on the other hand

Boston in July? Why not?

We'd never been, but it wasn't on a whim that we travelled this far into foreign territory. Months ago, after acquisition of one of motion picture technology's most favored devices - a Steadicam Pilot - it was recommended by one and all that a workshop should be included along with the Steadicam. The workbook is a great start, but the hands-on approach is a quick way to vault up the learning curve. At the time, the Boston workshop was the closest time wise as well as geographically.

In the few months between signing up for the workshop and actually attending in Boston, I've been able to get in a good bit of practice, find various balance combinations that do or don't work, and employ the device in the production of a short film, the self produced "Walking With Roscoe."

While the location of our hotel was less than ideal for direct access to famous tourist sites in Boston (it was chosen to be within walking distance to the workshop), public transportation in the Boston area is superb. The CharlieCard, which can be purchased in all the subway stations, permits access to the subway trains as well as the buses. It keeps an electronic record of the fare paid initially, rides deducted, and can be replenished electronically as many times as desired. Something this intelligent is bound to help immesureably with getting people to use public transportation. Which the Boston area residents surely do. Buses and trains are nearly always full, and they run on a frequent schedule.

It would seem that all the classes and workshops I take I already have a fairly good grasp of the material prior to arrival. This seemed to be the case with this workshop as well. At least I know the theory. The practice requires A LOT more practice. What our instructor, Director of Technical Services at Steadicam, Peter Abraham was particularly emphatic about is learning to use the Steadicam to carry a camera in a manner that truly emulates how a human witnesses the present. Or at least be aware of the manner of human presence, to create movement that contradicts the smoothed, rounded corners, short cutted way we travel through life.

Day 1 was theory and basic movement.

Day 2 was practice operating three different shots designed by Peter that permitted us to branch out and work in various spaces around the Rule/Boston Camera facility. Shot 1 was with the Panasonic AG-AF100 Micro 4/3 camera on a Pilot rig, and utilized a Don Juan move in the middle of the shot. Shot 2 used some large Panasonic video camera & lens on the Zephyr rig in low mode, camera flipped upside down and the monitor up top. A lot of gear to move around, it never felt very comfortable. Shot 3 was with a Sony PMW F3, a Zeiss 18mm CP2 prime, on a Scout rig. This was our Grand Prix shot, the only one recorded during the weekend. In fact, everyone looked pretty good.

And it was pretty nice to return home and be able to offer some Steadicam work to someone else the following day.

"shoulda-woulda-coulda"

 

This came in the mail today, an invitation to participate in the portfolio review/project review/single image competition in Santa Fe at what used to be called the Santa Fe Center for Photography. Is this yet another means to separate photographers from their money - as if the entire digital "revolution" wasn't effective enough? If I decide to participate, am I going to be sharing space with the likes of "Erin?"

Anyone out there got some experience with portfolio reviews that they care to share? I'd really like to have my cynicism about these things destroyed...

where does this leave us?

 

 
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Knowing I can usually knock these kinds of images out without too much trouble, I opted to do something completely different. I had the time, so all I had to do was make the effort. In fact my efforts went beyond my capabilities to keep up with them on film. At some point during the week I must have gotten in contact with four or five more people than I could find the time to go photograph.

So yeah, the project for the week - which really managed to center me for the workshop - was to photograph people working. It's an expansion of my efforts to get pictures of construction people. There was some of that, but rather broader too. I was concerned now and again that it was too broad, but it served as a suitable excuse to work with as many people I know as possible. If I'd not come up with a "project" like this, I know I would have really been lost @ sea. Others in the group expressed some serious feelings of disorientation because they had to find something to photograph in such a short period of time without knowing much of anything about Charlottesville. In a way, I wish I could have been more assistance to them. But alas, I was already by the second day rather deep into a schedule of appointments with a variety of people.

Tuesday was my heaviest day of work when I returned to the Coiner scrap yard and spent some time meeting and talking to the operator of the Liebherr trackhoe in the yard. Eventually I got a couple of photographs of him with the machine. Bill wasn't impressed. From there I stopped at the Laundry Building to see who I could find there. Fortunately Ed Brown of  Frontrunner Signs was there, and we did two exposures. Bill thought they were overexposed. Ed called around to the other side of the building for me to where his wife Tavia shares space with Martha Keith. I got a couple of really nice exposures with Martha, and had a wonderful conversation with her during the process, primarily about tools. (She may have more than I do.) I was rather nervous during the setup, because it was such a lovely setting and I didn't want to screw it up. My out loud thoughts were that I felt like I had to rely to a certain extent upon habitual processes, running in worn grooves through somewhat mechanical procedures in order to be assured that the check list is worked through. Results are satisfactory, although focus is on Martha's hands rather than her eyes. Once again Bill was unimpressed. After class - actually during it, I had to cut out early to make the appointment - I headed over to the university to work with Dave Metcalf in one of the lecture halls. Wide shot, closer, closer. Five exposures, three different emulsions, all fine in terms of exposure, but because they were in the 3 second range, Dave is not particularly sharp. Bill didn't even really look at these.

