86 thoughts on “The Kibbutz”

  3. Carlo

    It might be quiet in the comments section but I don’t think BURN has ever been so ALIVE as it is now….fresh work everyday with Burn Diary….DAH’s Road Trips and essays coming left and right!….what else can one ask for?!?!?!
    What not to love?!?!?!? ;-)))))

  7. panos skoulidas

    A good friend, photographer passed away..he was too young..he served photography well…here’s a little video i made ( i also composed the soundtrack ) to his memory..
    Rick Hunter RIP
    safe travels

  10. mw

    “Will The Mobile Phone Camera Replace The DSLR?”

    Um, no, duh. Tiny sensors suck for wide range of lighting and/or creative situations.

    Better question would be “Will mirror less cameras replace the DSLR?”

    I’m guessing yes. Took a few pics in Adorama the other day with a Fuji X-E1 and a 55-200mm (300mm full frame equivalent) lens. Got sharp pictures handheld at 1/20 of a second at 200mm and it was significantly lighter than a typical full frame dslr body, never mind the giant honking dslr lens.

  11. mw

    Though I guess someday they may come out with a sensor the size of the phone, in which case I should probably change my answer to “yes, duh.”

  12. Paul

    Carlo and MW…

    Well I seem to be going in the opposite direction. I’m now only using my phone camera and medium format BW film. The GX1 and I haven’t really gelled.

  15. Carlo

    It was a good webcast……for me the best part was hearing Steven Alvarez say towards the end “What revolution in imaging is this going to drive”?
    He said it after mentioning what happened with 4×5…then 35mm and so on…
    A good way to end and more provide more food for thought.

  16. Carlo

    Paul,

    you are going exactly where they are saying consumers are heading….these big cameras are consumer products and consumers are going to smart phones.
    I rarely carry my canon but my phone is always with me.

    Having said that I am looking for a mirrorless camera….I am tired of my bulky canon…

  17. Paul

    Ross and Carlo…

    I just haven’t managed to adapt to the GX1. I’ve taken many pleasing photos with it, but I just don’t enjoy using the damn camera. There have been a couple of instances where out of exasperation I would of very nearly thrown it off the nearest cliff. As I own other cameras I do enjoy working with and I also get pleasing images with them I’ve decided to give up the GX1.

  18. Paul

    Even though I’m utterly aware the final image is the destination and only point that matters. I might as well also enjoy the journey with a decent camera.

  19. Frostfrog

    MW, I am not so certain about the first part. The improvement in the low-light capability of my iPhone 5s over my 4s is immense. It does better in low light than all the DSLR’s I had right up to maybe three or four years ago. It is still pretty lacking on dynamic range and it so easy to blow the highlights to the point of no return. As to the size of the sensor limiting its capability, this is true but not as true as it was yesterday. No telling where technology will go and by what multitude of times sensors will improve in the future.

    As to the second part, I have been wondering for a long time why the pro camera companies have been insisting on keeping us wed to the mirror. It just doesn’t make much sense to me anymore. I used to carry a dslr at all times, most recently the Canon M III with the 24-105 attached, but ever since David persuaded me to jump on the Instagram band wagon, I only carry DSLR’s when I have to.

  22. mw

    I’ve never been much of a camera aficionado. I’ve only owned a few, mostly Canons and Fujis. The only two I didn’t like were a Canon Powershot Pro 1 which had horrendous image quality at anything over iso 400 and a Panasonic LX5 which I could never put my finger on exactly why I didn’t like it but figured it had something to do with the small sensor. My son has taken some nice shots with the Panasonic, but somehow it just wasn’t for me. More often I enjoy learning the strengths and weaknesses of a particular camera and making it jump through some odd shaped hoops.

    But as those who comment here probably know, I’ve been using Fuji X series cameras for awhile now. It came as a surprise to me, but I actually found myself enjoying the camera itself. I noticed that I had become much more deliberate with most of my photography and was shooting in full manual mode more often than not. I don’t know Leica from Shinola or a hole in the ground, but I couldn’t help notice all the reviews that said the Fuji X’s were designed for those who loved the look and feel of the classic Leicas. That was actually a bit of a turn-off for me when I originally researched it. I honestly don’t care what a camera looks like and much less for any kind of retro crap. But after using them for several years now, I realize there’s something more to it than nostalgia or any kind of snobbery. It’s actually very well designed for the practical purpose of making photographs. So I guess I kinda sorta know what you’re saying, Paul.

