Photographing the empty streets

When I first arrived to Cleveland I thought I will never find anything to photograph there; it was a hot hot day at the end of Spring and the streets were empty, I mean, no people, no cars, stores are closed and no place to buy a good meal.
It felt like being inside the History Channel’s Life after People documentary.
But as it turned out a city that is on the verge of death, is a sad destination for the average tourist but quite an impressive place for a photographer.
Downtown Cleveland Ohio (Spring 2011) Camera: Minolta SRT Film: Kodak Tri-x

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Hollywood nights

 

 

Since the Holga doesn’t have a light meter or a real shutter speed and F stop settings, you might find yourself at the mercy of your film’s speed if you are shooting at night.
The Holga 120FN version has a super advanced feature: it is called the B exposure. But before you jump for joy you might want to know the way it really works is that you need to press the shutter release button for as long as you want your exposure to last. ouch!
Unless you have the shutter release cable it will be impossible to keep steady for long enough to prevent that horrible camera shake (the ugly cousin of the attractive motion blur). This is where your choice of film can help.
If you don’t mind long exposures, go for the 400ASA film and expose your film in the average lit area for about 30-40 seconds!
800ASA will allow you to cut down your exposure time to a good 10-15 seconds.
But at last you will see the light when you use 3200ASA, which tolerates an exposure of somewhere between 1-3 seconds.
And the results are not bad at all!

Pentax P3 SLR

Pentax P3 is a very nice SLR camera from the 80′s. It is light, easy to use but very capable of producing excellent results. It has full manual exposure controls and like other cameras from the 80′s, a battery on/off switch to save the battery’s life.
I got this lovely camera from my good friends Rita and her daughter Shawne, but if you are not as lucky and don’t have such generous friends, you can still find this camera on ebay for a very reasonable price.
In order to test this camera I loaded it with a roll of Legacy Pro 400 (my current test film: $1.89 at freestyle) and developed it normally (Arista Dev. 7min. @ 1:10). I shot most of the pictures on the roll during an evening rain storm, not the best of conditions but all the pictures turned out quite sharp and nicely exposed. I think I really like this camera!

Photographing on the move

is easier if you don’t have any bulky equipment. Street photos are often formed on the move. Consequently, there will be no time to address the usual photographic practices and very often even focusing can become an extravagance.
Street life has its own pace.
Therefore it will make a lot of sense to record street life by using what’s out there rather than sitting around patiently waiting for the right circumstances.
Adjusting to the energy of the street often means fast thinking and quick reaction. Fiddling with the camera or other equipment you carry will result in the disappearance of that Kodak moment.
As it is, the best results in street photography are often achieved owing to the photographer’s eager, insightful eye but seldom to the highly sophisticated equipment.

 

 

You can find this article and many other photo processes in my new book:
So Much More than Photography
eBook edition Price: $10
Kindle edition Price: $10
Print edition Price: $35 (Now on sale for $27.00)
Black & White print edition Price: $20

Photographing in the rain

 

Rainy days are a great opportunity for taking pictures; the wet streets, the reflections, the colorful umbrellas, the dramatic skies in the background, the mist and the raindrops add a moody sensation to any picture.
However, there’s nothing charming about getting caught in the rain while carrying around all that additional (and unnecessary) photo gear. In fact the only extra gear you might need during a rainstorm is your trendy raincoat where you will hide your camera in between shots and, if you’re lucky to have one, a good friend with a big umbrella.
A big friend with a good umbrella will do as well

Unplanned photos

I hardly ever know what pictures I’m going to take ahead of time. I grab my camera on my way out the door with much excitement and some curiosity about the images I’m going to come across that day (although the hunting feeling that I’ll never make another great image in my life is always there)
Of course there are some photographers who prefer to stage their photos and there is nothing wrong with that, but in Street Photography, there’s no need for that, especially if you’re eager to capture the energy of the streets (or maybe too lazy for big productions). Just take advantage of what’s already out there. All you really need is to keep an open eye (Ok, an open mind as well won’t hurt).
And though I often try to avoid photographing kids in public, I just couldn’t help it this time.

How to handle criticism

Yesterday I read an interesting article in a photo magazine talking about criticism and how to handle it. It was a nicely written article and as I was reading it I realized that, maybe unlike most photographers, I really didn’t have to deal with criticism.
Its not to say that I didn’t get any negative criticism but it was not my work that was ever criticized it was my ideas about non.photography that irritated a few people and even sparked some anger in a couple of beautiful souls.
True, some people don’t feel comfortable straying away from the herd, but I think they dislike it even more when someone else does. However, I often find that this type of criticism actually fuels me, helps me stick to my ideas and it even drives some of my ideas further into the extreme.
Come to think of it, I do have one short criticism-of-my-work story to share with you.
It happened in 1997 when after a few years of living in Los Angeles I decided to put together a website (www.streetsoflosangeles.com) to share my view of this city through pictures I took while bike riding. It was a website about the city, not the photography, and the photos where just there to help me share my view.
It was all nice and mostly fun until I received an email message from a photography professor. He absolutely hated my pictures and claimed I had no idea what I was doing. This was absolutely true. But as it always happens in my life, disapproval pushes me in the exact opposite direction, into the realm of “I’ll show them!”
Obviously I knew he was right, and that I was not a photographer, but that doesn’t mean I cannot take great pictures, right?
So instead of having a normal and sane reaction to his criticism, you know, just telling him I’m not trying to be a photographer and then moving on with my life, I essentially began developing my non.photography approach and never quite looked back.
Imagine what a great loss to the world of photography it would have been
had I indeed listened to him

