Crossing Street

'Crossing Street'

That early delta 400 film would do some odd things. This is an unretouched (except for sharpening) shot from the early Delta 400 film. I think it looks like a bad, or at least odd burn-in around the guy, his shadow, and the light. But as I say - it's a Delta 400 film effect that was built in at the time.

"CROSSING THE STREET IS ONE OF THE GREAT ADVENTURES IN OUR CROWDED LIVES." - The marquis de Fordham Road, 1890

SEVEN PILLARS

SEVEN PILLARS (CONTAX SLR)

Balustrade, Church - Park Avenue and 83rd street. I should find out the name of the church - it was where Jackie Kennedy was buried.

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."

T. E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

How's that for your daily inspirational message? Gives me chills.

PRICE INCREASE ON THE WAY

The $25 5 x 7's are going up. I'm doing them all on the Silver Rag which is expensive enough. But the price increase is just based on what the market seems to want to bear, so they'll either be $30 or $35. Either today or tomorrow.

* * *

UPDATE: THEY'RE RAISED

Smile!

It's never really night in the subway. It's not day either. There is time, but you don't get days. There are hours of waiting, but no morning or afternoons. I think of this because you can't tell what time of day this is - can you? Do you think it's a weekday or a weekend?

Although it is hard to discern the time - you can deduce the time, even in this picture.

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

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?

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

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.]

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?

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

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