    I don’t want to offer any advice to anyone, but I’ll note for you Bill, that I’ve now sold or given away all my Canon stuff. I liked it a lot, but ultimately it was just too frickin heavy and when push came to back pain, it just wasn’t my brother. Though as much as I like low light shooting, those ridiculously high ISO’s that Canon and Nikon are coming out with are somewhat enticing. When I eventually win the lotto, odds are good I’ll get me a bunch.

  23. panos skoulidas

    tribute to Tom Waits

    lyrics here:

    MEAT LOVER SHELTERED MAMA’S MAN (ode to my husband)
    ——————————————————————————-
    You’re a man that only loved his mama
    You’re a man that only hated me
    You’re a man that never eats bananas
    You’re a man that always ENVIED me

    You’re a sheltered man
    that wants to go to Bahamas
    a man that always wear pajamas
    you’re the opposite of ME

  30. Akaky

    The cat shat in my hat. I do not know why the cat shat on my hat; I suppose that the cat did so because, like George Mallory climbing Mount Everest, the hat was there, or it could be that this particular cat dislikes humans with more than the usual feline animosity and decided to move its bowels in my hat to demonstrate his disdain for me in particular and humanity in general, but whatever reason the cat did it, the fact remains that the cat shat in my hat. The day has been going downhill since then.

    After finding a new hat, one that is just a bit too large for me, I should say, but otherwise acceptable, I drove off to work. From my home in the outer rim of our happy little burg’s suburbs, if a place as small as our happy little burg can have suburbs, I managed to avoid every old lady, every red light, every garbage truck, and every guy trying to make a left turn, a feat that you may consider nothing short of miraculous but tells me that the Lord is feeling hostile towards me today and so wants me to get to work in time, the better for His heavenly wrath to come down on me in an environment I can’t get out of quickly. There are days when you know that you’ve got a bull’s eye tattooed on your back for everyone to see.

    And so it came to pass that The Messiah of the Jews, who is not to be confused with the Jewish Messiah, which he says is another job title entirely, comes into the egregious mold pit wherein I labor for my daily bread and tells me that people from the Dominican Republic dress in black to worship Bavomit, the god of excrement, that his reading of the I Ching tells him that he is the Virgin Mary, the very embodiment of the Eternal Feminine, and would I please give him a dollar for a cup of coffee? He is annoyed at his rabbi for not letting him make changes to the local synagogue’s Torah scroll; apparently, the section on medical marijuana is not clear enough and he needs to make sure that everyone knows that weed is a good thing. I agreed that his rabbi was being entirely unreasonable about not letting him mark up a Torah scroll with a pencil stub I gave him, but he [the rabbi] would come to see the light very shortly. Pleased with this answer, the Messiah of the Jews stalked out of the building to get a cup of coffee; yes, I gave him the dollar. I know I shouldn’t, that it will only encourage him to come back tomorrow for another dollar, but there are some conversations that you just want to end and this was one of them.

    I was elated when he left, said emotional state lasting for about two seconds, for as the Messiah of the Jews left, the UFO man came in. The UFO man, as you might imagine, earned his sobriquet because he has let everyone here in our happy little burg know that a UFO abducted him years ago in Peekskill. I am not sure why extraterrestrials would want to abduct him out of the billions of people they could have abducted or what it is about the people of Peekskill that would be so attractive to extraterrestrials; Peekskill looks more or less like every other Hudson River town that I’ve ever seen; but then I am not sure why terrestrials watch Honey Boo Boo or the Jersey Shore, either; there is no accounting for tastes, after all. He wants to write a book about his abduction, which actually sounds a lot like one of the National Lampoon vacation movies as viewed through a peyote-induced psychedelic haze with a shot of Jim Beam on the side, but he can’t find a ghostwriter to take on the project. This may be because, like the Messiah of the Jews, the UFO man is certifiably nuts or it may be because UFO man lives on cigarettes. I don’t think he eats anything—he just smokes. Merely being in his presence will turn a nonsmoker into a two pack a day man in less than three minutes, and I am sure that when the UFO man finally goes to his final reward, whether that reward is in the afterlife or on some other planet, someone here in this world will be bidding for the mineral rights to his lungs. There’s a lot of carbon in them there lungs, folks, a lot of carbon.