I know, most articles, books and “professionals” will tell you, you should listen to criticism and try to learn from it. They will also tell you that constructive criticism improves your photography.
I’ll tell you what, the only thing that will improve your photography is YOU and YOU doing your thing just the way it feels right to YOU .
That’s it.
Negative analysis of your work, or what is sometimes politely referred to as “constructive criticism”, should be avoided if not ignored.
Yes, there are types of advice that might do you good, but this kind of advice you will only get from your friends and perhaps a couple of strangers who really appreciate and care about your work.
These are the people who will give you true constructive criticism and you can definitely listen to them.
But other than that, criticism should be ignored as it will only divert you from the true nature of your artistic SELF expression.
(Btw, the above mentioned professor who criticized my photos; After a period of great debates he said that in fact he only wrote to me because he thought I showed “a remarkable potential” to grow and become a great photographer. )
You go girl!

Mounting your prints

After toning and finishing your beautiful print you will probably want to add it to your portfolio or mount it.  Mounting a print helps protecting it from creases and rips.   There are several ways to mount a print, such as dry-mounting which is an archival permanent way of mounting.  Dry-mounting is often done by using dry mounting tissue.  This type of tissue is coated on both sides with a waxy adhesive and acts as a bonding agent between the print to the mount board.

The process:

1. Pre-heat the mounting press according to instructions (usually between 175-200 degrees for RC prints).
2. Fix the dry-mounting tissue to the back side of the print with a tacking iron.   You only need to tack it at the center of the print.
3. Tack the tissue and the print to the mounting board by lifting the corners of the print and pressing the tissue to the mounting board with the tacking iron.
4. Insert the board-tissue-print sandwich to the press, set it between the cover sheet and bottom sheet, press and lock it down for about 30-45 seconds for an RC print.

Toning black and white prints

Toning your analog black & white prints serves two purposes: 1) Adding color such as sepia, red, or blue. 2) Increasing the life of your print and making it archival.
When toning a print one can color the whole print or selectively color different areas with different colors. Most toners increase the life span of the print by removing the silver and replacing it with a more stable chemical.
Sepia toning is a two-step toner which will produce a fixed sepia tone to any fiber or RC (resin coated) black and white print. Part one of this process is the bleach which removes the blacks in the image. Part two is the toner which immediately replaces the black areas of the photographs.
The process:
1. Soak the print in water for 1 minute to make certain of the even take up of bleach.
2. Place the print in the bleach bath until the blacks in your photographs almost disappear (try not to panic…). This takes about 2 minutes.
3. Rinse the print well for 2 – 5 minutes.
4. Place the print in the toner. It will take about 1 minute for the print to completely reconstruct.
5. Rinse the print in running water for 2 minutes for an RC print and up to 15 minutes for fiber base.
6. Place the sepia-toned print on a towel and let it completely dry.

Legs on Melrose

I took this picture on Kodak Plus-x 125. It’s actually the first time I shot this film simply because usually I prefer to shoot 400ASA.
Six minutes in the developer at 68 degrees. Not too bad. It has a nice sharp quality and fine grain.
Legs on Melrose: back to the streets!

Printing a contact sheet

Printing a contact (or proof) sheet is an important step in darkroom printing as it not only will help you choose the best images on your negative but will also assist you in keeping your negatives organized.

Here is one way to make a contact sheet:
1. Adjust the enlarger so it covers the entire paper (8X10 in this case)
2. Place the negative carrier empty so it prevents the light from spreading.
3. put the photo paper emulsion face up.
4. Arrange the negative in a 5X7 negative sleeve on top of the paper, emulsion side down.
5. Place a sheet of glass over the negative to hold it down in place.
6. Expose to light and make a test sheet to determine the correct exposure for the different parts of the negative.
7. Develop as usual.
8. it’s a good idea to pay attention to the exposure details and even record the information on the back of the contact sheet. It will give you a place to start when you print your images.

Dodging and burning

Dodging and Burning is a darkroom process that helps control the amount of exposure given to selected areas in a print by providing different exposures to different parts of the print.
Burning lets you darken light areas by using more exposure time while dodging holds back light to lighten an area.
You can use special tools but I find that it is easier to just use my hands since I never forget to bring them with me into the darkroom

In this example the print was exposed for 25 seconds @ 5.6 and #4 filter. Next, another exposure of 10 seconds was done while I covered the dark area. And finally an exposure of 5 seconds was applied to the top left area.

