PixelatedImage Blog

Check this article out over at Ken Rockwell’s Site: Your Camera Does Not Matter

A week ago I spent a day with 5 guys, teaching them as much as Photoshop as I could cram in to them. By the end of the day I suspect their brains were nearing FULL. And sore. Anways, today i got an iPod shuffle in the mail from them and I wanted to say a big resounding THANK YOU to them because (1) some of them read this blog and I want them to know it’s appreciated and (2) I love this little iPod shuffle! It’s going in my pocket to Africa and I have looaded it with:

The Power of One Soundtrack - essential Africa music
Paul Simon’s Graceland - also essential African music
Bruce Cockburn - just plain essential.
Harry Manx, Ben Harper, U2, parts of the Collateral Soundtrack, some Counting Crows, some Neil Diamond, David Crowder Band, and some jazz - mostly Michael Occhipinti and some Eva Cassidy.

Thanks guys!

One of the gifts Sharon gave me for my birthday yesterday is the Lonely Planet’s The Travel Book - this large colourful book is simply gorgeous. A page spread for every country in the world. Some interesting facts, some great photos. It’s like an atlas for people with little concern for statistics and scale maps. I saw this in Chapter’s months ago and thought what a wonderful book it is. If you’re at all inspired in your work by the photgraphs of others, this is great. Also very encouraging to flip through it and think, “you know, I can shoot this well.”

Keep your eyes open for this one, if only to browse through it at the store. I have a feeling this book with fule my wanderlust for years to come.

Pop Survey: If you could go to one country this year, which country are you itching to see? Mine is Cambodia, Vietnam is a close second and in a perfect scenario it would be both. You?

Photographers are prone to gear-headedness. Perhaps because, like computer geeks, our creativity and the work we produce is so connected to our tools. Anyways, over on the Travel Photographers Network we’ve been having a discussion about what gear we bring on the road, and how we support it. The downfall with digital is the need for either a tonne of expensive memory cards, or a laptop. And you need alot of power. (All good reasons to shoot 35 mm, I think, but then you’re saddled with film costs, development, etc. Trade-offs are unavoidable)

So, here is my packing list. I welcome you to show me yours. This is not so much about what gear we have as it is about how we solve problems related to getting the images while on the road. There are lots of issues - dust, failure, backup, power, theft, going light vs. not having the gear you need.

Canon 20D body, and 300D body as back-up and second body
Canon 85mm /1.8
Canon 17-40 /4.0L
Canon 50 /1.8
Sigma 70-200 /2.8

Angle finder
Small light disk
Cokin ND grad and sepia grad filters for landscapes

Manfrotto 190 with medium ball head
Manfrotto Monopod

4×1gb cf cards
6 batteries, charger
150W inverter for charging batteries in Land Cruiser
PowerBook
1 bus-powered external FW drive - 80gb
Stack of cd-rs

Visible Dust brushes
Giotto Rocket Blower

LowePro Computrekker AW
Domke Photog vest

When I want to wander around without all the stuff I carry a PacSafe 55 to secure it all to the seat of a vehicle or the radiator of a hotel room. The PacSafe products are really well built and give alot of peace of mind that your stuff will still be there when you get back. They also make a small PouchSafe which is brillant for stashing passports, documents, cash, small digital cameras, iPods - that kind of thing. Again, you can lock it to the frame of the car or something that doesn’t move and you’re got a really light portable safe.

Anyways, there’s the list. Show me yours? One day I would like to go ULTRA light. A Leica rangefinder, two lenses, and a bag of film. That would be tremendous fun.

**

Is there a difference (to return to some of the questions in the previous post) between images where the people are OBJECTS in the frame and images wherein the people are SUBJECTS?

Example:

This boy on the Amazon River is clearly the subject of the image. Not only that, he is subjective. He is not just any kid somewhere on a river, he is a very specific, recognizable child.

These boys are elements in the photograph, they are objects in the frame. Their interaction with the environment and other elements in the frame is the subject. As such they are objective - representative of kids - they could be any kids in any ocean. They could be us when we were children.

I’m not sure if this is a thorough distinction. Perhaps some of this has to do with the prominence given to the face, the eyes even. Perhaps it has to do with how much of the frame is taken up by the subject, but I think the distinctions I am trying to articulate above are at the heart of what I am trying to say. To be sure they need to be fleshed out further.

Thoughts?

As with any form of art eventually you get around to thinking about the philosophy and grey-matter that underlies what you do, why you do it, and how you go about doing it. I think the more we think about these things the more intentional our art becomes and the better it truly says what we want it to. That thinking, assuming it turns out something more than wheel-spinning, better allows us to put our own individual stamp on our images.

I picked up a copy of PhotoEd recently, it’s a little Canadian photo rag from Toronto and this Fall Issue is specific to People, Places, and Culture - the stuff I so want to photograph. Here are a couple excerpts from some of the interviews/stories that resonated with me:

“the landscape mode is well suited to story-telling”

“On several occasions when I was photographing there would be alot of people around and it became very much a theatre. The person being photographed and I became the actors that were performing for everyone else, sometimes with as many as 100 people watching. Some situations with larger crowds…can become a bit of a circus. It then becomes less and less about making a photograph and if the intimacy with the subject was lost, I had to stop and call it off and wait for it to die down.”

