Throwback Thursday

Henri Cartier-Bresson once said that your first 10,000 images were your worst.. Of course, this was during the film age and long before the digital age, so for mostly digital photographers, the math should look much different. In other words, the 10,000 images you made at the wedding you shot last week won’t make much of an improvement in the 10,000 you make at this weeks wedding. Just sayin’…

Nevertheless, there is, I think, something to love about the work we make very early in our careers. Long before we get bogged down in all the “rules”, we make work for the joy, for the fun, because it satisfies some innate need, and we can’t say no. (For me, the need was to get out of class, but that’s another story…)

The two contact sheets here are from some of the first rolls of film I shot with the first camera I ever owned. (A Yashica 35mm that I got as a kit with three lenses and a camera bag!)

Contact sheet 0001! made sometime early spring 1979

This first contact sheet is of the very first roll of film I ran through my new camera, images made while walking back and forth to school. Because I was working on my college yearbook at the time, I believe the missing strips are from frames that were shot for yearbook use. Like all the work I made in high school, those images are lost to time.

contact sheet 0006, made sometime in the spring of 1979

While there are certainly some technical issues and the framing for many of these is a little loose, there is no denying the joy that’s apparent in their creation. In those days I took my camera everywhere, photographing whatever I found interesting, and I was having a great time doing it.

And maybe at the root, that’s why in some ways, I like a lot of my early work better than some of the work that followed while I was learning the “rules”. This work seems freer to me, less formal, less constricted. Or maybe I’m so fond of my earlier work because I was so much younger when I made it. Who knows?

But looking back, it should come as no surprise that my client work as well as my personal work became much more satisfying for me as a creator, when I worried less about making work the “right way” or the way everyone else made their work, and just made work “my way”. And also no coincidence that right about the same time my career started to take off. Not everyone “got” what I was doing, but in the end it didn’t matter. What mattered was the people who did “get it”, loved it. Just as it should be.

Long time and sharp-eyed viewers of this blog may have noticed that the first contact sheet made an appearance on the September 19, 2019 post, and frame no. 24A from the second sheet was discussed in detail on July 25, 2019. Check them out!

Throwback Thursday

Through the years, photographers have often defined themselves by the gear they used. Early in my career, I’d often get questions like: “Where are the square pictures?”, “Do you use the ‘hass-lee-blad’?”, “Are you a ‘professional’ photographer?”

Ugh.

Advances in technology have made creating images more accessible and easier than ever. (I didn’t say “better” than ever…) Thus proving the dictum: “The best camera is the one you have with you”.

This group was made while on a trip to Savannah, GA a few years ago. I had a bag full of cameras but these were made with my iphone using the Hipstamatic and Snapseed apps.

Throwback Thursday

Many photographers like to present their work as projects or distinct bodies of work. Images curated around an idea or theme to create a unified whole. I also tend think about my work this way. Otherwise, all we have are just a bunch of pretty pictures. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

Throwback Thursday

As folks are often wont to do this time of year, I am sorting through mountains of old image files to catalogue and save for future reference. Every time I add a new storage device it seems like this becomes a necessity. The older one gets the more wisdom you’d think would be gained. In my case, apparently not.

Perhaps because digital imaging allows us to create so many more images, or maybe because of the unending possibilities and ways to use our pictures I have such a difficult time keeping things organized, I’ll probably never figure out. But here is a selection of pictures recently rediscovered that I really like.

Throwback Thursday

Going back into the archives and dusting off images from projects that for one reason or another, have never quite made it beyond the contemplation stage.

Sometimes they are referred to as B-Sides. But that would presume there was an A-Side…

Waiting for a Friend

Metaphorically speaking, there is something really interesting about an empty chair. There are so many questions that could be asked: Whose chair is this? Where did they go? Are they coming back? So many stories that could be told. Whether we are even conscious of it or not, an empty chair stirs up all kinds of thoughts and emotions.

So, for many of those reasons I find them fascinating. And if you’re really looking, they’re everywhere. I will almost always stop and make a picture when I see one.

The picture above was made in a private yard near the small town of Victoria in southern Virginia. I had parked my car and was meandering when I stopped to photograph the patterns in the stone on the opposite side of this wall.

Naturally, I was spotted almost immediately by the home owner, an elderly women who I guessed to be somewhere about in her 70’s. But instead of chasing me off or calling for the authorities, she very graciously invited me into her garden where I would find “more interesting” things to photograph.

