At the other end of these swim fins is a 76 year old woman. Diving for abalone on Jeju Island, S Korea. She is in a full on rubber wetsuit and has a line to the float which holds her bag net perhaps full with 40 pounds of shellfish after 6 hours in the sea. Koreans in general are a hardy breed to say the least, yet none more stalwart than these Haenyeo. #Haenyeo #SouthKorea #Jeju Island
From Proof:
http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2014/11/06/instants-south-koreas-haenyeo-free-divers/
CARLO
this will i think in the long run be a very interesting story…it moves me….i am usually in the totally opposite type of environment…more Latin as you know….yet i have done many stories in the East..;Vietmam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand Japan etc etc…yet a very special thing happens to me in the East….i learn LOTS….always have ..my college roommate was Japanese, so i started then…the outward nature of the Latin cultures appeals to me for obvious reasons, yet the deep less outgoing cultures also bring a very special sensibility to the table…yet for all the months and even years i have spent in the East, i have never felt compelled to publish a book ..only in NatGeo do my East photographs appear….yet this time i think i will do a book or zine…no, not just the one i am being commissioned now to do, but my own as well…we will see…these women really got to my heart….
cheers, david
David,
Zine sounds fitting somehow…more document like and less formal than an actual book.
Probably gives you even more freedom I assume.
You mentioned on Instagram that two divers had died…. Could you elaborate more on that if possible?
Were you at the scene? Very sad and more so since they are a dying generation and the last ones as you have mentioned.
One last thing….I sent you an email….
Did you have any plans to shoot under water?
Gopro or a water housing on your GF1 come to mind.
At any rate, what a fascinating project!
Good luck and best wishes.
I too was curious about shooting underwater on this project. Somehow it seems it would be incomplete without at least some coverage of their actual work environment! Good luck finding a wetsuit that will fit you in Korea… you could probably order one from the States for express delivery.
SIDNEY …. MIKE
yes, i must do SOMETHING underwater but i am not David Doubilet nor Paul Nicklin ha ha….also i saw another film with a younger guy and experienced diver who said he had a very hard time with it….strong currents , rocky shores….i have done some scuba work prior, but not lately….so i think whatever i do in water will be “artistic” rather than some super underwater shot…when i took this commission i assumed they were going to use a stock underwater shot for the book…yet alas they want dah photos for all of it…..anyway working on a housing and yes a wetsuit large enough for me….and shhhhh, my family has actually forbidden me from doing an underwater shot….in any case, i will have a super experienced diver with me….
cheers, david
CARLO
honestly i only feel like zines these days….i have about four lined up..Song of Oaxaca, Up From the Sands (Dubai), Beach Games (Rio), and now Haenyeo…..where is the time? geez…two in colour two in b&w…
i was not in the specific area where the two Haenyeo died at sea simultaneously….i was about 5 miles away with another group….and i cannot get any information either…it was on the news, but with no specifics at all….that sort of thing is just not researchable in Korea and not something anyone wants to publicise either…i will do something with it…like go see the families or whatever, but i just cannot do anything more….
cheers, david
DAVID,
One idea for tracking down an XXXL wetsuit in Korea is through the USAFKN (US Armed Forces Korea Network) English broadcasts (radio and TV) that may be willing to carry an appeal on their public service-community bulletin board type broadcasts… they used to do this kind of thing in the old days and may still.. with all those big brawny US military personnel stationed in Korea there are bound to be some Scuba divers who would loan you a wetsuit for a short gig.
I don’t think anybody expects ‘Doubie’ or Flip Nicklin treatment, but I’m sure you will find a way to extend your inimitable DAH authorship to some B&W underwater shots. Best of luck!
For underwater work I reckon the cheapest option is the Nikon AW1; a good compromise in cost, image quality and portability. I’ve been using the V1(sort of sister camera to the AW1) for nearly everything lately, Highly underrated…. I’m going to buy the AW1 as an all-weather camera….
http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product/Nikon1/27669/Nikon-1-AW1.html
SIDNEY
i found a wetsuit…..but thnx for the tip …..
ROSS
i must say i had not even heard of this camera…i am going to check it out for sure…really really coulda shoulda woulda used it on this project…if the files are any good at all, it sure sounds like a winner…..
thanks and great to see you here again…
cheers, david
David; well it’s no D800 (resolution) or D4 (see’s in the dark!) but the RAW files are great. I haven’t touched the D300 (have just sold it) since getting the V1; it’s about 95% as good (image wise) as my D300 and actually better at 1600asa. The AF is as fast or faster than a D4 and it also has a silent shutter if needed which is helluva handy.
