Simple Minded

There's a lot to be said for not looking for the big, breath-taking, stunning, rock-em-sock-em photo, and concentrating on the small and simple things that we too often overlook. I think it's a matter of not heading out to shoot with big expectations.



The pictures are there...every day...everywhere, and the idea should be to take your time and find what you can that day. A pile of bricks sitting against a brick wall may be something you pass every day without a glance because it's...well...too simple a shot. But there's texture and color and form there. You can capture it, record it, and pique someone's interest with it.



I'm particularly fond of rooftops and rooflines as they appear against the sky. The simple lines can be so graceful and captivating, and the geometry of it all so complex and abstract at the same time. I'm also very big on shadows, about as simple a subject as there is, but with the ability to add depth and gravity to a capture.



In many ways, a simple picture can create an enormous amount of interest and thought in the viewer. What am I looking at here? Is there a deeper meaning? Clear your mind grasshopper, and look for the simple things right there in front of you.

Pics And The City

You can take the boy out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the boy. I come from a fairly large city (New York), and relocated many years ago to the relatively small and quiet (comparatively speaking), area of Lancaster County in Central Pennsylvania. I don't miss the craziness and traffic of New York, but there's no denying that there's a vibe and constantly changing look generated by almost any city that makes photo forays into that environment a must for me. City shooting generally offers a wide range of locations that have their own unique "flavor", from ethnic neighborhoods and eateries, to historic attractions, to office workers, to city dwellers, to street artists and musicians, to the poor and needy, to churches, to amusements centers. A city will cover that whole spectrum...sometimes in the space of only a few blocks.



There's also a risk in some cities of becoming a crime statistic as you walk around wide-eyed with possibly thousands of dollars of shiny cameras and lenses temptingly close by. My advice? Ditch the wide eyes. Part-an important part-of city living and survival is attitude and "street smarts.". You don't necessarily or particularly need an attitude, just the ability to look like you belong and you're not a country bumpkin wandering around looking at all the tall buildings. This bleeds in to the area of "street smarts" that dictate you don't go into a strange, or unknown, or even possibly dangerous section of the city without some thought and a game plan.



You should always be aware of what's going on around you. That not only helps with picture taking, but with safety to your equipment and your body. Don't leave your camera bag at your feet then wander off a few feet, then a few more to take an interesting shot. You may notice that cities have pawn shops. You may also notice gear very similar to yours in the windows of those shops. Put two and two together and keep your gear in your grasp.



While it's important to know what's going on, that doesn't mean nervously looking around. That can mark you as a potential victim. Attitude. You belong there, you're confident, you can handle yourself. Most importantly, if you sense you're in a dangerous spot...get out of there. Look for a location where there are a lot of people, have a plan in mind if you're confronted, and although a cell phone can be a potential theft target, walking confidently away while you're talking on your phone might dissuade someone from a attempt to confront you. I would not, however, wave around an I-Phone or Blackberry unless I was really unhappy with them and wouldn't miss them a bit.



A city offers the best and worst that we can imagine. Personally, I'd rather have a day of shooting in any city than two in a so-called idyllic location. If that's also your idea of a fun day, just be sure to pack your attitude, street smarts, and best walk-around lens.

Making Lemonade

There is a difference in philosophy between photographers that can be roughly divided into two camps: Those that eschew (ohh...nice word!)practically any sort of alteration, manipulation, or even casual color and levels adjustments to a photo, and those-like me-who have no problem bending, pushing, and squeezing pixels until they meet some sort of foggy criteria that they can then consider "artistic". We of the second camp can be a very pretentious group at times. I won't get into the area of photojournalism or any sort of photography where absolute truthfulness is required and should be a narrow and straight line that doesn't allow deviation. I don't particularly do the former type of shooting, so my involvement with Photoshop is generally a foregone conclusion when I download photos to my computer.

Whether it's a lack of proficiency in taking a proper photo that requires little or no adjustments, or a chemical ratio in my brain that demands I do that "push, pull,squeeze" dance with the pixels making up the capture, isn't really that important to me. I see a scene in front of me that makes a emotional imprint in my brain and I want to see that on my screen. The fact that it's not always completely there means I will use whatever skills I may have in photo manipulation to try and get to that spot. I don't harbor any embarrassment, shame, or, in some cases, self-control over this. However self-serving that may sound, I'm comfortable with that mind-set. I love photography. I love looking at photography that fires those pleasure neurons of my brain. What I try to do with the photos I take is ultimately very simple...create my own vision. If others find some pleasure or joy in it...cool. If they don't, I'm not shattered or upset. We all have different likes and dislikes. In the end, stripped of all its artifice, photography is a very personal medium and art form. I'm comfy and cozy with what I do and I'm quite happy I'm able to do it.



And that brings me to the theme of sorts for today...Band photography. Musicians are cool. I love the creative energy that musicians shoot off like high decibel sparks. Photographing bands and musicians though, is generally a horror. While stage lighting is dramatic and exciting to watch while you're an audience member, as a photographer it's sometimes beyond a challenge and into the nearly impossible range. Stage lighting usually flashes off and on. Colors change in seconds. Light levels are all over the place. And musicians have this weird tendency to move all over the stage, and even if they're standing at a mike, they...simply...won't...stay...still.



So while I'm a fan of the creativity and energy of bands and musicians, I've found that taking great shots of them is a challenge, indeed. Generally speaking, given all the pitfalls of lighting and movement, a fast lens is a must. A fast lens being one in the range of 1.4; 1.8; or close to that. These are lenses that will work well in low light situations such as a stage. However, shooting in low light and a wide open aperture like f/1.4 or f/1.8 will make your depth of field quite short and finding the proper focus difficult. (I'm purposely not approaching the whole flash/strobe aspect that may come into play in some band photography, because in most live performance situations, flash photography is either frowned upon or downright forbidden.)



There's also the problem of expose times you have to address, because low light means longer exposures. Longer exposures mean blurry photos because you can't hold a camera steady much beyond 1/30 of a second. That means you have to pump up your ISO...sometimes drastically. Modern SLR's will have settings beyond ISO 800, going to 1600, 3200, and some beyond that.



Noise, or grain, then becomes your biggest problem. You may be able to get a decent capture of a gyrating guitar player whomping out power chords with a setting of say f/1.8 at 1/125 and an ISO of 1600, but the noise/grain factor may be severe enough to give you a headache. You worked long and hard at getting to this gig and getting permission to shot the band and you've got a grainy, barely focused capture. This is a case of life handing you lemons...and you're going to make lemonade out of it. (Oh man, it took forever to get to the meaning of the title didn't it?)



This is then the area where Photoshop (or other editing programs), filters, actions, manipulation, guile, masking, burning, dodging, noise removal, and kitchen sink throwing come into play. This is the time where you get to play in your digital darkroom and squeeze out that vision you had when the lead singer was belting out "Stairway To Heaven" and you took the shot (They still do "Stairway To Heaven", don't they?). This is where you get up close and personal with the inner you and whatever creativity you can muster up.



Four of the shots appearing here were taken on a stage with one lousy spotlight that barely lit up the artist. The noise factor was horrible, and I was severely disappointed with the quality of the shots. It was time to make lemonade. Don't give up on your photos, no matter how bad they may look at first. Your vision is in that capture, and you may be able to coax it out. It's worth a try.