Preparing traffic lights for installation.

Asia is great for photography, especially photojournalistic photography. You can always find people on the streets and, from a Western perspective, there is always something interesting going on. Having just returned to the United States, I have to adjust to the new situation, adjust to the rhythms and patterns of the American culture, to be able to catch those photos which can portray life and work and reality in the United States.

This photograph was really quite important for me. The biggest adjustment to do everyday documentary photography is that I am driving from place to place instead of walking, and when I see something to photograph, I cannot just aim and shoot as if I were on a sidewalk in China.

I had just left the grocery store and these guys were working on the intersection at the edge of the parking lot, on the busiest street in Temple, Texas. Perfect: opportunity and I am not driving 60MPH. Not only was I able to take some shots of everyday work and life (which marked a re-entry into my favorite kind of photography now that I am back in the United States), but I settled some old questions, found new information, and met an interesting guy.

Just trusty aluminum

I had been told traffic lights were incredibly heavy, maybe in the hundreds of pounds. I never could figure out how those poles, regardless of their construction or the materials used, could hold up such weight, especially in high winds. Well, he said they were 60lbs. And the poles were in the neighborhood of 3000lbs. Ok, I am all clear now; I can believe that.

They were installing the video cameras. Having lived in China under the watchful eye of “the authorities”, cameras in public piqued my interest. He explained, however, that the cameras are not for surveillance or even for auto-camera-ticketing, but simply as the eye of the system so that the lights could detect traffic and increase efficiency at low traffic hours. High traffic hours would not even use the cameras, because the system is on a pre-set timing, coordinated with other lights.

So, I have officially entered the American documentary photography scene…well, officially for myself, anyway. Especially since I have lived in China for ten years, and thus see my own home culture from a very different perspective now, I look forward to documenting what I see and trying to explain what the culture and society of the United States is really like.

In the biographical documentary about James Nachtwey, War Photographer, Nachtwey said, “It’s more difficult to get publications to focus on issues that are more critical, that do not provide people with an escape from reality, but attempt to get them deeper into reality, to be concerned about something much greater than themselves.”

Modern culture, which globally is (unfortunately) becoming more Western and even American, has focused on being entertained instead of engaging life around us. It is the difference between reading a book and watching television. It is giving the kids a video game instead of taking them on a walk or kicking the ball around. Those things have their place, but not if they completely replace an interconnected, relational, engaged approach to life.

Nachtwey mentioned how advertising has pushed out content. It is quite simple: companies do not want their perfume and clothing (and beautiful models) seen across the page from war, disease, poverty, and injustice. Evidently, it is hard to sell luxury items when readers might actually be affected by photos of those in suffering. They might just become “concerned about something much greater than themselves”.

It is so easy to be gamed, advertised, and sit-commed to spiritual death. Nacthwey wants to be the eyes in the field for us, and for some of us media producers, we should follow his lead, engage the world, and with camera in hand, pass on a taste of reality to our smaller audiences.

Instead of striving to create more online forum prize winners, why not switch off the ultimate entertainment internet, and re-join our local community, our neighborhoods, our families.

Here’s a tip of the hat to you, Mr. Nachtwey.

My wife insisted I post this. I wrote all this in e-mails the past couple days trying to help a technologically-challenged sister buy a camera for her starting-out-photo-student brother, and they are in different countries, so cannot shop together.

Here is the little background: because these suggestions are for a specific situation. The student-photographer-in-question will have access to loaner lenses through the photography department. So, one, he does not need anything more than a workable lens for himself. And two, all that glass is Canon. So, regardless of my opinions, he needs a Canon camera and should put most of the investment in the camera.

The sister almost bought a Canon 5D mark II and a lens for $2000…and that is about $1000 too cheap. Thankfully, the lens they ordered was an EF-S and would not work on the 5Dmk2, so they were able to cancel the order, which was most certainly some sort of scam anyway. Then, they started thinking about the new 7D or a 50D. And that is where we pick up the story.

Dear Concerned-Sister-Who-Loves-Her-Brother-Enough-to-Give-Him-a-Good-Photographic-Start,

Here are some links for you to look at before we call tomorrow morning. First, PLEASE do not buy from any non-trusted source. There are lots of scams out there, and it is tempting. I will try to lead you in the right direction here. Basically, if you see a huge variation from the prices on these sites (the ones I am about to give you), you need to suspect their honesty.