    Today, however, he just wanted to know how he could get the Department of Labor’s website so he could check his unemployment benefits. This surprised me no end; I had always assumed that some form of employment was a necessary precondition for receiving an unemployment check, but this does not seem to be the case. Unfortunately for him, to find one’s benefit history online one must first have a verifiable email address, and fortunately for me, he didn’t have time to set one up today. And so he left, taking with him his miasma of stale tobacco and staler extraterrestriality, and I sat behind my desk wondering, not for the first time and probably not for the last, why am I doing this? It does seem pointless. Perhaps I just like futility. Stranger things have happened, you know, and it isn’t even lunchtime yet.

  31. Carlo

    Great article here:

    http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-graying-of-traditional-photography.html

    (EZ reader translation for people who have forgotten how to read long stuff….

    All cameras now good. Technical Mastery not as important as in year’s past. Old guys love technical mastery. New guys like making different style images and don’t care about image perfection. Aesthetic pendulum swings from perfect to emotive. Some camera makers evolve. Some not. Cameras getting smaller and easier to use. Old styles of shooting fading. New styles emerging. Good time to be a photographer. Change is inevitable. Change is good for young people. Change harder for some old people. Kirk is happy and now goes off swimming. May toss all old gear and just get better phone. short enough?)

  32. Ross Nolly

    For me; the ironic thing about that link is that his own work is the epitome of “Show me what it looks like; NOT what it feels like”…. The complete opposite of what David talks about and what Tuck’s article preaches….

  33. panos skoulidas

    Song : “TRIBUTE TO MARK LANEGAN AND HERSELF” (written 1988)
    music : panos skoulidas
    lyricsn : chris skoulidas

    “Full moon and thursday a quarter to two
    no one else here but me and you
    walk hand and hand down the street thirsty and blue
    our hearts were dancing to the midsummer blues”

  36. mw

    As someone who has put considerable effort into researching what kind of photography gets shown/sold in top magazines, galleries and museums, I find the argument that technical mastery is unimportant to be mostly bunk and likely disingenuous. Especially when anyone suggests that “emotive” and “technically masterful” are mutually exclusive. Or that “image perfection” is some kind of scientific formula calculated based on such things as resolution, pixel counts, sharpness, color accuracy, or what have you.

    No, for the great majority, a high level of technical mastery is required to translate one’s vision though photography and that is recognized by those who produce, buy, sell, and collect at the higher levels. And although I note that some of the higher level professionals talk like the guy who wrote that article, I also note that they tend to be quite technically masterful themselves. I usually find one can learn more by observing what people do than from accepting at face value what they say.

    I don’t mean to accuse the writer of that article or anyone else of any kind of outright dishonesty, but in a lot of these cases money is involved and that can certainly sway one’s way of thinking in many subtle and unconscious ways. When one is writing and hopefully selling articles or trying to get students for classes and workshops, it’s no doubt hard to make a living by telling people they have to study hard and work hard for many years to achieve technical mastery and probably (though not necessarily) purchase relatively expensive equipment. No, too many people want to hear that all one needs is passion and one of the first rules of selling is to tell people what they want to hear.

    That’s not so bad. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying photography without shooting for the high end editorial or art markets. Although there aren’t a lot of dollars out there for point and shootists, there are plenty of Likes on the Instagrams and Facebooks to be had and that can be very emotionally rewarding. The great majority, however, would be advised not to use their Instagram feed as a portfolio to get a meeting with a serious publisher or gallery unless some serious technical mastery is evident in those photos.

  37. andrew b.

    RE: the Visual Science Lab article…

    “It’s no longer enough to get something in focus, well exposed and color correct. It’s no longer good enough to fix all the “flaws” in Photoshop. What the important audience wants now is the narrative, the story, the “why” and not the “how.” The love, not the schematic.”

    And at that statement, I lost all interest in (or perhaps, respect for) Mr. Tuck’s opinion. When has it *ever* been enough to get something in focus, well exposed, and color correct? When has the “important audience” ever *not* wanted the narrative, the story, the love? “Oh, that one has a beautifully exposed and color correct sky, and the focus is perfect. We’ll use that” said no NatGeo editor, ever.

    After that point in the article, all I heard was a gearhead lamenting the realization that being a gearhead wasn’t good enough. And not recognizing (or not wanting to accept) that’s not new, that it’s never been good enough….

    Are cameras getting smaller and less expensive? Sure. Are the masses going to exploit the accessibility of these smaller, less expensive cameras? Sure. Is it going to change the way photographs are produced and consumed? Sure. Can anyone say “Kodak Brownie”?

    But does it mean that high quality (from a technical perspective) images aren’t important anymore? I sure hope not. But as always, high technical quality has got to have something behind it….call it heart, call it passion, call it feeling…but you know what I mean. And none of that is new.