Back in the darkroom

This fall I find myself printing my photos in the darkroom again.
Printing from negatives I processed myself.
Ilford Multigrade paper. two stops down. #4 filter. focus. 15 seconds. dodging & burning. 90 seconds in the developer.stop bath. fixer.
and best of all the magic moment when the image appears in the developer.
yes, over-exposed, too much contrast but still…

Kodak Brownie Bulls-Eye

One of the things that always surprise me about the Kodak Brownie BullsEye is that this box camera produces crisp negatives, more so than most of other sophisticated cameras I know.
It is one of the simplest cameras I have with only plain focus settings, and a choice between normal and bulb exposure.
The Bullseye is a Bakelite camera made by Kodak in the 50’s which takes 8 6x9cm exposures on a 620 film but can easily accept 120mm that had been trimmed down to fit inside the camera.
And maybe this camera’s best feature: you can get it for under $10 on eBay.

Dealing with people in street photography

I find there aren’t many books out there which handle the realistic side of street photography in great details and offer any form of useful information. Maybe that’s why I get plenty of emails asking me for such practical advice regarding street photography and quite often asking me about, you guessed it, photographing strangers.
One of my weaknesses in life is books, and especially old books, so sometimes when I come across an old photography book in a thrift store or a garage sale, I just have to have it, even though I’m quickly running out of shelf space.
Such a thrift store find is a photography book I got recently for a $1.50. It is a book published by Kodak in 1984 titled “Photographing the drama of daily life”.
It has some really fun street images and several useful ideas to go with these images.

Here are a few good suggestions from the chapter – Dealing with people:
“The most completely candid photographs are taken without the subject’s knowledge. …More often you will need some degree of cooperation from people to obtain a satisfying result. In most circumstances, a friendly manner and a smile will do the trick. If you look solemn, people may start to wonder just why you are photographing them whereas a smile can disarm their anxieties and help to put them at ease.
…Legally, you do not need to seek permission from people you want to photograph in public places if the pictures are for personal, editorial, or exhibition use rather than for a commercial purpose such as advertising (when written permission is required.)
However, judge the situation carefully, do not invade people’s privacy and be ready to diffuse things with charm and tact.”

Flickr slideshow

There are many ways to incorporate Flickr slideshows into your blog or website such as Flickrshow or flickrSLiDR but my personal favorite is PictoBrowser
It is quite simple to set up:
Go to PictoBrowser > click on the PictoBuilder tab > enter your screen name > choose the set you want to use > and customize your settings (such as size and background color).
Now, all you need to do is get the html code which is automatically generated for you.
That’s it, you’re done!

Marathon day

The third day turned out to be a race to visit America’s historic Triangle – Jamestown, Yorktown and Wiliamsburg. You end up with a little bit of each. which is great. I’m not a big fan of museums, guided tours or staring at artifacts inside glass cases. but here you can get a detour from the usual tired museum type visit and check out the real thing; Walk around the actual first British settlement in north America (It was a sad start), climb the trenches the American’s built under the commend of George Washington in Yorktown (the last battle of the Revolution) and go for a night stroll in Colonial Williamsburg when the place is already dark and quiet and most of the colonial wannabes left the place by now.
And then you go to Aroma in Williamsburg, a cafe that offers not only wonderful food but a young and alive atmosphere you can only find in a cafe near by a local college (William & Mary college).
This is where this picture was taken:

My next bestseller

I’m in a process of putting together ideas and plans, much like a blueprint, for my next book.
The book will include some thoughts about street photography and many of the techniques I use in photography; some that are featured in my last book (I am not an artist) and a bunch of new ones.
If there is something you want to see in the book, if there is a technique you think needs further explanation or if you have any other suggestion, I would love to here from you.
You can leave a comment here or if you want it to be private you can contact me directly.

Btw, You will find most of the techniques I use featured in this blog, here to the right under “Categories”. A list of the chapters and techniques in my last book is available on this page (on the right).

girls

I came across this picture while looking at my old photoblog. I think I took it around 2002, when I was young and beautiful.
It is one of these pictures that will always keep me wondering; What was this interesting group of women doing together in this room? Ah, I’ll probably never know.
And that’s, ladies and gentlemen, the beauty of street photography!

The wonders of the expired film

Though some people believe shooting expired film is a crime against photography, I was always a big fan of the unique and unexpected results of the long-expired film!
It’s the extra grain, and the softness, the dark edges, and if you’re really lucky you get some real fading and other beautiful signs of aging (just like wrinkles).

girl and a puppy. 3rd street promenade. June 2009.
camera: Olympus 35RC.
Film: Ilford HP5 400 ASA

long expired film

Picture shot on Kodak T400cn. I love this film. I love it because it is quite an unusual film.
It is a black and white film but it is designed for processing in C-41 color negative process.
It can then be printed either on black & white paper or on color paper.
The problem with this film is that it had been discontinued a few years ago. The good news is that I found 5 rolls of this film in the Expired Film bag that resides in my fridge. And the other good news is that this film did not just vanish but it was replaced with another similar film: Kodak Professional BW400CN. It’s definitely on my list of things to try out someday.

new printing technique

Here’s a new printing technique I tried out yesterday and certainly loved the output.
It is quite simple to do:
I chose to use a vellum printing paper for this task.
Since Vellum paper is translucent I printed a black and white photo of Capitol Records building after I enhanced the contrast a bit.
After a few minutes the ink was dry and I placed the paper back in the printer but this time I made sure to print a second image, an abstract background in this case, on the other side of the paper.
This creates a nice layer effect when one of the sides is sharp and the other is faded, depend on which side you are looking at the printout from. In this case I scanned the Capitol Records photo in the foreground.
It is obviously a very easy printing technique and the only real dilemma is which photos or images to use.