Ok…here we go:

I love MPEX.com. I have bought from there and they do good business. Here is a link to their used Canon gear. The best price on that list is the 40D for $700. Think about that. If you want a cheaper option, the 40D is VERY close to the 50D, and you could grab it for cheap. The 7D? You really do not get much for the money over a 50D anyway. Oh, and note their used 5Dmk2 price, $2400.

If you bought a camera from there, get the body used, then buy this lens new: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 for about $120. It is a simple lens; it’s cheap and versatile, and he can borrow just about any lens he wants from the department, anyway. Regardless of what camera you buy, I very much suggest you just get this simple lens.

Ok, let’s move on to KEH.com. You can go check out their website directly, but if you go to their eBay store, you can view photos of each item. Once you get an idea of their ratings with the photos, you can just use their direct website. They are a very trusted used gear seller and their ratings are trustworthy too. Anything “excellent” or better is perfectly fine.

What I would suggest, if you do not want to go for the used 40D, is a 5D from KEH. The 5D is a fully professional camera. The quality is excellent! It is old, but still is WAY better quality than the 7D or 50D, no question. You would buy a 7D if you wanted fast shooting and fast focusing (or video). You would buy a 50D if you just wanted a new camera and not something used. If those things do not matter, buy a 5D. There are several used Canon 5D cameras there.

Oh, and you can see a 5D with the 50mm lens I am suggesting for sale there (at time of writing), but I would not suggest buying that unless you just want to throw away $200. I personally suggest their “excellent plus” 5D for $1420. Then buy the 50mm lens just about anywhere for $120, which equals $1540ish, far short of the $1700 for that combination on there, but you can take a look, anyway.

Oh, and as for that 50mm lens, there are actually two of them, an old one and a new one. Either is fine (actually, the older is better and cheaper, but the newer is easier to find): 50mm f/1.8 and the 50mm f/1.8 II. Again, either one is fine.

I see two good options: cheap and less-cheap. For cheap, get the 40D from MPEX.com for $700 and buy a 50mm f/1.8 II lens new from them for a total of $800. For the nicer option, get a 5D (excellent plus condition) from KEH for $1420 and then buy a 50mm f/1.8 anywhere you like…maybe even MPEX, just because they are nice folks.

I already mentioned KEH and MPEX, but here are some reputable stores against which you can compare prices, and hopefully with whom you would do business precisely because they are trustworthy:

• B&H Photo and Video
• Adorama
• Midwest Photo Exchange (MPEX)
• KEH

Cooper

He says in the film, “We must look at it, we’re required to look at it, we’re required to do what we can. If we don’t, who will?”

This film is not about a man who pushes to the front lines and is right in the middle of the decisive moment even when the bullet are flying just for personal glory, more prizes, or the photo with the most edge so he can beat out the competition for the front page. The theme that comes through over and over again is that he goes out so he can capture the essence of what is happening around this world, because he believes people want to know, that people want to do something, and in so doing, he is trying to write terms of peace.

I have been questioning the purpose of photography lately, and this is a breath of fresh air. Why even take photos? Why would I go through contortions just to take a beautiful, unique photo of a flower or landscape instead of just enjoy it with my own two eyes and be fully present in the moment? Personal glory? Why do I attempt documentary photography when the photos’ meanings can be so subjective and the story manipulated (by me or others)? Why not just write about it? Am I trying to entertain? Am I seeking personal glory again?

Then I think about my use of Twitter, which for many, including me, is often just “getting my work out there”…i.e. it is all about me and my personal glory. Ich! That may not be a problem for you, but it is certainly easy to do for me. Sure, there are great uses of Twitter and Facebook or blogs (oops!), but it is a matter of the heart.

If am to continue to be a photographer, what is my responsibility? What is my responsibility to my conscience, my God, my culture? James Nachtwey provides a little glimpse in that quote, maybe not the full answer, because that will be different in different situations and for different people, but at least a sign post to get us headed the right direction: “to do what we can”.

What can I do? Well, as much as I would love to begin to rationalize it, I am not going to be able to leave my family for a self-glorious life of photography around the world. So, am I ok…can I just take my flower pictures now? Not quite…at least, that does not begin to console my conscience.

