The lure of crumbling old builings

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Abandoned New York City

Chances are, when you think of New York City, you imagine the large crowds of people, bright city lights, and the familiar humming and buzzing sound of big city life. Even in the subway, the city’s underbelly, New York City still pulses with life. You don’t think about all the desolate warehouses, decaying classrooms, or crumbling psychiatric wards that are sporadically speckled around the city’s five boroughs.

On a whim, and perhaps encouraged by an insatiable curiosity, photographer Will Ellis stepped into one of these abandoned repositories one afternoon. At the time, Ellis was reading a lot of gothic horror books (think Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, etc…), and was drawn to the eerie atmosphere those books were frequently set in. After experiencing that same kind of atmosphere outside the realm of a novel for the first time, Ellis was hooked.

via Explore Crumbling Relics Of Time In Intriguing Photo Series Featuring Abandoned New York City – DIY Photography.

I must admit to being fascinated by old buildings so this post quickly caught my interest. I would disagree with one of the author’s comments however:

It’s interesting to see that, just in the past few years, the internet has become saturated with images of abandoned buildings, leading to the term “ruin porn.” But the pleasure of ruins goes back thousands of years. It plays into this morbid curiosity that is within all of us — a fascination with death and decay that’s just a part of what makes us human.

Yes I’m interested in crumbling old buildings. I also like cemeteries. However, this is not because of a fascination with death and decay. I find crumbling old buildings somewhat romantic. I grew up in the UK and always loved the old castles. I also liked the old Tarzan and Jungle Book movies, which often featured vine encrusted old temples and the like abandoned in the jungle. I like cemeteries because they are usually quiet and peaceful (at least in the rural areas where I live); they have interesting trees, shrubs and plants; I also like the statues and the gravestones with their inscriptions. And the stained glass. I just find them to be beautiful places and it only rarely occurs to me that there are dead people there.

Is acquiring high end gear snobbery or does it really make a difference?

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The value of experience

I recently came across a post entitled: “Sommelier or Snob” on the “Luminous Landscape” blog. In it the author (Mr. Michael Reichmann) said:

I had dinner with a friend recently; the wine list included bottles ranging from $40 to $400. My friend asked if I had ever had such expensive wines as those on the last page of the list. I replied that I had, and though I love fine wines, especially full-bodied reds, my palette simply was not educated enough to differentiate the more exotic vintages.

I commented that at the retail store I rarely bought anything above $20, because I found more than enough wines in the $15-$20 range to satisfy my everyday tastes.

This then lead to a conversation about cameras and lenses – which is the point of this tale. My friend, who is a quite casual photographer, asked me if the multi-thousand dollar cameras and lenses that I own are worth that expense, or are they, like expensive wines, a matter of – in his word – snobbery?

After some thought, and a sip or two of a very nice California Cabernet that was on the table, I replied that – yes– I usually could tell the difference between images from high-end cameras and lenses vs. those of a less pedigreed lineage. The implication, of course, is that “high-end” is synonymous, much of the time, with “expensive“.

He goes on to say:

Similarly, a sommelier, or someone for whom wine is a passion and also likely a profession, can tell the difference between types, vintages, and other variables, including price point, while I can’t. In each instance one of us is a pro and the other is an amateur, with all that those words entail in terms of training, experience and taste.

And concludes with:

So to argue whether a wine or a lens is worth a certain price requires that one understand the background of the person making the argument. If they have the credentials, and make an observation or judgment on something within their field of expertise, then maybe one should listen-up. If they’re a neophyte with an opinion, and not much else, then maybe just nod, smile, and have another sip of wine.

It seems to me that there are three types of people: 1) Those who don’t know much about a particular topic, but who within the limits of their budgets and their knowledge do that best that they can; 2) Those who are really invested in a particular topic, have considerable knowledge and experience and who arguably know the finer points: 3) Those who don’t know much but pretend that that do: poseurs. I fall (I hope) into the first category.

Can I tell the difference between high end gear and low end gear? Up to a point yes. I can certainly tell the difference between photographs I took with low end, small sensor compact cameras (e.g. the Panasonic Lumix ZS3 and ZS7 that I used to have) and the somewhat higher end (but still not really high end Sony RX100 and Nex5N) cameras that I now use. Could I tell the difference between a high end Nikon camera and a REALLY high end Nikon camera? I doubt it.

And does it really matter? Isn’t it really about the resulting image? I’m in two minds about this one. If you make your money taking pictures then I imagine that you will want cameras with great image quality; which are convenient to use; which are protected against the elements; which will run forever etc. and that to get this you will need a considerable financial investment. I can also imagine that you will probably need the best lenses e.g. for sports photography you will undoubtedly need long fast, long focal length lenses and these don’t come cheap.

However, most of us are not professional photographers and can’t afford this kind of investment so we do what we can. This doesn’t mean that we can’t make decent pictures. I used to carry my Pansonic Lumix ZS cameras with me everywhere and so took a lot of pictures with them – some of which I really like even as I acknowledge the less than stellar image quality (particularly under certain conditions). I even have some pictures taken with an ancient Iphone 3GS that I quite like. Would I want to take pictures of a hunting Cheetah with it? Not a chance (but then we don’t get a lot of hunting cheetahs in NY state) but within it’s limits and my intended purpose (e.g. web sharing and small prints) it can be fine.

Finally I’m always suspicious of people who seem to be saying “I have the skills, the knowledge and the experience and you don’t so keep your opinions to yourself”. In my former professional life (not at all related to photography) I met quite a lot of people who made this type of claim and in many cases this did not lead to their opinions being worth listening to. Sometimes twenty years of experience is really one year of experience 20 times. I’m not at all implying that this is the case with Mr. Reichmann who seems to be incredibly knowledgeable and experienced and whose articles I always read with great pleasure. I merely suggest that not all of those who claim experience and knowledge have it.