    —

    Happy Friday, all. I’m a bit energized since Friday means I can step back a bit from the bill-paying day job and try and focus more energy on being creative. And this weekend is Lexington Gallery Hop, the UK Art Museum’s Robert C May Endowment Photographer Lecture Series (Carl Corey this month), and a few art-related events around town that seem very promising, among them public installations of work from artists Eduardo Kobra from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Gaia from Brooklyn, NY, Phlegm from Sheffield, UK, and Odeith from Lisbon, Portugal. Gonna be fun.

    Wishing good light to you all….
    A.

  39. Paul

    As far as I see it, studying technique is an outright must. Once it’s harnessed it must be “forgotten”. Second nature in automatic mode whilst your eyes, stomach and soul are left to their own devices. If you can’t do this you either haven’t got a story to tell or haven’t practiced or shot enough photos to let go.

  40. andrew b.

    PAUL
    Exactly. I got the feeling from that article that the point was that getting the technical stuff right used to be the whole focus (pardon the pun). Good photography is more than good technical execution, and always has been.

  41. Carlo

    I think what is missing here (having read other articles from Mr Kirk) is the fact that DSLR sales are down…dramatically down. I assume the article revolves around that theme and it’s a continuation of it.

    Of course no one should take anything anyone says at face value.
    I think it helps emulating bees…..they gather pollen (whats important for them) from a wide selection of flowers not just one.
    My personal take is to try and be like them…gathering what resonates with me and learning and watching what is happening.

    As cliche as it sounds “you have to know the rules in order to break them” still holds value and it probably always will….but the rules are changing and trends seem to be going backwards instead of forward like innovation always does. I often read the example of Kodak as a company who chose to ignore the tsunami that the digital evolution brought and how they suffered as a consequence.
    There’s an argument about companies such as Nikon catering to the “older” crowd who seems to be stuck in their ways and completely ignoring what the “younger” generation seeks and ignoring any cues of the changing times, trends and basic evolution…
    When you have smart phones at their size and accessibility able to take good photos in most conditions and you have access to wireless internet with the ability to share them practically instantly you have to ask yourself why can’t a DSLR do that as well? plus the fact….here’s another cliche…..that the best camera is the one thats on you not the “pro” camera in it’s camera bag sitting at home.
    I find it also myopic to look into the future based on what we know today. One hundred years ago nano technology was probably not even a dream….that’s why I don’t find it so hard to believe that cameras will become better and better and smaller….the way of smartphones with better sensors. The NOKIA comes to mind with its 41MP sensor and seeing how it looks in print as a 3 page foldout in NatGeo is nothing short of impressive.

    Here’s another great article:

    http://cphmag.com/challenge/

    As it turns out, laypersons usually have a much better understanding of photography than critics or theorists. Whenever I talk to people who are not part of the world of photography, many of the concerns that appear to give theorists or photographers endless nightmares simply don’t appear to exist. Too many photographs? Who says so? Can there be a thing such as too many photographs, and why would that even be a problem?

    None of the non-photo-world people I have talked to over the past years has ever even entertained the idea that their photographs on Instagram, say, would be comparable to photographs produced by professionals. People know the difference between apples and oranges very well. Yet in the world of photography, we seem stuck worrying about how since they’re both round and fruits, they must be the same, right?

  42. Carlo

    Also quoting DAH about Burn diary in instagram:

    For those of you who are thinking of photography in a professional way, this is the time to “prove” you can do it. That is, producing on demand. So my friends here is your stage. Your time to show what you can do. If you can have a week of shooting and make a few really nice pictures, editors will notice. Almost everyone has a few stunning pictures in their portfolio. Want to really make an impression? Show editors what you can do NOW.

    I see this as forward thinking…adjusting to the times instead of fighting what is already happening. No doom and gloom….just seeing the opportunities where others see it as another threat…..

