I finally got around to updating this site with my photos from these two gorgeous countries. I’ll get around to writing more about them eventually. Here’s the link to the photos if you’re interested.
Mundanity
– the quality of being commonplace and ordinary
An issue in my photography. Shooting in the same places everyday. Finding something extraordinary is the goal. Or better yet, turning the mundane into something exciting. That’s where I need to go. I really respect the street photographers who are doing great work in places other than NYC or LA.
Flickr
Its a great place to share work and store your photos. Sure you have to pay for unlimited storage but it’s worth it to back up your photos. American street photography is not well represented on it however. I’m an admin for the group Decisive Moment, a very popular street photo group. If you look at the photos in the pool, there’s only maybe one out of the last 100 from the USA. I see a lot of the photos submitted, rarely are they from the USA. I wonder why Flickr is this way? Maybe IG became the go to for street people.
The Leica M Is Undefeated
It’s 49-0 with 49 KOs. The Floyd Mayweather of cameras. Why? Because it’s tiny, full frame, quiet and durable. The IQ is great and all you need. It’s the best for street. Manual focusing with a tab can’t be matched. Leica is a camera for people who like to use their hands. There’s no shutter lag, what you see is what you get. My M10P is so quiet, almost as quiet as my old Q2M and GR. The real world view in the rangefinder window is matched by no one. If Ricoh could get it’s shit together and build a camera that doesn’t break all the time, it would be in competition. I’ve returned three GRs because the lens motor gets stuck. Any camera with a moving part like that is doomed. I’ve had two others completely die on me. But if you really care about IQ, the GR files are not close to the Leica ones. Even my M8 which is a crop sensor blows any GR file out of the water. The 28mm Elmarit-M lens I use is so sharp with so much micro contrast, the photos just pop. They look great. Maybe an x100 is better than the GR, but my M is barely bigger so why bother. Size, IQ and durability. Who can compare? Nobody, that’s why people pay are on a waiting list to pay 10k.
Santa Monica
It’s a dynamic place for photography. When the sun is out, it can’t be beat. The mix of people from every income class and every country is fascinating. All mingling together. When I think about what makes America great, it’s this. We are all in it together yet so far apart.
Document Life
I have a reason for any type of photo I want to take. I’m documenting the life around me. That include photos with a negative stigma attached. A lot of street photographers have all sorts of rules about what they photograph. My only rule is there are none. Why limit yourself. Your ethical posturing only holds you back. If you’re that worried, take the photo and don’t show anyone. Maybe in ten years you’re get over it and have a project.
The Effects of COVID
The repercussions from mask mandates are still going strong here in LA. I saw a person wearing a mask while riding a bike on the beach path. This guy is never within 10 ft of anyone, zooming by people on the bike. I still see people wearing masks inside their car with the windows rolled up. These are people who will likely be wearing masks until they die. 10, 20, 50 years from now people will still be wearing masks.
Hard Work and Talent
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
This quote best applies to sports but how about it’s relation to street photography? Street photos can be a numbers game. Right place at right time. Get out there and shoot and it will eventually happen for you. The talented photographers, the ones that get it right away can possibly make good work from the beginning. But I’ll always go for hard work over talented. My hard work will eventually match your talent level and surpass it. Now if you’re talented and work harder, you’re an unstoppable force destined for glory.
Americans Should Be More Like The Japanese
Recently, YouTuber idiot Johnny Somali went viral for yelling Hiroshima and Nagasaki at people on a train in Tokyo. The countries backlash was appropriate as he was arrested and threatened by multiple citizens for his insensitive remarks. I’ve never been to Japan but I’ve heard people there are very polite and value respect in society. The outlandish behavior shown by Johnny Somali was not tolerated. Why can’t Americans be more like this? I see ridiculous behavior committed on a daily basis in Santa Monica. Very rarely if ever will people do anything about this behavior. In fact, people here will defend the inappropriate behavior. I want to say something at times, but am afraid to do so out of the fear of public backlash. With that said, we have freedom of speech here, so I think the appropriate handling of situations like this is public shaming by us and not necessarily interference by the government.
My Workflow
I wish I could speed this up a bit. This is how it goes.
- Import photos to my computer
- Organize them to a folder on my desktop sorted by location.
- Sync the photos to Lightroom
- Edit photos
- Go back into my desktop folder and copy and paste the keepers to my monthly folder for backup
- Go back into Lightroom and process my photos with a basic preset. All I do is fix exposure and make simple quick changes.
- Process them through Color Efex Pro with a few contrast filters.
- Save and go back into Lightroom.
- Go through photos one more time to make sure they look good.
- Export the completed photos to my desktop.
- Import into Flickr.
- Link photos from Flickr to my website.
Now that’s a workflow. It’s a lot of steps. It’s doesn’t take as long as it seems though. But I could cut down on time a bit if I could figure out how to bypass Color Efex Pro. But the two filters I use are really nice and I can’t figure out how to recreate the look in Lightroom.
Chris Athanasiadis 