All posts filed under: Photo Talk

Business of Photography

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For me the true business of photography is to capture a bit of reality (whatever that is) on film…if, later, the reality means something to someone else, so much the better.   Garry Winogrand   This is so true, sometimes we photograph because we simply like to press that shutter. Sometimes we frame with intent and yet other times, instinct takes over. Some may argue that the more you photograph the more you see. I tend to agree with this thought, the art of photographing matures like anything else and our eyes simply “see” better, frame better. Our cameras become extension of our eyes, our senses, its almost like a “Spider Sense” it just is. So if you’re new to this craft, keep pressing that shutter, keep seeing, even without a camera, let time pass, and I’m sure things will happen. If you’re a seasoned Tog, then reinvent yourself, there are many roads which to embark, think outside the box, go against what feels comfortable. If you shoot portraits for a living, perhaps shoot some …

To Be or Not to Be: Color vs BW

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Often times we’re [photographers] not sure if to go with color or black & white when developing our images. Yet other times we let either of the aforementioned choices limit our creative vision and herein, lies the problem. Why limit ourselves to either or.   As I nurture my vision, I can’t help but think of the times in which I limited myself to just black & white because I thought it was the right thing to do for whatever philosophical idea I may have had on the subject. Well, in truth, there is no right or wrong choice but what our vision and our heart dictates. Sometimes as I’m looking at my contact sheet in Lightroom certain images just pop straight out and boom — this one must black & white yet for some reason color doesn’t seem to just pop out right away. I don’t really know why and I don’t intend to have a magical remedy to know either but what I do know is, that in time and as your vision …

Street Tog Realizations

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Walking by streets one can certainly get some funny faces. I’m being facetious off course. Some folks get angry and some folks don’t know how to really react. You can see it on their faces if they’re the subject of my frame or not, you can sense their ambivalence, its quite humorous actually. Today, I came to the realization that folks seem a lot less on guard if you have a small compact(could be a m43 like a GF1/EP1 or a Ricoh GRD/LX3 type of camera) hanging from your neck as oppose to having my camera from a wrist strap and then pulling it up. I not sure if its the whole motion of bringing up the camera but something definitely happens when you bring it up, as oppose to clicking the shutter from your chest or a slight manipulation from there. I could be wrong but these are just my initial impressions as I pretty much always shoot with camera attached to a wrist strap. Have you experienced something similar in your style of …

Pictures don’t have to be perfect

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The photo is a thing in itself. And that’s what still photography is all about. — Garry Winogrand Pictures do not have to be perfect. Cartier-Bresson was not. Walker Evans was not. Daido Moriyama is not. A lot of folks are gun-ho and always raving about image quality, mega pixels, sensor size, this or that, or Canon vs. Nikon. I say, just look back and analyze some the greats and you’ll see a lot of their recognized pictures are far from great on these technical characteristics but exude a different sense of greatness. Its much more than that. There are things like composition, the decisive moment, shape, form, color or lack thereof, mood, feeling, and emotion. An image can have a certain mix of these aforementioned qualities and still be an amazing image. Gear is irrelevant and often time certain cameras can have a certain allure to them. I won’t deny that I’d love to shoot with an M9 and a 50 Lux but the fact is I don’t own one. Will I let that affect …

Ambiguity in a photograph

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I think that mysterious things happen in familiar places…. I like ambiguity in a photograph… When we do not know why aphotographer has taken a picture, and when we do not know why we are looking at it, all of a sudden, we discover something that we start seeing — Saul Leiter I tweeted earlier this week about this monumental quote I recently discovered and how it must be shared. It is exactly how I feel about this path I’m heading. I don’t know how to quite describe it but I’m fascinated by just pressing that shutter. Its almost like something has drained my sometimes impulsive urges to photograph the streets of Miami and all of a sudden I’m awaken to new a reality. A reality, I think Daido Moriyama found out a long time ago and hence his great body of work chronicling his reality: For me, photography is not a means by which to create beautiful art, but a unique way of encountering genuine reality. — Daido Moriyama

Venturing to Change

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Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change. — Jim Rohn And that’s exactly how I feel about my photography. As the year 2011 comes to an end, a new year is almost upon us and the word “change” resonates more than ever. I’m primarily a street photographer who uses the black and white canvas but admire tremendously the close inter-relationships that colors possess. This change has prompted me to think outside the box, think creatively, and explore new roads, hence my recent post of my Weekly Project 2012 that’s forth coming along with a new blog redesign to focus on what’s most important — the photography itself. So for 2012 are you taking any new roads with your photography?

The ties that bind

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You’re stuck with me forever, Michie, get used to it. It’s the ties that bind, darlin’, the ties that bind.   — Jim Marshall     Has it ever happened to you. You’re staring at one of your images and you absolutely fall in love with it. You feel you’ve captured that idyllic moment in just one click. Well, this is one of those frames for me.