“I take photographs with love, so I try to make them art objects. But I make them for myself first and foremost – that is important.” — Jacques-Henri Lartigue This quote from one of my favorites togs of all time was certainly in my mind these past few days. Sometimes we loose sight of what we’re photographing and our choices sometimes seem ill chosen to the untrained “eye”. I believe my fellow togs are not in this category. I photograph with intention, a vision, a plan and a vivid idea of what that image will be. To paraphrase Dave duChemin in his amazing book “Within the Frame” there are 3 images the one before, the one after you press the shutter, and the one that’s post processed.

To quote Gerry Badger from his amazing essay on Lee Friedlander What is [your] work about? To what does it refer, either concretely, metaphorically, formally, allegorically, or representatively? In what sense are [your] photographs documents – either of the world or of his true perceptions? [Are] you confronting us directly with our perception of reality – or merely an abstract, ultimately barren non-reality? Is [your] work an allegory for [your] view of civilization and humanity – or is it only about the medium in its narrowest sense? Is it a series of facile formal manoeuvres? These are important questions that one as a photographer, meaning one who takes photographs, not strictly using the term for professionals only but also for us, aficionados & enthusiasts, has to at some point during work answer.

Every since switching to LR3 I’ve been experimenting with color. I guess sometimes people think we folks that adore B&W do not like color for reason. I beg to differ, I think I’ve finally arrived with the tonalities that I’ve always yearned. So from now on, don’t be surprised when I share some color frames. I think color and black & white can coexist together in harmony, so here’s a frame to begin such a process, well actually to continue, since I already published this the other day. As usual, I like to set you guys up with the scene. I was at South Beach and it was already getting late, this juxtaposition caught my eye immediately, boom, I pressed the trigger and this is the result.

With the GRDIII, because it has a small sensor and a 28mm-e focal length, you don’t need f8 to get the depth of field required for street shooting. Snap focusing makes shutter lag practically non existant, as the lens does not have to autofocus. The race for the ultimate compact is looking better and better – Ricoh GRD III & Olympus XZ-1. One thing that needs to be kept in mind is the size and how pocketable the actual camera is. I’m currently struggling with the Nikon P7000 and its size. I should have given this point some further thought but with hindsight 20/20 as they say. I’m still happy with the P7000 as I got this shot yesterday but still something smaller makes it a no brainer.