Some interesting YouTube videos

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Simon Baxter is an excellent landscape and woodland photographer based in the UK. He also has a YouTube channel to which I subscribe.

Back in 2020 during COVID photographers like Mr. Baxter had a problem: they couldn’t travel to locations where they could take photographs. They had to stay in their homes except for short walks for exercise.

So, Mr. Baxter decided to start a series of interviews with fellow photographers where each photographer would say a few words about a couple of their photographs, which had a particular meaning for them.

I was able to find eight such interviews (see below).

I found them interesting. I hope you will too.

A Visit to Cold Spring, NY – A photo exhibition

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Here Coffee + Beer was holding a exhibition of photographs by Brian Avenius. It’s called Lost and Found and it’s running through February. Some very impressive, large format photographs here.

I’ve often thought about printing some of my photographs larger, but I always talk myself out of it. Since I don’t have a large format printer, it would cost me quite a bit to print them, and I’m not sure what I would do with them afterwards. I certainly don’t have any wall space in my house, and I don’t sell any of my photographs. I think I’ll stick to printing smaller format photobooks.

It might be nice to print a couple of them though…just to see how they look.

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Taken with a Sony RX100 MVII

A recent discovery on YouTube

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Actually, it’s not all that recent. I’ve been following this channel for some time. It’s called “Sharing the Work of the Photography Masters” and its creator, Joel Ulises, describes it as follows:

On this channel, I share the work and stories of the greatest photographers—past and present. My goal is to bring their masterpieces to life and inspire a deeper appreciation for the art of photography. Whether you’re a fan of iconic images or curious about the stories behind the lens, you’re in the right place. Join me on this visual journey, and let’s explore the magic of photography together.

So, if you’re interested in the work of “Photography Masters” this might well be for you.

Photography: Essays and Images

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The back cover of the book provides the following, which describes the book better than I possibly could:

This handsomely illustrated volume presents a fascinating pictorial and literary experience, bringing to life through their own words – and photographs – the scientists, artists, philosophers, innovators and entrepreneurs who in the last century (Note: the book was published in 1980) and a half have formulated a new art and a new era of communication.

Beaumont Newhall calls this book “an autobiography of the art of photography, written by some of the men and women who by their inventive genius, their scientific skill, and their artistic sensibility have forged a technique into a vital visual medium. We have allowed them to speak to us directly, without condensing, excerpting, or otherwise editing their words, so the volume may be both an authentic source book for students of the history of photography as an art and a narrative for the general reader”.

Mr. Newhall has chosen 190 photographs to illustrate the reports, criticism, and points of view expressed by the writers of the “autobiography,” many from the photographic archive of the Museum of Modern Art, others from collections throughout the world. He also provides brief introductory comments to place each selection in historical context. Photographs and text are carefully integrated.

The selections in this volume include first-person accounts of the inventions of the basic photographic techniques; newspaper reports of the discovery of the daguerreotype and of early photographic exhibitions; criticism by Baudelaire, Léger, Moholy-Nagy; personal statements from Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand, Lange, Adams, Weston, Evans and others. This basic source material, presented at length and accompanied by relevant photographs, provides a rich background for the chronological history of the medium so masterfully presented by Mr. Newhall in his classic work, The History of Photography.

To give a better sense of the scope of the work I’ve scanned the table of contents (see below)

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Film Camera 2024 -3: Fujifilm Instax Square SQ-6 – Results

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So, after finding the results from the SX-70 and the I2 somewhat disappointing, how did I like what I got from the SQ-6?

It’s an easy camera to use, largely point and shoot with relatively few additional functions that you might use. The learning curve with this camera is certainly much shorter than, for example, the I2.

At first glance the prints looked better, with more vibrant colors if a little underexposed. However, after scanning I realized that pretty much all of the prints were out of focus. Now I’m new to instant photography and mostly likely a problem with the photographer (i.e. me) rather than the camera.

I also found that the prints were a lot smaller than I had anticipated. Mea Culpa again. I was somehow thinking that they would be the same size as the Polaroid prints of yesteryear. Moreover, I’m also not entirely comfortable composing with a square format.

Of course, the film is expensive, but that’s true of all instant film nowadays.

So far, my attempts at instant photography have not been particularly successful and it seems to me that I now have two options:

  1. Decide that instant photography is not for me and give up.
  2. Don’t blame the cameras and accept that there’s always a learning curve and try harder until I get to a point where I’m satisfied.

I prefer the second option. There were reasons why my first few attempts didn’t succeed. The SX-70 was an old camera bought second hand. It clearly wasn’t working as originally intended. I might get it checked out, if possible fixed and try it again. The problem with the I2 was known (the autoexposure didn’t work correctly) and I chose to use it anyway. This has now been fixed in the recent firmware up, which I’ve now applied. I’m keen to try again and this will be my next attempt. The SQ6 was, I suspect, just plain lack of knowledge and familiarity with the camera.

Clearly, I have to use the cameras much more frequently. As the saying goes “if at first you don’t succeed try, try again”. It’s not rocket science.