Projects

Many photographers advocate having projects.  This makes sense: it focuses your work and makes your intentions clearer.  A bunch of random shots will not have the same impact as some photos having the same elements, especially if the object is to show others something specific they may not notice otherwise.  Having many shots of nice cars in front of dilapidated houses can show the discrepancy in priorities, for example.  It might be much more difficult do show the same thing with a disparate group of shots without the same elements in each one.

I find projects a bit lofty in my own work.  I group my photos in various albums because I find some things need pointing out.  I mean, I started out this blog as an outlet for a 365 Project.  A few albums in my Flickr account contain samey photos, and I suppose those can be considered projects, though I probably don't take them as seriously as more serious photographers would consider projects.  I go out and shoot, and if I remember to take a shot of someone with a cell phone, or of a piece of clothing on something, then, I suppose, my project goes on.  I sometimes forget to take shots of these things, given I don't take them too seriously.

I have no end goal with these albums, which is why I wouldn't consider them projects.  Projects can last years, and so my idea is to add/take away shots whenever new ones come up.  I don't think these albums with ever be 'done'.  Maybe with time they'll develop a focus or more a meaning, but for now they're just for fun.  I'm documenting a few things that catch my eye.

How should a project start?  As you take photos of things you find interesting, or simply as you walk around and look at things (being a photographer, I assume looking at things interests you), you notice patterns.  For example, my for clothes on things album, I simply noticed one day that there was a few pieces of clothing on various objects.  I happen to photograph them because I thought the scene looked funny.

You have a certain interest: cars, beards, pretty people, cats, games, football, hockey, tattoos, whatever.  That's a good starting point.  Go out and shoot these things.

I've found some inexplicable things I enjoy shooting: front doors, with their addresses.  I don't know why.  I've just put up a new album on Flickr that is just that: address photography, I suppose.  It's pretty strange, and, again, I can't really explain why I started shooting these things.  As I've said before, you notice patterns in what you shoot after looking back at your photos.

Here's where you can find what I'm talking about.

Ribfest Street Photography

Ottawa, for photography (of any kind), is a great place: it's the country's capital, and so is filled with culture in the form museums, tours of various kinds and events and festivals of every kind.  For example, the weekend that just passed saw the Busker Festival, most of which I unfortunately missed.  There's always next year.  There are also great landscapes (say, Gatineau Park) not too far from downtown.  Music festivals abound, as well, with everything from Escapade to Bluesfest to the Chamber Music Festival.

One of these such events is Ribfest, which generally happens in mid-ish June.  (This year, if you care, from the 18th to the 22nd.)  Being a big fan of Digital Rev and Eric Kim, and admiring the videos of Street Hunters, I decided to do my own walk-around video.  I was a bit nervous shooting this, but once I started shooting, my video shooting didn't seem to matter too much; people didn't seem to notice or care I was using two cameras at once and I was more preoccupied with shooting photos than worrying about my video.  I basically walked down Sparks from beginning to end and back, snapping things I found interesting.  Beware: lots of ribs in this video.

I gloss over a few things in the introduction of the video and I'll quickly go over these now.  The video was shot with my Canon S100, which I was holding in my left hand and I was shooting with my Leica M in my right.  I shot all the photos with a Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 lens (bought from Digital Rev, incidentally).  The two main reasons for the lens choice are twofold: one, leading up to Ribfest, it just seemed like the best choice of the three lenses I own to get the mood and look I wanted to capture; and two, because I was shooting with one hand, I couldn't futz around with focusing, and at 15mm at f/5.6 or smaller aperture, pretty much everything was in focus.

Another thing about this lens, as Ken Rockwell points out, is it's not ideal on a digital sensor, as there's a lot of funny colours on the edges of the shots.  This is absolutely true.  I don't mind the purples on the edges, as I think it frames the shots nicely, and because everything was shot on the same lens, all the shots have somewhat uniform look.

I had a lot of fun doing this thing and when I find a friend, or if I can convince my cat to hold my S100, I may use my 50mm lens in a later endeavour. Let me know if I can improve on anything in the video, or if you even like this video.  It's long at over half an hour, but I like this type of video, and so I hope you like my contribution.

Dreams

This year marks Leica's 165th anniversary, and the 60th anniversary of the M system. Leica gas also been my dream camera since I've known photography in any capacity. To celebrate these milestones, I decided to buy a Leica. (Well, that's not really why, but I'll go with that because it makes me seem more debonair and sophisticated than I really am.)

Without getting into too many details, I was lucky enough to purchase my dream camera and lens back in April of this year: the Leica M (Type 240), with the Noctilux 50mm f/0.95.  I am in no way able to afford this on my salary, and I may go into details on how this purchase was funded later on, but for now, just the fact that I have this camera should be enough.

I may do a review of it later on, but because there are enough good reviews from other people already, I don't know if I have anything else to add.  I may do a mini-review later, then - something simple to start off another post.  Suffice to say that I am incredibly happy with this toy and if you have the opportunity to play with one, jump on the chance.  It was a massive gamble on whether I'd actually like it or not (given I had never played with a rangefinder before), but I have zero regrets about the purchase.

In any case, one thing I didn't see is an unboxing video of this camera.  So, the point of this short post, is to put up my unboxing video.  It's short and awkward, and I had a beard back then.  However, you get to see exactly what's in the box.  I have a video of the Noctilux somewhere in my hard drives, so once I find it an upload it, I will probably post a link of that, as well.

For now, enjoy this video!

