OK, so I’m tired of all this bullshit on the web about how <a href=”http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm”>your camera doesn’t matter</a>, no need for that 4000 dollar setup, etc. Then there was <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK2603NP5A00POX”>this crap</a> (which I got via <a href=”http://www.kottke.org/09/02/a-poor-photographer-blames-his-tools”>kottke</a>, a pretty good blog usually) about how the old masters, those before autofocus and autoexposure had it about the same as anyone with a point and shoot. The photographers he mentions for the most part shot with Leicas, cameras renowned for their speed, quality, and ability to work in low light even with the ISO 400 films of the time. (The author of that piece confuses old color emulsions, which were very slow, with black and white, which have been reasonable since the mid nineteen thirties). Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of my personal heroes, whom he mentions by name, was famous for almost always using a 50mm f/2 lens and ISO 400 Tri-x, moderately fast film with incredible tonalities possible. <br /><br />I’m not saying it’s impossible to make good photos with cheap or lesser cameras. I’m even using some of the shots from my old G9 in the book I’m trying to produce. But telling people to buck up and try harder in the face of the crap that is the consumer camera market right now, well, that’s bullshit. The factors that are comparable are not the important ones to photographers. The important things are all related to creative control and perspective. The reason little digital cameras mostly suck is you have little control over how the thing sees; it’s very hard to fit your vision into a little screen. Here’s a list of the things that do matter, though:<br /><br />1. Format size. This comes before every other consideration, as it is a defining characteristic of how the camera will work, its weight, how the image is printed, how depth of field is established, all sorts of things. Bigger gives higher technical image quality, and smaller means better ease of use. My personal choice is the 24x36mm rectangle- a good balance between optical and tonal qualities and the ability to move around. Notice I say here “format” and not “megapixels”; the difference being that format is very important and megapixels aren’t anymore. <br /><br />2. Shutter Lag. THIS WAS ALMOST NUMBER ONE. That’s because it’s so often overlooked and it’s perhaps the most important to the most photographers (potential and actual). A camera’s shutter lag needs to be small, less than one tenth of a second, for it to be remotely useful in getting a moment, which for me is all of photography. Most crappy (P&S) cameras, you could press the shutter button, go have lunch, come back, start a pot of coffee for the afternoon, and then, finally, the camera will make the exposure. Completely unacceptable. In most old manual cameras, this wasn’t a problem, because the mechanical path from the shutter to the button was short and fast. <br /><br />3. Focal Length. You may say that for a given photographer, they will have many lenses, but many tend toward one end of the spectrum or another- James Nachtwey uses wide angles a lot, Cartier-Bresson preferred the fifty (normal in his preferred 35mm format), paparazzi live and die by their telephoto lenses, and if you ask ten photographers, you’ll get ten answers, all unique. I’m a normal and wider kind of photographer, 50 and 20. <br /><br />4. Minimum F/stop- This determines the most amount of light that the lens can allow to pass through. I cart around a huge honking 50mm f/1.2, which gathers light somewhat akin to a radio telescope collecting signal, but that’s because I work in dark rooms with sketchy nonexistent lighting a lot. For most people, f/2 is plenty for most situations.<br /><br />OK, so for most point and shoots, the lenses suck, the format sucks, the viewing sucks, and the shutter lag is longer than a smoke break. It’s a miracle these things make pictures at all. You almost have to be a savant to get anything good out of them. To the people out there that know better, please stop bullshitting amateurs into thinking that their camreras are capable machines, because more than likely the machine sucks and they haven’t a hope of getting better with it. <br /><br />PS- Ken Rockwell, while being a little odd a lot of the time, has a lot of good smart things to say about photography and cameras, so long as you know he’s joking half of the time. The other guy makes some good points, too, but really, if the camera didn’t matter, we’d all be painters. Now go take some pictures.
