A Secret Life - Made Public.

I recently came across a blog post that truly made me stop and wonder. I kept going back to the site and really wanted to understand the woman that the blog was about.
Chicago nanny Vivian Maier died in 2009, leaving behind 100,000 negatives that no one but she had ever seen. Her work was discovered by chance, and now the photographs she took on her days off are being hailed as 'ranking up there' with the best in 20th-century street photography. Sure, Maier’s life story is so surprising that it could be a movie. (A Kickstarter-funded documentary is in preproduction.) Born in New York, she spent some of her early life in France. After moving to Chicago in 1956, she worked for decades as a nanny on the North Shore. Her employers remember her as an eccentric loner who was good with kids, according to a story by Nora O’Donnell in the January issue of Chicago. But, as WTTW, The New York Times and countless other media outlets have reported, the nanny led a secret life as a brilliant street photographer.Vivian took photographs over a long period of time, begining in the early fifties right through to the nineties.One of my favourites is of this small child, in my mind she is out about town with her mother and aunt.

You can (and absolutely should) see the extent of what has been archived so far at: VivianMaier.blogspot.com.

 

Looking for a new lens.

Saturday I drove up to Minneapolis, I just had to visit my all time favorite camera store National Camera Exchange.http://natcam.com/. I was looking for a long lens. Now all you photographers know that those nice long lenses are mega money, but we have to look right? I'm a Nikon user and the 600mm was way too much, I didn't even ask the price knowing full well it's up in the $6,000's. I spent a good hour with Curt Rawn and he showed me the Tamron 200-500mm http://photo.net/equipment/tamron/200_500_Di/ and I think this is the one, nice sharp photos, not too heavy for the length, and an affordable price, reviews look good, I'm having lens envy just thinking about it. I didn't buy it, but I know I will before I return home. I did buy a nice little second hand
Nikkor 18-105 ,http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Camera-Lenses/2179/AF-S-DX-NIKKOR-18-105mm-f%252F3.5-5.6G-ED-VR.html traded in my older and heavier 105mm,and got a great deal, so I'm excited to get out and try it. As I was returning all the gear to my camera bag I happened to mention that in November I had a bought a Promaster hot shoe cable for my sb600 flash, and that I had had trouble with it last month while the sb600 was mounted to my grip. I was getting so frustrated. Here's how it went down....I was photographing an outside party and as soon as the sun went down my flash went down with it, it just died, wonderful! Now you have to remember that I'm new to flash photography and was so angry with myself at not getting it to work (couldn't get enough light - photos badly underexposed) I took the flash off the grip,with a few colorful words, replaced it on the hot shoe, a few more colorful words and moved on.Now back to Curt, he took the cord and tried it on the store camera and flash and decided it wasn't communicating properly. He went off and found  a new cord, tried it and whereas mine wasn't flashing bright enough this one was really overexposing the photo. Third cord, third try, it worked, he took the cord I'd bought (from another store) and replaced it with the one that worked, .My faith in customer service has been restored, thank you National Camera and Curt. So what have I learnt, maybe I understand more than I think, it isn't always my fault, sometimes the equipment is to blame, gotta love that one, and some times just asking the question gets you the answer that will solve your problems. Now I just have to get through the work week so I can go play!

Considering the weather.

So here's the question, I am a  fair weather photographer? The reason I ask this is because I have recently put 2,100 miles between me and home, and in doing so changed the temperature from low eighties to just plain low.....how does 0 degrees sound. Now maybe that's not bad if you're an Eskimo, or maybe a penguin, but to me a Florida Keys dweller, it seems awful cold.  Sunday night I arrived in Red Wing, Minnesota. I know you're asking why, heck I'm asking why.....same old,same old, the demon WORK.....I have to work, like the rest of you, to earn money to buy the toys that help me take the photo's of the things I love. So I posed myself this question on the long drive north,"What will entice me out in to the frigid cold, what beautiful sights lie in wait, if only I can muster the courage to leave the warm hotel room?"
Now I have been here before, yes, and I came back, so how bad can it really be.It's a pretty little town right on the river.http://www.red-wing.org/  but this time of year if you don't ice fish the pickings are slim to none. Whoops, I can hear all the locals jumping up and saying "hey wait a minute" sorry residents I'm looking for something special. Last time I was here I went to the Wabasha Eagle sanctuary http://www.eaglewatch.org/ and that's an incredible place and I got some cool photographs of the eagles,and by chance watched the Lakota and Menominee native American Indians dance in tribute to the beautiful birds. I also climbed the huge hill,  Barn Bluff, also great for photo's,so whats left. I love the people here, I love the scenery, I really want to get out, but its so bitterly cold. I can make all the excuses I like, but I know I will put on the hat, gloves, boots and coat, grab the camera bag and tripod and go, because  that's what photographers do, we go forth, we venture out and hope beyond any reason that this insanity will result in that one shot we've been striving to get....I will come back, I will be full of tales and adventures,and maybe a shot or two, until then I'm just trying to keep warm.Until then here are a couple of pictures I took last year.