Slow Photography in an instantaneous age

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/
essay-slow-photography-in-an-instantaneous-age/

Fast is fine, but slow can be much better.

Digital photography and the ascent of the Web have quickened our jobs. Instead of one deadline a day, we now have continual deadlines, bringing exponentially increasing speed to what we do at The Times.

One advantage of using larger formats is that the process is slower. It takes time to set up the camera. It takes time to visualize what you want.

When doing portraits, it enables the photographer to talk and listen to subjects, to observe their behavior. A camera can trap a photographer sometimes. You can look so intently through a viewfinder that you are unaware of the picture in front of you. When I use an 8-by-10 camera for portraits, I will compose the picture and step back. Using a long cable release, I will look at the subject and wait for the moment. It’s very liberating.

[ Fred R. Conrad, via nytimes.com ]

Sidewalk LOMO series – SOMA district, San Francisco

Another sidewalk series photo from the SOMA district in San Francisco. I’ve walked the same streets and alleys in SOMA continually for 15 years and am amazed at the things I see for the first time when looking through the viewfinder.

Plates, Jingletown (Oakland) CA

 

The scale of this photo is misleading. It looks like a small-ish dished plate, but they’re actually two machined plates approximately 12 feet in diameter. Taken out in Jingletown, a post-industrial/art studio/loft neighborhood nestled between Oakland and Alameda near the Oakland Estuary.

Jingletown Open Studios coincides with the Pro Arts East Bay Open Studios on June 6-7th and June 13th-14th, 2009. It’s a great way to see a mind-bogglingly wide range of artwork, meet the artists in person and support a vibrant arts community directly. Check it out!

Barriers

Headboards. Vivitar UWS, Fuji Superia 400 film.
Barriers. Vivitar UWS, Fuji Superia 400 film.

I do most of my shooting with a collection of junk store plastic cameras and a freezer full of film I’m working through. Digital doesn’t compare to film – not knowing what I’m going to get until I get the roll back is delayed gratification compared to chimping on a LCD display seconds after the shot was taken.

…And what can compare to opening the envelope and seeing the print in your hands with that memory captured seemingly forever? Hold the print just right and you feel like you can reach in… Digital doesn’t do that.

Krappy Kamera Gallery

(I so missed this – that’s what I get for not subscribing to EVERY BLOG OUT THERE… Do check out the link to the 2008 winners…)

Soho Photo Krappy Kamera® Competition

In the upstairs gallery, the Krappy Kollage–all the entries (over 1,400) for 2007’s Krappy Kamera show.

The beginning

Continue reading “Krappy Kamera Gallery”

Don’t think, just shoot

This LOMO mantra’s been getting easier for me – since I’ve been growing my hair longer and spring breezes are here, I’m having a hard time looking through the viewfinder without my hair getting in the way of the lens or the viewfinder!

I shot a roll of some generic $.99 cent store ISO 200 film on my way home last night and didn’t  look through the viewfinder once. We’ll see how it turns out!

<Obligatory photo posting>

My new plastic favorite, the Vivitar IC 100

The Vivitar IC 100 is rapidly turning into one of my favorite toy cameras. I broke from my usual “100 speed film only rule” and shot this roll on Fuji Superia 400. With the fixed 1/85th second shutter and f/5.6 aperture, I can use all the light sensitivity I can get!


Refreshing

This pic came off the first test roll from my Vivitar IC 100, a $1 plastic camera I picked up recently. It’s pretty standard looking. The insides could come from a LOMO Colorsplash or any number of unremarkable cameras. A simple lens, shutter speed and aperture fixed at 1/100th sec and f/5.6, and cheap enough to take anywhere (and not worry about it)…