Tag: Photography

Posted on

Video – National Geographic, Steve McCurry and the Last Roll of Kodachrome

What a fantastic find this morning on Twitter; Photojournalist Steve McCurry shooting the last roll of Kodachrome featuring faces in New York, Istanbul and India. While I will let the video, and McCurry himself, tell the story of this project I will say this is a fitting send off to a film that set the standard for decades and decades. I am ashamed to say that I have never shot a roll of Kodachrome, and I never will. By the time I was getting into photography I was largely using whatever film I could afford. I do feel that I have missed out on something special and as McCurry describes having nearly one million Kodachrome slides in his archive and their durability I wonder about the legacy and staying power of our digital archives. Somehow jpg files on a hard drive or burned to a DVD lack a certain magic. Somewhere in one of my closest is a slide case with a few hundred Kodachrome slides shot by my father on a camera identical to the camera I learned to shoot on. At some point I will have to get organized to digitize these slides before I loose the option and loose that part of my childhood.

Kodachrome isn’t just an element of our popular culture, but it was a mechanism used to record what would become our history, and indeed it did. Author Neil Sheenan suggests that “Photographs are the images of history rescued from the oblivion of mortality” and I agree. I believe that our understanding of the last one hundred years will be shaped by largely what we see in photographs the way the previous one hundred years is largely understood by what was read and perhaps the next one hundred years will in turn be understood through what we watch. Perhaps this National Geographic video is a perfect segue between these mediums.

Have a watch.

Another link I feel is worth a mention came to me from the American Photo Magazine Tumblr Blog featuring their picks for the best photo books of 2012


American Photo has also included a list of E Books with Getty Image’s Year In Focus at the top of the list. This is Getty’s 2012 showcase of highlights in photojournalism, from the Arab Spring to royal weddings and sports events and is available FREE! at iTunes. Definitely worth a look.

 

 

Posted on

Today’s Archive Image – Portrait of a Bedu 2006

There is nothing inherently remarkable about this image other than what it means to me. It was shot neither on assignment nor in a conflict zone nor is it a product of adventure travel. I was in Dubai about six years ago and was invited on a day trip into a nature preserve outside the city with a client liaison. It was typical in every way from the large American SUVs we traveled in to the Bangladeshi driver and the “Bedouin Fest” and Hooka pipes that closed the night. We rode camels and bashed about the sand dunes. I can’t even tell you a whole lot of about the reserve. It was one of those rare time when I gave in to enjoying a very typical tourist excursion leaving the planning and execution to someone else.

I was given to understand this Bedouin fellow worked on a type of farm, home to camels, oryx, goats and the like which was a stop on our tour into the reserve. While others were drawn to the animals, I was drawn to this man and indicated that I wanted to make a photo, he smiled and I snapped off a couple of frames. If I didn’t know the conditions with which this photo was made it would feel to me that it could have been made any time in the last 40, 50 or 60 years. I am drawn in by his eyes and expression, there is nothing suspicious or threatening about his face. The only thing I see is what I want to see; a suggestion of Bedouin hospitality and grace.

I have been working on a personal project, 1000 Portraits, and a component of this work is to push myself esthetically and technically as a photographer. I’ve been playing with lighting and back drops and going back into my collection of photo books to help me reframe my understanding of strong portraiture. This frame is one of three favourite portraits that I have shot, and all three were shot simply and spontaneously without lights, reflectors, or backdrops. To me, in this photo, there is nothing but content, nothing except this gentleman in his dish dash with a keffiyeh wrapped about his head.

Posted on

Link: The National Film Board – Camera Men

The National Film Board – Camera Men

There’s been a lot of talk, (maybe, maybe too much talk) about how technology has leveled the playing field between amateur and professional photography, it seems, however, like this discussion predates digital by about 50 years! This video from the National Film Board’s program On The Spot is a 15 minute piece on photography and features Amateurs, Professionals, a Jazz icon and a Prime Minister, such was the pull of the NFB in 1954. Directed by Allen Stark, the very well groomed presenter Fred Davis stops in on tourists on Parliament Hill, pays a visit to Canadian Jazz legend Oscar Peterson before finishing up with Ottawa’s Yousuf Karsh as he photographs Prime Minister Louis St Laurent.

My favourite quote comes from near the beginning as Davis describes the growth of the amateur industry, “The Amateur photographer today is as familiar with camera techniques as that of many professionals”. A phrase no less true today, almost 60 years later, than it was on what looks to be an chilly morning in Ottawa 60 years ago. I will let the video tell the rest of the story but I found it fascinating, from the guy in his living room shooting portraits of his daughters with a Hasselblad and retiring to his basement darkroom to develop his film to Yousuf Karsh describing how there are no secrets in photography.
Watch Here:

The National Film Board – Camera Men

 

 

 

Posted on

Events: 2012 Crankworx Teva Best Trick

It was so tough to pick one image of the 30 or so edits from today’s Teva Best Trick event at Crankworx but I hope you’ll like this one and that it will keep you interested in coming back and ultimately interested in my post event Crankworx gallery. This is one of those events in which the photographers outnumber the competitors, and today it felt like 3-1, the RedBull Joyride event this weekend is sure to be a glass fest. It is interesting to see so many pros in one place, everyone seeking out their unique vantage point, but ultimately turning their lenses to the same subject. One of the most interesting experiences I have had in photography is how different photographers see and approach the same subject. It hits me every time I look at the work of others who have been at the same event as I have. This is one of those things that makes photography so compelling but also humbling. It can be difficult to look at the work of others and see so clearly the elements of my own work that needs something more.