  43. Frostfrog

    Mike, I hear you and I feel exactly the same way about all that weight. Low light capability is critical to me. Just drop into my blog here sometime soon and see what lighting conditions my outside daytime shots are taken under. As to the heaviness and weight factor, there are times when I wonder if there is anything else out there that would be up to the task I sometimes put my Canon DSLR’s through. My recent Cross Island shoot, for example. I just don’t think any little camera out there would have enabled me to get what I got. Of course, I have since had to replace one almost brand new lens that got completely ruined on the hunt, another is in the repair shop right now and I really need to send a third in for repairs and I still fear it is just a matter of time before both 5d MIII bodies shut down on me. The way around that would have been to have bought the latest ID model rather than the two 5D’s and it probably could have stood up to everything… but it is so damn heavy…

  45. Paul

    MW and Frostfrog…

    I’ve still got my Canon 1DS2, great camera and probably the only Canon camera that perhaps could of survived Frostrog’s trip.
    In my case I just can’t use it, my style has changed immensely. If I go out with it on the streets taking strangers portraits it affects the whole relationship. They immediately assume I’m a working pro and want to be paid. This usually doesn’t occur with any other camera . So it ends up sitting at home…

  46. Ross Nolly

    “that’s why I don’t find it so hard to believe that cameras will become better and better and smaller….the way of smartphones with better sensors. The NOKIA comes to mind with its 41MP sensor and seeing how it looks in print as a 3 page foldout in NatGeo is nothing short of impressive”

    Aggreed. I haven’t touched the D300 in over 6-months; been using the little V1’s (for paying and personal work)…. People get too hung up over numbers (Megapixel count, asa rating etc). Just had 5 1/2 pages (15 images) used in my last article including a double page spread. So really it’s got to the stage where good enough is good enough.

    And that’s a camera many have grizzled about as too noisy etc. I’ve come to the conclusion that most worry too much about the image quality rather than the quality of the image….

  47. Paul

    “I don’t know what good composition is…. Sometimes for me composition has to do with a certain brightness or a certain coming to restness and other times it has to do with funny mistakes. There’s a kind of rightness and wrongness and sometimes I like rightness and sometimes I like wrongness.”
    Diane Arbus

  48. Paul

    “What moves me about…what’s called technique…is that it comes from some mysterious deep place. I mean it can have something to do with the paper and the developer and all that stuff, but it comes mostly from some very deep choices somebody has made that take a long time and keep haunting them.”
    Diane Arbus

  49. Paul

    “I think people should just use photography to say things and not just photography for the sake of photography, you know. I see so many photographers, now I do quite a few workshops in these days, the world is full of talented photographers. The problem is just so many of them just don’t know what to say, they think life is one thing and photography is another but they don’t realise that photography is just a way to reflect what you are.”
    Antoine d’Agata

  50. Frostfrog

    Paul, I have the 1Ds2 and I briefly thought about taking it to Cross Island, but I haven’t picked it up for a at least a couple of years and I just can’t stand the thought of ever using it again. The other night, I went to a basketball scrimmage and took 5D M III. I started out with it but then I just let it hang loose and switched to my iPhone. If it had been critical for me to really produce something, then I would have stuck with 5D, but it wasn’t, so I didn’t.

    Before I bought this new iPhone 5s, I thought briefly about the NOKIA, but the idea of having to deal with 41 mp images in my pocket and hard drives just didn’t appeal to me and so I stuck to the iPhone. I have not seen the three page spread in NG, but who knows – maybe I made a mistake. But of course a phone is not just a camera, so other things must be thought of as well.

    Whatever, I believe the day of big DSLR’s has reached evening. The camera companies that server pros – i.e., Canon, Nikon… had better figure this out and adapt fast and not just leave it all to the phone makers or they will lose out. Market prices for Canon bodies are, what, about $7500 for the latest 1d (x, I believe)?About $3500 for 5D M 3? What kind of pro camera employing the same type of basic technology used by the phone makers, but amped up, could be marketed to pros at similar prices?

  51. david alan harvey

    hello all

    i have been so crazy busy i have not had time to be around Burn except to post stuff…my main job, but just no time to be here in comments….

    been on the run for weeks….and straight from mexico to korea with often no internet and well no time….

    skimmed the comments here and see the camera phone is again the topic for many…i do not even think there ca be a discussion on this anymore….

    the camera phone is not only here to stay , it has quickly become THE camera of choice by many….an extension of your body as no other camera…sure i wish they had at least slightly larger sensors…and they will….and all cameras within a year will have wifi to compete with the phone camera…the phone camera has totally revolutionized the photo world in the short time we have even been having this discussion here on Burn…

    for street photography now how do you beat it? since everyone is using a phone camera everywhere all the time, nobody looks out of place using one…i have w me now my Nikon D800…i tried taking it out to shoot some street stuff and immediately put it back in the bag…too damned big too damned obtrusive..so i use my Fuji x100s or s100x whatever it is, and this has become my “big camera”…and yes for some things i use my med format mamiya vii film camera…

    the phone camera has all of us shooting all the time…loose or studied….

