To Take "Note"

I always say you have to use the best tool for the job….. I find that to be true with just about any project… IE, when I lay bricks for a pathway, I use a rubber mallet (hammer) while if I pound a nail, I use a steel hammer. When I paint a clay pot, I use an array of brush sizes. AND….and please take note as this goes against my photographic grain; when I take photo’s….I even use digital (egads I say!!), over film, if the project dictates it.

So my last project…..which will soon be a book…..entitled Ghost Riders….. demands that I capture individuals at night as they move ‘in and out’ of our mortal world. So far I have captured several thousand images using digital but very few are good enough to use in my image gallery/book. Now, there is no way I can capture the same using film. Why? Read on….. embrace change I need to tell myself, where change is needed.

First….sheer numbers alone imply that film is undoable. Let’s say conservatively that I took 1500 photo’s (way too low of a number) and divide that by 36 roll count of film and that equals around 42 rolls of film, plus the developing cost etc…plus the scanning time etc….

Second…the genre, the type….. what am I trying to capture? Since using digital allows me some use of ‘live screen’ if I elect…..that helps me frame and compose the scene based upon the light. If I didn’t do that, it would be pure ‘hit and miss’ and the numbers I quoted above (1500 conservatively) would be much greater. I simply can’t shoot ‘live’ with film. So, would I end up with any shots…any? Not sure.

Third….the mood I am trying to convey in my project Ghost Riders, demands a very moody, high contrast image when much of the background is just darkness…. a few lights….. much of the foreground or subject is blurred in detail, although…..I still want a bit of ‘life’ to poke thru the image. Digital allows me to do that while film is less contrasty, and while I can obtain blur, it isn’t the same as required in my images for this project.

Fourth…Aim……. Part of this project forces me to get close….more up close than sometimes many ‘subjects want’. Now, I have done street photo’s for many years and have no problem getting close and just snapping away and moving on. So most likely I wouldn’t be bothered with film and this same approach. But digital has made the project a bit easier in terms of time available to shoot.

Yikes….. when I re-read this blog I am aghast…. I am eeking out a swallow….my hand is shaking as I type…. my head somewhat faint….slow down…breathe now Jim. Digital? Really? Come now…..don’t drink the Kool-aid for I am in the ‘land’ of Kool aid drinkers and I usually run from the thought. But I have to admit, that yes….I find it appropriate to shoot digital ‘at times’ …after all, they shoot horses, don’t they? I drank the Kool-aid.

journaling

I like project photography….as evident by a few blogs uploaded. To compliment that I want to addressing the concept of ‘journaling’… It is a simple process but one that adds to your overall result.

In life….we meander, don’t we? Today we do ‘this’, yesterday we did ‘that’….two weeks or a month or 6 months ago we did ‘this and that’…. It all adds up, but usually our ‘this’s and that’s ‘ run together and we forget what we did. Like a snake crawling in the grass, we meander, we eventually get someplace but in the process we fail to record in images alone; the big picture.

That is where journaling comes into play. I started to journal about my photography 8-9 years ago when I was leading a group of birders into the jungles of Ecuador to bird. I journaled where we were, what Tom saw, or how Pete tripped on a log etc . Since that adventure, and not so soon after, I began the journaling process for my street photography.

So what is in the box? I journal about the mechanics, the light….what I captured and where. I journal about my thoughts and what worked or what I needed to return to. I journal about my reflections too. For you see, since I enjoy social documentary and I couple it with photo-projects, my journals become one element to the finished product. I carry around a small notebook and make a point to record the day. When my images come to life, not only do they speak to the event recorded on the negative but the journal adds a new dimension to how that shot was taken and why.

I enjoy it….