I posted the first recent color shot on 8/29/2006 - less than a month ago. I see that I had been getting bored with my usual walking around street stuff and had been going through lots of old b&w photos.
I don't think there was any conscious decision to switch to color - it just happened - the same way that I might suddenly decide to listen to Miles Davis instead of Randy Newman. There had been jabs at new forms such as infrared that petered out; book projects that didn't go anywhere (my fault) - and other sporadic or maybe the word is spasmodic gestures.
At the same time - a couple of other things happened: Markus mentioned Alien Skin Exposure - but for how good the b&w conversion was; that was on the back-burner somewhere; the M3 acted up at slower speeds and I was wondering whether I wanted to get it overhauled; but to be honest - I was prob. just bored. In a funk. Road closed ahead.
And so - one thing leads to another (as it usually does) - and I find myself back in digicam world. Not - however so that I could do b&w conversions - but so that I could do color and compose on the LCD with the tic-tac-toe grid.
And Alien Skin - and various Photoshop blending techniques (b&w + color film blends) was giving me this roll your own recipe: take two layers of Tri-X 400 and blend with Kodachrome 64 in screen mode at 34% mix. (Don't take that literally but you see what I mean).
The color palette became manageable for the first time. Result of the plug-in plus n number of years working in PS, plus time spent printing digitally, plus my own personality, plus Miles Davis playing constantly.
I think that Dylan and John Prine are excellent for b&w; but if you want to do color - I suggest jazz.
Also - b&w - I still opt for film. Color - right now it's digital. I say "right now" 'cause I know myself and nothing you read here has little hope of being permanent. Everything I say should have a footnote, a caveat, and a disclaimer: these thoughts are of the moment - and should not under any circumstances be taken as gospel. I do not stand behind them at all. Not only do I not stand behind my ideas - I stand in front of them! They are swiftly approaching and will knock me on my can if I'm not careful.
1 comment:
Hi Dave - I'm happy to see that for the time being, you're using a digicam again - in fact, my own personal favorite line, the Canon A620/630/640 series. Your photos are so different than the ones I take with the essentially the same camera - it's really wonderful to see. Also, I don't do much street photography (well... because I'm a rotten street photographer) but rather focus on more static subjects.
Nevertheless, it's interesting to see that we both find the features of these little cameras compelling - especially the Tic-Tac-Toe grid (I like that name you gave it) and the Twist-O-Flex LCD screen.
I find that these 2 features are incredibly useful in composing images. The Twist-O-Flex thing even makes some images possible that I wouldn't otherwise be able to take - holding the camera way over my head or way down low or at other odd angles.
One thing that I might wish for is a wider wide-angle end of the zoom - it's equivalent to 35 or 37 mm, and I would love to see something more like 28mm. On the other hand, with one click of the control ring on the back of the camera, I can set the lens for macro mode and get ****really**** close in, which often results in a very wide-angle perpective.
The very best thing about the camera to me is that it's so small that I almost always have it with me. It's in the backpack I carry to work every day, so even when I walk a few blocks at noon to pick up some Chinese food, I take it with me. The other day, just before Tropical Storm Ernesto hit, I found gingko leaves all over the wet pavement on my way back from lunch. I got some really nice photos, thanks to the fact that the A620 was in my pocket.
The Canon sensor and electronics are amazing - I'm often able to get excellent 13'x19" prints out of that fingernail-sized CCD.
So - it's fun to see how much you're enjoying using the digicam right now. BTW, have you officially switched to a Canon A640? I didn't even know such a thing existed until you mentioned it.
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