I Make Mistakes

It would seem that after years of photography that I wouldn’t make too many mistakes but hey, I just made a big one and it involved two rolls of film. So….I just move on. No big deal.

I am in Philadelphia and every Saturday is the Italian Market where produce is sold, meats etc…. Actually, like many ‘Italian Market’s the market is now more a hispanic market as the neighborhood has changed but the ‘stalls’ remain. So still veggies….

The market is along a few blocks and is lined with stalls with canopies along one side of the street as people on the sidewalk can walk and still view the veggies. With so much action and frankly, I haven’t been here in awhile so I was pretty excited ….I decided to take my camera ‘off’ spot meter and manual with my Olympus OM2SP and place it into full Program mode. I was also using some Japan Camera Hunter so a new film and I thought by going into ‘Program mode’ that I would make sure I get right exposure so I could judge this new film.

So off to the races as I thoroughly enjoyed my time….3+ hours of walking the Italian Market and in my mind, I ‘nailed it’ ….lots of impromptu images, hands passing money, exchanges ….expressions etc. Perfect….Viola. Then after returning home my first thought was to immediately develop, dry and scan…..this was hot stuff. So I did….. and now the results.

The Program mode in this situation just plain stunk. … no bones about it. The exposure was all off either getting shots out of focus such as this:

Or dark like this….

Needless….. I was a bit depressed as my hopes for the day were so high, and then plummet the minute I saw the negatives come out of the tank. I was about ready to toss them all but decided to go thru and see what I could find out. I know the Program mode works well on my OM2SP as I had other shots, outside of the Italian market that were just fine.

So….what caused it? Well, in Program mode the exposures of F stop and shutter are selected by the camera automatically but based first upon the highlights from what I read. As I grabbed shots of people in the canopy area, it was way to backlit and the shadows became unusable, just too dark.

Next time…and there will be one, I will go in with all manual in this situation. I can expose for the shadows and if the whites are overblown I can always take care of them later on. But once the shadows are lost, they are lost. Thus, two rolls of Japan Camera Hunter was a learning experience. On top of that from what I found from my other ‘good photo’s, JPC is a very high contrasty film naturally so I had a double whammy going for me. I still have three rolls of JPC to shoot so I want to manually over-expose more so than I usually do with other film, allowing the shadows underneath the canopy to lighten.

Hey….live and learn…. Slow down…think….get settings right, regardless of the hoopla surrounding the location and people and event. If I miss that, well, I miss it all.

Egads

I was with a friend today….to whom we just met in physical form as he came up from DC. to Philadelphia. Up until now, we have zoomed…texted, and shared images.

But a realization became apparent; that was he is a ‘digital’ nomad while I am a ‘film nomad’…. Not a lot of either of us blends to the others likeness when it comes to the end product. It is like I prefer an old dusty spy novel from the 1940’s and he prefers the latest from Lee Child or the like.

I eat up on random noise….I enjoy a scratch or two on my film….stray dust particles are a welcome site….water marks from developing is an imperfection element of perfection. Even stray light from an accidentally opened film canisters are a thing of beauty. … To me, sharpness is a bourgeois concept …blur is character. I enjoy shooting ‘into the sun’…. or purposely exposing wrong.…. or speed set too low to create a blur…. expired film…. The list of what can be done continues, not to mention the fuzziness of wide contrasty subjects and a general feel of messiness inherent in film.

My friend…. ‘none of that’….. No, none. He enjoys nose hairs on his images to be perfectly sharp. In fact, ‘sharpness’ is central to his thinking as focus peaking is key. Auto-mode is necessary. Using ‘live view’ and adjusting some toggle switch to set exposure and end product. Or, taking 5x the number of images I take and still end up with one good shot. Now I know he has knowledge, so don’t get me wrong. He has an excellent understanding of photography and I know that includes camera basics as he goes back in photography time, as long as I do.