A wonderful day in which I think a learned a fair amount about working with people and setting them in an environment and giving some direction. What I've also learned is that I can do this "project" with the 4 x 5, but that many of the places I would like to go are inside, so some kind of supplemental light is going to be necessary due to the inadequacy of existing "natural" light and the horrendous color that it often is. I've got to learn how to work with flash, most likely even if I was to work exclusively in b&w - which I don't think I'm inclined to do. This is the piece of equipment I've neglected the most, and now that I'm doing people, it's the one that I need to learn the most.  I'd like to be able to practice with some digital equipment, but have nothing that will synch with an external flash. The excuse til now has mostly been that I didn't want to be burdened with another piece of equipment to set up and bother people with. But if I'm going to go to the trouble to meet with people and disrupt their schedules to pose for me, then I need to be sure that I'm getting something useable. Unfortunately, I don't think the exposures with Dave are useable beyond contact print size.

All in all, not much personal feedback from Bill Allard. The comments that he made over and over during the few days we were together: "Take it apart. Break it down." Eventually I heard him add what we were supposed to do after that: "Put it back together." What he was trying to get at is to look at every element in the composition and move the camera to a position so that all those elements communicate their respective importance as powerfully as possible. His amazing ability is to read nearly every inch of a photograph in a split second. With that ability one is able to make the slight adjustments that might be necessary to improve the clarity of the composition. The other question we heard over and over was: "Is it sharp?" To which Michael Bednar proposed to paraphrase Dustin Hoffman's answer in Marathon Man. "Oh yeah, it's totally sharp."

a plan

Maybe not a simple one, but a plan nonetheless. It's not appropriate to detail what it is. I'm more process oriented at this point, and trying to work out the details of how I'm going to actually do what I've set forth in my mind. Our motto will surely come into play: keep those expectations low. That I have a plan for the week is what makes me feel like I can make it through the next few days. Past experiences when there was no plan and I was working cold have been pure misery. I'm going to try to work with what I know this time. If I show nothing for the week, that will be fine with me. What Bill Allard thinks of what I've done/will do is of little consequence. I know I will absorb a lot from the other participants along with Bill. Today he said, "Concentrate on a single pheasant. Don't worry about the covey." My pheasant will be the people I know.

today's solution

 

At least for now, I will take solace in the sentiments expressed by Joe Reifer in his recent decision to stop yapping online about photography and go out and do more. His earlier comments about the dearth of decent writing on the web echo thoughts I've had for years. I can spend only so much time - no, make that waste so much time - looking at shitty little online images before I feel choked and ready to dry up and blow away. I don't contribute here often enough to need to stop doing it. But it's a reaction that I can get behind. After all, I did stop consuming "news" some years ago after some unknown NPR commentator recommended that listeners stop listening. I took her word for what it was worth and turned them off. My news consumption is still miniscule in comparison to what media owners would prefer.

Never mind that.

I've come to the realization that what this coming (impending?) workshop needs to be about for me is entertainment. I refuse to lose any more sleep over it. I'm not going to become a Geographic photographer, I'm not going to become a travel photographer, I'm not going to become a photo journalist, I'm not going to become a professional photographer. I will remain an unknown weekend photographer, and I intend to enjoy my time doing so. Which does not include making myself crazy trying vainly to photograph people. I expect to be challenged in the coming week, but if it's no fun doing so, then I'll bag it.

welcome to the confessional - may I come in?

 

 
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The doubts swirl. I'm still a week away, and already the questions and turmoil is keeping me awake at night. Perhaps you, dear diary, can ease my mind and give me some peace.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, the concept of signing on to join the William Allard workshop that is to commence next Saturday. It is something going on here in our home town so I don't have to fly across country to participate. It's with a fabulous photographer whose work I have enjoyed in the past when I've looked at it in the C&O Gallery and last year through the window at Les Yieux du Monde . No requirements to sign up for the workshop, and a full pass to the Festival of the Photograph at the end of the week is included in the price.

Second thoughts now have me wondering about the validity of my original motives. I've been reading Allard's The Photographic Essay. It's become clear now that he is primarily a people photographer. One who works in color, who is a fabulous designer, who has a keen compositional eye. But still, all his subjects are people. In case anyone has taken the time to notice, I on the other hand, do not photograph people. It wouldn't surprise me if he has no interest in my type of work.

Third thoughts buoy me back up. I've also received a new copy of Robert Adams' The New West. The prints are entirely too small, but I can feel the intensity of the light, smell the dirt swirling in the air in these pictures. This is much more the direction I typically go with my photography. There is a massive tradition to non human photography - I don't need to make excuses for the dearth of humans in my photographs. Their works and remains are everywhere I turn my lens.

I read a little more Allard, and his supposed impatience with students who can't picture other people. So the past few days my mind is swirling with ideas of who and how I could go about photoing people. It's got to start with people I know. To that end, I'll try something today during CLW's graduation. The conditions may not be ideal, but I've got to make some kind of attempt.

I've also looked at a recent Eggelston book, 5 x 7, photographs he took in a TGIF in the mid 70's, as a companion piece to video work he was doing at the same time. Neither got shown until recently. They're fabulous pictures of people and places, obviously much more posed, much closer to the way I see myself working with the 4 x 5. The ultimate question is whether I can indeed make myself talk to people and ask to take their picture.