Ok since Sabrina, Jeff, and Mark have all posted portraits this week I figured I should jump on the bandwagon and get one online myself. Visit Sabrina and take a look through the last few posts for a great series of people photos that she made during her recent visit to Africa. Jeff got to attend a workshop with Kirk Tuck that I would have loved to go to and came back with some great studio portraits. Mark is adding to his 100 Strangers project both here and abroad with some great street portraits.
Great stuff from all three of my friends and a little unfair as now I want to travel, don’t really care where to but I want to go. The above image was an outdoor shot with a 42″ diffuser held between the sun and Katie, I can’t remember for sure but I may have had an SB 28 cam right for a touch of fill. Few more of the outdoor shoot of Katie over on the flickr site.
PT Cyclery has been a mainstay of business in Port Townsend since the 80′s and a great bunch of real helpful folks even for those of us who don’t know a lot about something with no motor. They were nice enough to let me shoot a few images for a project we have in the works. There are a few more of the session on my flickr site, the project I’ll add to the blog when it is done.
This was one of those short series of images that I couldn’t get out of my head. It took 3 days of driving into town and retrying to get everything lined up to get it right. Timing the bus runs, weather, and getting the camera settings right to get what I thought I saw in my head.
No not an earth shattering set of images but they are something I wanted and it ended up with a little bit of added story to go with it in the image. Point is I failed the first few times I tried it and kept at it til I got what I wanted, bonus was I learned a lot in the process I wouldn’t have learned if it went right the first time.
Click the image and then go thru the rest while it is on screen. It was fun to shoot, I like being in that zone that you get to when you are going for something in your head. We have a hell of a bus system for a rural area and I have more ideas for them that I’ll publish as I get the images.
I don’t plan what I am going to post about very often it all just seems to happen when it does. Lately I have been reading a lot of blogs where the consensus is that text needs to go with a photo to add context and meaning. I feel that if it needs words it has failed. Universal ‘truths’ or stories shouldn’t need an explanation to prop them up. Photojournalism was cited as one example however all to often I see poor writing held up by great photos or poor photos held up by the writing.
We only get better if we reach for that one image that says everything so clear it doesn’t need anything else. I would like to believe that the Steve McCurry photo Afghan Girl would have the impact it does without the back story. I still don’t know the story behind the image but I feel every time I see it.
On another note there is some new stuff over on my flickr acct that some of you may like to see and there is another photographer I have been talking to that does work I wish I could. Please take a look at http://whilestandingstill.com/ beautiful subtle work.
Not to mention that Jeff Lynch still has some openings for his Spring Safari in Tx. Jeff is a must read for those of you Canon shooters and for doing landscape work. And as long as you are cruising the photo web check in on K-man’s trip to Japan and part east, fantastic images coming out of this world jaunt and he is calling it work.
Go look there is a lot of inspiration out there and a lot of folks that are shooting everyday.
If you make a little time the sun will peak out from the edges every once and awhile. My friend Chris over at Patterns of Light and Dark and Paul at Paul Lester Photography have been making a few beach images so when I was in town today I couldn’t resist and join the fray. Cold and windy and that seems to be the order of the day for these type of images no matter where in the country you are. The tower in the distance is on the Navy Base on Indian Island which stores munitions, that in itself is pretty ironic given PT politics and general outlook. The pier is one of several city piers for visiting boats, empty now but full in the summer.
Not my usual type of image but I am trying to get out and shoot something everyday for awhile, just to see what happens when you go out for a walk with the camera and no idea of what you are after. That approach will probably change to going out with a vague idea of what I want to shoot, we’ll see how things progress. Slow and lazy time of year, short days and wet wet weather, counting the days til spring.
Been a little busy here and I had another idea all ready to post but decided to save it for after the holidays when it may make a little more sense. So here is a little bit of what all I have been putting in front of the lens.
For Me
Katie
For Katie
Katie
For Me
Early Morning Diner
For work
Homeward Bound Board Members
So that is a little bit of what has been going on around here. Hope you all have a great holiday and as they say more to come soon. For an ongoing update visit the flickr stream now and then at www.flickr.com/rlketcham
I drive past this place at the very head of Discovery Bay everytime I go to Port Townsend. It hasn’t been open for years, but used to be a great place to explore for fairly odd treasures. It always seemed to catch my eye but I could never quite visualize how I would photograph it. Last week I finally took my own advice and went to take a closer look. Sun was all wrong, it was also 18 degrees out so I drove the 6 miles home and started to stew on it. Finally looked up the exact spot on Google Earth and tried to figure out when the light would be better. Went back made a few images of this and some other old buildings that are next to it. I will now be going back there a lot at different times of the day til I get the image I see in my head. I may even have to drag the lights out for this.
Point is I see the image I want a lot of the time before I try to make it. I have looked at that spot for years with a vague feeling about what I wanted to say and it finally is bubbling up so bad I have to get it out. Previsualize and have something to say in mind first is a help to me, and a lot of things get into the notebook for rethink until I just have to get them out. I keep a note book of things I see and ideas that pop into my head for images and then revise them until I just have to see how they will look in the viewfinder. The notebook is never very far from me and is continually updated and added to. I can end up laying awake in the night for hours seeing images I want to make until I decide to just get the idea down on paper so it will keep til daylight.
Just wondering if others wake up in the night or morning with an image they have to make that day or have images in their head that just won’t go away until it is on film?
I guess I’m not much of a walk around and take pictures kind of guy, I do walk around and take ideas for pictures though. Yes the occasional image comes out of the walking around but I still end up thinking about it and going back a lot to make something I saw in my head. That ‘decisive moment’ for me is more often one I put together than observe.
Of course it helps if the weather cooperates when I get this way.
If the sound bothers you mouse over above the thumbnails and adjust it on the right or let me know and I’ll remove it( changed the start-up to manual so hit the play to start). With that said, I spent a day last summer when things were slow for everyone following Diane around her work for a couple of hours. This is the result of a few hours in a high quality print shop. Diane is a 4th generation printer and been at it herself for over 30 yrs. High stress work which made me think in B&W for the effect. Had to put together a slideshow with sound and this has been sitting on the HD since last summer. Made with Slideshow Pro in Adobe Flash and the sound was done in Audacity. Figured ambient sound for the print shop would work for this after seeing what Matt Brandon did for his The Hands of Rat Island slide presentation. Matt is a master of doing interesting slide presentations and I do my best to pick up ideas from his work, not to mention the images he makes are truly inspiring.
rlketcham.com
