Ghost Town
Here we are, in one of the busiest eating, drinking, and clubbing streets in Seoul, the capital of the 22nd most densely populated country on earth… so what happened? Did I ‘shop out every human passing through my frame? No, I did not. I employed my ND400 filter. This bad boy is almost pure black and cuts out around 8.5 stops of light. This enabled me to keep my shutter open for seven minutes at f/11, giving me long enough to burn in the surroundings while the people walking by were not in the frame long enough to have any lasting effect on the sensor. This is certainly not the best frame I’ve ever taken, but it shows what is possible, and this is a project I will be working on in the near future. Out.
a smattering (,) blabbering.
alright…
so its been a while. too long really. its no indication of interest in this blog, though. not really sure what the lapse is due to. ive been shooting, TRYING to edit (its been hard for me lately…) and getting more and more into things… photography.
talking to professionals over coffee. spilling coffee. just trying to get my head around exactly what the next step is for me photographically speaking. its one thing to know what you WANT to do and its another knowing HOW to do it. im working on the later.
anyhow, per conversation with friend dylan, i set out on a nasty day (again) with a mission in mind. this time was LONG exposures… and though i am unable to afford the tool to allow me to shoot at the sun, shutter open, for 30 seconds, i managed to get 2 shots over the last 2 weeks that play up the long shutter playbook.
first is a shot that i took just 2 days after talking to dylan about the long exposure inspiration…nasty day, down along a lake path, i set up tripod. after, exposure experiments and walking back and forth from camera to frame space, i got this shot. this was with my 105 2.5 ai and at f22 i was able to open up for a full second. just enough to add some character to the frame.
next is a shot from this past weekend spent up north (as mentioned at shincphotography.wordpress.com) in fargo, north dakota. the first night out was a little more aimed towards experimenting and having fun rather than getting anything noteworthy out of the time spent, camera in hand. that being said, this shot came out well enough to post here with the long exposure pretext.
after driving up to what basically amounts to a junk yard in the mid-evening hours we made our way to a vintage auto joe had scoped out beforehand. this auto was on the other side of a lake of melted snow. how to get to desired location? it took joe, and his more well equipped puma sneakers (i was wearing holed boots) and a roundaboutroute to traverse the lay. as he was walking along, i waiting, saw potential for a frame. so, naturally, as photographers are prone to do…i shot it. here it is. at f18, i achieved 30 second shutter status!
finally, over the last two days ive been reading about this guy : miroslav tichy (with the “v” dealy over the y in tichy)… what ive deduced is that this neurotic, creepy man by societal definitions really had a vision with his homemade cameras and prints. so full of character and imperfections, the awkward moments in time are captured in such a unique way that you cant help but appreciate this vision. no matter how he got/gets them… sadly it makes me wonder, in the digital age, with such easy access to affordable cameras and the onslaught of images captured (and stored) for any number of reasons, who exactly is looking at who and for what reasons.
nice to know that “outside artist photographers” still exist and are being discovered. i thought everyone was on facebook. hell, i didnt even think about that…wonder if miroslav tichy has a page? doubtful. highly doubtful i presume.
Eddie Soloway
Just a quick note about a photog I discovered while reading Joe McNally’s blog today. Eddie Soloway is miles removed from anything I shoot, or indeed any outlook I have, but he has some fantastic little tidbits that should resound with any photographer out there. Check him out.