Blogs and spam

If you have a blog, or a message board, or a guest book, you probably had to install something against spam. For obvious reasons, blogs and other types of community sites with user participation are a great attraction to these scam bags.
The reason spammers choose to overflow other sites with their links is that the existence of these links, even if nobody actually clicks them, increases their artificial search engine ranking.
Before I began this blog I installed a street photography forum on my site which was a nice place for street photographers to talk about related issues and review each other photos.
But very quickly the spam robots discovered this forum and began posting their links in the older discussion threads. Back then the anti-spam practice was to ban ip addresses and certain key words but other than that there was nothing much to do.

Minolta SRT 101 . Kodak T400 CN BW film . Malibu 2009

Now days it is much easier to prevent spam in comments.
There are many ways to fight spam like installing automated spam detectors, rejecting links in posts, members participation only, using the “nofollow” tag (which in my opinion is not at all effective), and of course the most irritating anti-spam method; the CAPTCHA. This is when you need to validate your message by entering a combination of letters and numbers before you can post your comment.
Needless to say that this method tends to get on everybody’s nerves when so often the letters are impossible to read that it takes a few tries before the form is finally submitted.
When I installed my blog I made sure to add an anti-spam plugin called Akismet, which works just fine. It always finds the spam and leaves it in a folder on the server for me to go over and make sure it is all spam alright. Until recently, I didn’t mind checking this spam folder every once in a while and deleting the spam, but suddenly there are more and more spam comments and going over the spam folder became more time consuming.
So I decided to simply install another plugin which requires the posters to review their posts before they submit them. It is a very simple fix but quite smart. It lets people review their comments and at the same time it prevents the automated spam comments from being posted.
So far, in the last couple of weeks there were no comments in the spam folder. It is empty.
Seems like problem solved.

photography for the non-photographer

As I’m transitioning into a new stage in my life, and after losing my stupid underpaying job back in the beginning of April, I’m taking small steps toward freedom and making income in web design.
A key part of my new “career” is taking web development classes at the college.
I’m one of these freaks who like school anyway, so obviously this is not at all a chore I must endure to carry out my new direction in life, in fact I’m having fun and enjoying being in school once again.

As a part of the main class assignment we, the students, were divided into 5 groups and basically we compete over building a website for a real client.
It’s a hectic project, being dependent on the other team members and having constant deadlines, but I’m learning a lot, not only about web design, but mostly about team work and my hidden leadership and organizational abilities.

Our real-life client, unlike most real-life clients, is an unusually good client. He always supplies us with everything we ask him for, from his logo and published materials to text content and photos.
And as to the photos, this is where we discovered a problem. By we, I mean Julie and I. Julie is one of my team mates and she is a good photographer. We only had to take a quick look at the photos we got from our client to decide we have to go there and make a few decent photos ourselves.

I wasn’t at all excited about it. Our client, Larry, his brother Don and their brother-in-law Jerry operate an auto parts and machine shop in Santa Monica.
Obviously completely and utterly a foreign land to me. And besides, I don’t know anything about this type of photography. I mean, just because I have a camera and just because I run around town and take street photos, doesn’t mean I can make portraits or shoot auto parts and things I know nothing about.
Oh, why did I even agree to do it?

I met with Julie in front of the shop and we went in together armed with our digital cameras…
And guess what? This assignment turned out to be so much fun! I’m serious.
You know how the photographer’s job is to ease his subjects and make them feel comfortable in front of the camera?
Well, these awesome guys made sure to make the photographers feel at ease and comfortable behind the camera.
I can’t tell you if the pictures are great or amazing or any good by any standard, but I can tell you I had fun taking them, and I love them all.
So what did I learn? Hmmmm….. I guess I learned that as always, it is all about the manner.
It is something I need to remember.

Silly black and white digital

One of the most ridiculous features of a digital camera is the black & white shooting mode.
What does it really mean? Isn’t a digital image, just a bunch of digits stored in a file?
So basically when you set your camera to b&w mode you tell it; oh, I don’t care about the color information, just get rid of it. and you let the camera think for you.
But when you capture your image in color and then convert it to black and white in your favorite photo editor (Ok, Photoshop) there are actually numerous ways of converting photos to black & white and so you have more control over the final image.
I don’t know; call me crazy, it just seems better this way instead of letting the camera wipe out all color information of your image.
The only reason I can imagine someone will want to shoot in black and white digital is when they want to actually see what the scene is going to look like in black and white and essentially it can help them “think” in black and white.
But not to worry, there’s a cure.
If you shoot your images in RAW, you can set your camera to black & white mode and enjoy thinking in b&w, because at the end the RAW file actually contains the color information which can be retrieved later on if so desired.
And the bottom line?
If you want fine black and white photos why not try a roll of Ilford film?