There are plenty of issues close to home too. There are plenty of issues that never hit the main stream media: little injustices around us or maybe even praises of those who are stepping up and doing what they can. There are churches feeding the poor, there are teachers sacrificing financial security to educate, there is the beggar in the intersection, or the lady dying from cancer with a life of experience to pass on.

I agree with James Nachtwey: I think people want to know. There are plenty of people out there, I believe, who are willing to take out the ear buds and reengage society around them. Let’s not entertain or seek our (ill-fated) photographic glory; we do not have the humility to keep it going anyway. Let’s just do what we can.

"Ooo, there's the REAL photographer!"

That is not false humility. It seems with every passing “serious job” I do, I realize how far I have to go. Sure, I took some pretty shots, but there were so many shots that I looked at and thought, “Hmph, that one was almost good.”

Funny, I knew so much when I did my first wedding. Maybe the good ones were lost or something, because when I looked back, all those killer shots just were not there. Strange. I certainly knew more when I started…or as some friends quoted to me recently from Bob Dylan, “Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”

I think to sum up my thoughts about what is limiting me — yes, I am going to blame it on gear…well, and that blasted spotlight at the banquet — I would say a full frame camera would sure be nice for an extra stop of light or two. That really does make sense; I will explain. I want to go a little wider, but I lose a stop or two getting a wider lens so it ends up where I want it on my crop sensor camera.

Example: I am shooting a 35mm f/2, which is acting like a f/2 50mm. I just lost a stop of light from the 50mm f/1.4 basically because of my cropped sensor. You have to blame something. Then, if I wanted to shoot at 35mm, which I do, I would have to go for a 24mm f/2.8, and I have just lost another stop of light.

Maybe on Nikon’s (and now other companies) new high ISO, low noise cameras, this would not be an issue, but I will tell you what, on my decrepitly aged D100, you notice plenty of grain just moving from 200 to 400.

I think to really say it more clearly, I would not say it is just that I need new gear to fix all my problems. It would be more accurate to say this: I feel like my eye is seeing a full frame view, but that blasted sensor keeps cropping my vision…but a little less grain would be nice for an alternative solution. Seriously, any full frame camera with the Ai-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.4…that would be great.

I give the biggest kudos possible to Nikon for “writing the peace treaty” in the megapixel wars by coming out with the 12MP D300, D700, and D3. As is seen by the number of pros using these cameras, many people are more concerned with other features like shooting speed and high ISO noise. Now, I can add Canon to the list of enlightened camera makers by making their new top of the line compact camera less megapixels than the last generation of the same camera! Sweet.

Now, I am not trying to say more megapixels is bad. It all depends on your needs. To some, more megapixels does not slow down their workflow at all, they have plenty of space to back up the larger files, and some just flat need the extra megapixels. For many, there is not a need for more megapixels, and fewer means they can gain speed in processing (shooting speed and editing on the computer) and lose noise at high ISOs. It all depends.

For the average Joe or amateur photographer, though, there is rarely a need for ultra high megapixels. They already haev all they need. My Mom has a 10 or 12MP camera, and I set it to a smaller setting for her, because it eats up space so fast. Regardless, I like the trend, which seems to be saying, “we camera makers are willing to work on other issues besides jump forcing more megapixels into the camera.” Bravo!

Is objectivity an illusion? What does objectivity mean to you? Is it something journalists should strive for? Why or why not?
[Ami Vitale said...] “Yes, I believe objectivity is an illusion but I also believe that there are a multitude of viewpoints and that no one “Truth” exists. I believe that unless we understand and give voice to these perspectives, reason remains veiled. Ignorance in each other’s stories leads us to assume we know them. It allows us to maintain perceptions of differences based on our own preconceived notions.”

I mostly agree with that. The phrase “no one ‘Truth’ exists” really threw me at first. Actually, I started writing this post to contradict what she said, but now having read it again a couple times, I think I see it a little differently. To start, I would make that a small t…but that is nit picking and most people would not catch the subtle difference.

If read in the context of covering stories and trying to understand others’ perspectives, I would agree that there is no one truth. Meaning, there is not that perfect set of photographs or those perfect words that say everything just exactly as it truly is, was, and will be. Who would deny that? It is a matter of wording, to some degree.

