Is it worth taking the same old boring fall pictures again.

by Posted in Landscapes, Thoughts, Woodland Leave a comment
Foggy morning

Every year for some time now I’ve been taking pictures of the fall foliage (see above and below). While they’re pretty, colorful, and in a few cases quite spectacular they’re all starting to look pretty much the same.

So, unless I can come up with some clever idea of how to come up with something different, I’m not going to bother this year.

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Spur beach at sunset

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SONY DSC

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Taken with a variety of different cameras and lenses.

Self Portait

by Posted in Black & White, People, Portrait, Thoughts Leave a comment
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I like black and white photography. In many ways I see things in black and white. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a time before color photography became important. Most of the photographs and movies I saw when I was young were in black and white. Yes, I know that color moviews had been available for quite some time, but the ones I seem to remember were all black and white.

Of all places, this was taken in the men’s room in the building where I work with the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society. The day before I’d been watching a YouTube video about high-contrast black and white photography. As I was leaving the men’s room, bright light streamed in through a high window and fell on my face. It occurred to me that if I could get the exposure right, I might get something interesting.

Many might think that I carry a camera with me wherever I go. But that wouldn’t be true. I don’t usually carry one with me to the men’s room. However, I did have one in a bag, downstairs where I work so I went down to get it.

This is the result. I quite like it.

Taken with a Sony RX100 M3.

Film Camera 2024 -3: Fujifilm Instax Square SQ-6 – Results

by Posted in Photography, Thoughts Leave a comment
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So, after finding the results from the SX-70 and the I2 somewhat disappointing, how did I like what I got from the SQ-6?

It’s an easy camera to use, largely point and shoot with relatively few additional functions that you might use. The learning curve with this camera is certainly much shorter than, for example, the I2.

At first glance the prints looked better, with more vibrant colors if a little underexposed. However, after scanning I realized that pretty much all of the prints were out of focus. Now I’m new to instant photography and mostly likely a problem with the photographer (i.e. me) rather than the camera.

I also found that the prints were a lot smaller than I had anticipated. Mea Culpa again. I was somehow thinking that they would be the same size as the Polaroid prints of yesteryear. Moreover, I’m also not entirely comfortable composing with a square format.

Of course, the film is expensive, but that’s true of all instant film nowadays.

So far, my attempts at instant photography have not been particularly successful and it seems to me that I now have two options:

  1. Decide that instant photography is not for me and give up.
  2. Don’t blame the cameras and accept that there’s always a learning curve and try harder until I get to a point where I’m satisfied.

I prefer the second option. There were reasons why my first few attempts didn’t succeed. The SX-70 was an old camera bought second hand. It clearly wasn’t working as originally intended. I might get it checked out, if possible fixed and try it again. The problem with the I2 was known (the autoexposure didn’t work correctly) and I chose to use it anyway. This has now been fixed in the recent firmware up, which I’ve now applied. I’m keen to try again and this will be my next attempt. The SQ6 was, I suspect, just plain lack of knowledge and familiarity with the camera.

Clearly, I have to use the cameras much more frequently. As the saying goes “if at first you don’t succeed try, try again”. It’s not rocket science.

I am Alice

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Early in his book “Photographing the World Around You“, author Freeman Patterson tells the story of Alice, a participant in one of his workshops. It’s a bit too long to re-tell here, but later on he provides this summary:

Remember Alice, whom you met earlier; she had so little confidence in her personal creativity that she automatically assumed every picture she made was, at best, competent. In her view, non-creative people canmake only non-creative photographs and, since she regarded herself as having no imagination, she felt incapable of improving her seeing and her photographs very much.

I am Alice…but not as much as I used to be.

Can you spot the red car. Up your photography game using the red car theory

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I just came across this YouTube video – from one of my favorite photographers/content creators. His name is Craig Roberts, and his channel is called E6. The video’s premise is that if, every time you go out to take photographs, you have a goal (e.g. as in this case red cars) in mind you will see red cars where otherwise you might not. You would see things that you otherwise might miss.

I’d agree with this…up to a point. Yes, you might well see things you would otherwise miss, but you might also miss equally or even more interesting photographic opportunities because you’re focusing so much on looking for your subject.

Maybe a way around this is to spend a morning focusing on a particular subject followed by an afternoon wandering around with no focus to see what you find? Or maybe spend one day on a particular subject and the next day just wander around?