Tag: editorial

2009-04-26
Ladies Talk Before Going on Shift
Ladies Talk Before Going on Shift

I uploaded the gallery from the midnight factory shift photo story. As I mentioned a few days ago, I really wanted to treat it like a film shoot. I left the photos unseen for several days, trying to break my LCD habit and to start thinking more when actually taking the photos.

Also, when processing them, I honored my initial decision to make them black and white, as if I had chosen a roll of film. Meaning, I made one black and white conversion and applied it to all of them.

2009-04-23

As a continuation of yesterday’s post, I want to explain one particular detail of why documentary photography does not require expensive equipment. I might help, but certainly is not needed.

To me, focusing on a Cartier-Bresson style basically frees the photographer from the need of much gear. You need a camera, and the smaller the better. Therefore, the supersized SLRs are really fighting against you on this point. Though point and shoot cameras are smaller, I think they can almost be totally disqualified for another reason: you need instant response. When you press the button, the camera fires. Period.

2009-04-22

I read a wonderful blog post. I already mentioned this on Twitter @CooperStrange, but wanted to flesh it out more here: I was particularly affected by a recent article on the Strobist site. It was not the regular Strobist, off-camera lighting spiel, but rather a deeper look into the business of photography…though in this case, the non-business might be more accurate.

Well, so I do not overload you with a long post here (because if you actually follow that link and read his post, it is already quite long), I will cut to the chase. The Strobist post was good, but I very much liked the e-mail he left a link to near the bottom of the site. This was an e-mail from a friend of Mr. Stobist (David Hobby) who was passionately explaining his idea of developing documentary (story telling) photographers by teaching them “how to create decent photojournalism using Bressonian decisive moment style.”

2009-04-18

Last night, I waited up till midnight (well, I guess that is a little misleading, sounding like I regularly go to bed before then) to go out and record a sound I wanted on the short experimental video I am working on. I was out at the front gate of the factory here, and saw another story sitting right in front of me, just waiting to be told.

As I said before, I am tired of shooting one-shots day in and day out, disconnected photographs, maybe speaking to an overall theme, but never delving into the story in progress. I want to tell stories. I want to learn how to dig deeper and put together an overall story. And instead of crying about not having enough time (too cliché, anyway), I decided to keep my eyes open to the stories around me and start telling some of them.

2009-04-13

The day has finally come: I saw a news photo that used a LensBaby. That is just too rad for words, at least for words besides “rad”. I love the LensBaby lens concept. It gives us a very different approach to photography and helps us break out of our auto-focus, tack shap, wonder world.

I just noticed a thumbnail of this photo in Google Reader. I was not even reading the news, this was just on the very top of the page because it was recent. So, I could easily believe others have used LensBaby in photojournalistic work, but I just have not seen it.

2009-04-08

I keep thinking about cool stories to tell in photos: the folks living in shacks behind my apartment and what their lives are like, the life and belief of a typical Thai Buddhist, or any number of other story ideas. I envy photojournalists, whether they are given assignments or have the accomplished privilege of choosing their own projects, because they get to tell stories for living: meeting people, grapling with the issues of a given situation, and trying to portray that story in photos. SOOO cool! So, I have to wonder if it is possible to tell my own stories if it is not my job to do so.

I am going out on a limb this time. One, I really have no idea where this post will end up…I have just started and am hoping for the best. And two, there may not be anybody out there who feels the same way. So, I might be talking to the wind, but if for nobody else, I think it will be good for me.