Going back to the big T Truth, though, this quote touches on a deeper reality. Reality, and thus truth, is extremely difficult to nail down, in a photo or with words, and I would not even say that is the end goal of photojournalism anyway. So, let’s just leave photojournalism for a moment.

Let’s call this spiritual photography. There is a reality, a Truth, present at all times and in every place, filling all things. So, is it possible to photograph that? I would say no. However, surely it is possible to photograph certain facets, images, reflections, or indicators of that true reality, though.

I do not seek to bring this out in every single photo. Sometimes it is good enough to just take a cute photo or a snapshot, but I still seek that reality. I want my photos not to force my point of view (which is more what I think Ami Vitale is talking about anyway…and trying to not do), but to try to dig for the deeper reality, call it the backstory or the Grand Mystery of Things. It is not about what I want my photos to communicate, but rather that I want my photos to make a hard link between the beauty of Truth and the viewer of the photo.

For one, Polaroid is just cool. I remember wanting to shoot one when I was a kid when seeing some friend of my brother with one, but I was simply too little to be trusted, I guess. I have never pulled the trigger (more true than I ever knew till just recently, they really do have a trigger kind of mechanism) on a Polaroid. And second, I only have ten shots. That is just exciting in itself.

I know there are other folks out there who can understand this strange feeling, but I am just giddy at the thought. It will be the perfect way to catch those ethereally normal moments as our family makes a very big life change. And you can bet I will be writing notes on the bottom. That is just too cool to not have to do that in some computer software!

Balloon Toss

This was easily the brightest day I have experienced in a long time. In case you were wondering, I added very little contrast to this photo. Most of that is natural. So, with such a huge amount of light, I decided to zone focus.

I have been playing around with zone focusing for a few weeks now, but this was a great day for it. I can set the aperture to f/22 for a very deep depth of field and still have a fairly fast shutter speed. Actually, the depth of field is so deep in this photo, I almost feel like it was composited: nice crisp clouds all the way to the arms in the foreground.

I always wondered how to use that depth of field calculator on my lenses. Once I found out, it has been a very valuable tool. I did not have to focus any of these shots. As long as my subject was more than one meter away, I was safe. So, with metering on manual and focus pre-set, I could just shoot away with nothing more than composing. Get in the zone!

As it turns out, I think I do not have flare and will not get flare. I kept trying different approaches: putting the sun in the photo, just on the edge of the photo, just out of the photo, and maybe a little further out. Nada. No flare.

It is one of those methods or little tricks that pop in my head every few days, when the sun it up and nothing else seems to be happening, and I try a few more shots out. I can never get any flare. I simply wanted to be able to control it, meaning, if I wanted it in a photo, what is the trick to making that happen. Or, conversely, if it is sunny and I want to avoid it, how do I do that.

Then, something came back to me. My walk around lens is a Nikkor AF 35mm f/2 D. I remember reading something a while back (actually, while reading info on my coveted lens, the Ai-S 35mm 1.4): that lens has almost no lens flare. Oh. Oops. So, I guess it is time to stop the experimenting and just be thankful for a lens that seems to be very well built.

And speaking of lens flare, in a slightly awkward ending, I love the tribute to lens flare in the Wall-E opening sequence. You have a computer animation which has lens flare. That is just cool. And it is proof that lens flare is cool, which I guess makes my lens a little less cool. Bummer. I bet that old, 1.4 would be cool!

A farm girl caught in a city life,
Primal simplicity wasted not
On the severed souls she helped.
O, that we too could find simpleness.

That we have,
In the picture of love among us,
Like the servant farmer before her,
The daughter’s incense rises above.

______________________________

Happy 60th birthday, Mom. I hope the poem says it all. I just wish I had not been inspired at two in the morning.

Too Cool for Dancing

Sometimes I am thankful I have an outdated, clunker for a camera. Well, that is how others see it, anyway. To me, the horrible noise if I raise the ISO above the minimum setting divulges the unique and unheralded character of the Nikon D100. I have had several chances recently to push it past the “recommended” limits, and what I often find is photos that (thankfully) do not look like all the others out there.

