Posts Tagged ‘leica’
Get Bedazzled with Michael Semaan
We’ll close out the week with a grab-bag of mixed news with something or another that’s sure to please everyone – you.
Back, Back to the Past
If you’re interested in vintage photos, antique photos, then take a gander at this image of miners relaxing and posing inside a mine shaft.
It’s one of a stash of 40-plus photos that are well over a century old, all of South African miners, that were discovered in a house’s wine-cellar! Read about it on Amateur Photographer.
An Unusual How-To
Keith Cooper at NorthLight had published an excellent article that shows you how to extend your approach alongwith a set of pointers. It had flown under the radar back in October.
For example, this unusual how-to points out not only the value of sharpening but tells you just what to sharpen and when (the driving factors). He also explains how merely looking at (and subconsciously studying) lots and lots of photographs will make you a better photographer. This article has one or two more hints that are uncommon.
It’s an ideal read for amateurs who’re wanting to take that step up to the ‘serious amateur’ category.
Get Bedazzled
If you’re an amateur who’s toying with the thought of going pro, this blog post on the Leica Blog is just for you. After all, he says, “though I’ve been doing photography on the side since I was 14. At the age of 38, I decided to focus 100% of my time and efforts on my photography and make it my career as well as my passion . . .”
This post is also for anyone who like good old-fashioned luscious pictures—
Vivid, saturated, ‘colourbursting’ landscapes are Michael Semaan’s calling cards (good job Leica, we need more of these!) Semaan’s secret? Here it is from the horse’s mouth: “Indeed, light itself can often be your subject.”
He uses light in several different ways, witness this image of a seashore (whose composition breaks the ‘rules’ to super effect). Also, this photograph somehow makes one think ‘Zen’ . . . and notice the lines in the foreground . . . coincidence?
You can study and learn from Semaan’s style, which is for the most part extroverted and joyous, or just ‘bathe’ in the beauty of his vision.
COLLECtive – COLLECTION – exhibiTION
No doubt that by now you’ve read a thousand-and-one posts about Leica’s new Mini M camera, unless you’re just back from Mars (how was the weather?). So we’ll skip that particular news splash (cum explosion) and proceed to some interesting items that may have escaped your attention.
A Rare Exhibition
Photography Exhibitions in and of themselves aren’t unusual. Some kinds and types of Photography Exhibitions, however, are unusual, even rare. One of these is Making it Up: Photographic Fictions at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. But don’t jump to the obvious conclusion – this is not a show comprising manipulated and doctored images. This exhibition concentrates on scripted ‘set piece’ photographs with an air of imaginative mystery. The name that most immediately springs to mind is Gregory Crewdson and his works are featured in the exhibit alongwith those of several others. Making it Up runs until March next year so you’ve got lots of time to catch it on your travels.
A Camera Collection
You’ve heard about William Eggleston and you’ve admired his photographs. PetaPixel thinks that it’s high time you heard about and admired his camera collection.
Just as Saurav Ganguly had (has?) a penchant for collecting cricket bats, Eggleston has “something of an obsession” with cameras, particularly Leicas, to the tune of cases and cases filled with them! All told, they number about 300!
Obviously, no photographer needs even a tenth as many cameras so Eggleston (besides obviously being a photographer) is displaying the indulgence and love of a collector. His collection includes limited editions and commemoratives – more evidence of Eggleston’s collector credentials.
In case you missed it, all these stacks of Leicas were photographed with a dinky, relatively humble Fuji X-Pro1! How cool!
A Photography Collective
The appeal of Photography and the passion it arouses sometimes catches one by surprise. Witness some small town small gallery in America hosting an exhibition of their ‘Photo Arts Collective’.
New Haven’s Collective is a loosely-assembled local group of photographers that support and critique one another. This small-town casual group boasts skilled photographers.
Consider the photo “Meriden, CT, July 4, 2012” which illustrates New Haven Independent’s story of the Collective’s exhibition. This arresting and somewhat bewildering image was described as containing “legerdemain of light and distance” (it has the distinct feel of a tilt-shift photograph) and was praised for framing fireworks in context with their setting and spectators.
If you read the charming story you’ll also come across a photographer opining, “To me this looks like Oz,” except that she was referring to L. Frank Baum’s ‘Oz.’
The “Fine Art Street Photography” of K. Chae
Logo for Leica Camera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Fine art street photography” – at first glance that sounds like a contradiction in terms and also seems a little pretentious. But before coming to a final judgement, take a tour of South Korean photographer K. Chae’s imagery and you may reconsider.
“My attention to color is what sets my work apart from other street photographers,” Chae says, in an interview published on the Leica Camera Blog. “People often comment that they confuse my photographs with paintings. I never shoot B&W.”
On that note, here’s Exhibit A: a luscious photograph of a kneeling, slender maiden writing out the names of bakery items on a display case. The careful composition, the ‘moment in time’, the ‘story’, the details, the splashes of colour – this is really a new approach to street shooting.
In diametric contrast is this photograph with literally two hues but infinite tints, a truly artistic composition, and an oddly hypnotic sense of depth (partly attained by perspective and partly by the combination of focal length, f-stop, and focus-point). It’s almost an abstract composition (and it would look really hypnotic on a large canvas).
This photo again is street shooting (frankly, at its finest) but here ones sees lines – including leading lines – galore, lots of texture, and a clear story – in fact, this one picture tells two human interest stories.