    the mobile phone has changed our lives..for better or for worse….i now know that if i only got on a plane with ONE OBJECT i could do absolutely everything with my phone , including getting on the plane …my etickets are now on my phone…if i had in my pocket a credit card, a passport, and my iPhone, i could go anywhere and do everything..and for sure someday my passport and my credit card will also be on my phone….

    this is so crazy that if i even lose my phone for a few seconds i go into total panic attack…if somebody stole my camera i would be not so happy…if somebody stole my phone, i would be apoplectic

    that is just the way it is

    home for Thanksgiving (i think)..and time to chat with all of you a bit more…..

    cheers, david

  52. Frostfrog

    David, concerning everyone using their phone as a camera and your panic at the thought losing yours, if time allows be sure to read this Instagram I posted earlier today. The picture is one you could easily scroll past without paying much attention, but stop and read the text. I think you will get a kick out of it:

    http://instagram.com/p/gyW0sivqbh/

  56. pAtrIcIO m.

    @ DAVID:

    I think that in a couple of years you won’t think anymore about your Iphone or Ipassport or credit card ’cause one small chip will be hidden below your skin in your forearm, so, at least that losing your arm you will carry everything with you… Tech stuff moves at the speed of light…

    Does anyone here tried GoogleGlasses??

    Shine. P.

  58. Gordon Lafleur

    I guess I’m a fossil. I just have not warmed to using an iphone to make photos. I actually have one, I bought my son’s old one when he upgraded. It’s been mostly sitting in a drawer. I have not had it activated, still using my old flip phone, and only make about 6 phone calls a month on it.

    I prefer eye level viewing and make my personal photographs with either an old Canon Rebel XS usually with a little 28mm lens, or my Fuji X100. Both are small and light. I only use my 5d11 for work. I make portraits for a living, and full frame suits my portrait needs better. I’d welcome a much smaller full frame camera.

    The angle of view on the iphone is kind of wide for my taste, and I don’t really like the infinite depth of field, or the general look of iphone images compared to larger sensors. This year I’ve started shooting film again after not shooting any since 2003, and am discovering that I still like both the process, and way the images are rendered.

    I have to admit, I’m getting tired of seeing all the ap/instagram processed photos everywhere. They’re all kind of looking too trendy at this point. Kind of reminds me of a point in the sixties when all that cross-processing and high contrast was cool. I did my share back then. It was fun but got boring fast.

    I may yet fire up the iphone, but I’m not in a rush. I mean, don’t you iphone shooters ever think to yourself when looking at an iphone photo “damn, I wish I’d shot that with a real camera”?

  59. RPruszynski

    Gordon,

    we can’t always have a real camera with us so the question may be get the photo or nothing at all. The iPhone or Galaxy is a better option to nothing at all.

  60. pAtrIcIO m.

    @ ALL:
    How can you deal with the fact that you never get the picture when you really want it? I mean, there is ALWAYS a shutter delay with phones that there is not with DSLR cameras or Fuji or Lumix.
    I cannot deal with that…

    Instagram transforms a 2:3 picture in a 1:1 ratio.
    When you shoot you see the whole cell phone frame not a square frame?? Is there and App to use the entire frame with that kind of software?

    Gracias. P.

  61. panos skoulidas

    (lyrics)

    DAY AT THE ZOO (TRIBUTE TO LOU REED)

    Do you remember the other day
    you called me on the phone
    i asked you well how you doin
    you said : im all alone

    Do you remember that evening by the river
    you were so drunk you couldnt see me at all
    i was feeling cold in the middle of december
    No Romance at all

    Do you remember that morning in the zoo last year
    how much you scared that poor little monkey
    you were so drunk again, i carried u on my shoulder
    i was feeling like a donkey

  64. mw

    pAtrIcIO m, I found an app called Easy Square that lets you get a full frame photo on Instagram. Also found I had little to no interest in doing it, but that’s a different story.

    Regarding this comment thread that’s turned into yet another rehashing of people’s obsession with a particular type camera, my comment above was not about any particular type camera. It was about the article that Carlo linked to’s contention that when one used a particular type camera that technical mastery of photography was no longer necessary and that in the future everyone would use a particular type camera and could make equally great photos with it. Personally, I don’t see that happening. It’s like most people eat identical meals at McDonald’s or that particular type of restaurant. Like some particular types of cameras, it’s very convenient and they are everywhere. Yet the high end dining experience is still out there and will always provide options that the fast food joints don’t. My position is that you can eat what you like and can afford and I’ll eat what I like and can afford and we should all be able to get along despite these superficial and unimportant differences.

