Well, I've proven myself incapable of blabbing, I'm mean blogging regularly (in case there is a difference).....and although this could be considered a virtue, I'd hate to deprive myself of being connected to the photo sharing world. I am now posting on flickr....so feel free to browse!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nilufer/
peace out.
nil
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Mmmmm Festival...
The Festival experience was great, I must admit. Having a pass to come and go as I pleased, and being able to take photos right up front at the performances was fantastic. I’ve lived in Winnipeg my whole life and I had only really attended Festival during grade school a couple of times. Attending as a photographer, and an adult (not an adult photographer! eheh), gave me a whole new outlook and appreciation of the event.
My biggest initial challenge when shooting any event is always getting over my nerves about being in front of everyone. Once I block all that out and focus on what I’m doing, I’m fine. I loved shooting the bands, getting right up close - the performers often interacted with us in that they’d often pose for the camera. The downer was I usually wasn’t ready to get a great shot of them at that moment. The night time shots of performers was a huge challenge in terms of lighting, and I was contantly experimenting with colour balance. I basically had to shoot at 1600 ISO and I also had a tripod which I used as a monopod. I would use flash off and on also, just to see what I would get. I would love to have had a 70-200 mm, f/2,8 lens with an image stabilizer! I don’t have a 50 mm f/1.8 either, so I was someone limited equipment-wise. The result was a lot of blurry images, which often worked well for motion effect, but on the most part they just didn’t make the cut.
The Governor’s Ball was a unique experience. I enjoyed seeing the guests all decked out in their period costume. Although we could not stay long, I did my best with the time I had. I actually felt pretty comfortable going up to people when I could and getting their photos. It was unfortunate we could not stay longer.
During my second last shift, when I was mostly out in the cold, I actually found more time to do some “just for myself” shooting. I tried to get some neat effects with motion and star lights. I kept myself warm by sitting by the fires every once in a while...great idea at the time, but then I get home and discover I smell like a big ball of smoke.
My ratio of good to not-so-good shots? Well, probably 1:30...ish. Or maybe I’m being kind. A lot depended on where I was; I had less good shots at the night performances than I did at the CCFM.
Festival was a valuable experience. My shooting developed as time went on and I enjoyed the entertainment and food in the process! I’m glad for the experience.
HEH HO!
Nil, out.
The Festival experience was great, I must admit. Having a pass to come and go as I pleased, and being able to take photos right up front at the performances was fantastic. I’ve lived in Winnipeg my whole life and I had only really attended Festival during grade school a couple of times. Attending as a photographer, and an adult (not an adult photographer! eheh), gave me a whole new outlook and appreciation of the event.
My biggest initial challenge when shooting any event is always getting over my nerves about being in front of everyone. Once I block all that out and focus on what I’m doing, I’m fine. I loved shooting the bands, getting right up close - the performers often interacted with us in that they’d often pose for the camera. The downer was I usually wasn’t ready to get a great shot of them at that moment. The night time shots of performers was a huge challenge in terms of lighting, and I was contantly experimenting with colour balance. I basically had to shoot at 1600 ISO and I also had a tripod which I used as a monopod. I would use flash off and on also, just to see what I would get. I would love to have had a 70-200 mm, f/2,8 lens with an image stabilizer! I don’t have a 50 mm f/1.8 either, so I was someone limited equipment-wise. The result was a lot of blurry images, which often worked well for motion effect, but on the most part they just didn’t make the cut.
The Governor’s Ball was a unique experience. I enjoyed seeing the guests all decked out in their period costume. Although we could not stay long, I did my best with the time I had. I actually felt pretty comfortable going up to people when I could and getting their photos. It was unfortunate we could not stay longer.
During my second last shift, when I was mostly out in the cold, I actually found more time to do some “just for myself” shooting. I tried to get some neat effects with motion and star lights. I kept myself warm by sitting by the fires every once in a while...great idea at the time, but then I get home and discover I smell like a big ball of smoke.
