Dedicated to M. Weber and his undying devotion to the blurry image.
[ whole lot of shakin' goin on in this shot; Leica M6 ]
3/30/2006
Catching Bus, Fifth Avenue
Dedicated to M. Weber and his undying devotion to the blurry image.
[ whole lot of shakin' goin on in this shot; Leica M6 ]
BENCHES ON EBAY
It doesn't look like much of anything is happening on eBay with Boy On Bench (I think it is one of my best shots, and a #1 at that - but I also don't see it as sellable according to Dave's Rules of what sells - which I'll have to enumerate at some point) so I am adding Benches, which - according to my rules should sell. Well, I'd buy it.
ON EBAY: BENCHES, ATLANTIC CITY 6/100
ON EBAY: BENCHES, ATLANTIC CITY 6/100
Ooh, la la - casseurs
"In France, we always imagine violence to be political because of our revolutions, but this isn't the case," said Sebastian Roche, a political scientist who specializes in delinquency in the suburbs. "The casseurs are people who are apart from the political protests. Their movement is apolitical. It is about banal violence, — thefts, muggings, aggression." - New York Times
Ah - le casseurs! (The smashers!) Speaking of imagination - le cassuers has a romantic je ne sais quoi.
Visit Paree and see le cassuers at work. Ooh, la la.
Oh, I guess it's really serious. But what is this big strike about? You should not be able to get fired if you are young? I must be missing something. In my country you can get fired exactly because you are the low man on zee totem pole - so to speak. We have a little thing we like to call it: seniority.
As I walked along the busy Parisian streets and saw the amount of fresh buttered croissants and freshly made coffee being consumed around 10 a.m. - I always had the guilty thought - ah - these people know how to live! And then the nice long lunch break where you go back and read some Sartre and make love to your mistress or is it make love to Sartre and read to your mistress - ah - this was the life. But now the pressures moderne - they are galloping forward - is zat how you zay it? My English is not so good. Galloping?
Ah well. We will give them another century to catch up and learn how to speed through our fast food cafe express. Oh - I know there are McDonalds here and there - with le grande mac. But these are mostly for the tourist dogs. N'est pas?
Ah - le casseurs! (The smashers!) Speaking of imagination - le cassuers has a romantic je ne sais quoi.
Visit Paree and see le cassuers at work. Ooh, la la.
Oh, I guess it's really serious. But what is this big strike about? You should not be able to get fired if you are young? I must be missing something. In my country you can get fired exactly because you are the low man on zee totem pole - so to speak. We have a little thing we like to call it: seniority.
As I walked along the busy Parisian streets and saw the amount of fresh buttered croissants and freshly made coffee being consumed around 10 a.m. - I always had the guilty thought - ah - these people know how to live! And then the nice long lunch break where you go back and read some Sartre and make love to your mistress or is it make love to Sartre and read to your mistress - ah - this was the life. But now the pressures moderne - they are galloping forward - is zat how you zay it? My English is not so good. Galloping?
Ah well. We will give them another century to catch up and learn how to speed through our fast food cafe express. Oh - I know there are McDonalds here and there - with le grande mac. But these are mostly for the tourist dogs. N'est pas?
3/29/2006
Stat Me
Last Week's Stats: Hits and Page Views
"ah! if only one was getting paid a penny per hit. life would be grand, aspheric Leica lenses in all directions. but no, we are minimum wage art mongers, we do what we do for a season, then we die, cached for another season by google, then gone w/o a trace, never, in life, gaining entrance to MoMA, ICP or even Howard Greenbergs" - Bill Emory
"Perhaps we could take printouts of our stat pages to a non-tech-savvy venture capitalist and get funding? I'll leave out the stats on how many of my note card sales have been to my mother's friends...." - Jeff Kelley
"ah! if only one was getting paid a penny per hit. life would be grand, aspheric Leica lenses in all directions. but no, we are minimum wage art mongers, we do what we do for a season, then we die, cached for another season by google, then gone w/o a trace, never, in life, gaining entrance to MoMA, ICP or even Howard Greenbergs" - Bill Emory
"Perhaps we could take printouts of our stat pages to a non-tech-savvy venture capitalist and get funding? I'll leave out the stats on how many of my note card sales have been to my mother's friends...." - Jeff Kelley
Selling Photographs on the Web
Hello Mr. Beckerman,
First, I would like to say I love your work. It's phenomenal! My name is Stacie A. an I am a Junior in high school who is aspering to be a photographer and I just wondering with out getting to personal, what kind of income do you make off of your web site? And how did you get started? Any other information or advise that you could give me I would truly appreciate it, especially advice comming from a talent such as your self. I can use what ever information I can get.
