Quote of the Week

"I have never taken a photograph that I intended. It was always better or worse." - Diane Arbus

Picture Memories

We said goodbye to my Tia Reyna yesterday. She has been a part of my family from my earliest memories and has helped raise several generations of kids. She and my aunt had been solid friends for almost 50 years and she was as much of a fixture in our family as the dozens of others whose lives she touched.

Her namesake, Reynita, chose a picture I took of her 25 years ago to enlarge for the service. I had taken it on the occasion of my cousin's wedding and I was pleased that all those years later it was the image that the family best believed captured her beauty and spirit.

After the service people gathered around a laptop computer and a digital photo frame looking at photographs of her and her life, bringing up old memories and discovering new things. I saw a photograph of me and my mother I had never seen before and that was wonderful.

I am reminded of the importance of photographs not only as works of art, but also as a means of remembrance. But more importantly it reminds me of what in the end is truly important. Love and family. It's something I will be thinking of this holiday.

I hope the same for you.

Quote of the Week

I go straight in very close to people and I do that because it's the only way you can get the picture. You go right up to them. Even now, I don't find it easy. I don't announce it. I pretend to be focusing elsewhere. If you take someone's photograph it is very difficult not to look at them just after. But it's the one thing that gives the game away. I don't try and hide what I'm doing - that would be folly. - Martin Parr

Making Time

While driving home, I decided to stop at Travel Town in Griffith Park to make a few images. In this town, it can seem that you're often living most of your life in the confines of a car. You get from Point A to Point B and that's not much room in there to explore or look. So, I have to make a conscious choice to stop and take a moment to break up my commute just for the purpose of making a few images. I can sometimes have the excuse of all the things that I have to do, but when I decide to just take a half hour to do my thing, I'm always happier for it.

Commitment to the Craft

The famous Czech photographer Ladislav Sitensky passed away this week at the age of 90. In reading about him it was reported that he had made over 500,000 photographs, 50,000 of which had been published. He began photography at the age of 14. If you assumed that he had produced the same number of images each year from that young age, would have created the equivalent of 6,578 photographs a year. Any way you crunch the numbers, that's impressive.

The only way one gets better as a photographer is by shooting. Reading books and magazine articles, surfing the web for camera and lens reviews, watching videos are all well and good, but it eventually comes down to getting the butt off the seat, walking outside and making photographs. And as I often tell my students, it's about the willingness to go out there and make a lot of bad photographs as you explore and try to understand what you are seeing and reacting to.

Athletes like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Lance Armstrong may have all been more with a natural talent, but that talent would have been meaningless had they not put in the time to to harness that talent and learn skills that allowed that to take advantage of those innate abilities. So, it is with the photographer. So, it is with me. I'm not putting myself in the league with those guys, but it's the awareness that the process is the same.

The difference between those that take full advantage of their abilities and those that don't is simply doing the work necessary, in other words commitment.

If this is one of the things that I know I do well and that I can become even better by making more time to practice it, why choose not to? It's a question that I think most of us don't ask often enough, because if we did, we'd realize that the only one standing in the way of us growing as artists is ourselves.

Reading about Sitensky, I see a wonderful example of what living a photograph life looks like. It's a beautiful thing to see and be reminded of.

Quote of the Week

The difference between an amateur and a professional photographer is that the amateur thinks the camera does the work. And they treat the camera with a certain amount of reverence. It is all about the kind of lens you choose, the kind of film stock you use… exactly the sort of perfection of the camera. Whereas, the professional – the real professional – treats the camera with unutterable disdain. They pick up the camera and sling it aside. Because they know it’s the eye and the brain that count, not the mechanism that gets between them and the subject that counts. - David Hemmings

Accidents

This photograph is a complete accident. It happened when the shutter release button was accidentally released while I walked into a store to buy dog food. I heard the camera fire several frames and then without looking at the LCD, I readjusted my camera and went about my business.

Later, when I was reviewing my images for the day, I saw these and was about to delete them when I thought I actually liked it. It's not a great image, but I like how the blur and the colors come together.

More importantly, it reminds me that a good picture doesn't always have to be tack sharp or taken at eye level. A good photograph is whatever I or my viewer responds to, that makes them stop for a beat and take in the image with more than just a passing interest.

William Neil, a friend and a great photographer, has built a body of work where he moves the camera during the moment of exposure. He is a reknowned nature photographer known for his classic landscapes, but these images are a good reminder that there is not just one way to make a photograph. Though the image I took in the pet store doesn't compare in the least to what Bill does, it's a good reminder that photography can be anything that I or you want it to be.

Here is a link to Bill's website so that you can check it out for yourself.

Slow Down

"Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.
Just kicking down the cobble stones.
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy."
Simon & Garfunkle

I am almost always in a rush, even when I'm sitting down doing nothing. I'm often thinking of what lays ahead, a dozen different thoughts fighting for some elbow room inside the little space within my skull. Meditation helps a great deal in quieting the noise and providing me the breathing room to focus, but nothing really does it for me as when I go out with my camera and begin to photograph.

One of the biggest mistakes I see students make when they are photographing is that they are in such a damn rush. They see something interesting, something that makes them stop in their tracks and inspires them to make a photograph. And that's what they do. They make "a" photograph. And then they are eager to rush on to the next thing. They haven't even gotten started. They haven't even given themselves time to really see what they're seeing and they're off looking for the next best thing. That's no way to live a life and that sure is hell is not a way to be a photographer.



Admitted, I often have to fight the same tendency, but experience has shown me that I'm always served by sticking around a bit and exhausting as many possibilities as I can. Though not every scene or moment can afford such leisure, when it can, I always find that it provides me the time to refine my vision, excising those things that work and building on the things that do.



Such was the case this morning, when I walked out to a beautiful day with amazing light and clouds. I walked to the church that is down the street and started making images, drawn by the strong lines of the building and sky. For the next 30 minutes, I shot over a hundred images at different angles and perspectives, trying to find what image best expressed those qualities that made me stop in the first place. I even made some images that I didn't think would work, but created them anyway simply because the thought came into my head to take that picture. It might not work, but that's not a good enough reason not to make the photograph.



When I go out to photograph, that is time I'm dedicating for myself and not for anyone else. It's my gift to myself and it's not intended to serve the needs of a client or a student or a friend. It's time that I take out of my day to practice something that I love and that provides me so much joy. So why rush it. If photography for me is ultimately about exploring and discovery, with a side benefit ends up being the production of a beautiful photography, then why don't I just get out my own way and allow myself to enjoy the process and the moment.



So, I slow down and don't worry about the next thing or the next shot. I just stay present and raise the camera to my eye and working on discovering something about what I'm seeing. In the end my photographs are the better for it.

Looking Down

One of my students from NYC made an amazing image of a reflection of a face from an electronic billboard reflected in water. It allowed me to make the point that sometimes the best photographs are right at our feet. It's so easy to just make images at eye-level, because that's the way we look at the world most times. So, we simply raise the camera to where our eyes are and make the image. But sometimes, it's important to look up or look down, or even better move up or get lower. Great images are not just made from one single perspective and it sometimes takes a "student" to remind the "teacher" of just that fact.

Altadena Sky

The skies were amazing the day before yesterday and I wish I had done more with them, particularly at sunset. I have to remember to not let such opportunities to pass me by. Whatever I'm doing can wait. Otherwise, I have to settle for this shot through I made through the sunroof of the car. And yes, Cynthia was driving.