So, setting aside my ISO envy for a moment, because I do not write this as some subliminal reaction to my feelings of inferiority to all those cameras that take beautiful, low-grain photos at ISO one million, I simply want to revel in the grain, the color awkwardness, and the general feel of the photos I have after taking my primal digital camera into the dark no-mans land of light.

Ok…I will admit it…I still want a Canon 5D with a Nikkor Ai-S 35mm f/1.4: not too high ISO tech, certainly sufficiently non-conformist, but solving the core limitations I face with my cropped D100!

So true. How many times have we just shot and later realized we caught more than we initially thought? Or how many times have we realized there was more to a photo than met the eye, when it had that extra something? It seems Minor White just took this realization and made it a purposeful pursuit in his photography, to not only take the photo seen on the surface, but to attempt to capture that which is beyond the superficial layer of the photo.

His Wikipedia page said, “He is remembered largely for his ideas about the spiritual in photography.” Not that I am trying to have a deep thoughts competition, but that statement just sounds so Western. What I mean is, the West tends to divide up their worldview into spiritual and secular, whereas in the East, that division is not made. Their worldview has everything thrown into one big lump, one master category called life.

I think that every time we take a photo, this mixture of the superficial image and the underlying reality is always present. Some photos may be more clearly one or the other, and for some photos we may not even care about one or the other, but they are still present.

That is why some portraits are just a picture of somebody, perhaps the stereotypical family shot, and then, some portraits are a deep and intimately personal look inside a person. And also this is why some art is flat, boring, and does not seem to have any purpose or message, and some art is so unassuming, yet says so much.

Those are just a couple of my thoughts. It’s a great quote: “I photograph things for what they are and for what else they are.”

The Cops Are On My Ceiling

What is a camera obscura? I did not find out till too long ago myself. If you do not know, just go Google it if you want more answer than this: if you black out a room and allow light in through a small hole, you will have a live, color, (upside down and backwards,) movie of life outside displayed inside your room. It is like a giant eyeball or like you are inside your camera.

Oh, you are, though…inside your camera that is. A literal translation of “camera obscura” from Italian, is simply “dark room”. So, you are in your camera, i.e. room.

I did this as a fun aside from daily life for my son’s birthday, today. I knew it was possible, and with our new black out drapes, it could become a reality. Actually, to test out the idea, all I did at first was wrap the drapes around a toilet paper tube, and even with terrible light leaks, I got discernible images of cars and trucks rolling across my ceiling.

Once I spent more time blacking the room out (though we still had plenty of light leaks), and replaced the toilet paper tube with a folder with a one-inch circle cut out, I filled almost half the room (ceiling, walls, and floor) with the upside down, backwards movie of the street outside. I had to frame the ceiling fan in the shot above for proof, as if the wildly skewed, oddly colored police truck were not convincing enough.

Try it! It’s a blast. All you need to do to get started is steal the toilet paper for a few minutes.

Scrap Iron Office

This week, due to changes in the fire code, I have had to remove the wooden staircase from my coffee house and replace it with something non-flammable in order to obtain my fire permit. So, I have had several visits to this little metal-working store front to order a metal staircase to be made, though “store” is a little misleading. This place is more like a man-made cave connected to the street.

Here they are, writing out the receipt for my deposit. That light is the only light in the dismal, iron powder coated, cavernous work space. I just love these kinds of places. You sure can find them back home, but if you walk around in the right parts of town, you can find all kinds of interesting trades. I still have the cave-like barber shop to photograph, but I will save that for another day.

Fascinating. I will have to respectfully disagree. Not that I am the authority, but it seems to me the reason is staring us in the face. It may sound overly simplified, but do we not like sunsets and sunrises because they are beautiful?

Well, ok, not all sunrises and sunsets are beautiful. You have the rainy days, you have the dead of winter. Ironically, the pollution here in China seems to enhance the beauty…does not sound right to me, but it can be true.

As photographers, why do we go out at dawn and dusk? Well, if you work for a magazine or some such, it is most likely because your editors told you to (or you know they will if you return without it). For the rest of us, it is simply because that is the best light of the day (which is subjective, of course) and maybe, you will catch that great sunset silhouette shot of the local landmark.

That is the simple answer. We like sunsets and sunrises because they are beautiful, and we like that time of day maybe because of the possibility of having a sunrise or sunset. There is a deeper answer, though.