Posted on

Events: 2012 Crankworx

The seeds were planted months ago. I wanted to come to Whistler to shoot as much of the 2012 Crankworx as I was able. I missed the first few days, but there are some pretty gnarly events left to come and I am excited to be here. I am a volunteer. If you’ve read previous posts you might know that I do that, I volunteer for events but rarely as photographer. Photography is my profession, or has been, and I am working at bringing photography back to my primary source of income, it’s about half right now, which isn’t bad for a photographer who has retired a couple of times. Along with photography, I have a great love for cycling and if you’ve read my blog before you might also know that. I volunteered for Crankworx because I want to create some portfolio quality mountain biking images and after tonight, at the Deep Summer Photo Challenge, I can tell you that not all portfolios are created equal.

It was humbling, to say the least, to see the quality of images and slide shows shot and edited in three days. There isn’t a month of Sunday’s in which I could do the same. That said mountain bike photography is relatively new to me and I don’t spend the time in the mountains that I did when I was young. I don’t mean to demean the work that I do, only to elevate the work of tonight’s presenting photographers. Simply, tonight’s photographers shot the kind of work that first made me interested in photography. You should have a look.

This is what Bike Magazine had to say about Reuben Krabbe’s winning slide show; actually, they were a bit speechless. Have a look:

http://www.bikemag.com/news/reuben-krabbe-wins-deep-summer-photo-challenge/

 

Posted on

Today’s Archive Image: 2011 Whister GranFondo

So much in the hopper right now ahead of this weekend’s 2012 Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon and just a week out from this year’s BC Bike Race. I have been very excited to put together a team of photographers to shoot the ‘Scotia Half’ this year, regularly regarded as among the most scenic Half Marathons in Canada and I am looking forward to seeing a lot of great images from our team, perhaps as many as 18,000 images, which will see post production and upload next week. Wow, it will be interesting to see the final numbers. Get ready SumgMug!

As last summer was coming to an end I was asked to shoot the 2011 RBC Whistler GranFondo and this is one of the images shot that morning in September from the back of a motorcycle on the Upper Levels Highway above West Vancouver. My buddy Chris and I spent a huge day with the event shooting close to 4000 images between us in the period of about 16 hours. It was an intense day, but what can I say, I love shooting events, and I love shooting cycling. Sunday is going to be epic and I am looking forward to a team photo at the start line at UBC early Sunday morning.

The weekend is almost on us, events are everywhere, cycling, running, farmer’s markets, fairs and parades, these are the stock and trade of staff shooters covering weekend shifts across North America, these are where features are made, faces found and stories are witnessed. I hope you find something to shoot this weekend, your latest portfolio piece is out there.

Posted on

Personal Work – The Portrait Project: Hank the Barber

When I left the house early Friday morning to mark the route of a charity bike ride stretching from Crescent Beach in White Rock to Chiliwack, BC about 100km east of where it began I wasn’t thinking much about making photos. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve left the house with my camera with it never seeing the light of day, but I always remind myself that there is a lot to miss in this world and you never know what or who you are going to run into.

I can’t tell you much about the community of Yarrow expect that it sits in the shadow of the Cascade Mountain Range, has about two dozen businesses on the main street through town, offers a great sandwich at the Yarrow Deli and has been home to Hank and his barber shop since the 1940’s. Hank had a seat in the sun in front of his shop when we pulled into town and the sun seemed to light up his white, starched barber jacket. He was impossible to miss and after our lunch break at the town park, I wandered across the street to introduce myself and ask if I could make his portrait.

“I’m Hank the Barber, guess how long I’ve been here.”

We only had about five minutes with him, and I shot shot a few frames, but this was one of those times where I was grateful to have had my camera in my bag. I love this colour frame of Hank, but as much as it captures a certain light in his eyes, it is a reminder to me that some portraits are more than the face they capture. What’s making me crazy, days later, is how I overlooked including more of his shop in the frame given his shop is such a large component of who he is and his place in his community. Next time I will do better.

 

Posted on

Link: Pedal Power & The Big Picture

It takes real effort at times to separate the truly interesting content on line from the truly benign. One of my favourite sites to visit is the Boston Globe’s Big Picture Gallery where I am often rewarded by truly great images collected from sources from all points of the earth. This gallery strikes a chord, it’s called Pedal Power and it is a collection of images of bikes and the people who ride them. Two of my favourite things together, cycling and great photography. Have a look. And have another look next week when a new gallery arrives. I am especially partial to #43, Go Ryder!!

Pedal Power Big Picture Gallery