I’m sure you could find a AW1 in South Korea…
I had V1 images beside D300 images (at 18×12 inch) side by side in my last exhibition and you couldn’t tell them apart…. :-)
As for being back; I hang around like a bad smell…. ;-)
ROSS
well honestly i do not know the D300 either….also i think images 18×12 inches look pretty good from almost any camera…my print sizes are 30×40 inches or larger and that’s when you see the difference….yet i must say i have a lot of prints very large from my old favorite the GF1 and the AW1 must be better than the GF1 file wise…in my Rio book i have some pages where the Leica M9 is up against the iPhone, and you cannot tell the difference either unless you look really really close….
what i like about what you say, and what the ads say, is that the thing is TOUGH…and that matters to me….i seem to be in what i would call very tough camera conditions so much of the time…especially the beach and rain….so if the autofocus is good and files reasonable, it sure sounds great..and the price is right too for sure…
what about manual focus on the AW1?? when things are really moving around fast, as with lots of people either dancing or just lots of things going on, i go to manual….
matter of fact autofocus in general for me is a big disappointment except for my D800 which i end up never using because it is just too big for 90% of what i do….i can still focus a Leica rangefinder faster than anything i can do w autofocus….
anyway, thanx for the tips…i am sure i will pick up an AW1 in Seoul….
cheers, david
ROSS…
did you test the 10mm lens on the AW1?
cheers, david
I haven’t bought the AW1 yet; only the V1. Manual focus is a pain; like most mirrorless. I use the 10mm all the time and it’s great. The AW 10mm is the same as the above land variety; just with gaskets and sealing etc.
As for 30×40; I couldn’t say. Maybe not. I could have easily gone bigger than 12×18; my wallet couldn’t though! ;-) But it’s probably worth having one to use in situations where you don’t want to drown a more pricy camera ;-)
anyway; just a few thoughts…. :-)
Damn, now I want one of those underwater cameras.
David, I like what you’re doing with the whites in some of those photos. Technique honed in Rio, eh.
I know most of you print lovers follow these things, but just in case, this is a fantastic deal. Not just Harvey, but signed, $100 prints available from thirty-some-odd Magnum photographers. My gallery just sold one of my nature prints for $90. I should definitely lower my prices.
http://store.magnumphotos.com/collections/square-print-sale/products/magnum-square-print-by-david-alan-harvey-signed?mc_cid=c35e341d26&mc_eid=543b5986e3
“alas they want dah photos for all of it…..”
Not “alas.” It would be all wrong for a stock photo by another to appear anywhere in there…
PS: That promo code I sent you a couple of weeks ago only has a life of 4 weeks, then expires and that code is gone forever and Apple only gives me a limited number limited number to draw from. It doesn’t look to me like you can cash it in from Korea which for some reason is not on the 51 country list. Maybe you could have Diego or Kaya download it and after you return, I will withdraw another from the limited supply and send it to you again.
David…
will you do me a favour please? If you finally do go diving, do please take a knife with you.
underwater? really???oime??? shall I call the family?
oh,well…you are DAH!!! therefore,we are ALL going to do it…I will challenge ALL MY BURNIANS…
and remember…if you find any stolen Greek marbles down there(e.x.Aphrodite’s leg) …let me know ASAP:))))
Love,big hugs and Bravo BURN !!!
MW
well i am sure you think of me as a primarily color photographer….most do…yet i think of myself as a b&w photographer even when i am shooting colour…black still my primary color for color…my color is pretty monochromatic anyway…Parr shoots color…i started in b&w and shot b&w only for 15 years before starting color…so i think i had my b&w pretty “down” long before Rio…i was a meticulous b&w printer..still am…zone system for exposure and development etc….it’s all a bit different w digi, but still the basics are the basics…of the four zines i have coming, two are in color and two are in b&w….i gotta say though that i probably love b&w more..certainly for this era…color is just too damned hard!! Leica is gonna loan me a monochrome model….that will be the test…to see if i can live with b&w only….
cheers, david
@ MW:
Great for selling your picture! It’s not so easy nowadays.
@ DAVID: I’ve just purchased your sunny-funny-intense-Rio-beach-jump :-D
@ ALL:
After an exhibit, I’ve sold some of my framed-XPAN pictures and is rewarding when people buy something from you, very intimate, done with care and love.