Here are a couple of my favourites:
What’s Left Behind
Everything we do ends up somewhere… take a shower, your filth ends up in the ocean… throw an apple core, a bird will take it, most probably only to crap it out on your neighbour’s porch a little later… everything you do has an effect. The drains in Seoul are putrid, as anyone who has been here knows… Walking over the Han River had me discover this little scene… As the weather gets warmer there should be many more little walks… Looking forward to that oh so very much!
the woodwork blurred. the floor’s perspective.
so, my parents home isnt quite the most photogenic spot in the world…but given sir goldby’s project of shooting from the ground i had an idea of the part of the house that would be interesting enough. would have liked to shoot outdoors, but laziness combined with weather conditions directed me to the wooden railing surrounding the staircase leading to the lower level of my parents house. wood is kind of the dominating element in my parents upper level, floors, furniture and this railing are all made of wood. the style, also is important… amish. simple. one of the corners of this railing has some cool lines and i thought that it provided an interesting ground composition. the bokeh and light all work well here. just something the worlds most unlucky mouse might see scampering around the house before my pop gets out some tool and “gets on its case”…
beauty in photography \(and)/ photographing beauty of everyday things…
friend joe shared this site with me. a friend or other was part of it. liked the feeling i got from the images. everyday things/events/people shot in such a way that reflects the positive environment theyre in and their photography. one thing i could never be, is a photographer set out to document in the typical, consumer way. shooting birthdays, holidays and your fathers fish that he rarely catches are not appealing to me. this site somehow gave me hope that, even though there isnt any hope for me in the typical, consumer way, maybe i can document in my own personal way…which is something i do in every photo i take, but maybe i should expand into seemingly ordinary events and surroundings…
http://www.vagabondbond.com/search/label/photography
enjoy.
Project 4: From Ground Level
Anyone who has ever passed out knows what the world looks like from the perspective their toes see, as has anyone who’s ever watched me shoot portraits… I spend more time on my belly than a seal…
This week’s challenge is to shoot something, anything with your camera firmly planted on the solid earth beneath your feet.
MySpace… where everyone spends their time
Scott’s concept and frame are a hell of a lot better than mine this time around, but I wanted to speak about myself a little through this 5-minute-throw-together. Literally, I shot, edited and got this together for post in five minutes.
Like a lot of people, I spend more time in front of a computer than I would like to… I have a healthy addiction to flickr and lens prices… I also spend a lot of time in this chair alone. I am surrounded by things done by and for my fiancée, but the culture we live in prevents us from spending more time together. Recently I have spent a lot of time involved with film photography; scanning it for others, shooting it for myself, learning about it, and experimenting with various films. Then there’s the iPod… after all this time, I finally broke down and bought an iPod touch, mostly for displaying my photos and using as a personal organiser. It still hasn’t replaced my trusty Meizu Mini as an audio player, and I don’t care what anyone says “synchronising” your player is just a pain in the arse… make it drag and drop, for f**ks sake! Do you hear me apple? iTunes sucks!!! Then there’s my wallet, tied to that bloody thing like never before, wish I weren’t.
So, there we are… my place to be.
I think this is a cool idea and should be repeated a few times throughout the year to see changing spaces…
a defining space, defying me
so this is where i spend quite a bit of my time…roughly 8 hrs./nightturnday. anticipating travels early tomorrow took this shot quickly and am not entirely enthused about it. maybe its just the blah room itself thats not so great.
while back, saw a series where a photographer went into friends rooms. rooms with character, color and other interesting aspects. not like this room. welcome to my parents basement. anyhow, shots she took were composed symmetrically and simply, though she left the head/face out. i liked the concept and tried to mimick the idea here.
wish my room was more representative of my interests etc. wheres the record player? bookshelf? posters? camera gear!?!? well…if anything, this shot is a good representation of where i am right now (purpose of project…). a foreign room with few signs of being my room. this room could be anyones really… whats interesting is that its MY room at the moment and theres nothing in this shot that tells someone that. our spaces are pretty important. how we display our personalities and interests in these spaces is also important and the idea that this is currently my space is a bit scary.
i need to either get out or get to work! how does your space define you? does it?
Inspiration to do something DIFFERENT
Reading Chase Jarvis’ blog today where he posted about Aaron Gustafson was just fascinating. We all think we get a creative angle, or shoot with something different from others… but Aaron is shooting while skydiving… nothing special there, except that he has a 4×5 view camera strapped to his head as he jumps. One jump, one frame. A mighty effort, and some really cool photographs.
The Video:
