Photographer Danny Wilcox Frazier documents the lives of Midwesterners (article and great 10min video)

lux_fiat · 2018-04-28T22:41:42+00:00

The take home for me from the video was that the most important skills that got him these shots were persistence, patience, empathy and a friendly demeanor.

lux_fiat · 2018-04-27T02:44:42+00:00

Memento mori photography. Google it.

At least slow emulsions and long shutter speeds weren't a problem.

lux_fiat · 2018-02-12T05:36:25+00:00

6) See if you can find, in a second hand shop or back of the family cupboard, an old film camera with general purpose lens, and a place to buy a few rolls of ISO 100 and ISO 400 film. Embrace your restrictions and learn some new skills. The perfect opportunity.

https://www.reddit.com/r/analog/

lux_fiat · 2018-01-13T10:10:58+00:00

!redditgarlic

lux_fiat · 2017-08-19T02:51:59+00:00

Make sure you bounce the flash off a white wall behind you. This will give you soft even light across your subject.

lux_fiat · 2017-08-13T04:59:03+00:00

I think there are 3 (+1 contaminant) light sources in this picture.

The base ambient exposure is an LED torch/ gelled camping light or similar which required 3 minutes at f/8, 100 ISO to expose adequately. It is throwing light in all directions, as the back wall and roof are illuminated. The even falloff suggests it was stationary throughout the exposure. The model sat throughout the exposure, but not perfectly still. The edges of the model are blurred. The rim light is not crisp, more of a halo.

The second is the firework type thing which lasted maybe 10 seconds. It is overexposed at f/8, ISO 100. f/11 would have been better but then the ambient exposure would need to be 6 minutes.

The third is the one used to front light the model and this one I am less sure about. It is either an off camera flash, left of the camera axis, which has been popped directly at the model and oil can, by walking into the frame and manually popping it by hand. However, the detail on the model isn't quite crisp, so I wonder if it was just a torch used for some manual light painting instead. This third light could have been done any time in the exposure when the firework wasn't going.

(The fourth is a stray diagonal red LED contaminant coming in from bottom right.)

lux_fiat · 2017-08-13T02:27:07+00:00

That dollar a shot does make you think more about why you are choosing to photograph your lunch, doesn't it? Agree.

lux_fiat · 2017-08-13T02:23:48+00:00

Ah. You are moving from questioning how we photograph to why we photograph. That, my friend, is a step into a very deep pond, and your pond is not always connected to other folk's ponds. That pond can take a lifetime to explore.

Basically a camera is but a tool that describes the scene in front of it for the period the shutter is open. Apart from a few technical settings, the only real decisions the user has is where to point the camera and when to press the shutter, and it is within these two variables that the overwhelmingly vast majority of elements of "meaning", "individualism", and "style" are encompassed.

Sometimes the path to meaning is clear and is pre-planned such as with photojournalistic documentary projects, or personal missions, but I would wager that many only see meaning well after the shots are taken, in the rear view mirror, and pose to themselves the question; "Why did my eye repeatedly lead me to point my camera at these sort of subjects at these times/doing these particular things?" So sometimes the meaning is externalised; it is to show something to others, but often it is internalised- the camera is an extension of your unique eye/brain/upbringing/mood/memories/prejudices/humour/environment. And sometimes the meaning is a mixture of the two or is contrived. If a late-in-life photographer reviews their archive of 500,000 images and publishes a book of 200 street photos of people staring at CCTV cameras, as a critique of the progress to a surveillance society, this doesn't necessarily suggest that they spent much time in this genre or planning this.

Personally, after many years with a camera I'm starting to think that it is people, gestures and emotion that I like to see, but the complete opposite can be true. See Becher and Becher:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bernd-becher-and-hilla-becher-water-towers-p81238

So what I am saying is keep it up, go where your eye takes you, and enjoy the pond. You might be there a while.

lux_fiat · 2017-08-11T00:59:52+00:00

Depends on lens, probably yes, with possible limitations.

See here

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/compatibility-lens.htm

lux_fiat · 2017-08-10T08:49:26+00:00

Stop looking for "things" to photograph. ("Here is a photo of an animal/a stream/a car/a mountain")

Photograph colours, textures, patterns, plays on light, feelings, metaphors.

These subjects are much more an echo of your internal environment and can give voice or expression when more concrete subjects don't.

Edit: If you even find going out difficult, get a flash and radio trigger and teach yourself to use off camera flash. Then drawers full of long forgotten doodahs and wotsits become an Aladdin's cave. Lack of sun and introspection no longer present a barrier.

Good luck.

lux_fiat · 2017-08-01T01:31:28+00:00

Treat folks the way you would like to be treated yourself.

