This needs to be posted

Carré Does What She Wants
Originally uploaded by Lou O' Bedlam

I haven't been posting much, and that's because I haven't been photographing anything, at all. I'm in between cameras right now, and life is throwing me a ton of curveballs in regards to transportation, work, and study. No big deal, I'm busy but happy.

However, this shot, from Mr. Lou O'Bedlam has inspired me. I need to go out and shoot. I need companionship. I need to quit worrying about fixing the Volvo's water pump, and just enjoy summer while it lasts.

Even a film holdout uses digital

My favorite part of Spring
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

That's right, I'm a digital shooter too. I think there are plenty of areas where digital and its instant feedback are useful, for example, still life. You can check lighting, composition, focus, depth of field, all within a second and adjust. The more you play with it, the more likely you are to get good results on the first try. No more bracketing shots!

And for learning off-camera lighting, a la Strobist, digital cameras are a godsend. Pop off a few shots and check them to see if your flash is at the right angle and power, and you're good to go. Honestly, I'm lost trying to do bounce flash with a film camera - it's an insurmountable task for me. With digital, just pop a few shots to get it dialed in.

Some people think its lazy, learning via trial and error like this, and not making the attempt to learn the math behind lighting and focus. They may be right, I don't know, but in this era I think you would be insane to use film in many circumstances. I think the shot of Morel mushrooms I've posted here would have been quite difficult to get right on the first try with my big Mamiya camera, but using the instant feedback of digital, I dialed it in.

Now if I wanted to reshoot the shot with a film camera for a particular effect, all I have to do is get the settings from my digital, set my film camera up similarly, and bingo bango you have the shot. Years ago pros would use Polaroids to make sure their shots were coming out correctly exposed. That was expensive and slow. I still use Polaroids of course, but digital has to be king for shot proofing now.

Local Photo Show

Dirty Rollers
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

You may know that there are a lot of great art galleries in Lansing, many of them centered in the Old Town neighborhood. Well, from now until June 30, the AE Gallery at 523 E. Grand River near old town is running a Lansing Photographers exhibit. Some great photographers are hanging their work there, including Doug Elbinger, Stan Simmons, Gabe Lopez, and many others including yours truly. I have five Polaroid pieces up, and I'm quite proud to be in my second show.

If you have the inkling of checking out what the local talent is up to, head over to AE Gallery, which is open between 11-7 Thursdays through Sundays. The first Sunday of every month is the Lansing Gallery walk, which would be a great time to check out the area. While you're there, don't miss your chance to eat at some local favorites, like Golden Harvest or Pablo's.

World Wide Pinhole Day 2008

On the Fence
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

Chances are pretty good that if I talked about pinholes with someone, there would be a lot of explaining on my part. It's one of those things that I forget that not everybody knows about, indeed I myself only learned about them in December of 2005. I know this because I attended a talk on pinholes given by Matt Callow, a fellow whose passion for low-tech photography has helped inspire me. Appropriately, Matt and a few mutual friends helped found the Crappy Camera Club not long after our first acquaintance.

Back to the real subject, we're talking about pinhole cameras here. What is a pinhole camera? Basically it's a camera that uses a pinhole, yes a small hole, to project an image onto film. Instead of a lens, that is. I could explain how it works, but that's what Wikipedia is much better at. Basically, just know that it works.

Now, some very interesting things happen as a result of using a pinhole instead of a lens. Expectedly, image sharpness usually degrades a bit, though perhaps not so much as you may think. Images have a tendency to vignette, especially wide-angle on larger formats like the Polaroid shown here. You can get a nice wide angle simply by building a pinhole that way. I made mine out of a jewelry box drawer. No kidding. One of the difficulties you may run into is framing issues, and you could build yourself a viewfinder, which many people do. I'm not so inclined, and I just aim the camera at the subject, guess the framing and exposure, and hope for the best. I try not to overthink it, because pinholes are really about having fun.

Also, you introduce a longer exposure because of how little light makes its way through the pinhole. How long? Well, the photo shown here was taken at about 11 am on a mostly sunny day. I held the shutter open for 12 seconds, and the film speed was 80. That's a long time, but appropriate because the aperture of the pinhole is like, oh, f/352 or so. Obviously with an exposure that long there is gonna be movement, like the clouds and trees blowing in the wind here. Also, some films have some crazy Reciprocity characteristics, meaning things start going badly as the exposure gets longer. Polaroid is one of the worst (or best!) films for color shifts, and that only gets more pronounced past a second or two of exposure time.