On the other hand some of us don’t have great experience or knowledge, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that we have nothing to say and should keep silent.

Why do I blog?

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I recently read a blog post, which posed the question: “Why do you blog?” and it made me think about my reasons for blogging.

The first point to be made is that I do it for myself. I imagine that I could get usage statistics, but I don’t bother to look. I suspect that very few people read my blog and that’s fine with me. So why do I blog?

First – I originally started to blog to force me to get out and take pictures. All of my reading and advice from other photographers suggested that you have to do this in order to improve. I’m fundamentally quite lazy and tend to find excuses not to go and shoot. I thought that starting a blog would give me a reason to go and take pictures. So far it’s worked. I now take many more pictures than I did before and I can see a slight improvement over time.

Second – it provides me with a record of what I’m doing. It’s a bit like having a diary. I can look back and see where I was and what I was doing two years ago, for example. I’m a fan of mysteries and inevitably a police officer asks the suspect what he/she was doing on the night of such and such. I’ve often wondered how I would answer such a question since I can’t generally remember what I’ve being doing. With the blog I can just check the appropriate date and there’s a good chance that this will point me in the right direction.

Third – Very few of my posts are thoughtful. They’re mostly just a picture and some text. Sometimes, however, I’m prompted to put some ideas forward and the blog is a useful vehicle for capturing them.

Fourth – The blog is a useful place to record links to things I’ve found on the internet that I found particularly interesting.

Fifth – The blog gives me the opportunity to combine two of my favorite pastimes: photography and history. I like nothing more that finding an old, interesting building; taking some pictures of it; then doing some research into its origins and history and combining the lot into a blog post.

Reflections on 2014

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Like all years 2014 had its negatives and its positives – thankfully many more positives.

Lets get the negatives over first. Apart from a few minor incidents (e.g. I fell while walking in the woods, hit a tree root and split my nose open. The worst of it was that I had to walk a further 30 minutes back to the car with a profusely bleeding nose) there weren’t many. The most traumatic event of the year was the loss of of beloved dog, Jackson on 30 October – to kidney failure after a thankfully brief illness. We still miss him. The very same day, in fact just as I was bringing Jackson’s remains back from the vet, our faithful 16 year old Toyota gave up the ghost. The engine’s shot and it’s not worth paying to get it fixed.

Although the loss of Jackson hurt we quickly found another dog: Harley. He’s adorable and has fitted in very well. In fact I feel a little guilty about the way in which he has taken Jackson’s place in our affections (it doesn’t help that he’s also a terrier and in many ways resembles Jackson). It’s almost as if we’re betraying Jackson’s memory.

On the photographic front it was a good year. I’m getting out more and taking more pictures. Comparing my 2014 favorite pictures to 2013 favorites I find that I prefer 2014 so hopefully I’m improving. I’ve made significant improvements in my post-processing and scanning technique. I’ve managed to update the blog frequently and it passed 500 posts in December. After I gave my Panasonic ZS-7 to my granddaughter I felt the need for a carry everywhere camera so I got a used Sony RX100 early in 2014. It’s a great camera and I almost always have it with me. It’s amazing what you miss through not having a camera with you. Many of my favorite 2014 pictures were taken with this camera. I still use my Sony Nex 5n a lot. I like using legacy lenses with it. My camera collection continues to grow, allbeit at a slower pace than before. This is partly because I’m not seeing as much that I want as before (and some of what I want is too expensive for me) and partly because I’d like to spend more time using them than buying them. My knowledge of all things photographic e.g. photo taking; photographers; cameras etc.) continues to expand as I read more and more, visit exhibitions (Winogrand and Salgado most recently).

So all in all a pretty good year. Let’s hope that 2015 is just as good.

500th post on this blog

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This is the 500th post since I started this blog back in 2011. At that time I didn’t really have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with it: “it seemed like a good idea at the time”. I’d been running blogs as part of my work for some time so it seemed reasonable to have a personal blog. Probably because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do I updated the blog infrequently.

After I retired in April 2012 things started to pick up. After a moratorium of a number of years I had started to get interested in “all things photographic” in 2010. I say “all things photographic” rather than “photography” because it wasn’t just the taking of pictures that interested me. I also started to collect old cameras; study the history of photography; read about famous photographers etc. As my interest in photography took off – so did the blog.

By the end of 2012 I had come to some conclusions regarding why I was using the blog. The main reason was to keep me taking photographs. I’d spoken to other photographers and they had all recommeded getting out frequently and taking lots of photos. My problem was that I am fundamentally lazy. Given a choice between lying comfortably in bed on a cold day and getting up early to go and take pictures I’d tend to chose the former. I’d hoped that maintaining the blog would help me get past this. And it has. I now get out more and take many more pictures than I had before.

It’s also helped me clarify what I like to take pictures of. I’d been taking pictures of all kinds of things: people; landscapes; still life etc. Gradually as I used the blog I came to understand that what I really like is taking pictures of old things: primarily buildings. And if they’re old, creaky and falling apart at the seams then so much the better. I like nothing more than finding an old building; taking some pictures of it; then doing some research on its background and history and finally posting the lot to the blog.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m just feeding the blog. Am I taking pictures just so that I can keep the blog up to date – i.e. am I just taking pictures for the sake of it rather than thinking through why I’m taking the picture? I also enjoy the post production part and from time to time wonder if I’m more of an ‘editor’ than I am a ‘photographer’. Am I just taking snapshots and then slightly improving them in post-production? Maybe time will tell.

For the moment I’m enjoying maintaining this blog and intend to continue. I’m largely doing it for myself. I don’t check to see who is reading it (if anyone). I’ve achieved my primary purpose and will continue at least until the fun goes out of it.