Keep working those muscles.
A wise man once said: “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”
Street photography is a muscle to keep working out. Not only for evolution in the craft itself, but because it’s a symbol of freedom and expression. Many would say the greatest privilege is the privilege of speech without repression.
What’s quality? A pleasing and sharp image? Good enough to print?
What’s efficiency? A library that is fast to maintain and process.
A happy medium between quality and speed.
Too much quality = too slow
Too fast = less quality
Meet me in the mid workflow.
I think my current workflow is the happy medium.
My general rule is about 5% of photos I take are keepers. Sometimes, lower, sometimes higher. My methodology for a keeper is simple. I glance at it and if it looks nice then I keep it. If it doesn’t, it’s deleted forever. But to me, there’s a difference between a low and high level keeper. A low level keeper would probably need other photos around it to fit into a project. A high level keeper can stand on its own with no context. This photo I consider a high level keeper. The composition, story, moment, juxtaposition, contrast and luck. I like everything about it. Some might have a different opinion. But we are in America baby, no hard feelings if you feel different.
BH is just like the movies. Alternate universe full of designer clothes and huge lips. I overheard a conversation while walking on Rodeo Drive earlier. Went like this.
Man 1: I love your pants
Man 2: OMG darling, thank you so much
Man 1: Where did you get them from?
Man 2: Lanvin and the top is Philipp Plein (stated with extreme pride)
Man 1: You are looking scrumptious hun 🙂
Man 2: Oh oh you are too kind 😉
Then man 2 walks off with what seemed to be two friends who were visited. He then told his friends, “People here are so interested in my clothes, it happens a lot. People here really care.”
This was all in a flamboyant valley boy accent.
BH is definitely unique.
I don’t think so. Especially so for black and white street photography where a little grit is welcomed. I found the highest ISO photo in my Lightroom library. This photo was taken at 25,600 ISO with my Nikon Zf. I used the Denoise feature at 50 to smooth it out a bit. I think it looks great. Does this eliminate the appeal for monochrome cameras? I think it does. Modern cameras are all probably on par with high ISO noise usability of monochrome cameras and the Deep Tone Monochrome profile on the Zf reminds me of Leica Q2M files.
The north Santa Monica Bay and Santa Monica mountains under yet another atmospheric river. Had a small break in the rain and some light peaked out but I was soon under the rain on my walk back home.
I take photos of anything I find interesting but for the me, candid snaps are my favorite. A small glimpse into life. I especially like capturing that glimpse that tells a story. No posing, no working the scene or layering and no willing the photo into existence. I have one shot a the photo. If I don’t act quickly, the moment is gone forever. Right time, right place and a lot of luck. A few I’ve taken in the past week.
Already this camera is my favorite. But the high efficiency raw files is in my opinion the sleeper feature that nobody is talking about. Very little about it can be found on the web. The high efficiency raw files come in at 11 mb each. (For reference, my Leica Q2M files were 88 mb each.) Not the high efficiency*, the lowest quality high efficiency settings. I’ve seen no difference between the higher quality and lowest quality raw file. For street shooters who take a lot of photos, this really matters. Less time importing and exporting, less storage space and faster processing times. The workflow is nearly as fast as my JPEG only workflow. More emphasis on making photos, less fiddling around in post. When I import into Lightroom, my preset gets me 95% of the way there and I make a few tweaks and I’m done.
What’s up with all these atmospheric rivers? Just in February, we’ve had over a years worth of rain. Santa Monica set the two day record for rain in its 150 year recorded history. Anyways, the Zf is a sexy camera. Sometimes that matters. Probably why I bought all those Leicas. The Zf is the SLR sexy version of the Leica rangefinder. I’ve been addicted to this camera. Already over 7,000 shots and it was delivered to me on February 2nd. That’s a lot of usage. Hard to tell my feelings in the future, but I’d like to beat a camera down unto submission until the shutter fails. Maybe this will be the one.
Ya know, I’ve criticized the photo book numerous times on this blog. They are usually just meh to me. I’ve never looked at a photo book and been overly impressed. It would probably have to cover a specific subject I’m passionate about for me to be excited. Maybe I’m just not “intellectual” enough to get it.
Today I looked through every photo in the legendary photo book by Robert Frank, “The Americans.” I’ve had it for over a year, this was the second time I looked through it. The book has 83 photos selected out of 20,000 taken over two years. And there’s a reason I’ve only looked at it twice in two years. It’s just another photo book that’s meh to me. What am I missing? The photos are fine to me, but nothing special. Two stuck out to me though.
So those are my two favorites. Maybe that will change if I look at in next year. Maybe I’m just a hater that doesn’t appreciate art. Who knows, but it’s the way I feel.
Chris Athanasiadis