how NOT to photograph

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a deviantart group who was interested in posting one of my articles about street photography on their website.
I agreed and they, without any delay, posted my article “The Challenges of Street Photography” on thier group’s site. As you can see here soon enough readers of the article began posting comments and then someone asked about my advice for shooting strangers which is probably the most debatable and challenging aspect of street photography. He had a legitimate question: in the article I wrote it’s not advisable to creep on people and secretly photograph them, but also I said it doesn’t make sense to ask for permission. So he was confused, if both are not desirable options, then what is he suppose to do?
Maybe I wasn’t so clear in my article but anyway, my advice was that shooting quickly without trying to hide yourself or the camera will yield great results. I know it because that’s how I shoot for many years now. People simply don’t get offended or annoyed just because you picked up your camera and took a picture. You are in public and this is your right and most of them get it. But people get awfully suspicious and even angry if they notice you sneaking on them like you’re doing something wrong. And well, in fact you are doing something wrong. I mean, in my view, it’s morally wrong to photograph people without them having a chance to avoid it. I don’t photograph people who don’t want to be photographed. It’s their right and I respect it. Now, if I secretly photograph them I take that right away from them. It’s true at times I take pictures of someone, who, for various reasons, just doesn’t notice me, and these cases obviously fall under the category of “oh well”, but I can tell you that I don’t take compromising, offensive or questionable pictures to begin with.
Anyway, back to my article on this street photography group: they completely misunderstood what I said. Maybe they didn’t really read it!? Their answer to the confused chap was to shoot fast so people don’t see you are taking a picture of them and then of course act naturally so they don’t suspect you.
Thank you! This is exactly what I advised NOT to do. Their suggestion obviously advocates photographing people SECRETELY, so not only they misunderstood what I said but they also made sure to completely twist my words.
I’ve been misunderstood before and I really don’t worry about it too much. Its Ok. Not everybody gets it. And besides since I wrote my book No Rules Street Photography, I believe I was able to collect and express my thoughts and techniques in a way that it will be quite complicated to misinterpret me anymore. But then again, I should always anticipate some incapacity, although not to worry, in some cases, I’m simply being entertained.

Be nice. Donate your artwork.

About a couple of months ago I received an email from a photography student at a school for the arts in Ohio. I was asked if I would like to donate prints for the school’s annual fundraiser . “The auction consists of student work and donated work from professional photographers. All the proceeds raised through the auction go directly to the photography department and are used to buy cameras for the students, darkroom equipment, and general photography supplies which keep our program running each year.”
First of all I was astonished. Wow. Me? A professional photographer? Are you talking to me?
But after the initial shock I thought to myself, this is definitely a worthy cause.
I can help the school with a nice donation of prints while for me the cost of prints is nearly nothing.
I wrote back and said I would love to help out.
Well, it took me a while to get around and actually do it but finally yesterday I shipped them six 8X10 signed black & white prints. And I have to admit it felt really good!
I know, I know, donations and such are better done in private and without letting the whole world know about it but the reason I wanted to share it here with you is to encourage you all to do the same and donate your art.
This way you can contribute to a deserving cause and then bathe in a pool of satisfaction and self admiration.
And you will finally prove your parents, co-workers and ex they were all wrong and you’re actually quite a nice person.

Collecting a Nitsa

Last week I’ve got an email from someone who is interested in buying a signed black and white print from me. Nothing special about it of course; so why am I telling you this? Well, it turns out this person is a collector of signed black and white photography.
I’m not really keen on collecting anything and I often suspect some people actually use collecting as a disguise for what is actually plain clutter.
When I was a child I tried my hand in stamp collecting after inheriting my older brother’s massive stamp collection but I have to confess this adventure did not last very long before I replaced it with some more exciting activity.
And so my days of being an avid collector were over. And honestly I’m not so sure I understand the sport of collecting things, unless they can be useful in some way.
But anyway, I got curious and looked it up online. It turns out there are groups of fine art photography collectors out there who are quite serious about this whole thing. Mostly they are concerned about photo appraisal and how to care for the prints they purchase. Come to think of it, this is probably one of these type of collections one must learn how to protect their investment from it’s bitter enemies (sun, moisture etc.)
I’m not sure how many types of collections there are that need to be protected from… light!
OK, I didn’t read enough to find out how these collectors keep their precioius fine art photographs. Do they keep them in shoe boxes? In photo albums? In special cases? Do they frame and hang them?
I don’t know, but whatever they do, I’m sure it’s quite fantastic, especially if they have a Nitsa in their collection

one of my bestsellers signed prints

raw street photography

With everything else I’ve been occupied with lately (i.e. mosaic, mixed media, and painting) I just forgot all about one thing I so much enjoy doing: simple raw street photography.
So last week I took my cameras and was headed to spend a day in downtown L.A. where I always feel like a tourist in my own town.
I think taking a break from this type of craft made street photography all the more special thing to do now.
Also there was no pressure to make photos or focus on anything but a nice good flow of strolling the busy streets of downtown and photographing whatever and however.
I was quite delighted to find out how easy it was to photograph the people out there, much easier than it was in the past, it seems. Just raise the camera and make the exposure. No apologies. But no intrusion either. Most people did not seem to care. It was almost like being in New York.
So maybe the real lesson here is that if you feel like you hit a point where inspiration and creativity are gone it might be a good idea to take a break, relax, and do something else for a while. And then when the time is right, try again.
You’ll discover new possibilities.