Respectfully,
Stacie A.
* * * * * * * * *
Hi Stacie,
Take a look at this:
http://www.davebeckerman.com/PhotoTechBlog/2006/03/selling-photographs-on-web.html
It pretty much goes into what it's like to sell on the web. (In one word: horrible).
Best,
Dave
[I believe that Dave is getting worse and worse as far as his answers to bright-eyed would-be photographers go. At this rate, give him a few more years, and he'll become truly acerbic with beginners.
I have attempted to help Dave remember what it was like for him when he first began selling photographs - how romantic and how exciting the whole thing was - but he's told me to bugger off. In fact - if you must know - I'm beginning to fear for my own personal safety. I think the best thing is to just let Dave march around the place mumbling to himself. I was hired to be his editor, not his keeper. Ed.]
First, I would like to say I love your work. It's phenomenal! My name is Stacie A. an I am a Junior in high school who is aspering to be a photographer and I just wondering with out getting to personal, what kind of income do you make off of your web site? And how did you get started? Any other information or advise that you could give me I would truly appreciate it, especially advice comming from a talent such as your self. I can use what ever information I can get.
Respectfully,
Stacie A.
* * * * * * * * *
Hi Stacie,
Take a look at this:
http://www.davebeckerman.com/PhotoTechBlog/2006/03/selling-photographs-on-web.html
It pretty much goes into what it's like to sell on the web. (In one word: horrible).
Best,
Dave
[I believe that Dave is getting worse and worse as far as his answers to bright-eyed would-be photographers go. At this rate, give him a few more years, and he'll become truly acerbic with beginners.
I have attempted to help Dave remember what it was like for him when he first began selling photographs - how romantic and how exciting the whole thing was - but he's told me to bugger off. In fact - if you must know - I'm beginning to fear for my own personal safety. I think the best thing is to just let Dave march around the place mumbling to himself. I was hired to be his editor, not his keeper. Ed.]
3/28/2006
220 ml cartridges & Mets
I stuck my first 220 ML cartridge (gray, gray black) in the 4800. My plan is to use these larger cartridges for the grays and black. It is sort of unsightly - the way it juts out - but saves me money on ink.
THIS IS A NOTE TO MYSELF SO THAT I CAN GO BACK LATER AND SEE WHEN I PUT THE FIRST 220ML GRAY GRAY BLACK CARTRIDGE IN. IT SAYS THAT YOU SHOULD USE IT WITHIN 6 MONTHS OF OPENING; AND I WONDER WHETHER I WILL OR WON'T USE THE CARTRIDGE IN THAT TIME.
I'm also using the non-beta Silver Rag for new prints. I've had a couple of orders at the new prices.
I did prints of both Steelworker pictures. #2 is better by far. Maybe you can judge these things on the screen.
Could this be the year of the Mets? They've got the closer. They've got the lineup. They've got the starting pitching. Where are they weak? Could this be their year?
THIS IS A NOTE TO MYSELF SO THAT I CAN GO BACK LATER AND SEE WHEN I PUT THE FIRST 220ML GRAY GRAY BLACK CARTRIDGE IN. IT SAYS THAT YOU SHOULD USE IT WITHIN 6 MONTHS OF OPENING; AND I WONDER WHETHER I WILL OR WON'T USE THE CARTRIDGE IN THAT TIME.
I'm also using the non-beta Silver Rag for new prints. I've had a couple of orders at the new prices.
I did prints of both Steelworker pictures. #2 is better by far. Maybe you can judge these things on the screen.
Could this be the year of the Mets? They've got the closer. They've got the lineup. They've got the starting pitching. Where are they weak? Could this be their year?
3/27/2006
leica etc.
I do think I lucked out in terms of when I got back into Leica. If you are happy to go with some pre-aspherical lens, then savings are tremendous. Example: the modern 90mm summicron - is in the $2K range. The earlier version - used - is around $450.
Same ratio goes for the earlier 35mm summicrons. Man - I don't know but the 35mm pre-aspherical summicron I have looks plenty sharp and beautiful to me. $675.
I suppose that $675 even sounds like a lot for a 35mm lens - but for a Leica? Take my word for it - that is inexpensive. The prints I've been doing with that lens are - well - they're no slouches.
Ah - that MP body would be nice - but I would need to hit a lottery for that. In the meantime, if I wanted a second body - I'd go with a second M3 double-stroke. Great stuff that.
