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You can (and absolutely should) see the extent of what has been archived so far at: VivianMaier.blogspot.com.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

Street Photography

No better advice has ever been given to street photographers than that offered by Walker Evans, one of the greatest American photographers of the mid-twentieth century: ‘Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.’
I have been following a project that has been running on Flickr that is based around street photography.http://streetphotographynowproject.wordpress.com/ I thought this might be fun to try. It actually proved to be more difficult than I presumed. The first problem  was trying to find out what actually constitutes street photography, after a quick google search, it seems that it means many things. So I had to come up with my own definition. I think it is a desire to record the reality of everyday life, the private and public faces of people going about their daily life, in crisis, in happiness, in sorrow, alone or together, aware or unaware of the photographer.
One of my all time photographers was Dorothea Lange, she captured the forlorn, down trodden, helpless and homeless during the dust bowl of the 1930's.http://www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=d_lange 

I think we often forget that the  images of today are the photographic memories of tomorrow. The photographs that future generations will look at and try to imagine a time like we are living in today. The hardest thing about street and documentary photography is knowing what to capture. So I'm going to have a go at this project on flickr, I'm going to read the brief each week and see what I can come up with, trying to remember that they don't have to be clever or earth shattering, I just have to record a picture of life as I see it today.
This weeks brief was "look closer to home".

Yesterday we went to the Mango Strut http://kingmangostrut.org/parade.htm in Coconut Grove - Miami, Street photography was all around me. I didn't want to use a photograph of the parade though, as I don't think this really is street photography, although the parade is very controversial  and political, it is very obviously staged...not great for realism!
Brian and I were having tea in a French Bistro called Le Bouchon, I'm done I've taken loads of shots hoping I'll have at least one that I can use for the brief, when just as my tea and chocolate mousse arrive, I look up across the street and notice a couple sitting on a couch in the street, this was the shot this scene made great street photography!!!!!I took the shot and then went over for a chat to get some information about the couple.The couple owned the store or studio as they called it. It actually doesn't sell anything its a front for their catering company called Lasso the Moon., and they where just enjoying the winter sunshine, relaxing after a busy holiday season.

The contemplation of things as they are
without error or confusion
without substitution or imposture
is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention. 

Thats my photo.....

Today I won the Photo of the Day at the Aperture Academy. This is a great feeling to be recognized by other photographers. I am pleased as punch as I won also in October with a close up of an Iguana's Eye. This photo was taking of South Havens Pier, just before sunset. It was a lovely evening made all the better as I was sharing it with my best friend Kim, who lives in South Haven. As this is the second post today just a quickie, have fun looking at the link and all the great photos. Its very interesting to see how many NYIP students have won over the last couple of months.http://potd.apertureacademy.com/index.php

Stop and take the Photo.

So today I was getting ready for the journey north, away from the sun and into the cold and snow. Im washing the dock down and lo and behold about 15 pelicans land in the marina. I carry on doing what I was doing, thinking all the time I should grab the camera......."this could be the shot". So I have to go inside the boat get the camera bag the tripod, change to my long fast lens...time is passing, but I didn't need to worry, the birds are having a feeding frenzy down the dock because a fisherman is cleaning fish.
I was glad I took the time to stop and take the picture, I ended up with several very nice shots. This is one of my favorites.

Camera Settings- f/2.8 ISO200 spot metering 1/2000 shutter.

Don't jump ahead.

For me this is one of the hardest things to learn, I am constantly jumping into the middle of things, I don't read manuals very well, I usually don't make it to the middle let alone to the end. Now I'm not talking novels, I read those, every word in the right order, I'm talking all those technical manuals that seem to accompany every piece of electronics we buy.Ive been using Photoshop for about 8 years now and it was only last night after receiving some bad prints back from the printer,that I picked up the CS Bible and started to read.Now Ive only just purchased CS5 and bought the "Bible". Never read much of it!!!!  Yesterday  I came across something interesting, there is a setting for your task bars that is especially for Photoshop users. Now to all you geeks out there, you can snigger, but to  of all those just like me let me show you:

1. Right click on your desk top
2. Choose personalization window color and appearance.
3. Choose Graphite.

Now how simple was that, I know its not rocket science but then I'm an artist not a Technie.
This is one of my favorite Photoshop Sites.http://www.planetphotoshop.com/