World Wide Pinhole Day happens once a year, and it's a reminder for Pinheads like me that not all great photography must be done by the greatest equipment, that sometimes all you need is some film, imagination, and a will to get out and shoot. This year it will be Sunday, April 29th. Here is my shot from last year. If you have a pinhole camera, get out and shoot. If you don't, at least maybe you'll understand what the heck is going on when you see me out standing around for a long time with a wooden box on a tripod.

Lansing Lo-Fi

eckert power plant
Originally uploaded by 8ran

I've been active in the Ann Arbor Area Crappy Camera Club (whew!) for a while now, and I've grown a lot because of it. While we mostly spend our time shooting bull about cameras and drinking a beer or two, there are some honest discussions about photography and aesthetics from time to time, and we periodically get our act together and do a show.

Well, Ann Arbor is great, and I have a lot of photographer friends there, but I don't live there anymore, and haven't for a while. I've met a couple of really awesome photographers in the greater Lansing area lately, and I think we have enough people interested in the low-tech philosophy to make a go of it. So I've started a Flickr group, predictably.

If you still shoot film, piece of junk cameras, or Polaroids, you're more than welcome. I'm not elitist about it - I use digital cameras too, but my heart and soul exists in a universe of film. Hopefully we can get the ball rolling, and get a local show together sometime soon. Contact me if you're interested.

Bring your camera with you!

Waiting for number 8
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

"The best camera is the one you have on you."

That's what photography is about after all, getting the shot, and you can't get the shot if your camera is at home. Now, many people don't want to carry a big camera around with them, and I get that. I used to carry my tiny Olympus XA with me in case of photo opportunities. Now I have a tendency to grab one of my big guns as I go out the door, either my Polaroid 110A or Mamiya Press. They're both big and heavy, but not really so much so that you can't carry them.

Any way, today I was carrying my big Polaroid, just in case. As I exited the car on my way to school, an elderly woman was at the corner waiting for he bus to come. The light was perfect as the sun was rising, and I just knew there was a shot there. I approached her, took the photo and chatted a bit, and continued to school.

That's the second part of getting a good shot. You have to have the equipment of course, but you also have to be willing to take the shot when you see it. A few months ago, I may not have taken this photo, out of shyness or lack of confidence. But I figured, what's the worst that can happen? Someone gets angry? Usually people oblige you, I've only had a problem once or twice.

Ask permission, or don't, whatever works for you. The most important thing is to practice, and be ready when the shot comes along.

Street Photography

Chicago Girl
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

I've experimented some with "street" photography, and I've come to a few realizations. First of all, I don't like it all that much. It's not that I don't like photos of people in real-world situations, far from it. I'd prefer a portrait of someone as they are to a studio portrait any day of the week. But the way street photographers take photos is at its best a tad dishonest, and at its worst crappy snapshots. "Shooting Street" usually involves trying to take someone's photo while they're unaware of it, on the sly. When subjects find out what you're doing, many times they react angrily, and who can blame them? You're skeeving around trying to sneak photographs of people, why would they not be creeped out?

The photo posted here isn't really an example of street photography at all, but it's indicative of what I'm talking about. Working with a giant camera like my Mamiya Press, it's impossible to not be noticed and recognized for what you really are - a photographer taking pictures of people with a huge camera. You don't get the intimate candid snaps that you might if you were working with, say, a Leica, but I'd argue that kind of photography has been done to death. I mean really, who is going to top Henri Cartier-Bresson in that realm?

With my Mamiya, I'm looking for something different. An exploration of the relationship between the subject and the photographer, where there is a personal connection made. In the photo here, I was stopped on the streets of Chicago by a woman who wanted me to take her photo. She looked at me, and said, "I love having my picture taken." There's more going on than at first glance too - is that her car? Why does she love having her photo taken? Why does she feel the need to pose? It's like, in an instant, subject and photographer fall into the expectations that their roles imply, and a photo is the result.