Posted by matt on 2009-02-23T00:00:00Z GMT
Today was a good day in paradise. Started out sleeping in a bit, then went to brunch/coffee/movie with Lori:<br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sunday_sunday_sunday/1238/0001.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br />The brunch we were going to go to (the guatemalan on classen) is closed sundays, or at least it was closed today, so we went to cafe do brasil, where I got my chorizo fix over eggs and a side of Mimosa. Coffee at coffeeslingers, mostly to kill time, and then onto the movie, Taken, which was awesome- the most realistic fight scenes I can recall in a movie. Brutal, fast paced, and it could’ve ended about five minutes before it did. No need to sugar coat the ending, Hollywood. <br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sunday_sunday_sunday/1238/0002.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br />Then, with Lori off to study something boring, I was free to go shoot golden hour on 23rd street. I had to go around twice to get the photo of the capitol. <br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sunday_sunday_sunday/1238/0003.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br />These same people are always hanging out on that bench in the corner. I don’t know if they live in the apartments out of frame to the left or they’re homeless and that’s just their spot. <br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sunday_sunday_sunday/1238/0004.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br />Homage to Eugene Atget. Wig shop. It was always a little but of a surprise to hit the end of a roll so quickly; about half an hour walking and 141 pictures. <br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sunday_sunday_sunday/1238/0005.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sunday_sunday_sunday/1238/0006.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sunday_sunday_sunday/1238/0007.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sunday_sunday_sunday/1238/0008.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sunday_sunday_sunday/1238/0009.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sunday_sunday_sunday/1238/0010.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br />So, I walked from Robinson to Classen, dropped off the four rolls I’d shot at Walgreens, and went to grab a bite while they were being run. I have my doubts about the usability of these photo cd scans; fine for web, but I’m going to need to scan them better to make prints. Might just not bother next time and scan everything at home. Then again it does make blogging a lot easier.
Posted by matt on 2009-02-22T00:00:00Z GMT
Right now, I should tell the story of the excellent day I had shooting with <a href=”http://www.jeremycharles.com/blog/“>Jeremy Charles</a>, or rather him shooting and me assisting, but I think I can may be just say that it was a good time, picked up a few new tricks for my lighting bag, and it was nice to be able to talk to someone about photography who’s been where I’m at and receive a little encouragement. Also, I had a moment to grab a few photos of the first band, who’s name I forget. This is why I usually take notes of these things. Anyway, Photos (now with black borders!):<br /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/lacking_the_will_to_blog/1239/0001.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/lacking_the_will_to_blog/1239/0002.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/lacking_the_will_to_blog/1239/0003.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/lacking_the_will_to_blog/1239/0004.jpg” alt=”Photos” />
Posted by matt on 2009-02-21T00:00:00Z GMT
So, it’s been a long ass day. I got up and I was sore from a fall last night, I’m still stiff, actually, but that’s another story.<br /><br />I got up and went to work, and for once I was pretty on time, or at least I was there earlier than the other two people in my office. I go back to the processor to turn it on, and there were a couple pieces out of it, so I opened the lid and took a look at the tanks, and the rinse baths were a bit frothy. If you know anything about processors, or about photography in general, It’s not a good thing for your rinse baths to be opaque, and also not a good thing for them to be frothy. The froth turned out to be rinse aid, which is strange and unnecessary, but whatever. I digress. <br /><br />So, I see the processor in this state and I’m a little upset. You’ve got to understand, this is a quarter of a mil sitting there let to rot. Not only that, but the utility of it, its ability to make prints, was seriously degraded. Maybe I’m crazy. But I was a little pissed. So, I tell everyone we really need to drain and clean the machine, and then we can get back to printing, it’ll take a day, but the prints will be better and the machine won’t in danger of breaking down imminently. <br /><br />As background, I’ve worked on these machines before, and I have a pretty intimate understanding of the chemistry involved. If you want, you can look it up, I’m not in the mood to explain it here. There’s no need for the rinse aid in the final baths, because the prints are dired with hot air right away. Which I tried to explain to the office manager (or whatever keith is), but he wasn’t having any of it. By this time I’d been to get cleaning supplies, pulled the rinse bath rollers, and cleaned the first set. I put the machine back together and went outside for a smoke. <br /><br />I’m outside, then, with one of the other people I work with, Haley (not Luna). Keith, the office manager, comes over and starts talking about the machine, and I try to explain to him that really the machine should be thouroughly cleaned once a month, and he goes off on me. Says he just got off the phone with some so-and so from tech support who told him it only needed it every six months, and moreover my experience didn’t matter because I’d never worked on this machine, and I said to him, fine, let’s just let it drop, no reason to be angry. So he yells at me some more, and I tell him to let it go some more, and seemed like about ten times we went back and fourth like that, and finally I tell him, fine, find another photographer. And I turned on my heel and grabbed my shit and I was gone. <br /><br />Since then, I’ve had a pretty chill day. I went to sauced and had some coffee, shot some photos for the 23rd st project (coming soon, next post, I swear), and built a bike for a pretty girl. The girl is attached to a guy, but sometimes it’s nice to build something just because you can, because it’s something positive in an otherwise shit day. Maybe the photos are good though. <br /><br />Also, if you know anyone looking for an experienced photographer, photo assistant, fine printer, entry-level web programmer, locksmith, or portugese translator, I’m available.
Posted by matt on 2009-02-19T00:00:00Z GMT
