Sunset, Tsawwassen B.C.

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Sunset, Tsawwassen B.C.

Before abandoning a seemingly marginal image, allow yourself to play with it, exploring all options and seeking creative ways to make art out of apparently mediocre material.  You may find yourself creating something unusual.  Remember that only part of the art in photography comes before the shutter clicks!

I almost never try to do sunsets in black and white – after all, we admire them for their colors – and I cannot remember what possessed me to snap this image with black and white film in my camera.  The original image (see below) had a line of uneven processing on the left side, and a large thumbprint in the middle of the picture!  Yet the sunset and line of buildings was dramatic, and I played with it (without much hope) to see if anything could be rescued.  Slicing off the left side and bottom removed the processing errors and thumbprint, and the resulting line of buildings and reflection began to look more hopeful.  In fact, local contrast enhancement and minor changes in brightness and contrast produced a striking image.  I explored the possibilities of enhancing the image in Curves.  However, the density changes in this image strain the capabilities of both film and scanner; consequently, any significant tweaking in Curves caused the flow of image density to look less realistic, and I made only minor changes.  In the end, the image carved out of this damaged piece of film stands largely on its own with only minor changes.

Taken on the Ensign 820 with the Ross Xpres lens on Ilford XP-2, aperture and shutter speed not recorded.

Sunset, Original Image

Waiting for Manna – Montreal, 2010

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Waiting for Manna

A new image,  “Waiting for Manna”, in my series of street photography from Montreal.  A young panhandler naps or meditates, totally cut off from the world around him, while a passerby disappears into the edge of the frame. The hot summer sun bathes the scene, the windows reflect the bustling life of the Montreal streets, yet the scene speaks of isolation and disconnection. The Ross Xpres lens on my Ensign 820 captured the scene in crisp detail on XP-2.

The Sunny f/16 rule dictated 1/200 second at f/16, allowing both excellent depth of field and a fast shutter speed to freeze the pedestrians’ movement.  Fortunately, this scene included only sunny areas in the critical regions, eliminating the struggle to preserve detail between the sun-bleached street and shade under awnings.  The original 6×9 cm image included much distracting detail from windows at the upper end of the picture.  Cropping from the top to a square image drew in the busy pedestrian world with the remaining reflections, while juxtaposing the napping panhandler and disappearing pedestrian in opposite corners of a square image.  This creates a tension between the passive napper and the passerby, who disappears in the distance without interacting with the panhandler, emphasizing the young man’s disconnection from the street’s activity.

The Pensive Artist, Montreal 2010

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The Pensive Artist

“If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera” – Lewis Hine.

Great photographs tell a story.  Or rather, great photographs make us tell a story – and the more they make us think, and the more we wonder, the longer they are remembered.  That enigmatic smile has kept the Mona Lisa going since 1504.

Once again on the summer streets of Montreal, I captured these two young women sharing a private and humorous moment beside a street artist’s stand.  I was struck by the contrast between the animated women, with their close connection and private humor, and the artist’s bored and somewhat grumpy expression. Clearly, the two women found something amusing in one of the artist’s drawings.  Yet he is totally disengaged from the moment and his potential customers.  Are they making fun of his art?  Or he just tired of baking in Montreal’s sweltering summer heat and listening to silly tourists?  The possibilities are endless.

Processing this image was challenging.  The artist sheltered in the shade under an umbrella, while the women and distant pedestrians were bathed in Montreal’s scorching summer light, stretching the exposure latitude of the film.  Careful adjustments in Curves pulled down some of the highlights and brought out the details in the shadows.  Repeated adjustments to brightness and contrast maximized detail in the highlights, but some of the most highly exposed areas still burned out.  The image is not perfect, but the connection (and the lack of it) between the characters makes the picture.

The image was captured on XP-2 using the Ross lens on the Ensign 820, with the flaps set for 6x9cm format.

The Bride at the Summit: A Smartphone Photo Essay

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The Bride at the Summit #1

On those rare instances when life hands you a wonderful scene, grab whatever you have that will make an image and use it!