Personally I think, they are buying to hang it on the wall, but also they have “you”, as a person on the wall/house. Starring at the picture with a cup of coffée or beer in the couch is like thinking about the artists as well…
Abrazoooooo
“underwater? really???oime??? shall I call the family?
oh,well…you are DAH!!! therefore,we are ALL going to do it…I will challenge ALL MY BURNIANS…”
Challenge all you want, Civi, but I ain’t going in the damn water.
AKAKY
i don’t blame you…i would not go underwater either except i want to test this little Olympus waterproof shockproof camera….i do live by the sea….i love the sea…but diving UNDER the sea has never been my thing….i don’t like caves either…or the subway …..or elevators…i do love those old Corona ads though…blue water, palm trees, and sitting in a beach chair and a bird flys by…
cheers, david
PATRICIO
thnx…i gotta pay the rent!!
SKIWAVES
yup..just trying to get a wetsuit that fits…gonna get one special made at the wetsuit factory here…most of the tourists here renting scuba gear are a bit smaller than am i…and i have gotten a bit smaller on this Korean diet which just must be the very best diet in the world..no fat at all…wish i could keep it…seems to me that only 1 out of 1,000 Koreans could be considered approaching overweight..
i bought the little Olympus TG3. Damn thing is amazing. Goes down 50 feet which is 40 feet deeper than i want to go…can also drop it from 6 feet which is about my height..the shockproof part is going to be the most useful part for me!! spilling beer on my camera is no longer a worry…Kyunghee Lee brought it to me from the mainland…what a woman…
home soon amigo….before Thanksgiving…yup there goes my Korean diet down the drain!!
cheers, david
David, well perhaps a bit, but mainly I just consider you a photographer. With the white comment, I was thinking you were using the same technique on some of the diver photos as you used for the beachball photo in Rio.
I do a lot of black and white these days but have yet to entirely stop thinking of myself as a color photographer. I’m in a lot of dark gyms and other places where color just doesn’t work. At first, I reluctantly converted crappy color photos to black and white, but came around to recognizing that a photo would be crappy in color and composing and exposing it differently so it would be good in black and white. It’s more than a question of black and white being easier than color. Sometimes, color is simply impossible and it becomes a question of acing the black and white in a difficult situation. But when I can do color, it’s still my preference. And I like the challenge. In the end,though, it’s all good fun.
ROSS
well you know i wanted to buy the Nikon AW1…at your suggestion…not available, so i now have the Olympus TG3….so far i can only say AMAZING….i don’t do scientific tests, just practical ones and the little thing WORKS…first off it is smaller than my iPhone 5…no protruding lens, so flat, and fits in my pocket…..
i used it in in a real way last night…had dinner with a Korean family…mother and daughter free shellfish divers, the kids, husband and friend….i just met these folks….i always like shooting family life but one must balance being polite with getting pictures…you know the drill…especially here in Korea where things are a bit conservative by Western view….i mean you cannot just jump up from the table and shoot a picture which is what you want to do but cannot do…with this little camera i was able to shoot AND eat AND be polite…i had the damned thing using the wrist strap around my right hand and was able to use chopsticks , talk, drink soju, and shoot all at the same time…now THAT’S a test..files as good as my D800??…no BUT i could hot have used the D800 at all in this case….
battery life seems awful…so you do need a pocketful of batteries to get through the 4,000 shots you will get off of a 32gig card..3-500 shots per battery…small sensor BUT this makes for super fast autofocus….and the meter is the smartest thing i have seen….perfect point and shoot exposures every time in normal household light..in household light just amazing files ..even the optical zoom seems perfect in practical use….it is a tiny bit noisy in lower than normal room light, i tested in a dark corner of my hotel room, but i have not tried it yet in a crowded low light low life bar, but i will…flash perfect though…
i have no idea how it will work underwater, but i will let you know…i can’t bear to test the shockproof part on purpose…but i am SURE that will happen naturally!!
for sure i will still get the AW1…for me amateur equipment has always worked the best except for my old Leica which is really the only pro camera i ever used in day to day shooting…all my NatGeo stuff prior to the Leica M6 was with the Nikon FE2, a prosumer amateur camera…amateur stuff easy to use and unobtrusive…my super pro D800 mostly sits at home….i love it, files unbelievable, but i don’t use it…..so there is a dah camera test!!