And I still have two rolls of film to scan.

Finding old photos

Yes, this great find is scratched and all but I’m glad I have it: These kids have a tendency to grow up way too fast. The nerve!
She was about 4 when I took this picture. She is 13 now. A teenager. And everything that happened in between is a great mystery.
The picture was taken in 1999 with a Minolta SRT 101. I’m not sure what film speed was used but I’m quite sure it was a black & white Ilford. That’s what I typically used back then since it was free with the pack of Black & White Ilford photo paper (which I used in those days for darkroom printing).
I guess this all happened not TOO long ago, but so much had changed since then!
I mean the world had changed. And our lives. And our view on life. and we had to somehow adjust.

Around town with a toy camera #12

Venice, CA / Holga / Kodak EPD 200 / 2006

Around town with a toy camera #8

Shana Tova (Happy New Year)

La Brea Blvd. Los Angeles / Holga (woca) / Ilford Delta 3200 Pro / 2006

Around town with a toy camera #6

Century City / Diana / unknown / 2006

Around town with a toy camera #1

Hollywood blvd. / Holga / Kodak 400TMY / 2008

Lubitel panorama . failed attempt . or morning in Melrose

Melrose avenue. Los Angeles ; 10:05 AM

This is another experiment with a plastic camera.
Although made of plastic, the Lubitel is not your typical toy camera; it actually has manual aperture settings, focusing, a coated glass lens, and it is a twin lens reflex camera.
Also, panorama images do not work the same way as they would with a Holga camera since the film in the Lubitel is vertically oriented. Duh!
The verdict: pretty cool, but if you want the typical toy camera/Holga type of images, you’d better get a Holga.

(Text from my book I AM NOT AN ARTIST – Unconventional and creative photography)

Why I prefer film

Until a short time ago people would still email me and ask “digital or film?”. Not anymore. Now they ask me (and I’m obviously the wrong person to ask this) “which digital camera?”
So why do I still favor film while everybody else seem to be moving forward in the world of megapixels?
Other than the obvious fact that I prefer the look of film (though I’m sure nowadays this look can be easily made in photoshop), strangely enough I also like waiting for my negatives to be developed (isn’t this a sure sign for some kind of a self inflicting pain disorder?) and I even enjoy handling the negatives.
But the main reason I prefer film is that I don’t want to be a photographer and I don’t have to come up with good quality photos. Since I’m not in the market for shooting large format landscapes or outsized promotional projects, and as I’m limited to the partial quality of 35mm and medium format toy cameras, making high quality images is not a concern of mine. On the other hand I feel that with digital cameras being so loaded with pixels and other fancy features one is inclined to produce sharp, polished, color-correct and superior images or they will surely offend the great designers, manufacturers and gurus of these cameras.

A lesson in Portrait photography

I wanted to try something I haven’t done before in photography. So I chose to go with portrait photography. Not only I haven’t tried it before but also I don’t know anything about it.
At first I thought I should probably read and learn something about it, especially before I expose my first victims to the torture, but then I decided against it. I’m sure reading and learning photography will be quite a boring pastime. Besides I’m not so much interested in the technical side of making portraits. I don’t care much for lighting, focus, necessary equipment etc. maybe just for inspiration and ideas. But this might be better in the future when I have a better idea of what I want to do.
Next thing to determine was what camera to use for this assignment. I was pondering for quite some time before selecting the obvious choice: Holga.
After all with the Holga I won’t have to worry about making good portraits
I loaded the Holga with a 3200ASA film and was ready for the challenge.
I chose to make portraits of people I know, and I wanted to photograph them in their natural habitat, not in any fake or staged settings.
Judging from the under-exposed negatives of my first photo shoot, I should have probably learned something about lighting, but yes, anyway, moving on, I will just, ideally, in a perfect world, learn from my mistakes.

A special ordinary photo

You know how sometimes you come up with this type of a picture: there’s really nothing what-so-ever special about it. It is a normal recording of an ordinary moment in time. But yet there’s something special about the photo, something you can’t really put your finger on.
Maybe one of my greatest shortcomings in photography (and I have a couple) is that I don’t know how to “read” photos. Yes, I admit I’m one of these people who are drawn (or not) to a photograph but cannot say anything intelligent about it.
Ben Lifson told me once:”…you’re good, this much I know. I’m pretty sure you know it too, but I’m not sure you know why, or just how good your work looks to others or what makes it strong, gives it a sense of promise, to say nothing of the energy, force and freshness…” (yes, wow! And no, he was right, I have no idea)

So this is one of these photos. I don’t know why I like it. Maybe I just had a good day.

