Away for a few…
June 29, 2009On some much needed R&R. More posts and pics on the 8th when I get back!
it’s not about the camera (redux)
June 25, 2009
We’ve all heard “it’s not about the camera, blah blah blah” but here’s a great illustration of that:
Chase Jarvis recently had a contest to win his old iphone 3g – all you had to do was submit a picture taken with a mobile. (I didn’t because I already have and iPhone, and wouldn’t want to take it away from someone else!) Anyway, he recently posted the winner along with a gallery of favorites.
wow.
There’s some absolutely amazing stuff in there – all shot with mobiles. Damn impressive. So next time you hear someone complaining that they can’t make good pictures because they need X piece of gear or Y isn’t good enough show them this…
(and before I get absolutely flamed – of couse the camera “matters”, some cameras are better suited for some things than others etc… but the point is that you can make photographic art with anything from a box with a pinhole and scrap of film to a D3x to a cellphone. So go out there and do it!)
the future of photography…
June 22, 2009…in 1944 
Thanks to Terry Moore for this one… A very good read. Amusing and insightful – kinda puts a perspective on a lot of things…
http://people.rit.edu/andpph/giants/POP-PHOTO-future-1944.html
secret confession #3
June 22, 2009… every time I shoot I still get nervous that “what if this is the shoot where I don’t get ‘the shot’“…
why OVF?
June 19, 2009So Interestingly enough, the biggest complaint I’ve seen about the E-P1 is the fact that it doesn’t have an optical viewfinder (or at least an eye-level EVF, though Ironically enough a large complaint about the panny G1 was that it was too big – largely resulting from *having* an eye-level EVF- but no matter!)
Look, I’ve composed images on all kinds of framing devices – rangefinders, SLR prisims, Waist-level MF finders, eye-level EVFs, LCDs, heck even ground-glass on a view camera.
All require a different way of shooting, and all have their pros and cons. But there seems to be almost a knee-jerk reaction against composing an image on an LCD, which I really don’t get. Sure, it has some drawbacks – notably washing out in bright light (less and less of an issue as lcds get better) and being somewhat less stable to hold (just requires adaptation to some new shootign stances, not as much of an issue with IS anyway). But there are also some big pros to it – things like “having a live histogram overlaid while composing” (awesome) or superimposed levels for getting straight horizons (useful when running&gunning).
However, what many folks seem to miss is that one of the LCDs biggest weaknesses is also one of its greatest strengths – you don’t use it against your face. Now while this does make it less stable, it does something wonderful as well – it removes the barrier between you and your subject, allowing a far more intimate and direct connection while shooting. Same as shooting with a waist-level, don’t underestimate the value of being able to make eye-contact with your subject and engage with them while you are taking their picture. It’s a great thing, and in my eyes more than makes up for the drawbacks of framing on an LCD.
So I have to ask honestly – what’s with the vehemently anti-lcd crowd? I’ve never had a problem framing with LCDs – is there really an issue or is it simply coming from folks who grew up on dSLRs and see OVF=SLR=Pro and LCD=pockecam=amateur? To me it’s just another way of framing…
inquiring minds and all… not trying to be provocative, just legitimately curious.