* * *
Ooh. And my nice 39mm summicron vented lens hood $16 arrived today. Good deal. I think I'm going to call my next website: www.39mm.com
Same ratio goes for the earlier 35mm summicrons. Man - I don't know but the 35mm pre-aspherical summicron I have looks plenty sharp and beautiful to me. $675.
I suppose that $675 even sounds like a lot for a 35mm lens - but for a Leica? Take my word for it - that is inexpensive. The prints I've been doing with that lens are - well - they're no slouches.
Ah - that MP body would be nice - but I would need to hit a lottery for that. In the meantime, if I wanted a second body - I'd go with a second M3 double-stroke. Great stuff that.
* * *
Ooh. And my nice 39mm summicron vented lens hood $16 arrived today. Good deal. I think I'm going to call my next website: www.39mm.com
Cigs, Times Square
Cigs, Times Square - 2006
Dave,
Come on mate!
Where's the shots from Times Sqr you where telling me about?!
You said you were standing and watching the world pass by clicking
off some good stuff with
the new 35mm?!
Pappy III
Dear Pappy,
The thing is - I was saying that I was clicking away and that I felt invisible. But unfortunately for me the crowd wasn't cooperating. They brought out the boring - do nothing interesting - crowd that night. The best I could find were this couple exchanging a cigarette. Sorry matey.
DB
3/26/2006
STEELWORKER SCULPTURE
STEELWORKERS, #2, UNION SQUARE
STEELWORKERS, #1, UNION SQUARE
Which one do you like better. I like #2 better because of the trees in the background and I think having a better sense of the entire sculpture. In case you can't tell, or haven't seen this before - it is actually sitting atop a truck, and I suppose can be moved around the city. Whether it is an exact reproduction in sculpture of the famous photograph (was that one done while building the Empire State Building?) I don't know. But I haven't seen this before in Union Square and my initial reaction was: only in New York.
Dad's Birthday in Tarrytown
Back from two days at the Marriot Tarrytown Hotel. It was the annual family reunion for the patriarchs birthday. I used to think that I could find something to shoot anywhere - but as I stood on the 10th floor balcony overlooking the parking lot with the highway in the background and some office building that looked like it has just landed and unfolded - I thought long and hard about pressing the shutter and concluded that as sterile as it was - it wasn't worth a 1/36th of a roll of film.
And I guess you got me there. Stick me in the suburbs and although I've seen work by artists about this tortured sterile land - I don't want to document it. I don't. You can't make me press the shutter.
And inside the hotel. A major dance contest - mostly ballroom. Little girls heavily made-up with their hair tied back. Bigger girls marching their little potential contest winners around.
Help me Ronda. They've taken me to another planet. I can leave any time I want - so long as the cake has been served and the presents for the octogenarian handed out.
Presents - my dad asks me if I'll buy him a CD changer (5-CDs) and then calls (after I've bought it) to declaim that he has thought better of it and that he doesn't have room for a CD changer. How would I like to have the CD changer for my birthday (in December) instead.
He has no room? He lives in a five room apartment in Long Island - each room as large as my entire apartment.
No - he has talked with his companion and there is no room. And he would just like to see me. That's all the present he wants.
Dang. Now what. I can return it. Maybe I'll find a spot for it.
But I only have one thing to say, "What a wasteland" out there. How do you do it? So happy to come back to my tiny apartment in what I will call a freakin' neighborhood. I need a neighborhood to be happy. Hey - Johnny! What's goin' on.
And I guess you got me there. Stick me in the suburbs and although I've seen work by artists about this tortured sterile land - I don't want to document it. I don't. You can't make me press the shutter.
And inside the hotel. A major dance contest - mostly ballroom. Little girls heavily made-up with their hair tied back. Bigger girls marching their little potential contest winners around.
Help me Ronda. They've taken me to another planet. I can leave any time I want - so long as the cake has been served and the presents for the octogenarian handed out.
Presents - my dad asks me if I'll buy him a CD changer (5-CDs) and then calls (after I've bought it) to declaim that he has thought better of it and that he doesn't have room for a CD changer. How would I like to have the CD changer for my birthday (in December) instead.
He has no room? He lives in a five room apartment in Long Island - each room as large as my entire apartment.
No - he has talked with his companion and there is no room. And he would just like to see me. That's all the present he wants.
Dang. Now what. I can return it. Maybe I'll find a spot for it.
But I only have one thing to say, "What a wasteland" out there. How do you do it? So happy to come back to my tiny apartment in what I will call a freakin' neighborhood. I need a neighborhood to be happy. Hey - Johnny! What's goin' on.
3/25/2006
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