Finding the Image

When you see a scene that appeals to you you make the photograph. But sometimes you look at the print or the image on you screen and it doesn't look like what you remember or you see the scene as you first did but the friends you are showing it to don't see it the same way, they don't see what you were seeing when you made the image.

These are clues that the final image contains more information than it needs to convey the true message of the "Image" as you perceived it.

Take a look at the overall composition and ask yourself, "Where is the image in this? What was I seeing that attracted me to this?"

Often you will find that the real image is only a part of the composition and the solution is getting closer to the real subject of the image or choosing another lens or focal length when photographing, or actually cropping the image in post processing.

Here's how I deal with this situation…when I'm out shooting. Recently while photographing in the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park I came up to this statue of a Buddha. I've photographed this statue many times, but I've never been satisfied with the images I've come away with. This day I took more time to work with it and figure out what really attracted me visually to statue.

 I made this frame of the statue and its environment, but I knew this wasn't a defining image.

I moved closer looking through the view finder and the 28mm lens. I stood back and switched to a 55mm lens and made this, the second image. Looking at the statue from this perspective I realized that it was the gesture of the Buddha's hand that attracted me most.

I looked more closely, turning the camera to compose a horizontal frame. Here was my image. I knew now that I had it. I saw the folds of the statue's robe flow into the gesture, guiding the eye to the hand and tips of the fingers. I moved a bit to the left including some of the trees in the background to provide context that wouldn't distract from the graphic power of the overall composition and made the image.

This whole process took much less time than has taken to explain it. The most time consuming part of making the image was the one lens change. Finding the image and making the final frame took only seconds. This is what comes with practice and making photography a practice.

Photos: ©2012 David W. Sumner

An Old Dog's New Tricks

Back when I was shooting for stock and editorial content I was intent on being in absolute control of every frame I shot. Like many photographers in those days I insisted on using only the manual exposure settings on my Nikon F3. While the F3 is capable of stepless shutter speeds in its aperture priority automatic exposure mode, I was convinced I would get better exposures if I controlled all options for manual settings myself. I photographed that way for years and did quite well exposing slow transparency films.

It was some time after I stopped trying to make a living from photography that I ventured into that gray area of aperture priority exposure. Turning the shutter speed dial on my F3 to “A” I soon realized that the camera’s meter was going to give me virtually the same exposure reading regardless of which mode I had set. The Nikon F3 has an exceptionally good center weighted meter, it’s consistent and accurate. I had for years trusted it in manual mode so why not thrust it in the “A” mode? It wasn’t long before I was shooting the F3 exclusively in “A” mode.

Trusting aperture priority exposure gave me a certain freedom when shooting. I figured the camera was build to do this so why not let it do what it’s meant to.

Later technology created even more insecurities to be overcome. The introduction of “Program” exposure was just too much, no self-respecting photographer would give up that much control, both aperture and shutter speed selection. If you did use it and anyone else found out you would be mocked and ridiculed.

It’s different today. The new technology is indispensable. Digital cameras won’t function without advanced electronics, so today photographers rely on the micro chips even more. But when the FA and the F4 came out people just looked at that dial, saw “P” and said, “Don’t go there.” Well I have to admit I finally did it.

Earlier this year I was looking for a way to get a little more drama into my images and texture into my negatives. Film technology always advanced in the direction of finer grain and smoother tonal gradation. I shoot chromogenic black & white film so I don’t have to work with chemicals any more. (Labs don’t process B&W silver films worth a damn these days unless you want to pay extra charges.) So my negatives are virtually grainless and have an exceptional range of tonality as they are processed in C41 chemistry, which is very consistent. So I experimented.

I put a roll of Kodak BW400CN in my F4. I selected the center weighted meter function, set the exposure mode to “P”, attached a 28mm auto focus lens and hit the street. I was walking around with one of the most sophisticated point ‘n’ shoot film cameras ever conceived, and man was it fun. I certainly got more drama into my images, letting shadows just go while keeping the highlights under control, and I didn’t have to think about it. I could concentrate on composing for those shadows and I didn’t worry about what was moving in the frame. I had a blast and I liked the results.

Going through this process reminded me of something a friend of mine once told me. He was a mechanic in the Air Force and worked on B-52s. He said when those planes came in they immediately drove big air bags under the wings to support them and the planes started leaking fluids and they had to work fast to get them in the air again, because they were built to fly, not sit on the ground.

The same can be said for auto exposure cameras: they were built to “fly” in all modes. They do work as advertised. “Program” exposure works, it can be trusted. It may not be right for every situation, but use it and you’ll probably get good results more often than not.

Photos: ©2012 David W. Sumner (Images on this page were made with either a Nikon F100 or a Nikon N90s set to "Program" exposure mode.)

Naoya Hatakeyama at SFMOMA

 

Man’s relentless efforts to master the environment. That’s the underlying message I took away from my visit to SFMOMA to see the current exhibition of photography by Naoya Hatakeyama. But there is a twist.

The first images in the exhibition are of expansive landscapes featuring dramatic mountains. The mountains, other than being pretty held no obvious message, they are just “pretty.”

The images I found more appealing were of abandoned and working quarries and were photographed as grand landscapes and had a definite message. From an anthropological point of view they tell a dramatic story of the consequences of the archaic notion, so persistently maintained by human kind, that nature can and should be conquered. Hatakeyama’s work so clearly shows us that the fact that the earth will never bend to the human will is lost yet on another generation.