thanks for getting me onto the waterproof shockproof bandwagon Ross..did not really know those things existed…i don’t get out much!!
cheers, david
MW
oh Michael i get that totally…i took on the colour “challenge” for 30 years or so w NatGeo….only shot one b&w story for them in all those years…..color is just harder for so so so many reasons…and was especially so all those years shooting transparency film which was unforgiving and no lcd screen and weeks before i saw anything and hiding film from undercover cops in Hanoi , Cuba etc…did make me learn to be “right on” though…now looking back seems like an outrageous burden…..almost as bad as imagining pay phones and no ATM machines and where was life before my iPhone? can barely remember what THAT must have been like…
cheers, david
DAH & MW,
I actually do not really buy the argument that color is more difficult or challenging than B&W as a blanket generalization… I think much depends on the individual. A lot of great photographers of David’s generation grew up with B&W and mastered the medium and had their sensitivities tuned to it at an impressionable age. And even after some of them adapted (brilliantly in DAH’s case) to color, their hearts and minds were still often attuned to B&W. However, there are people who would never have thought to pick up a camera except to shoot in color. Although I have few insecurities about working with color, I have little or no confidence about producing quality B&W images… I really think it is a different way of seeing that some people have and some people don’t. I can sometimes admire and appreciate good B&W work, but I don’t have a clue about how to do it. I just don’t see the world that way. (My limitation, I know).
SIDNEY
i agree overall with what you are saying….i suppose one of the reasons i found it “harder” was the colour transparency bit..now that is hard….color negative a different story…the other thing is just colour itself..more elements to think about…one little green scarf on a ladies head over in the corner, and a picture is ruined…in b&w no matter…still my main body of work is in colour…all of my collector prints are in colour …the new fiction series i am doing is in colour…so do not think that i forsake colour at all….yet as i mentioned before mine is almost all very monochromatic…and all my colour work is based on the colour black which is exactly the same as my b&w…
cheers, david
DAVID,
Of course, the less-than-one-full-stop lattitude, often less than half a stop lattitude, in exposing color slide film was a real and continuous challenge compared to the more liberal width that most print film, whether B&W or color, allowed in exposures. The ability to master that demanding and unforgiving exposure discipline was something I always admired about NatGeo photographers and others who worked primarily with transparency film on the fly and without benefit of direct feedback. Using matrix-metering or spot-metering in modern cameras at high ISO’s with instant feedback and working with RAW digital files means that anyone today can get good exposures.
The reason I think color is more difficult is because there are so many ways that different colors in a photo can not work with each other and/or the composition as a whole. Shades of grey are much more forgiving with one another
The flash is something of an equalizer. That’s a truth few people seem to get. Present company excepted, of course.
David, for me the Leica monochrom is a gift. I grew up with Tri X. And I learned to expose for shadows and develop for highlights. And the monochrom brought that all full circle. The opposite of what we do with digital color cameras these days. It is easy to blow highlights with the monochrom…unrecoverable. Keep in mind that the histogram shows true raw file info, unlike all other digital cameras (with the exception of some medium format cameras). So I tend to underexpose. It is incredible how much shadow detail and be pulled out of these files. They do require some degree of processing as a properly exposed file is flat. Just as a good film negative should be.
“as good as my D800??…no BUT i could hot have used the D800 at all in this case…”
I find that with the little V1. It just gets out of the way and let’s you work. I used to shoot manual exposure etc; but the metering is so bulletproof that I hardly ever have it off S or A. I’ve had a few people laugh at it; you know; small (1- inch) sensor etc etc, but I can’t be bothered with having a p***ing contest in the snow about it! :-)
I did send you a jpeg from the V1 (to your Burn address) that will give you an idea of the AW image quality.
Anyway; pleased to have been of help. :-)
DAH – Never mind. I’ll send another email about the promo code and see if I get a response from anyone this time.
Virgil and David…
I tried out the Monochrom a while ago and I fell absolutely in love with the machine. Too bad I just can’t afford it. I found if I exposed for highlights exactly like good old slide film the shadows took care of themselves and applying a smooth upside down u shape curve it was absolutely amazing the shadow detail waiting to be discovered.
I think I could live with that camera for the rest of my life.
The color and black vs. black and white conundrum is on my mind a lot these days. Here are a couple photos I took last week that illustrate a bit of what I’m talking about. There’s no way the black and white pic could be interesting in color. The color pic is an example of using flash to disguise the clutter. In these cases, the black and white was certainly easier, both to conceive and to execute.