  65. andrew b.

    Yes, as is often the case this conversation took a turn I had not intended after my comments as well. Of course, In hindsight it should have been terribly predictable. (AKAKY – straight line? Surely there is some subject for intellectually comedic rambling in here).

    I, too, was referencing the article that Carlo linked, but got a very different message from it than MW. While the article was related to the demise or challenges of the DSLR market and the declining sales of them, there was a point midway that immediately turned me off, and it really related to content and voice as opposed to imaging device used..

    What turned me off in the article was that there seemed to be a lamenting that technical mastery was NO LONGER the goal, and that the attention now is on emotion and, for lack of a better summary word, heart. Or voice. Or feeling.

    I maintain that technical mastery will continue to be a foundation element, and that it alone has NEVER been enough by itself. It seemed like the author was disappointed that learning to make a well exposed, color-correct, sharply focused image wasn’t enough anymore. I contend that it has never been enough….

    Anyway, whatever you capture your images with, continue to do the work…I am trying to practice that preaching now, and am pleased with two or three images I got over the weekend at a very surreal art event/festival/party….and quite a few almost-but-not-quite images….which I found not discouraging other than the missed opportunity…but encouraging that I even saw the potential….

    On a different note, last weekend I also had the opportunity to attend a talk by Carl Corey, and see some of his prints, and after the lecture had the chance to meet him and chat informally about a few things.

    Interesting images, more interesting to me after examining them for a bit…and I like his approach to meeting and photographing people. His images struck me as like a Richard Avedon with feeling and compassion for the subject. I bought his book “Tavern League”, and like many of the images in his current projects, especially “Blue”, which is portraits of American blue-collar workers in their work environment.

    If you’re interested, you can see his work on his website. The monthly notes and Diary sections are kind of interesting: carlcorey.com

    good light, all.
    A.

  66. Carlo

    If you are happy shooting with an iphone do it
    If you are happy shooting with an DSLR do it
    If you are happy shooting with an SLR do it….

    If you have chosen photography as your way of expression you will do it with whatever tool is available to you…

  67. mw

    Again, just to be clear, I agree with everything Andrew says about the limits of technical mastery. It’s a pre-req, not an end goal. No amount of technical mastery will help people who have nothing interesting to say. But technical mastery will provide much more opportunity to those who do have something to say to say it in the unique ways they envision. And, also importantly, it gives us the necessary knowledge to properly choose the best tool(s) to tell the story, whatever those tools may be.

    Most people, I think, see photography as pictures of things. When a parent takes a picture of her daughter before the prom, that’s all the picture is about. That’s what her daughter looked like before the prom. Technical advances in digital cameras give parents the ability to take technically much better pictures of things such as their daughters in prom dresses than in the past, and that’s nice, but it still ends up being just a picture of a thing. An artist, on the other hand, is not taking a picture of the individual in a prom dress. He or she is making an image that speaks to some of the cultural ramifications of the prom; of teenagers hopes and dreams and how society stuffs them into expensive, tacky clothes and makes them pretend to have a good time as a precursor to the rest of their lives. Well, maybe not that, but something beyond the thing that is being photographed. And outside of the ten trillion monkeys typing for a thousand years will eventually write something as good as War and Peace phenomenon, technical mastery is a big part of what allows the artist to tell a compelling story where most people just photograph a thing.

    As for photography as a happy pill, that’s fine. Whatever gets one through the night, as they say. It sure beats anti-depressants. But I think for most top photographers it’s about much more than that. Many stories are sad or disgusting or even sickening, but the photographer believes they need to be told and is willing to do so at great emotional cost and discomfort. I very much doubt, for example, that James Nachtwey is happy while photographing TB victims. For many, I know, it’s an unselfish thing.