My ratio of good to not-so-good shots? Well, probably 1:30...ish. Or maybe I’m being kind. A lot depended on where I was; I had less good shots at the night performances than I did at the CCFM.
Festival was a valuable experience. My shooting developed as time went on and I enjoyed the entertainment and food in the process! I’m glad for the experience.
HEH HO!
Nil, out.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
"Speedy GoneGraphic"
Graflex Speed Graphic
(for History of Photography - Assignment #4)
The Classic Equipment Museum at Photo Central is quite the place. It’s hard to believe that the nifty cameras we use today are the descendents of a long line of gizmos and gadgets of all sizes, shapes and styles. Although many of the cameras caught my eye, the Graflex Speed Graphic was the chosen one. I won’t lie – it was one of the only ones not caged and given that Dick, the owner, was not around to show the cameras, the Speed Graphic was the most accessible to me. Plus of course, it has a little piece of trivia on it stating that it was used in the Oscar nominated film “Capote.” Not that I’m superficial by any stretch of the imagination…but come on – any camera that contributes to Oscar-worthy films deserves a little of my attention!
In its day, the Speed Graphic was the camera – particularly for the press photographer, although it was also engineered to be used by professionals and amateur photographers for various types of photography – wedding, portraiture, commercial, landscape and documentary. The original Speed Graphic was patented in 1912 by Graflex, a Rochester, New York based camera producer. With the success of their older SLR cameras, Graflex decided to design a camera specifically for the emerging press photographer. From 1912 through to1968 (some sources say 1973), the Speed Graphic was manufactured, redesigned, remanufactured etc, etc, in the hundreds of thousands. Tim Takahashi from photo.net describes the Speed Graphic as “workhorses,” arguably the most influential camera of the 20th century, the quintessential “professional” camera from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. Thanks to these babies, we have a strong record of the early to middle decades of the 20th century.
The particular Speed Graphic model that I photographed is a Kalart Synchronized Range Finder that was in production between 1940 and 1947. As the most common “press” camera of its time, the Speed Graphic had unique characteristics that made it portable and user-friendly for the photojournalist. The camera folds into a box, is quite light (around 5 pounds) and durable, has flexible bellows that accommodates interchangeable lenses (90 mm to over 300 mm), has accessories such as flash, uses sheet film (the most common size being 4 x 5 “), has a ground glass focusing screen, has an optical viewfinder and can be used handheld.
On a more challenging note, Speed Graphic users had to be savvy enough to work their way around the potentially problematic features such as the three viewfinders (ground glass, optical, wire frame), three focusing aids (ground glass, scale, rangefinder) and two shutters (leaf / in-lens shutter and focal plane shutter). The lack of automation meant one could easily double expose, shoot blanks, shoot out of focus images or fog previous exposures. But no automation also meant no batteries! The two shutter system allowed for greater shutter speeds (the leaf shutter was good for flash photos and the focal plane shutter for fast speed requirements). A subject could be viewed with both eyes through the wire-frame viewfinder. So in the end, there were plenty of perks to the multi-features of the Speed Graphic, if one knew had to maximize its performance.
The Speed Graphic is still a very popular camera today for large-format enthusiasts. Given that it was manufactured in such large numbers, it is probably the least expensive large format camera available. There are sites on the internet with detailed information on how to use these cameras. Hmmmm, you never know…I just might get me one of these babies – maybe even audition it in some upcoming Russell Crowe flick!
Well, it was a nice thought anyway.
References:
Graflex.Org “History of the Graphic Cameras”
Photo.net “Graflex Pacemaker Speed Graphic” by Tim Takahashi
Nilufer Rahman
February 6, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Blast from the Past
Well, here begins my second official blog entry...
Actually, perhaps I should put this off for a couple more hours; I've had a sudden urge to take a break, have some tea and, whad'you know! American Idol is on!
I'm back...and this is the real thing! I managed to stumble upon a great photo site...actually it was less a stumble and more a pre-meditated search for a site worthy of my viewing and reviewing. The lucky site ended up being the US Library of Congress "Prints and Photographs Reading Room" - http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html. (A point of note is that I found this link via the one and only National Geographic Traveler site - http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/photos/photosites0701.html).