“When asked what a photographer should bring to the photographing of other cultures, Panou replied, “a warm heart - one needs to bring a style of communicating with other people that is not offensive or aggressive.”"

“The images that I make could never be achieved by forcing a camera on someone - there has to be mutual respect.”

“Photography does not have to be exploitative (sic) and invasive; it can and should be beautiful and illuminating.”

Tony Makepeace on the making an image vs. taking an image: “”Taking” a picture suggests the “removal” of something that risks exploitation, as if the photographer was a hunter, ready to shoot his or her prey.”

**

As I think about the upcoming trip to Ethiopia, and reflect back on experiences like Haiti, Peru, Russia, and my walking about in the dowtown eastside of Vancouver - my own backyard - I spend alot of time thinking about the moral side of creating images that use as their subject another person. Afterall, without engaging people, without some kind of relationship, there is an aspect of exploitation that gets flirted with. When people talk about having their soul taken when a photo is snapped, I get that. I understand how a photograph can either be a revealing thing, a frozen moment between two people, where there is at the most basic at least an unspoken understanding that consent is given, OR it can be a robbing of dignity, a drive-by shooting.

I wonder if a beautiful piece of art or storytelling can really be created when using ugly means. If what we want to do is show the humanity of a subject, then we need to not disrespect that humanity in the creation of the image.

But I am torn because I also want my images to be a record of what is, an element of photojournalism, and in that the element of spontanaeity and shooting people without a camera-consciousness is vital.

Thoughts on this stuff? Anyone? Trevor, what are your thoughts about shooting in the third world? How dare we waltz in with camera gear that cost more than they will ever make in a lifetime and be presumptuous enough to buddy up to them and shoot them? How do we overcomes this incredible self-consciousness? Thoughts? I think that by thinking through these hard thoughts we end up with more humane, more human, possibly more divine, images.

Ok, so I have had a copy of Aperture to noodle with for more than a week now. I have had to revisit my thoughts about the program.

First of all, it is SLOW. Now, if I had the new G5 quad, i am sure it would run like bullets and gunsmoke (no. i have NO idea what that means. But it seemed to fit). But I just find it slow. Really slow.

Second, it still kinda feels like using video software to edit the photographs.

Third, did I mention it’s slow?

I really like much of it. REALLY. And I wish I could use the program whenever I want, but in order to use it you have to import the images you want to use and that takes time and it loads the images into some bizarre subfolder in the depths of my system. I hate that.

I still love the loupe tool. I still love the archiving and the use of master images and stacking and the ability to make some very cool books. For that reason I think I would keep Aperture to use for assembling a project, but not as my day to day viewer and photomanipulator.

So close….

Friends were over last night and as they got to looking at my photos (it’s my stupid party trick. Hey! Look! I can use a CAMERA!) they began telling me in no uncertain terms i needed to “DO SOMETHING with these.” This is not the first time I have heard that in the last few days and it has done two things.

1. Very encouraging and makes me happy to hear others like my stuff so much. I know I have a good eye, and 20 years behind cameras gives me enought technical ability to sometimes actually make my camera do what my eye wants. But hearing it from others - people I love and respect, not just any monkey with an opinion, mind you - is really gratifying.

2. I am making it a goal to do a show in 2006. I don’t know how. Not sure how one puts on a show. But I like the idea and if a recent conversation I had is any indication, shows done right can make some money and push you a little forward in the marketing of your skill.

So. Question. Anyone have any creative ideas on doing a show? I have a thought in my head, but thought I would open it to my loyal readers (Tim and Wilsonian, you’re both invited. But it will be in Vancouver. Sorry.)

Warning Geek/Software talk coming.

A friend has let me try out Aperture. Aperture, if you remember is Apple’s just-released pro app for photographers.

Here are a few of my first impressions after noodling with it for about an hour, and watching the online virtual tours

1. This is so much more than a sup-ed up version of iPhoto - but the comparisons are there. Essentially it is to iPhoto what Final Cut Pro is to iMovie. Much of the same functionality but on steroids.

2. The Loupe tool allows you to preview thumbnails at 100% and must be seen to be believed. Very cool. This alone makes me think I am going to switch from Adobe Bridge to Aperture as my primary image organizer.

3. To compare Aperture to Bridge is a little unfair as Aperture is not merely a viewer/browser but a full on organizational powerhouse. The VAULT feature allows for intelligent back up to external drive and tells you when you need to synch the files.

4. Smart Albums and Projects allow you to organized like never before.

5. RAW manipulation is excellent and the interface is clean and simple. It’s alot to cram into a 15″ Powerbook display, but it works wonderfully.

6. I was concerned about the power needs for this app but my 1.5 ghz PowerBook with 1gb of RAM seems to handle it well.

7. Back to iPhoto. What I most disliked about iPhoto was the way it stored images. I found it less than intuitive. Aperture does this too, but with a couple Export options and the vault functions I am excited about using this.

I am going to put Aperture through its paces while I am in Ethiopia for three weeks this January. But if you have a chance to play with this - and if you’ve been looking for a better way to view, store, organize, and tweak your images then Aperture is the answer to all those desperate prayers.