribed to your blog.

Thanks for sharing!
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
"In fact don't even think or see in terms of photographs, just wander randomly and let the camera be your guide..." Here we disagree: I do see in terms of photographs, and from that tri to bidimensional visualization, related to (a different than reality's) visual narrative, and considering a new flat geometry, I compose, trying to get things clean both visually and conceptually for the viewer. I'm pretty sure a good photograph implies decisions by a photographer who is not shooting randomly, and who clearly guides the camera.

"What if someone leaves every pretension of being a photographer and yet goes out there after photographs?" I guess being a photographer, for some of us going out there after photographs, isn't a pretension...

I believe in the power of less "gear considerations" while shooting, but not in the power of "less gear options at hand" while shooting... If I've been shooting a camera under bright midday direct sun with yellow filter and I know I must develop that roll for say 7 minutes at ISO200 for a controlled contrast with rich, clean shadows, I prefer having with me another body with another (even if the same) roll for soft light scenes because I know those look better with twice or three times the development time at higher ISO, and the difference in results on negatives is huge for wet printing... Indeed carrying two or three small, light bodies with different films and lenses makes shooting A LOT EASIER AND FASTER, and it's not -as some people imagine- because we can choose any of them for any given scene, but the opposite: because we already know, before being in front of the scene, which one of them is the best or only option, so instead of thinking and instead of mediocre negatives, we achieve two great goals: to act faster thinking less, and to get better originals on film...

Cheers,

Juan
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Looking in terms of photographs almost always means looking in term of other's photographs.

For example when you have admired and looked at photographs by a great photographer or even a fellow amateur, your memory stores those images as a basis for your future work. So, when you go out, you end up unconsciously looking for those photos and trying to capture them... The possibility of photographs are infinite but our memory is finite, we only know up to that present moment, so if you go out to take photos at present, it can only mean you're using the past as basis for the future photos to be captured.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with your vision of what you wish to achieve, at the same time you should ask yourself if that vision is solely yours or influenced by others. Composition, exposure, clarity all of those are dependent on the end result. Sometimes an exposure mistake might give you the look you will adopt for the rest of your work, a blur might give you your most interesting photo, an unusual composition might make you an original. So, the courage to leave yourself open to chance and reduce everything to minimum, less of technique, less of perfectionism, less of technically accomplished photos, less praise from other people, less of everything that has nothing to do with what ultimately will make or break a street photographer, namely creation of original work that is interesting, and socially significant if not overtly but by implication.

Imo your biggest challenge is balancing pro work with your street work. it seems the technical side of pro work is leaking to your personal/street work... Maybe sometimes less of photography itself is empowering.

I do appreciate your openness about the way you work and your thought process. I also simply share with you my ideas, which like all ideas will probably change with time as i learn more.
 
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