My sponsor gave me a brand new Nikon D-70s today! Looks like I have to read the manual, because most of the photographs were blurred. I didn`t notice before I saw them on my monitor... Normal people might consider using the auto-setting - I didn`t. Looks like I`ve been using too slow shutter speeds. It`s been a grey, rainy day, and the ISO were set to 200, so I guess I asked for it.... Todays post is the third frame ever taken with this camera. The first two were closeups of the pavement. I`m used to press the shutter a few times to make sure the film is wound up on the takeup-spool. I`ll stop doing that. It`s stupid.
There`s going to be a lot of faces in the next posts. Haven`t photographed much else lately, but one of my goals this year was to practice a lot and hopefully improve when it came to portraits. I think I`m better now - more comfortable with being so close to strangers, and not as nervous as I used to be.
I have developed two films from sundays photoshoot, and I`m very pleased. One of the rolls were from the Holga, and it had one perfect frame. I`ll post it next week. Most of the frames were either too dark, or too much out of focus... It`s so easy to forget to keep a certain distance from the subject: 1.2 meters is the closest I can get! The frames from the Hasselblad were perfectly exposed, but two or three were a little out of focus. I shot at f.4 with a 150 mm because I love the way the subject separates from the background when I shoot wide open.Here`s an example. F.4 means a very narrow depht of field, and that`s why I easily miss the focusing. I should use a tripod, but hate it too much. A Hasselblad is slow enough as it is.
I`m feeling a little "off the tracks" again. Might be the weather, might be because I quit smoking again, might be lots of things- and it makes me upset. Took a long walk some days ago. Photographed "everything", and tried to loosen up. Tried some different locations, and found it exiting to photograph trough things. We photographed three children yesterday. I`m developing the films right now. I will post some of them in a few days.
Dok05 held a seminar in Oslo, Norway two days ago. Shahidul Alam, Paulo Pellegrin, and Antonin Kratochvil talked about their work, showed lots of pictures, and answered questions from the audience. Most of the photos were unknown to me, and it felt like we were bombarded by strong, striking images! All in black and white. Antonin Kratochvil talked about how he always shot first, no matter how cruel the situation was. He always edited his pictures later. Another photographer told us that he had been taught by Kratochvil to use the camera as if it was a machinegun. Move in close, shoot, bam, bam, bam, bam, step back, get an overview, and back in again... The four hours went fast, and I felt a little dizzy when we got out in the cold October night again. Four hours of terror and death was just what I needed to appreciate my own boring life.
This is Oliver. He`s one year old, and knows how to ride a bike. I used two flashes with softboxes, but unfortunately he moved faster than I expected, and got pretty close to the edge of the backdrop. He`s only 50 cm`s away from the light to the right, and that`s why you can hardly separate his skin from the background. I wanted him to stand out a little bit more, but this was the best I could do. I`m almost out of medium format b/w film, and wanted to try Fuji`s Acros 100. The store I always use had nothing. Except a few rolls of colorfilm. They said they would get some more film later this week, but very few people bought it, and they didn`t think they would have that many brands to choose from from now of. I`m afraid I might have to order film from overseas pretty soon. I suggest you all go to your local photo-store and demand to get a roll of medium format film.
My latest Canon QL17 looked ok when I got it, but 8 of 36 frames were blank, and the lens felt suddenly loose, so this camera has to be placed in a box where I save my broken ones. I might need some parts in the future... The tilted horizon is not because of a loose lens. It just turned out that way. At first I found it annoying, together with the lamp in the upper right corner. I wanted to crop the photo, and straighten it up, but now I think it works pretty well because of the leaves in the lower left corner.
Here`s a new link for you to check out. Fantastic portraits! His name is Andrzej Dragan.