Hatakeyama demonstrates how this quest of humanity to dominate the very environment that gives it life, is carried out by every means that is violent. The irony is dramatically evident in his imagery of the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan. These images share a gallery with a sequence of photographs of quarry blasting, images that capture the brutally violent reality and consequence of the explosions. But still, what these images tell us is that despite every effort by “man,” nothing will ever match the violence of which nature is capable. Nature is the master and there is no such thing as conquering the environment.

Photos: © Naoya Hatakeyama

Food for Thought

REPORTAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

"Conditions for photojournalism have changed dramatically during the last decades. It has receded practically completely into the background as a source of primary information. Gone are the days of the great picture essays like the funeral of Winston Churchill in February 1965. Life magazine rented houses along the parade route especially for the purpose of covering the event from various angles, and an aircraft was chartered to transport the exposed films. One can already recognize the motion picture principle in these reportages, i.e. sequences of still pictures. It wasn't much later that the mass medium of moving pictures - global television - made such reportages superfluous. We now expect pictorial information at the time an event is actually occurring, in other words, live. Life magazine, along with nearly all current picture magazines, has disappeared from the market. War reportages as part of photojournalism were able to survive only because some daredevil photographers venture further into combat zones than the more cumbersome TV crews. Reportage photography must therefore devote itself to other subjects or change its tendencies. This is already clearly evident in photographic competitions. Photographers are developing a more artistic approach or they describe their topics in a very subjective manner. This type of work is finding less and less of an adequate forum in magazines. Often the appropriate form of publication of large works is a book, which will then be reviewed again in magazines. But the style forms of reportage photography have also inspired other categories, for example fashion- and sports photography. In doing so, this type of photography restricts itself entirely to formal depictions. Naturally, the explanatory nature of classic reportage photographers, who for a time devoted their lives to showing certain events to the world, no longer plays any role."

- Horst Moser
(From: "Astonish Me, Surprise Me! by Horst Moser, Leica World 2/2002)

Photo: ©2011 David W. Sumner

Retouching Digital Prints

    One of the reasons I shoot a chromogenic black and white film is so I can take advantage of the Digital ICE feature built into my film scanner. Digital ICE works to eliminate imperfections in a scan such as those caused by dust or small defects in the film’s emulsion. ICE works with film that has a color base, in other words, not with a silver based film. The silver in traditional black and white film scatters the infrared layer created by ICE making it impossible for the scanner to read the image on the film. Consequently, you can expect so see dust spots and fibers on a scan from a silver negative. This often requires a considerable amount of time spent “retouching” the file in PhotoShop.

    When I go back into my archive of silver negatives and select images to scan I usually end up with files that show little white impressions of dust and fibers. No matter how much I clean and blow off the neg, there is usually a good amount of retouching still to be done in PhotoShop.

    For a variety of reasons it is often impossible to get every annoying little spot retouched in PhotoShop. In many cases I don’t even notice these lingering white specks until I’ve made an archival pigment print. Hence my years long quest to find an adequate method for retouching a physical digital print.

    I’ve tried various indelible pens and waterproof and smudge proof inks, but nothing has ever come close to the way Spotone worked with photo paper emulsions. Until today, that is, when I pulled out my set of Faber-Castell grey scale Pitt artist pens.

    These pens are actually brush pens with soft, felt brush like tips about one quarter inch long. The ink in these pens is a water proof, smudge proof, lightfast India ink. The grey scale set includes both warm and cool tones. So far I have found the Cold Grey VI 235 pen the most useful, but the lighter cool grey pens come in very handy as well.

   It takes a very light touch to administer just the right amount of ink through the fine brush tip. But if you have ever done traditional “spotting” with a brush and Spotone you know it takes a steady hand and a good eye to nail that little glaring spot with one delicate tap.

    I use only very matte paper, so I’m not sure how well this will work on glossy or luster papers. I suspect with a little practice it could work just as fine as on the matte paper I use. 

Photos: ©2012 David W. Sumner

Photography is Power

Photography is a skill and a tool that puts a considerable amount of power in your hands. Be conscious of that, use it wisely. A photograph is powerful.

Photographs have the power to shape our social environment. Not every photograph will or even have the potential to change the world. But the sincere pursuit of the medium, with the intent to examine, document and shape our social and cultural world has potential to succeed.

It doesn't take elaborate, expensive equipment or relentless travel. It does take determination, dedication, passion and a compassionate heart. Photography is a practice, a way of life. In much the same way one practices Zen, one practices photography.

The photographer who follows the practice has a social responsibility as a documentarian. He or she understands this and preserves their images; whether they are of images of war, the streets of the neighborhood in which they live or the flowers in the local park as the seasons change.

The photograph is the single most enduring document produced today. Images are remembered when texts are forgotten. Images are reproduced across all media. The power of the image does not diminish.

Photo: ©2011 David W. Sumner

Lee Friedlander at the Fraenkel Gallery

"Mannequin"

Friedlander's images are distinctly graphic in their composition and typically imbued with sophisticated humor and satire. A few of the compositions are simply brilliant. It's also important to note that the images are fun.

His mannequins were photographed very much the same way fashion was photographed in the 50s and 60s: extreme angles, well thought out graphic lines making up dynamic backgrounds - no small task considering that most of the backgrounds to the mannequins were composed from the buildings and structures reflected in the windows separating Friedlander from his subjects.

The prints are well made. They are rich and contrasty - possibly another nod to fashion photography of the last century.

I've never been a big Friedlander fan, but this exhibition, Mannequin, is impressive and a significant body of work for the artist.