But somewhere near Albuquerque we each took another turn and haven’t looked back. We both grew up in a film world….both embraced the Digital age as it hit upon us like a surfing wave. But yes, somewhere, sometime…our paths as photographers separated. He kept going down the Digital Nomad path and now has and believes in having the best camera and lens one can get. As he says, you only live once. And yes, I agree. I took the path back to the ‘film nomadic’ approach…..While on occasion I do ‘look back’ to that time we both were in Albuquerque (metaphorically speaking), yet each time I go out to shoot, I grab the film camera. Like him, I want the best….and have deemed my Olympus OM series from the late 70’s to mid 80’s as best; coupled with my vast array of Zuiko lens. And to boot, I do have a Leica MA plus lens if I prefer that route. All film though.

Now, we both go out and find approaches to viewing a scene or subject….we both look for light and wait for the scene to appear. Nothing really different. Just that the nomadic approaches we each have become married to, has been dictated to us almost via osmosis. Digital and Film… equally as different as painting with Acrylic or Oil or Water Color. That is recognized in the painting world, and now, we need to recognize that same difference in photography.

Creating Art

I still find myself in Australia, just five more days….. My Leica 1 ‘ate’ my film and split it. As I advanced the film with each shot, unknown to me, the leader splice on the film was being torn in half as it advanced. Eventually it clogged the advance mechanism leaving me no choice but to open up the back and rip it out. Within that ‘process’ of splitting and advancing, the shutter is now not working so a soon to be, CLA is in order. My Leica model 2, ….with my Russian 50mm, ended up being my main squeeze.

This past week saw me in downtown Melbourne doing some street work. Extremely enjoyable as I find Melbourne to be very conducive to Street work. My Model 2 with a Russian lens had me wondering but I quickly became familiar with it. And like most film cameras I shoot, it forces me to slow down….I was relegated to a 50mm which is not my preferred street use, as I enjoy 24-28-35…But hey, it all worked out. With those few days I shot around three rolls of film. Lots of alleys, lots of architecture and some interesting people I chatted with. . In a month or so, Christmas will come as I develop my film.

Yesterday though as well as today I turned things on end by taking out my Ricoh 11. This experience proved to be a remarkable difference in what I shot, how I shot….and the experience. Let me explain…..

First…. with film….I ‘create art’….. With digital, …I ‘take pictures. Indeed yes…there is ‘that’ much of a difference. With film, the process of determining exposure and honing in with focus, composure, framing ….all add to ‘creating art’. It simply takes time and it takes creativity. When I print my images I know the image I view is all because of what I did from the start. No light meter, no AP, no P mode…no exposure comp…nada. Just my wits.

With digital (Ricoh in this case) the process just felt rushed, a bit contrived even. I already know what my end result is as I can view the shots on the camera before I take it (Live view) and obviously after the fact. With ’ live view’ i visually set my composure comp and style even beforeI press the shutter. It is that easy. While the images come out strong, the process, the experience….the feel…..all differs in that it simply ‘lacks’. I follow Sean Tucker on You Tube who shoots with his Ricoh on the streets of London (not that much different in feel from Melbourne). He shoots ‘live view’ and knows he can visually gauge exposure and contrast etc just by looking at the screen. It is pretty easy. Even though I need reading glasses, in this case…I am not here to read the photograph in terms of sharpness etc….rather, I take a wholistic approach and view the ‘LCD’ screen for composure, how light is hitting it etc. It is all about the visual ahead of time.

Now I obtain nice shots…. yet surprisingly when I look back on my shots I still get about 1 out of 36 that just hit me as being those WOW shots…not much different from my film. But shooting digital has me leave the day with ‘a lot of shots’…. as opposed to 2 full days of shooting with film and only a few rolls. Digital is just taking shot, after shot after shot. After all, a benefit is that those shots are ‘free’….yeah! But with that lack of expense outlay, I find myself being less picky, less thinking….less experiencing each shot.

Bottom line…. as I have stated in previous blogs….my film shots just make me more creative and less reliant on just snapping away. The end result in numbers of WOW shots is about even, but that experience, oh that experience of film is the greatest intangible I can think of, and is what continually draws me back to photography.

For this recent trip to Australia, I am a bit remorseful in that I didn’t bring my Leica MA or my Olympus OM-1. Next time….they are in the bag.

I still have a few days left but not sure if I will get much of an opportunity to shoot, with the exception of ‘family’ like shots. I envision a few with my Leica with grandkids and scooters and yes, film..