Humble Beginnings

Everybody has to start somewhere; one wonders what Henri Cartier-Bresson's first ever photos looked like.  (I do, at least.)  My very first camera was a Polaroid my father gave me when I was 5 or 6 or so (and to be honest, at this point I'm only guessing given it's so long ago).  I don't remember which model, but, as with everyone's first Polaroid if you grew up in the analog age, it was one of their instant cameras.  At 13, I got a Pentax Espio 115, and it served me extremely well.  If I was so inclined, I could put a battery in it right now and it would be perfectly functional, giving me great photos (though it needs to be cleaned slightly).

The first digital camera I had any relevant experience with was my ex-girlfriend's Sony something-or-other.  It was a small pink camera (she was that kind of girl).  The first digital camera I personally owned was a Canon EOS XSi/450D/Kiss X2.  (I knew I was into photography by then.)  For those actually interested, I bought it as a Boxing Day sale in December 2008 (the 28th, as I remember it).

Looking at all my photos taken with that camera, I can definitely see how I've evolved as a photographer.  The first shots were mostly of my cat (Swarley was the best cat, ever), or of general city landscapes.  Everything was experimental and new.  I was trying to master all the different settings and how they interact with each other.  Most of the results were standard fare; just generic photos of someone starting out.  I don't look back and wish I could have taken any of them differently because at the time I was in a learning phase: taking photos of everything I could to figure out what type of photos I enjoyed taking.

Given that I now consider myself a street photographer more than anything else, I wanted to share my first street photos that I still remembered.  The first shot I truly consider my first street photography photograph is the first one under here, of the lady walking down the street.  Funny thing: I had the hardest time actually finding this particular shot amidst the 7200-or-so I took with the XSi, not because it was particular hard to find, but because I could have sworn it was black and white (and so I was scrolling through trying to find my black and white photographs).  It turns out, I'd seen it a year or so back, and at the time re-imagined how I'd have edited it with a more mature photographic mind, and that's the picture I remembered taking in my head.

At the time I was taking RAW and JPG at the same time, not because I particularly edited my photos, but because I'd heard it was the best thing to do.  As such, the photos here are presented unedited as they came out of the camera.  I could tweak them and improve them a little bit, but that wouldn't be as authentic as presenting them as they actually are.  I hope you enjoy these.  It was fun scrolling through my first shots again.  For those interested, these are very early shots out of my camera, numbered 236, 520 and 5160.

Again, I consider this shot my very first street shot.  Oh, I'd taken shot of random people before, but it was at Winterlude, which is a festival, where people are plentiful.  Besides, those shots are not as good as this one.  I took this photo simply because I liked the way the lady looked walking down the street.  She's tiny in here but it was a start.  If I were to edit this photo again, I would definitely change it to black and white, and perhaps lower the highlights to lessen the whites of the snow.  Overall, I consider this a good start.

This is perhaps simply a good shot because of the reflections on the ground.  I also like this because I don't know if I'd trudge through the rain again to get some nice shots (though I probably should).  There's nothing special about this shot, but the composition is good and the reflection add a nice touch.  If I were to edit this shot, I might just play with the clarity and contrast, but not too much else.

I actually remember walking through the Market and hanging around while the blurry guy on the left was doing magic tricks for crowds of people.  I remember sticking around for a while, grabbing shots here and there.  There's one shot of the magician I have, where he looks intense and energetic and, oddly enough, a little desperate in my eyes, though that last thought may completely be a reflection of my own feelings at time.  Looking back at the photos I took that night, I prefer this one.  My outlook on life has changed, and the sense of wonder and happiness in this lady's fact seems more my style right now, which is why I chose this photo.  

Because it was night, I have a lot of blurry shots from this night, either from bad focus or slow shutter speed.  Even though this was shot 5160 I took with this camera (not including the photos I was taking with my 2 point and shoots at the time), I was still learning (why I took this photo at ISO 200 is beyond me right now, but c'est la vie).  Taking this shot now, knowing what I know, even with the XSi and 50mm f/1.8 lens, I would definitely get better results.  I'm still learning now, but I feel I've come a long way since then.  I don't ridicule myself for not editing my photos back then, or shooting night scenes with ISO 200, but the fact that I see issues with my older photos means that I've moved on and I've learned new things.  Hopefully my photos have gotten better, and hopefully as time goes on, I keep getting better.  Maybe in another 6 years, I'll go through my 2014 shots and do a retrospective post like this one.

Rainy Day Start

It's raining like crazy outside today (though if you don't like the weather, and this being Ottawa, just wait 10 minutes), and it's my first day off in a long time I can't go walking around to take photos.  As such, I figure it's a great time to post for the first time in an even longer time.

Housekeeping things: I haven't stopped taking photos, I've just stopped posting them.  There's no particular reason for that, with the only exception of laziness.  I've started posting on Flickr again thanks to a co-worker that wanted to see some of my newer photos.  Another big deciding factor in starting to post again is I have a new toy.

I won't get into details now, but I'm now mainly shoot my street photography with a Leica M and 50mm Noctilux.  I'll probably write/film a review later, but I'll say I love this camera in its entirety.  Other than that, I still have my Canon 5D Mark 3, S100 and Fuji X10.  I still shoot with all of them, though my 5D is mainly used for shooting and filming wedding this year.  I don't think I've used it in any other way this year.  I still love this camera, it's just a bit unwieldy for street.

As always, I still plan on shooting, and I will make a effort on posting to my Flickr stream.  I will also try to update this blog every now and then.  For now, I will leave you with this album.  No real reason for it, I just like it for some strange reason. Clothes on Stuff.

Oh, well look at that: it's now almost sunny outside.