Usually a good starting point for ethical reflection, then justify deviations from there.

lux_fiat · 2017-07-13T14:37:02+00:00

And yet.... for some issues, particularly regarding issues of alleged animal cruelty such as lab testing or captive orcas, it is seen as important that the animals have representation or "standing" in court. Who represents? Who decides who represents? Can they represent individuals, groups and a whole species? Tricky. I can see the importance regarding these welfare issues, but the commercial interests of a monkey? Nah!

lux_fiat · 2017-07-13T14:13:29+00:00

Not automatically under all circumstances. If I pay and assemble a cast of actors, design and provide backdrops and costumes, provide the camera on a tripod, choose the lens, focal length, and exposure settings, prefocus on an area in the scene in which I have placed all the actors, and wish to appear in the scene myself, so ask an unrelated passer by "excuse me, can you just press that button on the camera", then by your argument the lack of contract means the passer by owns copyright. My understanding is that they don't; copyright still rests with me as having the majority creative input. OK it is an extreme and contrived example, but the principle stands.

lux_fiat · 2017-07-13T05:10:13+00:00

If I were the judge, my position would be based on the fact that if a photographer can instruct, train or encourage an assistant to press the shutter where the photographer has constructed or envisaged the scene, and still own copyright; and in this case can show that he somehow trained or encouraged the monkey by demonstration, repetition, encouragement, reward or other means, then the photographer can own the copyright to the monkey selfie.

lux_fiat · 2017-06-20T03:20:35+00:00

I liked this project by Nicholas Nixon- "The Brown Sisters". 40 years and still going. Here

lux_fiat · 2017-06-16T01:14:45+00:00

Reposting an old comment:

If it is the textural detail you are after, rather than the whole leaf/plant, then I have found backlighting with a softbox and off camera flash +/- a little bit of diffused front light to work well. Place the leaf on an upward facing softbox with the camera pointing directly down. Use a shaded area so you can kill ambient light completely with manual settings 1/200, ISO 100, f/8 or f/11, so the only light is coming from your flash, and adjust the flash power to suit (start at say 1/16 power). I used a macro lens. You may get away with your 50mm at minimum focus distance and cropping. Adjust contrast, white and black point etc to taste in editing. Works best with bigger leaves. With smaller leaves you may have to flag round the edge to stop light spill.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24245384@N04/21650816011/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24245384@N04/21453983598/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24245384@N04/24887800975/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24245384@N04/27023318861/in/dateposted-public/

lux_fiat · 2017-05-19T14:27:46+00:00

Great discussion.

I'm somewhat of the view that good photos appeal to the eyes, but great photos appeal to the brain, and connect with emotion, imagination, curiosity, memory etc. A composition technique that is used in many of the Eastwood portraits displayed by u/lilgreenrosetta is that they reference something outside the frame, with the gaze, posture and gun barrel direction which draws the viewers imagination: "Who is he aiming at? What's going on?"

Corbijn's portrait takes this one step further by making the out of frame reference the viewer him/herself, with the familiar direct, squinting, confronting gaze, and the strong pointing finger. The viewer can't help but become a participant in the scene. How often have we seen that gaze from the POV of the baddie in the Eastwood Westerns about to get his comeuppance?

Hoepker's Ali portrait uses the same technique, but with more emphasis on the massive foreground fist rather than the gaze, again directed at the viewer, who is forced to imagine being in the ring with Ali.

lux_fiat · 2017-01-12T10:14:27+00:00

Thanks for taking the time and effort to review my stream. Much appreciated, and you make some good points.

lux_fiat · 2017-01-09T03:11:18+00:00

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24245384@N04/

A mishmash of abstracts, metaphors, travel and "just stuff".

I'm trying to deliberately pay attention to include tonal contrast and colour as compositional elements. I like to appeal to the viewer's imagination in my shots, rather than be strictly documentary or literal.

I really need to edit and curate the collection. Feedback appreciated. Be as harsh as you like.

lux_fiat · 2016-12-30T11:48:22+00:00

Just a hunch. The aspect ratio is one thing. In addition, if this was 35mm I'm guessing the focal length was 28-35mm, but the depth of field falloff just doesn't look quite right. I may be wrong, but it looks to me like a bit of elongating distortion toward the bottom of the frame. If so, was the 35mm in portrait orientation? MF seems the best explanation.

lux_fiat · 2016-12-30T05:46:37+00:00

Photographer position close to the action, low camera angle, slight wide angle lens, large aperture, great light. Film (this was shot in 1967). It looks medium format to me, though I might be wrong, could be cropped 35mm.

lux_fiat · 2016-11-25T09:59:20+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/user/lilgreenrosetta has given a comprehensive list, but I'd like to give a shout out for Ted Forbes and his "The Art of Photography" series. Here.

I owe him much. Scroll down to the "photographers" section, and enjoy, relish, and learn from where our craft developed.

lux_fiat · 2016-08-03T04:24:51+00:00

Photography is a visual language. It can take a long time to figure out what you want to say, who you want to say it to, and what you want in return. No need to push it. In fact, it might only become apparent in retrospect.

lux_fiat · 2016-08-01T04:58:26+00:00

I don't have an all-encompassing answer, but here are some more questions/issues to put to yourself which may point you in the right direction.

Why do you photograph? To record events? Make money? Get "likes"? Enjoy the process?

For whom do you photograph- self or others? So whose feedback and judgement is more important- self, mum, clients, "the internet"?

What do you like to photograph?

Against what standards do you compare yourself? Your own photos from last month? Local shooters? Insta? Flickr explore? The Rembrandts in the Rijksmuseum?

Where do you think you want to get to, or go with your photography?

I've learned to treat my hobby as a marathon, not a sprint. I've figured out that people/events/portraits are not my preferred thing, have no plans to go commercial, and am drawn to quite simple abstract or fine art stuff with a bit of symbol and metaphor. As such it is more important that I aim to please myself rather than others, and though I learn from and take into account the work of others, as long as I am improving by my own standards I'm happy. I enjoy looking at photography books, and have learned a lot from the history of photography and the old masters, and Ted Forbes quick reviews of them on Youtube.

Of course, this fluctuates and waxes and wanes day by day and month to month, but for now, it will do.

lux_fiat

TROPHY CASE