Fascinating. I shoot pretty much only in B&W, and the blacks are my favourite tones. I never really considered shooting colour, where the base colour is the same for B&W. Maybe if I ever get bored or ‘done’ with just greys, I’ll know what to look for.
I prefer B&W, simply because it means I can concentrate on form, over what colours are where, and does it balance etc.
My reason for making most of my photos in BW is down to a matter of free time. I can’t stand bland colour images, the colours and luminosity have to inspire me and that sort of light only occurs at very specific times of day. So with BW I’m not tied down so much by the constraints of rich colours and good light and I can basically shoot whenever I want.
photographer > photograph > world > audienc
PAUL VIRGIL
well i am not sure how long Leica is loaning me the monochrome..at least through February i think….surely long enough to know….i will be shooting for their new M magazine…have you seen it? quite spectacular..no ads just pictures taken w M cameras….so some of my vintage stuff and then brand new work from Rio…tried to get it here for this Haenyeo story, which woulda been perfect but customs probs….you should both submit work….looking forward to those files you describe…
cheers, david
David – hope we’ll hear from you on your experience with the M-Monochrom.
I’ve been shooting in “binges”, alternating for a few months doing color with an M9-P and B&W with the M-Monochrom. Then, had to send the Monochrom in to Leica to fix some dead pixels, two days before the warranty ran out. Ended up shooting B&W with the M9 for a while. This gave me the feeling that, for high-contrast B&W — let’s call it the “35mm aesthetic” — that I like to do, sometimes the M9 files were easier to process to yield the results I wanted. Not that I’m throwing in the towel on the Monochrom, although I don’t worry about shadow detail that much.
For processing, for both cameras, I start with VSCO/Replichrome profiles that I use as the starting point for further adjustment in LR5. If that doesn’t get me where I want to be, I go to Silver Efex.
—Mitch (Mieczysław)/Bangkok
I’m a little unclear on the whole concept of the Monochrome camera thing. My understanding has always been that the sensor captures data RAW and then the RAW processing software interprets and modifies it. So does the Leica M sensor somehow capture Raw data differently? Or do they have proprietary software that’s specially designed for better monochrome images? If people are using Lightroom’s ACR as the RAW processor, where is the difference coming from?
Some else may be able to respond with more technical depth, but essentially the Monochrom has no color filter array in front of the sensor. Therefore, all the light goes through to each sensor rather only than one of the three filter colors being able to go through to each sensor location — hence, higher sensitivity. More importantly, there is no need for demosaicing by the RAW developer — hence no fuzzing up of details. Also, each captured pixel results in one output pixel without blurring of details from the combining of neighboring pixel that demosaicing introduces — thus higher resolution.
—Mitch/Bangkok
What Mitch said was bang on, they’ve just pulled out a filter when manufacturing the sensor.
http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/color-monochrome-camera-sensors
I know boys and their toys are a great topic of conversation, but let me interrupt for just a minute to ask for some opinions. I’ve been thinking about doing a series of projects based on life here in our happy little burg and I’m just wondering what you guys think of the following:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/akaky/sets/72157648874706307/
or this:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/akaky/sets/72157649226290646/
tia
Firstly: Are you and Chuck lorre related? (those cards at the end of his productions share a similar style sometimes)
second: As informal snaps of places you go, and people you know they are fine. As Essay quality pictures they aint there yet by quite a long wway. ‘Your little Burg’ may be a real interesting place but waht is the angle? Bars? whats special about them? ..etc etc
And then how do you convey that thing in pictures that are interesting/compelling/pretty/sad/whatever in a way that I/we/joeschmoe would want to view them at least twice?
What is your style?
whose style do you like?
Formal/informal? edgy/safe? natural/posed? color/BW/Custom look?
Treatment is as important as subject.
subject is as important as story.
Story is the frame tha holds the pictures you make from the above.
And maybe break ‘series’ down into its individual parts and tackle them one at a time.
Saying all that, if you tied these together with words as an ongoing blog they would be just fine, but then they would just be serving the words as a visual punctuation…and thats cool too right? as long as that is the intention.
Hope that helps a little.