She wasn’t understating. The garden was more than three times larger than it looked from the outside with beautifully weather-worn stonework everywhere I looked. I spent the next 45 minutes darting from spot to spot taking in as much as I could. I could have stayed through to the following summer and not run out of inspiration. Not wishing to wear out my welcome, I thanked her for her time and patience and went on my way, thinking that I would stop again the next time I was in the area and bring her a print.

Too bad I didn’t also think to write down the address. In my excitement I failed to make a note of where I was or how I got there. Initially, I wasn’t too worried, thinking I would recognize the landmarks when I returned.

Not so. In several return trips I couldn’t find anyplace that looked like that neighborhood as I remembered it. In odd moments I wonder if the place really existed. Although I do have the photographic evidence.

The print is still in my files.

Untitled

Now, of course, with digital technology, I’m able to tell exactly where I make a picture and even the time I made it, right down to the second I clicked the shutter. Even so, I still make notes on a location for later reference, especially if I’m shooting with film as it will be the only record I’ll have.

Well, mostly I remember to…

Untitled

Keeping notes wasn’t an issue for the top two photographs as they were both made with my phone. The best camera is always the one you have with you.

All three of these pictures are part of my grand collection of empty chair pictures which will probably never amount to anything except a growing collection of empty chair pictures. While I do enjoy making them, the reality is, there are hundreds of photographers making chair pictures, and many far more interesting than mine.

And as I think about it, given the problems I’ve had with law enforcement and chairs in the past, it’s probably best I keep them to myself. But that’s a story for another day…

Throwback Thursday

A question often asked of artists is: “How did you come up with that?” Which is just a derivation of: “Where do your ideas com from?” Well, the short answer is: Everywhere.

And I will offer a little context to that by revealing that many times we’re not even aware of where or how the finished project will look, or even that the work we’re doing will even lead to anything. In other words, it’s only after the fact that the project comes together or even makes sense.

Church of the First Born

And even if we think we know what it will end up looking like, it often doesn’t end up that way. What can seem like a great idea in the flash of inspiration that inspired it, will, more often than not, lose it’s lustre at the finish.

Downton Abbey

The pictures above are from my Driving Home project, but were made several years before I even knew that it would be a project.

Throwback Thursday

Thanksgiving edition…

As we stop and give thanks for all we are grateful for, I’ll share some images that I really like with no particular theme in mind. Just that I take joy in the fact that I was able to be in the moment when the moment presented itself. And for all those moments, I am eternally grateful.



Throwback Thursday

Our haul from the archives this week brings a few favorites I’ve not looked at in a while.

One of the things about being around photographing for this length of time is not just the abundance of material in the back catalog but the perspective it gives you looking back. Hindsight, they say, is 20-20.

Can’t you just feel the love?

I’ve mentioned a few times in this space how it took several years before I was able to find my “voice” as a photographic artist. Like most, early in my career I tried to do things like many of the successful photographers of the day. While I admire many of those artists, I never felt comfortable working as they did. And, needless to say, my work hardly measured up. And why would it? The cover band rarely sounds better than the original.

It’s one thing to think you know what you need to do, and it’s entirely another to get out and do it. I remember being very unsure of myself as I gradually let my work evolve to where I could honestly call it my own. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, it all seems so predestined. The perfect path. Who knew?

This little guy couldn’t be more relaxed as he waits for his turn on stage…

Because I do love a grand love story, I’ll illustrate this weeks thoughts with a few wedding pictures. The two images above and the one below are everything that a wedding photographer would never do in those days. Grainy black & white? High speed films? Shallow depth of field?Motion blur? TOY CAMERAS??? A kid yawning? Are you kidding me? What kind of “pro” does that? Who’s gonna buy any of those?

Well, those are all the wrong questions. The real question should be: With what tools in my kit can I best tell my clients story?

Once I had that part worked out, the answers just flowed, and I finally felt like I had something that belonged to me. Sometimes it’s not enough to just ask questions. It’s more about knowing what questions to ask.

He won’t appreciate this moment until he’s a little older…

I just LOVE these three pictures. They tell such a great story. Seeing them now takes me right back to the moment I made them.

While I may be a little fuzzy on the names, the emotion of the moment has never left. And that’s what makes for a powerful story.

Throwback Thursday

Dipping into the archives once again…

This picture goes back about 25 years to the time I was still based in Buffalo, NY. About three quarters of the work I did in the spring and fall during that time were weddings. If there were more air conditioned churches (I only knew of one!) I might have taken more work in July and August. (I know it’s hard for some people to understand, but it does get hot there in the summer. It’s the winters that kind if get to you…)

Unfortunately, I’m not sure of the year, or the church. I believe the church is on Main Street near the University of Buffalo campus, but I could be wrong. Perhaps a sharp eyed viewer can fill in the gap.