Adams Morgan, Washington DC 2007

my default camera

After a few years of shooting many different cameras, mostly film cameras, I think the Holga grew to be my default camera. And by this I mean that often Holga is my camera of choice to routinely take along with me when I don’t know if I’m going to take any pictures. Such as a trip to the store or even when going to the movies.
No doubt the main reason I often choose the Holga is its light weight, so I usually just forget I have her with me, at least until I want to take a picture.
The second reason I prefer the Holga is that its one of these cameras that don’t require any fiddling with its settings and can be shot on the move, just the way I like it when shooting street photography.
And finaly, as the price for the Holga is quite reasonable, and in fact I have 3 Holgas, I don’t need to worry about its safety and well being which is obviously a liberating concept especially in street photography.

I wonder if anybody else has such a thing as a default camera.

my favorite rejected photos

One of the greatest challenges of photography is storing and organizing all these wonderful photos we accumulate through time.
I’m not sure how photographers kept organized in the days before personal computers entered our lives. I suspect I would have been very frustrated with the limited choices of sorting and arranging my negatives. Even now, when I sort through my negatives which are kept in folders and are all marked and labeled nicely, it still takes me a while to find the photo I’m looking for. It definitely takes much longer than it takes to find it on the PC where my pictures are organized into Year – month – camera – place.
But really what I wanted to talk about are photos that fall through the cracks. You know what I mean, these photos that we just don’t know what to do with them or where to place them.
Some photos are the perfect choice for a book and others go on a website or a blog. Some photos should be printed out for display. Other photos are great to “recycle” into other projects; mixed media, image transfers etc and some pictures are printed out to be used in a journal.
But there are always these photos that just don’t fit anywhere, yet, I wish to keep them around.
So finally I decided to gather all these photos around, make them look their best and burn them all into one CD. It seems to be the best solution for now, until something better comes around – something like a book titled: my favorite rejected photos.
Just wonderin’ how’d you get organized? If you found the magic formula please please Let me know.

Argus C3 Rangefinder

If you’re looking for a strange looking, heavy and a bulky camera that will slow you down almost to a halt, Argus C3 is definitely the right camera for you!
The Argus is a square boxy rangefinder from the late 30’s which weighs about a ton and feels like a real burden after just a few minutes of carrying it around, but amazingly enough this is still not its greatest attribute.
In order to take a picture you need to focus through a small round window next to the viewfinder which is half yellow and half clear and pretty much impossible to see anything through it. After the illusion of focusing you switch to the viewfinder, select your shutter speed, fiddle with the hidden fstop settings and you are now ready to make the exposure. But wait; hold on, you can’t take the picture yet. First you need to cock the shutter, and if you forgot and missed that wonderful Kodak moment, oh well, I’m sure another one will come your way very soon.
And to make life a bit more complicated, in order to advance your film to the next frame you need to release the film advance catch and only then you can wind the film while the frame counter moves to the next number.
What can I say? A delightful little camera.

Happy 4th of July

“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen…The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army—Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect—We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die:
Our own Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions—The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny meditated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.

Evening Orders. ‘Tis the General’s desire that the men lay upon thier Arms in thier tents and quarters, ready to turn out at a moments warning, as there is the greatest likelihood of it.”

           General George Washington, Head Quarters, New York, July 2nd 1776

George Washington at Federal Hall, Downtown NYC
Holga; Kodak TX 120 Tri-X Pan 400ASA; 2007

A Thousand Apologies

Recently I’ve noticed something funny: bloggers often apologize when they don’t post for a few days. Death in the family, loads of work at the job place, finals at school, writer’s block, the dog ate their keyboard… whatever. So many excuses. So little time.

I think its funny because:
1) Blogging is a creative outlet, like writing a journal or a diary, so it depends on muse and spare time. Obviously it has no deadlines.
2) Nobody cares. (really.) Apparently most people don’t even visit the blog and they actually read and sort through blogs in their rss reader, so it is doubtful they even notice when the busy blogger missed a day or two or five of posting.
It’s not like they’re sitting at their PC, astonished “oh my goodness, what his face, didn’t post anything today… Now my day is completely ruined!”

So no more apologies. Just post something good, something fresh, when you feel like it, when you can. We appreciate the effort.

Photos that sell

Most articles and books about selling photos will tell you that the most important thing about selling your photos is making high-quality striking photos.
So they’ll spend a chapter or two (or more) teaching you how to make better photos.
Because better photos = more sales.

But sadly this is simply not true.

I’m not a psychologist and I don’t know why people like certain photos more than others but one thing I learned is that it has nothing to do with the photographic quality of the photo.

At times, people buy pictures because they like them and want to display them over their bed or at their office but more often they buy pictures, because they need them for a certain project and because the pictures they buy have the theme they need to fulfill that precise objective.

It is especially true about digital images; customers will often purchase them for projects such as book or magazine covers, brochures, advertisements etc.
It is also true about photographic prints as they are often acquired to be used in a exclusive design projects.
In these cases the salable images are… well, whatever images the project requires.
So basically, if I have the images they need, and the price is right, they’ll buy them, and if I don’t have them, they’ll go looking for these images somewhere else.

It’s not like they want to purchase unique photo prints made by Nitsa, not really.

All they want (for example) are a few black & white urban prints that will work well in a valet parking lobby area of a certain hotel in Atlantic City.
And they don’t really care who (or what) is Nitsa and they couldn’t care less if the photos are so wonderfully well-exposed (or not).

