Spring is finally here, at last
Posts
Happy Easter / Buona Pasqua
I want to wish all the best for Easter to all my devoted visitors and I want to also wish a Happy Passover to all my Jewish friends. BUONE FESTE
America's true icon
The words icon and iconic are so overused these days that they have become meaningless not to mention poorly used. One thing is certain that the Brooklyn Bridge is a true icon. Outside the States, the image that first comes to mind when people ask or talk about the USA, is the Brooklyn Bridge. I have photographed it for over 40 years now and never tire of doing so. These recent images were shot with the Panasonic LX-7.
Travel light
As the travel season is again upon us, I want to re post my thoughts on this subject. As you can tell from my photos, you realize that I have traveled extensively. I began with carrying two cameras with multiple formats and over 100 rolls of film, both color slides, and Black and white in 135 and 120 formats and have now realized the wisdom of traveling light. As I peruse the many photo sites and blogs, the fora always are replete with questions as to what kind of equipment to take on trips. Most replies, probably from people who have never traveled, advice to take a full complement of lenses. The person asking usually lists all the equipment that he own [trying to impress] and his typical question usually goes like this: I will be going to Paris in July what camera and lenses should I take. If this is a Canon forum, the replies will usually go like this: Take the 1DS II with the 24-105 F4 L and your 70-200 F2.8 L and also take your 16-35 F2,8 L. And do not...
Mijas, Spain / Nikon FTn
These once colorful Kodachrome 25 images shot in Mijas Spain in 1974, have lost their color and thanks to scanning and black and white conversion in Photoshop are still useful. This is another example of :if it's not broken, do not fix it." We had that superb Kodachrome II whose colors were super stables but it was replaced with a "better, and new improves" film that although very nice, it turned out to be very unstable. Too bad. However, this is all acade3mic now since we do not have any Kodachromes anymore. The lens was the Kikkor 35mm F 2.8. Actually, these black and white images aren't too shabby, if I may say so.
Solitudine
As one can see, Venice is not all throngs. Not far from the main tourist attractions is a very lonely city. This shot was made with the Nikon D-2H.
We will always have Paris
An archival shot from 1972 shot with the Canon FT on Agfachrome that surprisingly held on to most of its hues. Mon Dieu comme me rappell. BTW we shall return to this glorious city in the beginning of September. It has been a very long time.
Archival shot
This Tri-X image was shot in June of 1971 in Hong Kong with the a Canon FT and the 50mm F 1.4 FL lens. I remember it well.....
Coney Island, just a few more
People who visit this blog, will no doubt realize that I deem Coney Island a fascinating place to photograph. Some of these have been posted before but I still believe that they are worth a second look. They are all from the seventies all scans and all shot off season. The color ones are Kodachromes while the black and white is from a Tri-X negative.It's amazing hoe the Kodachromes kept their color.
Gorgeous faces
I have always loved to photograph children. There's something magical in their smiles or in their pensive moods.
Buon pranzo, have a nice lunch
Canon G-9 Naturally a nice lunch comprising of some pasta with a rapid tomato sauce with these Sicilian tomatoes, It doesn't get any tastier.
It's the light, always the light
No interesting light, no interesting photos. The first law of photo composition. These shots are from the spring of 1974 and were shot in old Quebec Ville. All shot on Kodachrome and scanned for posting and archiving.
A modest proposal
I believe that in the end it will be high ISO and improved DR that will separate the great cameras from the more mundane ones. First we must get away from the higher mega pixel race. There's a point where resolution will actually become problematic. We already have reasonably high resolution so we must insist now that camera makers continue to improve on ISO and DR performance. This will free us from all our attachments to the film days. We can use digital cameras in new ways and finally take advantage of their strengths. This opens up new ways of taking pictures both useful for professional applications and for creative ones. We can shed all our film mannerisms. Not that film mannerisms are bad; they apply to film. This is not a film Vs digital debate as both have their strengths and weaknesses. This is a plea that we begin to use our digital cameras in ways that we could never do before with film and push the creative envelope further. I hope that the camera m...