Want some more? Just set aside ten minutes, visit Chae’s website, and admire the enthralling slideshow. If actions speak louder than words, so do pictures, and Chae’s portfolio ‘loudly’ proves that his work is truly “Fine art street photography”.
Despite how Chae sets himself apart (as do his distinctly unusual ‘street shooting’ photos), like most street shooters his “primary weapon of choice” is (surprise, surprise!) that well-beloved of street-shooters, a Leica. He loves it “because it is difficult to use,” as he is averse to “current developments of cameras where it seems cameras make the picture for you.”
In addition to further particulars about Chae’s affinity for Leicas, the interview plumbs his philosophy of photographic art and, indeed, everything surrounding photography, such as the importance of learning and experience, the “shades of the earth,” and the need to nurture fresh talent.
In closing, if you haven’t clicked on any of the links above, take this on trust: don’t leave without clicking this one: if the saying “the eyes have it” is true, these ‘have it’ in spades.
A Mixed Bag of Three Cameras: Leica, Fuji, and Polaroid
Logo for Leica Camera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We know that top-of-the-line cameras can be really expensive but $2.18 million? The price of a mansion? And this is not even one of those diamond-encrusted iPhones, it’s a plain old Leica.
This Leica M3D is not a prototype or a limited edition; it is a production camera although it is “one of four that was specially customized by Leitz for American photojournalist David Douglas Duncan.” Another Leica, this one the legendary M3, also fetched $1.17 million. This near-mint piece is “the very first production M3 ever made.”
We all knew Leicas were high-end cameras; however, they’re obviously collectors’ items and museum pieces too.
The new Fuji X-E1 is a display piece for your neighbourhood camera store. Like other recent Fujis, this APS-C mirrorless has that retro look with a few manual controls which makes it stand out from the crowd of NEXes and such. There’s also a material technical difference: instead of the standard Bayer Array, it uses a new, very different, ‘X-Trans CMOS’ Array which is meant to offer improvements in “remov[ing] colour moire and false colour.”
As with the X100, the X-E1 also has digital filters that mimic the palettes of Fuji’s well-known films – Provia, Velvia, Astia – plus other filters. Another feature worth mentioning is auto-stitched panoramic photographs. All you need do is pan.
Now here’s one camera that doesn’t have a retro look, it has a custom look, thanks to woodworker-photographer Siebe Warmoeskerken and his skills. He “combine[d] his two passions.” He took a Polaroid SX-70 Alpha and designed a wenge-wood veneer around it.
Regardless of whether you go for a Leica, Fuji or a wood-worked Polaroid, you could always brush up on your photography skills. To that end Digital Photography School has compiled a list of the top fifteen photography books that visitors to their site clicked through to actually buy.
Have a look at this list and each of the books on it. You’ll probably find that the subject-area of one or another book addresses one of your weaker areas or covers an area you wanted to learn more about. Fundamentals of digital photography, composition, natural light, RAW, even HDR – several major subject-areas are represented on the list.
However, it’s probably the number one book whose title will resonate with many novice readers: “Beyond Snapshots: How to Take That Fancy DSLR Camera Off ‘Auto’ and Photograph Your Life like a Pro.” If only it were that easy! Perhaps the book makes it a little less complicated?
The Camera Brands’ Melting-Pot
The camera market is in a bit of a tumult – credit (or blame) Leica and Fuji for having started all the ruckus. Indeed, it’s become like a melting point with new brands arriving and old brands blending and melting into one another.
How about Samsung and Google (with its Android O.S.) entering the camera market? Samsung announced a Galaxy camera (to go with its Galaxy tablet and smartphone) at photokina.
Actually, the Galaxy camera is not a camera but a hybrid camera-smartphone device that is conceived with wireless technology and the Cloud from the ground up. Look at it from the front and it’s a camera; look at it from the back and it’s a smartphone! Samsung’s Sun Hong Lim says, “We combined the best bits of a smartphone with the best bits of a compact camera together.”
The Galaxy camera probably won’t be the finished article and may not go anywhere but it may well herald a new day for cameras – think of the applications (of this kind of ‘connected’ camera) in photojournalism, war zones, and live sports events.
Seems like the good folks at Hasselblad are feeling a bit prickly. The overwhelmingly negative reaction from industry watchers to Hassy getting hitched with Sony (which we blogged about) has provoked a defensive reaction.
Briefly, their new Lunar is basically a spruced up Sony NEX 7 but neither Hassy nor Sony want you to believe that. In a lengthy defence (published in the BJP!) that would cause any American superlawyer to roll his eyes, Luca Alessandrini and Peter Stig-Nielsen of Hasselblad make a precarious situation downright perilous. The most insightful comment is from one Simon Burgess who commented: “Shame but with the demise of Kodak it’s clear to see that no brand, no matter how iconic, is safe and hasselblad are clearly on the same slippery slope that Kodak were on a few years ago.”
Unlike Hasselblad, fellow elite brand Leica definitely has the right partner in mind. It wants to tap up Apple’s lead designer, Jonathan Ive, to design a new Leica M. The project is a little lah-de-dah, what with charity auctions and Bono involved; nevertheless, an ideas-and-design interflow between Apple and Leica has none of the discordant notes of a Hassy-Sony marriage.
P.S. Stay tuned to know more about the iCamera, coming from you-know-who.
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