If this picture looks a little dramatic, it’s because it was made using the now dearly departed Kodak B&W Infra-red film. This film is sensitive to the far red end of the light spectrum and beyond what the human eye is able to see. Alternatively dramatic and dreamy, I felt that the special characteristics of the film lent itself particularly well to telling a wedding day story.

Because the film is sensitive to wavelengths of light that humans cannot see, it could not be metered for exposure, nor did infra-red light focus along the same focal plane as white light, so you could never be completely sure what your pictures would look like until the film was processed and printed. And, oh yeah, you could only load and unload your camera in complete darkness because the film could fog through the film slit in the canister.

Every time your prints came back from the lab you’d feel all the anticipation and excitement like you would opening a birthday present. What could be inside this package? Will I like it? How could any photographer NOT want to work with this film?

Well, because the film was so unpredictable and difficult to work with, few photographers would ever dare to use it in a situation where you couldn’t go back and redo, or take a bunch of pictures and bracket exposures like crazy. But like anything else, the more you use a tool, the more familiar you are with it and your hits will out number your misses.

Of course, like many specialty films it was discontinued several years ago. There are digital equivalents but I don’t think they measure up. For purely nostalgic reasons I still have one roll in my refrigerator. Even cold stored, after all this time I’m not sure I’d count on getting much were I to shoot it now.

But maybe that’s the reason I ought to…

Throwback Thursday

Here we go, deep into the archives this week.

Several weeks back, when talking about the picture of Jenny and Eric, I mentioned that I had another experience that helped shape the course of my portrait and wedding work.

Sisters

Well, this isn’t the image. But it is a pretty good example of the type of work I was doing once I found my niche. I’ll come back to this in a minute.

Unfortunately, the negatives and test prints from the session I was referring to are now lost to time, but the story is instructive.

Back in those days I had a Mamyia C330 with 80mm and 150mm lenses. It was the only camera I had that gave a negative larger then 35mm so I used it for everything I thought I might need to enlarge bigger than 11x14. And rather than proofs, I used enlarged contact sheets for my sales presentations. Most clients had never seen a contact sheet before, much less an 11x14 or 16x20 so needless to say they made a terrific impact when seen for the first time. (Added bonus: I could also sell them as a framed piece as part of the order!)

The photographer I got the camera from got it used, and I think the guy he got it from also bought it used, so I had really no idea how old it was. Needless to say it was somewhat finicky on the controls, but the glass was beautiful. It clearly had been lovingly cared for. As a square format you had 12 negatives to a roll, so unless it was an extended session, each portrait session came with 12 images to choose from.

I had been commissioned by a commercial client to photograph her son and daughter who would both be home from school for the holidays. They had not been together as a family in a while so it was important for her to have the pictures made while the opportunity presented itself.

They arrived at the appointed time and we chatted a bit so I could get to know them a little better and a sense of their relationship. Once I felt we were ready I placed them approximately in position and told them to “talk amongst yourselves” while I made the final preparations.

As I was plugging in the flash cord the camera accidentally fired. Oh no! One frame down, now only 11 left. Adding to my angst, in setting up I had only zone focused and the flash firing caused them to jump so I had no idea if the shot was even completely in focus. Oh well, nothing to do except make a joke and move on. Gee, if only there were some way to see your pictures as you were taking them so you would know… Well, maybe some day.

After the session ended, and holding the roll of film in my hand, I agonized a bit over whether or not I should make a contact sheet as I usually did, or be like everyone else and have proofs made. By the time I had arrived at the lab to drop the film I had decided to let serendipity have its way.

A couple days later the contact sheet arrived and while it didn’t look too bad, viewing the negative with a loupe it was clear that the image was not sharp front to back. Now what? Do I show? Do I cut it out? No, its just a casual shot not the formal picture mom was looking for. She’ll never order anything from it. If she questions it I’ll just tell her it was a test shot. No problem.

The day finally arrives for the meeting with mom and as I present her with the contact sheet and begin to explain how she should just ignore the first shot, her eyes grow large and she literally screams: “My Babies”! Then clutches the sheet to her chest and starts to cry. Oh, oh. What did I do?

What I did was trip the shutter and record a moment that captured her son and daughter exactly as she remembered them growing up. Who knew?

Thank you, serendipity.

In that one frame, even slightly out of focus, I was able to capture the relationship between brother and sister just as their mother knew it, and save it for posterity. Such is the power of photography.

The picture above does the same thing, I think. Two sisters, born about 15 months apart and are very close. You can just feel it. No prodding, no coaching, just letting them be themselves. Preserved forever…