Category Archives: Images

Joe’s Tire Hospital: Flexible Formats

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Joe’s Tire Hospital

The ability to change formats is a desirable feature in a vintage camera.  Obviously, those with interchangeable backs, such as the Graphics, can readily use different formats.  In addition, a number of folding roll film cameras, such as the Voigtlander Bessa, have the ability to switch between 6×9 and 6×6 cm formats. Such cameras can be identified by the two red windows placed at different positions on the back.  Unfortunately, many manufacturers accomplished this goal using drop-in masks that are almost always missing, and templates for remanufacturing these masks are nonexistent.  However, a few camera designers, notably the British Ensign, used built-in flaps that are an intrinsic part of the camera.

Square format, besides stretching film, works well for street and people photography.  With the flaps in, the Ensign 820 yields 12 exposures on a standard roll of 120 film, and the format is ideal for this image of a tire technician bending over his machine.  I am always fascinated by the workers who form the foundation of our little town of Duncan, and Joe’s Tire Hospital has been an institution here for many years.  Joe is long gone, but Ken, the present owner, dispenses good cheer and sage advice on every topic relating to cars and rubber.  While getting my tires rotated, I seized this dynamic image of one of his staff preparing a rim.  The greatest difficulty with this shot was that the lighting, which came from one side through the open garage door and from overhead fluorescent lights, was of marginal intensity for a moving object, but f/8 and 1/50 second (on the slow side for a 100mm lens), plus a steady hand captured a sharp image when he paused over his machine.  Though low level, the light was soft and semi-directional, filling in the complex shadows and creating an image that required very little manipulation.

Le Piano Rouge – Montreal 2010

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Le Piano Rouge

Seizing the moment is critical.  Montreal’s financial and Old Town districts are alive with street musicians, artists, and just plain quirky character of all descriptions.  Wander the streets with you camera in hand, shutter cocked and aperture set for sun or building shade, and be ready!

If you can, make your image tell a story – or better yet, make the viewer begin to tell his own story.  I managed to catch the energy of this busker by being prepared to shoot in an instant.  He was just setting up to play, so an interfering crowd had not yet gathered, and I managed to connect both him and his amused and admiring female friend in the background.  With this connection, the image begins to tell a story, and we begin to wonder about them.  Is she his girlfriend? Or just a passerby who stopped on the steps of Le Piano Rouge to watch?  Will they go inside in the evening to share an intimate dinner from his day’s busking?  These questions draw us in, make us linger, and make the picture greater than the busker himself.

Here, an eye level finder is a must.  Much as I love my cameras from the 19-teens and twenties, the tiny finders of that era, designed for waist-level use, are almost impossible to use accurately or quickly in a situation like this.  Most miniature plate cameras, and and a few of the 1920s roll film cameras, have folding wire finders that can be used for sports photography.  These function well in action situations, and have the added advantage of attracting interested bystanders, one of the most rewarding aspects of vintage camera photography.  Furthermore, most subjects are happy to be photographed by someone with such an unusual camera!

As with most of this Montreal sequence, this was shot with the Ensign 820 with the Ross Xpres lens on Ilford XP-2 at f/11 and 1/200 sec.  The image required only local contrast enhancement and minor adjustments for brightness, contrast and Curves despite the harsh summer light.

 

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.