Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
Remembering the good old days, while mourning the loss of a dear friend. My wife playing the guitar on the left, Dandy singing on the right. God speed & Rest in Peace, Dandy. Thanks to his daughter Carissa for digging up this photo. Our thoughts go out to Dandy’s wife and our dear friend Chita. Unfortunately I didn’t take the picture and the identity of the original photographer is lost in the mists of time.
Obviously it was the bright red lips on this “faceless” mannequin in a store window that caught my attention. It seemed to me that I could get a shot where the mannequin faded into the background and the reflection of the building would make the picture more ambiguous. It wouldn’t, I thought, be immediately obvious what you were looking at. I thought it might look a little surreal with the red lips almost floating in the air. After I took the picture I realized that I’d had a little luck. For some reason the area around the face, lips and neck of the mannequin came out darker than the rest in effect framing the lips.
This was taken around 10:00 am and the light was already bright and contrasty. I thought I’d avoid the probably most common view of the statue i.e. from the front and take my picture from the side. The color didn’t add much value so I started to think in terms of black and white. I was having trouble with lack of dynamic range when the idea of a silhouette came to mind. I had a picture of those paper cutouts that were popular at one time. I could isolate the statue against the sky and frame it with the buildings and the leaves.
Or at least doll’s heads. Seen at a local craft fair. I liked the colors and the slightly surreal look to the “dolls” (e.g. bodies made of old jars; strange costructions on the heads etc.) If I had it to do again I’d move the camera to the right. I think there’s too much room on the left side and not enough on the right.
Taken in February, 2012 before I got serious with this blog (there are only three posts prior to February 2012). Shot inside Grand Central Terminal. For some reason I really like this picture. In fact I like it so much that I have a print of it on my wall. I’m not entirely sure why: it’s underexposed, completely out of focus and noisy. Somehow with all of these things out the way only the composition comes through: the diagonal line of the escalator leading down to the figure carrying the suitcase. Then from there I think the eye goes to the two figures to the top right. I think it also helps that much of the escalator (including the figures on the left) is in darkness while the man with the suitcase and the other figures at the top are all in the light. As the book title suggests “it doesn’t always have to be in focus” (Why It Does Not Have to be In Focus: Modern Photography Explained by Jackie Higgins).
Taken with a then quite new Sony NEX 5N. I don’t recall what lens. The metadata does not provide a lens so it must of been an old legacy lens and judging from the timing I believe it was a Canon 50mm f1.4 in Leica Thread Mount. The camera was fairly new then and I wasn’t familiar with focus peaking and focus magnification so I mis-focussed quite a few shots (particularly at large apertures) until I figured out how it worked.