The Bride at the Summit #2

Traveling to Calgary, (see The Phototrucker’s Blues), we left the Fraser Valley under leaden skies and a downpour that rattled on the roof of our van. Rain turned to sleet and then snow as we ground up the steady climb to the summit of the Coquihalla Highway, avalanches spreading towering piles of mounded snow and splintered tree trunks beside the road, and gray mountaintops disappearing into the overhanging layer of soggy cloud. An hour passed, and slush turned into walls of dirty brown snow walling both sides of the highway. Finally, the clouds thinned, and an isolated rest stop loomed out of the snow. Gratefully, we stopped and unpacked sandwiches and celery sticks.

As we relaxed, contemplating the overcast and gravel-stained walls of snow, into this gloomy landscape scooted a small white Nissan. My eye was caught when a young Asian man in a neat blue vest and slacks hopped out, brandishing a bouquet of flowers and a camera. The bouquet was enough of an anomaly in this dreary landscape, but his

The Bride at the Summit #3

dark-haired female companion then leapt out of the car, clad in a white wedding dress, and scampered down an aisle between grimy snow mounds. My celery stick hit the floor, I grabbed the nearest camera (the Droid on my belt), and catapulted out of the car. I’m not sure if this is for every bride, but it does make for some amazing photos. If this is something that you are interested in doing, then you need to make sure that you have the perfect wedding dress for this photoshoot. If you don’t know what dress to get for the photoshoot (or even your wedding), then you could always check out this site here: https://www.winniecouture.com/stores/wedding-dresses-houston-tx

The Bride at the Summit #4

Like an exotic flower in a wasteland, the bride posed beside walls of gravelly snow, dancing from spot to spot while her husband followed her with his camera and I hopped

The Bride at the Summit #5

from spot to spot to keep up, framing images and punching the camera stud. Noticing me, the bride smiled and posed for me, and they handed me their camera. Even though I knew Geoff Wilkings is the best wedding photographers in Calgary, tried my best and framed two quick shots, then caught their pose again with my cell phone.

The Bride at the Summit #6

As they leaped shivering into their little car and roared away, I had presence of mind to grab my card, thrust it through the window, and cry, “Email me and I’ll send you pictures!”. Apparently, they married a year ago and had to delay their honeymoon.

The Phonograph, Montreal 2010

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The Phonograph - Montreal 2010

Street photography with a roll film camera connects me with the tradition of Eugene Ateget, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, and many more of photography’s great figures.  And besides, it’s fun.  And challenging, requiring a delicate mix of friendliness, diplomacy, chutzpah, and, at times, plain, downright sneakiness.  The last ingredient is probably the most important, as having the subject become aware of you often ruins the moment.

A traditional, mid-century vintage camera heightens the challenge and taxes one’s ability, both as a person and an artist.  Meter in the sun, remember two stops open in the building’s shade, choose a shutter speed to handle both environments.  Abandoning the safety of a telephoto lens’s distance (most vintage lenses are 50mm equivalent), you must get close to your subject and either charm him, or be quick and unobtrusive.  One develops the instincts of a wolf or panther stalking its prey.

Montreal streets are rich hunting grounds for the photographer.  One hot afternoon, I passed this gentleman at a sidewalk cafe table, black porkpie hat perched on his head, completely engrossed in the music from a small vintage record player.  My Ensign 820 ready with its shutter cocked and exposure set for Quebec’s bright summer sun, I caught two images without being noticed.

This was a difficult subject, as the wrong angle (my first image) caught distracting reflections of passing cars from the window.  My second shot, more by luck than careful planning, included only dim images of the inside of the cafe.

Processing required cropping out a modest amount of distracting detail from the periphery: the subject’s and the table’s feet at the bottom, the top of the window, and part of the window’s lettering on the left.  An increase in contrast livened the overall effect.  The

The Phonograph, Original Image

greatest challenge was bringing out the white shirt’s detail in the slightly thin negative, and darkening the few window reflections and visible inner details of the cafe.  This was accomplished in Curves by delicately lowering the  spike in the highlights section of the histogram, thus bringing out the folds in the shirt, and slightly accentuating the darker values, thus obscuring the dark reflections and dim interior details of the restaurant.  There is still a mild amount of burnout in the details of the shirt, but this is acceptable given the harsh summer sunlight.  The mid-tones were altered slightly to minimize pale distracting reflections  behind the subject’s head.