Yeah, yeah, I know the site sounds severely aimed at old dudes with glasses and tweed jackets. But hey, give the poor site a chance. The Reading Room is a blast from the past - there's literally thousands of images, photos, prints, cartoons from the last couple of centuries - a digitized archive of images at your fingertips. Of course, there's no shortage of additional information to accompany each image - the title, any captions, the medium of the original / existing print, the creator, the time or estimated time frame in which the image was created, where the originals are kept or what collection they are part of, info on how to get copies and any rights and restrictions applied, and related subjects. And of course there are links, links and, did I mention links? So if you see images of a creator you like, you can immediately get linked to a list of other images by the same person. Of course there's all sorts of other info...catalogue numbers and other numbers and nitty gritty blither blather that is probably critically important to researchers who need to document or find stuff. Anyway, all the info that's random to most is not actually distracting.
Now, aesthetics.....I have to say the site's not much to look at, as ironic as that is for an image gallery. But hey! We are people not seduced by the superficial....we will look beyond, and discover that despite lack of aesthetic appeal, this site has got all you need to navigate pretty darn easily. Yeah, there's a bunch of words around that don't seem important...but everything you need stands out just fine- "Search" "View" "Next" "Start Over" "Help". Type in any name, subject, place, whatever. The searching is easy and fast. Lists of images can be viewed as thumbnails instead of one at a time. There are even links to download tiff files of some images...although it takes long and my impatience did not permit me to see if any rights and restriction warnings would pop up at any point.
So anyways, short story long, this is just a good solid, Nil-approved site. You gotta love nostalgic imagery; pretty amazing stuff we have to live up to, and they made them with eggs too! As Zhana would say, "that's crazy man!"
NIL, OUT
Actually, perhaps I should put this off for a couple more hours; I've had a sudden urge to take a break, have some tea and, whad'you know! American Idol is on!
I'm back...and this is the real thing! I managed to stumble upon a great photo site...actually it was less a stumble and more a pre-meditated search for a site worthy of my viewing and reviewing. The lucky site ended up being the US Library of Congress "Prints and Photographs Reading Room" - http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html. (A point of note is that I found this link via the one and only National Geographic Traveler site - http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/photos/photosites0701.html).
Yeah, yeah, I know the site sounds severely aimed at old dudes with glasses and tweed jackets. But hey, give the poor site a chance. The Reading Room is a blast from the past - there's literally thousands of images, photos, prints, cartoons from the last couple of centuries - a digitized archive of images at your fingertips. Of course, there's no shortage of additional information to accompany each image - the title, any captions, the medium of the original / existing print, the creator, the time or estimated time frame in which the image was created, where the originals are kept or what collection they are part of, info on how to get copies and any rights and restrictions applied, and related subjects. And of course there are links, links and, did I mention links? So if you see images of a creator you like, you can immediately get linked to a list of other images by the same person. Of course there's all sorts of other info...catalogue numbers and other numbers and nitty gritty blither blather that is probably critically important to researchers who need to document or find stuff. Anyway, all the info that's random to most is not actually distracting.
Now, aesthetics.....I have to say the site's not much to look at, as ironic as that is for an image gallery. But hey! We are people not seduced by the superficial....we will look beyond, and discover that despite lack of aesthetic appeal, this site has got all you need to navigate pretty darn easily. Yeah, there's a bunch of words around that don't seem important...but everything you need stands out just fine- "Search" "View" "Next" "Start Over" "Help". Type in any name, subject, place, whatever. The searching is easy and fast. Lists of images can be viewed as thumbnails instead of one at a time. There are even links to download tiff files of some images...although it takes long and my impatience did not permit me to see if any rights and restriction warnings would pop up at any point.
So anyways, short story long, this is just a good solid, Nil-approved site. You gotta love nostalgic imagery; pretty amazing stuff we have to live up to, and they made them with eggs too! As Zhana would say, "that's crazy man!"
NIL, OUT
Friday, November 24, 2006
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