Archive for Photography

More Poe than Van Gogh

March 29, 20119 CommentsMusings

The classification of photography as an "art" has done it a great disservice. Art demands that the viewer appreciate the technique behind it. It calls attention to its technical merits. A good photograph should never do this. Rather, it should just be. In 1951, Robert Frank told Life Magazine "When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice." Frank knew then what I've only just figured out — photography is language. And the language of photography is the language of the poet.

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The Soft Grey Line

December 15, 20104 CommentsMusings

When is a photograph no longer a photograph? At what point is an image so "pimped out" that it leaves the realm of photography, and enters the province of illustration? If you clone a crumpled beer can from of a landscape shot, is it still a photograph? If you merge multiple shots into a single image, can you call it a photograph? If you heal all the pimples on your model's face, is it still their photograph? Where is the soft grey line between photography and illustration, and when do we cross it?

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How To Ignore “How-To” Guides

October 4, 201013 CommentsMusings

The world is full of many things to see — big, small, chaotic, and quiet. Every person who looks out at this world sees it, feels it, and experiences it differently. The problem, for each of us, is to figure out how to craft a photograph that expresses exactly what it is that we see, feel, or experience. Studying the work of other photographers is the key to unlocking our own inner visual sense. It's through the examination of photo collections and photographer monographs that we discover how other photographers have wrestled a shared vision into a compelling photo. These are the lessons every photographer needs to learn, yet you'll never find them in a "How-To" book.

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The Most Dangerous Game

April 14, 2010No commentMusings

In 1924, Richard Connell wrote "The Hounds of Zaroff," better known as "The Most Dangerous Game." It told the story of General Zaroff, who had become so bored with hunting traditional prey that he turned to hunting the most cunning and clever prey of all — man. In 1948, Eugen Herrigel published "Zen in the Art of Archery", which Henri Cartier-Bresson considered an essential photographic text. How close are the parallels between hunters and photographers? And is there, perhaps, a little of Zaroff in every passionate street photographer?

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The Contextual Lens

March 23, 20103 CommentsPhoto Gear

Every year, a new generation of neophyte photographers become victims of nomenclature — mistakenly assuming that wide angle lenses are an ideal choice for photographing wide, scenic vistas. As an obsessive neologist, I examine how wide angle lenses are actually used, and wrestle with what designers should have named them.

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That Golden Glow

March 1, 2010No commentMusings

On the afternoon of February 28th, in the final event of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, the Canadian men's hockey team beat the USA in a nail-biting, overtime gold medal game. If this country was a living organism, hockey would be its heart. It's a home grown sport that touches everyone who lives here. Canada is a nation of immigrants, but hockey unites us all. It's a passion that welcomes everyone and excludes nobody. It doesn't discriminate by age, nationality, religion, race, nor political view. The United Nations can only dream about this kind of harmony. When this country grants you citizenship, you must swear to uphold the principles of democracy, freedom and compassion. And this you do — through hockey.

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“Winter” Olympics

February 17, 2010No commentMusings

With precipitation levels low and the temperatures high, Vancouver's cherry trees welcomed February with a display of delicate pink blossoms that, in years past, remained hidden until April. In marked contrast to most of the Northern Hemisphere, winter never arrived here, and spring has already sprung. It's a glorious time to be in Vancouver, save for one nagging little fact — we're hosting the winter Olympics.

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This is Going to be Fun

February 8, 2010No commentMusings

Its inevitability has, for a decade now, been forced into my consciousness and my subconsciousness. It's become a part of my Id, my Ego, and my Super-Ego. Its costs, benefits, politics and promise have permeated local news outlets since I first moved to Vancouver at the dawn of the 21st century. "It" is the XXI Olympic Winter Games and, in four days, "it" finally arrives in my downtown neighbourhood — on the very streets that I traverse each and every day.

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DagNAMMit

January 28, 2010No commentMusingsPhoto Techniques

This is an article about photographing the culture, chaos and cacophony that surrounds the NAMM music products show in Anaheim California. It includes several photos from the show, plus a link to a multimedia presentation about NAMM. The article also discusses the current state of photojournalism, and the difficulties facing those of us in this ever-challenging profession.

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The Megapixel Thief (Part 2)

January 3, 20105 CommentsPhoto Gear

Out there on the mean streets of photography, it's a digital world. So what possible good can come from shooting with a 50 year old Yashica-Mat Twin Lens Reflex medium format camera? How about 50 megapixel scans, square negatives, and a classic "analog" look? Dive into this article to discover all the techniques, benefits and eccentricities inherent in Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) photography.

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The Megapixel Thief (Part 1)

January 2, 2010No commentPhoto Gear

Common wisdom tells us that "the bigger the sensor, the better the image." Micro Four Thirds (MFT) cameras, though 3 times the price, have a sensor 9 times larger than a point-and-shoot. Great value! The sensor on a full-frame "35 mm" digital camera is 4 times larger than MFT and, coincidentally, costs approximately 4 times as much. Unfortunately, should you wish to shoot digital medium format, you'll run head first into the Law of Diminishing Returns, where a sensor only 1.5 times larger than 35mm currently costs about 7 times as much. Ouch. This article discusses my decision to go "medium format" in a decidedly analog way — by purchasing a 50 year old Yashica-Mat Twin Lens Reflex camera for less than $100. Read along with my tongue-in-cheek logic, and see if you won't end up scouring eBay for your own medium format film camera.

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