Selling photos, I guess, like many other things, is more about good marketing rather than good photography.

The picture here by the way, is one of the most profitable pictures I ever took… and I don’t even like it!
Among others it was bought by E television to be used as a background for one of their brainless reality shows. Originally it was taken upon a request from a friend who wanted to use it on his book cover, well, he never did use it, and I can’t really blame him for that.

summer is here

In honor of summer solstice I went to Santa Monica city looking for a summer picture.
(I always like a good challenge.)
I took a few photos of the crowds at the promenade but I felt they didn’t quite say summer and by the time I decided to try the beach the sun had already done setting and only some faint tones of red still painted the sky. Oh well. So I took this picture instead.
Does it say summer? I’m not so sure. But I think I’ll keep it anyway.

Stand in the place where you shoot

So as some of you, or at least one of you, I think it was actually just Rory who suggested I won’t give up on my Canonet QL17 and give it another try.
So I did.
But this time I made a point to take my time when using this camera. Meaning, not to shoot it on the move as I often do. So for each picture I took, I actually stopped, took my time focusing and only then made the exposure. I have to say this was a (cruel and) unusual practice for me, but the end results definitely made it worth while to go a bit out of my way.
I know the standard practice in photography is to have the camera fitting and accommodating to our needs, and not the other way, but sometimes with classic cameras, well, it’s a good idea to slow down, be patient and more flexible.

printing small

I don’t know about you but I actually like my pictures printed in a small size.
My Epson printer is capable of printing photos at a sizes up to 13X19 but I’ve never even tried printing at this size. I also have a few large prints that were professionally printed for me, but they all ended up in storage at the back of the closet.
so why do I like small prints? Because I like to have this intimate connection with my photos.
When you look at a small size print, you often have to step closer to the image in order to take a good look at it.
I’m not at all an expert on printing but I also think that as far as details and depth go, most photos simply look better when printed smaller.

But, maybe IT IS just me after all, because when people buy my photos, they often want them as large as they come.

And by the way, I have a few framed photos at various large sizes that I got “stuck” with after my last photo show was over and I have to say that I hardly ever really look at them. I mean, I see them when I walk in the living room but I don’t really look at them.

Pricing your photos / part two

In my previous post about pricing your photos, I neglected to mention another important factor to consider: your target customers.
If you want to reach just about everybody and anybody, if your target customer is the average person who would love to have one of your beautiful prints next to his bed, then obviously you should set an affordable price. Maybe somewhere around $20-$30 for an 8X10. It’s a reasonable price and I’m sure you think since it’s such a bargain people will jump on it. And in a way they will. From my experience, when you set the price low, a lot of people will inquire and show interest and ask questions. All kind of questions. That’s fine. People should ask questions and find out all information possible before they buy something. However, you will soon discover that a few emails later, most of these nice people simply disappear. Where do they all go? I don’t know. But I know that just a few of the initial inquiries end up in an actual sale.

Now, that’s fine if you enjoy an endless exchange of fruitless emails but if you really want to sale your photos, the best way to go is to raise your price to something that is beyond the reach or interest of the average person.
Its really simple, when you increase the prices (and therefore the value) of your photographic prints, you attract a whole new crowd of people. Some of them just like to display beautiful and VALUABLE art in their homes and offices , and some are art consultants, interior designers and such. And they actually buy your art. And they don’t even ask too many questions.

Olympus 35RC

While photographing on the way to work and back, I thought it will be a good opportunity

to test different rangefinder cameras

under relatively similar settings (same time of day and place and of course the same type of film)

The Olympus 35RC is yet the smallest rangefinder I’ve come across so far. This little fixed lens rangefinder from the 70’s has a metal body and is easy to carry around everywhere, which makes it perfect for street photography. It has an automatic exposure as well as a manual control. In order to activate the light meter it needs a PX625 battery witch is a little tricky to find. I found mine in a specialty battery store but otherwise it is widely available on ebay.

Due to its compact design the camera was easy to use and I also liked its firm controls which made it easy to choose and change the shutter speed or distance/focus while on a move.
Also the pictures turned out pretty good.
This camera is a really really good choice for street photography.

Pricing your photo prints

Like it’s not bad enough to overcome all your fears about your photos being good enough to sell now you need to set a price. How can you even put a price on your beloved artistic creations?
There are a few things to consider but mainly it comes down to the final product you are turning out. If you are printing using a standard home printer you might want to keep your prices rather low, but if you have a high end printer with special ink technology and superior paper then this will affect your prices and allow you to increase your prices. If you are, like me, going to use a professional printing service you can price your prints according to your expense plus the final quality of your image. It will probably be a high quality final print, archival inks and premium paper but since the print is printed on a typical photographic paper using a standard process you will probably want to keep your prices reasonable.
If you decide on matting your prints or even matting and framing them for your buyer it will obviously cost them more.
Now, another important thing to consider is that when you sign your photos it should double their price and if you sign and number them it will triple the original value!
In time you will find out which of your images are the favorites and sell more. If you wish you can then set these favorites at a higher price, especially if you sell them in limited editions.