  68. Carlo

    Let’s put it this way to try and please everybody…I will try but we all know that’s impossible:

    If you like shooting with an iphone do it
    If you like shooting with an DSLR do it
    If you like shooting with an SLR do it….

    and to borrow nike’s saying….”just do it”

    we can all half joke, no?

    anyways….more and more professionals are expressing how photography is the new universal language…it’s not just about books, galleries, shows, whatever….it really is everywhere….in places we probably don’t even consider. Last time I was at the dentist they pull out a canon 7D with a ring light and took photos of my ugly mouth and teeth….it was pretty scary….so yes…..it’s everywhere. I guess it’s more a matter of perspective…which angle you are looking at it from. Look at what JR is doing!
    I like how Koudelka, D’agata and others put it…photography is about life….and life is everywhere…

  69. Imants

    ….more and more professionals are expressing how photography is the new universal language…it’s not just about books, galleries, shows, whatever….it really is everywhere……….. this just highlights how far photographers are out of touch with what the general population has been aware of for a long time

  70. mw

    Here’s a good anecdote that gets to the heart of what I’m trying to say. In response to an article on Lou Reed’s recent death a professional guitarist wrote something that included a line to the effect that Lou was not a virtuoso guitarist. I asked if he was familiar with “Songs for Drella” and was curious how he could consider that performance and not consider Lou to be a virtuoso. His answer was that he meant no disrespect, quite the contrary. He said that Lou was technically a very good guitarist, but that he or pretty much any professional guitarist could play the same notes Lou played. The difference, he said, was that although they conceivably could have, no one else ever thought to play the same notes Lou played.

    I think that’s apt for photographers as well. With all the advancements in technology, pretty much any professional photographer can take the same quality photos as Cartier Bresson or any of the old or new masters. But thinking to take those pictures? That’s what separates the artists from the technicians. And choosing the right tools as well. Lou worked extensively with custom guitar makers. He knew his instruments quite well and that was how he was able to translate the sounds he could think of into sounds other people could hear. And beyond the sounds, he had very unique and insightful stories to tell.

    I don’t mean to be argumentative, at least not in any kind of hostile way. This is just stuff I enjoy discussing. As for the “if you like” construction, I don’t much care what I shoot with as long as it does the job I need it to do. What I like is getting compelling images that stand on their own but more importantly convey aspects of stories I want to tell. Whatever technology helps with that is fine with me.

  71. Akaky

    I should get a cellphone; apparently everyone here in this our Great Republic has a cellphone and a plan with unlimited texting and I’m getting tired of the strange looks I get when I tell people that I’ve never had one. As for technical mastery, well, I think knowing what you’re doing always helps. As Louis Pasteur or some other very famous dead French person said, luck favors the prepared mind. Andrew, conversations will do all sorts of turning when you’re not around to keep them on track. I blame peer pressure for that sort of thing. And drugs; you can never underestimate the influence of drugs these days.

  77. eduardo sepulveda

    Something goes in a way more ‘photography’ to me, more kodakchrome, more trix, less ‘über-extra-info’…

  78. a civilian-mass audience

    APOPLECTIC:

    “Apoplectic comes from a Greek word that means to “disable by a stroke.” What is a stroke? The sudden loss of consciousness or control caused when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures or becomes blocked. When this happens, a person becomes apoplectic. This word also applies to someone who acts so upset, it is like he or she is having a stroke.”

    That’s why I LOVE BURN !!!

  81. panos skoulidas

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNf3mvCrW0E

    That day that the guitar started talking

    video shot on super old MICRO-NIKKOR MEDICAL 55mm ceramic lens… it was supposed to shoot pills and medicine…not guitars

    but for me? a guitar IS the ULTIMATE med…

    ….all those stories that the guitar telling me and im unable to hear..coz im only trained to listen to myself and myself only while making love to her.. but the guitar had numerous lovers before me…

  83. panos skoulidas

    My old friend Petros appeared again.. I lost him for 15 years .. Suddenly one day he called me out of the blue.. “I’m playing LYRA” he said, that old music instrument that defines the traditional folk music from the Greek island of Crete… ” I wrote a song ” he said..
    Petros used to have an indie band back in LA where he was born from a Greek father and an LA woman mom…
    Now he lives in Napa with his wife and two babies . Years went by but Petros stayed the same . A true artist , a youngster , a seeker ..
    “Send me the song” I screamed with my eyes on fire .. Send me that LYRA song and I’ll dress it up.. I’ll add guitars , drums, violin etc… I’ll record it and share it with the world …
    So I added:
    There are 8 LAYERS:
    1) Petro’s original LYRA/ vocals
    2)violin
    3) VINTAGE DRUM KIT ( 4 changes )
    4) lead guitar
    5) acoustic guitar
    6) distorted guitar
    7) clean guitar
    8) BASE guitar

  86. a civilian-mass audience

    HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYYY THANKS GIVING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    oime…PANOS :)

    I Love you MY BURNIANS!!! I hope you are ALL out there… shooting …remember this…

    you are ALL Brave,Unique,Rock,Noble…BURN THANK YOU!!!

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