Rick Sammon (and friends) are on to something. I too think there is some deep, natural urge, something beyond our immediate understand, that draws us to the beauty of nature. It is the same reason we want to photograph the amazing power of lions, the mystery of rock formations, the expanse of rolling hills, the grandeur of the an eagle in flight, and even the wild variations of everyday people on the street.

The creation is absolutely amazing. That is why. Creation is made in the amazing, mysterious, expansive, grandiose, untameable image of the Creator. It is made that way on purpose, to draw us in to relationship with the One Who created. In the fullest sense, the appreciation of, study of, fascination with, and wonder of creation is the primal beginning of that eternal relationship.

So, by all means, keep enjoying those sunrises and sunsets (and even the rare eclipse like we enjoyed here last week), and open your spirit to the Great Spirit who is speaking through the creation.

Some kind of photographic lightbulb has clicked on in my head; somehow this place just feels right. So much of my experience in China has been in the countryside in these parts, and my archive reflects that. For the past two years, I have been shooting big cities, different countries, portraits for friends, and just about everything but that main interest.

From those very early trips into the Chinese countryside, something about the towns, villages, customs, and people absolutely fascinated me. Then, I stayed long enough that it became normal or as if I was in some kind of race to understand the locals better than anybody else. It became old hat and academic. Having been away for two years, though, and now reentering, much of that original fascination (mixed with some very new passions as well) is coming back.

We have only been here a few days, but I am just itching to shoot. “Patience, Grasshopper.” Right now, it is time to clean house, settle in, clean the coffee house, and prepare the paperwork to open business. The time will come.

Assuming, from the quality of the photos, she was an experienced photographer, I actually asked how she used her flash to balance the light so beautifully. After a brief exchange, which I still have a hard time processing, I found out she had used a regular, old point-and-shoot camera! How could it be?

Even after knowing it was a compact camera, I could barely believe the photos I was seeing. The sky was so perfectly blue and not overly bright. The faces all looked like there were either reflectors coming up from below or some creative flash lighting. Not so. It must have been the perfect day for lighting!

I do not say that to diminish her skills in any way, but simply to say that having not thought about the lighting at all, those were perfectly lit photos. She was obviously playing with the angle and perspective, though. That much goes 100% to her credit.

Some folks get all the perfect light. I guess it all goes to reemphasize for me that light is what photography is all about. Know how to “read” it, manage it it, and how your equipment reacts to it.

June 5, 1989 (AP Photo/Terril Jones)

There are photos that capture a moment. Some of those capture very important moments. And some of those become icons of history. This photo is taken moments before one of the most famous and recognized photographs of the 20th century.

Everybody else is running. One dude stands in the middle of the road waiting for his date with history. Only one more component is needed, and it is rolling in from background right.

Too much! I just cannot stop looking at this photo. So little is known about that solitary man, and in a way, we now have twice as much information as before. Glad AP found this in the archives and looked at it long enough to look past the foreground and see what all was actually captured.

“The best part of us is not what we see, it’s what we feel. We are what we see, we are not what we look at. We are not our eyeballs, we’re our mind. People believe their eyeballs, and they’re totally wrong. … That’s why I consider most photographs extremely boring–just like Muzak: inoffensive, charming, another waterfall, another sunset. This time, colors have been added to protect the innocent. It’s just boring. But that whole arena of one’s experience–grief, loneliness–how do you photograph lust? I mean, how do you deal with these things? This is what you are, not what you see. It’s all sitting up here. I could do all my work sitting in my room. I don’t have to go anywhere.”

I could not agree more with that middle section. I see lots of photos that show an excellent grasp on the technical aspects of photography or experience in post processing or, what I have before called, just another pretty picture. I look at it and think, “hm, that’s nice”, but the photo does not say anything, does not mean anything, does not emote, does not express, has no story.

And I am not just talking about art photography either. Documentary photography, my primary focus, is just the same. Open your local newspaper, and more than likely, you will find a wide variety of photographs that say absolutely nothing. “Well, this was my assignment, and there is the shot. Done.”

And as for me, sure, I take boring photos all the time. We all do. But I still strive to tell stories, to catch emotion in action, and to let life speak through my photos.