AKAKY
i ALWAYS like the idea of photographers shooting in their own backyard…and this work (at least an edited way down version) could be promising…what John Gladdy says is i think correct…
what i would love to see from you is a visual interpretation with the same style as your writing…your sense of humor, sarcasm, sardonic twists in PICTURES…i can see from this that you have all the material available…the characters and locations all perfect…if i took this down to 5-10 pictures it would already be better than previous work that i know of yours…still you need that AKAKY TWIST to it….that is to make it an essay…and for me this only needs to be 10 pictures….or even 8…you do not need LOTS….you simply need a visual “hook”…same as the way you write….
once before we ran an essay of yours here with i think only one picture…that’s ok too…that’s all that New Yorker would do…a powerful word essay with one picture…so how about a small town America essay with 5 pictures?
give that a try…and Skype with me anytime about it…i am davidalanharvey on Skype….
you can do this i am sure….
cheers, david
MITCH ALLAND
well i almost made it to Bangkok on this trip, but ended up putting all of my available time into the Haenyeo here on Jeju Island….matter of fact, Leica sent the monochrome to Bangkok for me to pick up there, so they are probably pissed off i didn’t make it…i hope not so upset they withdraw their offer to use it…and i have also heard the new version will have a better buffer like the new M…or whatever the number is..i can’t keep up with all these new models..i am sure you know….
the post processing bit sounds a little complicated for this no post processing photographer..but i am sure i can figure it out…i would hate to have to turn all my files over to Mike Courvoisier my tech guru and printer….i am sure all my colour files could use a bit of post process, but since i do not know how to do it, whatever you see of mine is just out of the camera…and the b&w i am now shooting w Fuji the same….Mike does do some minimal tweaking to make my colour prints, but basically i have whomever is printing, either NatGeo or Mike or whomever just match my jpegs…i shoot jpeg and raw simultaneous….this won’t be the case with the monochrome…as a b&w film guy i just use one film and one paper and make my life simple…TriX and Illford #3 paper…so i will just have to learn one good combo for the monochrome as well it seems….
since my mood is all b&w these days it seems to me the monochrome is definitely worth it…and my filmmaker sons say the same for the RED video camera is amazing in b&w minus the filters….
the monochrome w the 35mm aspherical 1.4 is about 12k…geez louize…..on the other hand this is my LIFE..and i probably wasted at least that much on irrelevant stuff last year that i cannot even remember…
the little Fujis i am using in Jeju do have great files ..BUT in real life shooting situations drive me crazy…the menu buttons can get somehow get accidentally pushed and i have missed shots because i suddenly find myself in a mode i have never seen before!! the Leica is simple….and i can for sure focus the split image Leica faster than anything i have in autofocus which always SEEMS like a good idea when testing on my front porch but in reality is a pain…
thanks for your comments here…very helpful…
cheers, david
David,
>>>as a b&w film guy i just use one film and one paper and make my life simple…TriX and Illford #3 paper…so i will just have to learn one good combo for the monochrome as well it seems…<<<
Funny, I was thinking along the same lines, i.e., treating the Monochrom like it was Tri-X: shooting a somewhat flat negative (DNG in this case) and then applying one VSCO preset that gives the look you like. The other alternative is to choose the Tri-X emulation in Silver Efex and then just move the Silver Efex Brightness and Contrast sliders. Both these methods are very quick. In any case, quicker than the darkroom. Of course what you do also depends, as always, on the light.
TECHNICAL NOTE: If your assistant wants to try VSCO: for the Monochrom you should use the "Standard" and not the "Leica" presets, because Lightroom doesn't have a profile for the Monochrom, like it does for the M9. For the VSCO presets, my recommendation would be to try the "S-Fuji Neopan 1600-" and the "S-TriX 400-presets ("S" stands for Standard). But if you use Silves Efex, if any selective burning or dodging is necessary, do that in Lightroom 5 using the "Radial Filter". Another issue is whether you want to turn the grain emulation from VSCO or Silver Efex: when shooting the Monochorm at ISO 1250, I've been turning it off. Haven't figured out what to do for slower speeds. Maybe I've written more than people want to know…
BTW, I liked the advice John Gladdy and you had for Akaky, and I had a couple of thoughts that I'll try to put down a bit later, after breakfast.
Cheers, Mitch
David, the monochrom works brilliantly with vintage lenses. I love the pre aspherical version of the 35 f2. Can be had for 3 grand less than the aspherical 1.4 and with the high ISO capability f2 is plenty fast. Doubt you will miss the depth of field. And consider a dealer model monochrom for another grand less. There, I saved you 4 grand. You can pay me back with a workshop ;)
Very encouraging for everyone to read the valuable advice John Gladdy and DAH gave Akaky.
When I looked at Akaky’s flickr pages I had two other thoughts — apart from the perennial idea that editing one’s own work is difficult. It’s difficult because the photographer often lets his or her idea of the “concept” overwhelm the visual impact of some of the pictures themselves: that makes it difficult to cut a picture that, in one’s own mind, brings the “story” forward — even when that picture doesn’t have the visual quality that the rest of the series does: it’s letting the “content” trump the “form”.
In that sense, a good photograph can be like a poem in which the content and the form intertwine and are combined to support and reinforce each other. The best example I can think of in literature is Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 129, about lust, in which the words run riot, the way lust does:
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
Okay after all that wordiness, here’s the first thought from looking at Akaky’s flickr pages: the word “story” itself can be problematic. Not everything is a “story” as such. The introduction to one of Moriyama Daido’s books (the Shinjuku book published by Hatje Cantz) states that Moriyama doesn’t “document”, that he “depicts”. Depiction usually does not tell a story the way documentation does.
A more direct example: Ralph Gibson’s early books, such as “Deja-vu” and “Days at Sea” don’t tell a story: they are organized in a poetic way, visually, that is impossible to describe in words. In these two books, Gibson does it brilliantly, something that is difficult to accomplish, but maybe for Gibson it was easy. DAH’s book, “(based on a true story)”, is brilliant in this respect as well: it allows the reader to shuffle the folios around to created his or her own story.
The second thought is that looking at a whole flickr page makes it difficult for the viewer to become engaged. Seems to me that it’s worse than looking at contact sheets. Perhaps it’s better to link the first picture in a flickr “album” and let the viewer press the right arrow key to see each picture, one at a time, rather than linking the album itself. I realized that after looking once again at my own latest flickr album, “Alone in Bangkok”.
Cheers, Mitch/Bangkok
Akaky, I’m too burned out, tired and lazy to give you a deep analysis, but you got that from John and David anyway, so I’ll just say I see great potential for you to create a literary/visual burg all your own, taking readers to a community they have a long familiarity with, but never really knew until you came along.
David…
Peter Turnley has been using the Leica Monochrom since it first came out. He gets his raw files exposed onto 4×5 Tri-X and has them printed in the wet darkroom. Why all the hassle? Well film costs sre saved and yhe extraordinary low light capabilities of the Monochrom exceed anything he managed with BW film.
PAUL
saw your post here and immediately wrote to Peter who gave me all details…his lab is in Paris, so i am hoping somebody in new york can do the same…this is a serious game changer in my opinion…i have toyed with the idea of getting digi files to film but had no real plan for it…and a 4×5 piece of film just the best idea i ever heard…..i have my darkroom set up but no 4×5 enlarger but i will get one soonest….
thanks for this Paul….made my day….
cheers, david
John, Mitch, Mr Harvey, thanks for the feedback. I don’t travel so I wanted to do something here, but I wasn’t certain anyone would be interested in here. I don’t really have a hook to hang a project on as yet, but I’ll think of something. I’m still working on getting my composition and editing skills up to speed, which is no easier in photography than it is in writing, and no, I am not related to Chuck Lorre. Thanks again! :-)
AKAKY
i would not worry too much about composition…and not really editing skills either….mostly stay loose….and we can help you with editing (selecting)…..oh for sure backyard always the best….in your case, i would go for the ironic, the humorous, the stuff that reflects your personality….you have some of it already….even inside your own community you do not need to move around much…stay put in your favorite places…let the pictures come to you…..
cheers, david
Akaky…
Nice promising work, I think it’s unnecessary to comment on it because John and David have done a great job. In fact the advice been given is sufficiently universal that most of us can learn something from it.
Like you I struggle finding themes in my work. I carry a camera with me wherever I go and I’m always seeing things , so my work is all over the place. Maybe the advice David gave me a couple of years ago on looking closely at Koudelka’s work could be of a help to you. He’s a single image photographer making images of whatever he comes across, although somehow he eventually always manages to find a theme/story. David advised me to look especially closely at Koudelka’s Exiles. Now that’s been a bit difficult up until now because the book had been unavailable new for many years and on the second hand market prices were way out of my budget. However it’s now been republished so I ordered it and wow it’s been a revelation for me. There’s always a theme running deep in our work it’s just that for some people it runs deeper and a little more out of sight than others. Take a look at it.