Author: johnmeadowsphotography

An amateur photographer in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Breaking the Rules

May 11, 2011 · 6 Comments ·

A good rule of thumb is that when shooting a portrait when you have very shallow depth of field, you should make sure the eyes are in focus. This image, taken yesterday during a session with a model for my Women in Camera series, breaks that rule. The camera is in focus, but the model is out of focus. Although this particular image likely will not be the final selection for the series, I do like the effect and the resulting mood of the image, and the model made a great wardrobe choice with the hat, to give me the vintage look I was going for.

I suppose one could say the lens, or “eye” of my Voigtlander Avus folder is in focus so in that sense I’m not cheating 🙂

Photography As a Live Performance

May 9, 2011 · 2 Comments ·

Posts haven’t been very frequent lately, as I have been very busy appearing in a community theatre production of My Fair Lady here in Toronto. (By the way, tickets still available for this weekend, just click on the link). The thought did occur to me backstage this past weekend that in some ways, film photography is like live theatre; there is always an element of chance involved, and one is never quite sure how things will turn out, and unlike digital, where the LCD screen acts as a security blanket, in film you never know if you’ve been successful until the film is developed after the fact. Along with knowledge and skill, you have to rely on (as Alfred P. Doolittle would say) “Faith, Hope and a little bit of luck”. Today’s picture of a bike in downtown Toronto, taken with a defective Rolleicord Twin Lens Reflex camera (sold for scrap after shooting only one roll successfully and replaced with a better example) to me is an example of this idea. The picture isn’t perfect, but I got just enough luck to make it work. 🙂

Gear Talk: Universal Mercury II

May 2, 2011 · 4 Comments ·

Every now and then, I want to talk about gear, instead of the photo, and today I want to talk about the Universal Mercury II 35mm half-frame camera from 1945:

Some people have described this camera (and its predecessor) as the ugliest camera ever made, and while I am not sure I’d call it that, its look is certainly unique. Today, with so many cameras looking so similar, it is fun to look at a single example from an era where so many cameras had distinctive designs and looks.

The most distinctive feature is the large semi-circle, which contains the unusual shutter, which operates in a circular fashion. Multiple knobs, dials, DOF charts etc. makes this camera reek of the essence “gadget.”

Three Sentences From a Manual

April 30, 2011 · Leave a comment ·

Here is my first picture (a close up of a shell) from my Voigtlander Avus, a folding camera (9×12 cm plate) almost a century old. Something that really struck me was three sentences from the manual:

“Each camera is supplied with 3 three plate holders. When going on a day’s trip six holders may be required. On longer journeys twelve may be required.”

When you consider that each plate holder only holds one exposure, the importance of a thoughtful, selective approach to photography is really underscored. Imagine going out with a DSLR and only one memory card, with a capacity of six images.

An interesting exercise, to be sure.

The Decisive Moment, After The Fact?

April 26, 2011April 26, 2011 · 4 Comments ·

In a photo.net article from 1998, author Philip Greenspun predicted that eventually “we’ll all probably just be using high-resolution video cameras and picking out interesting still frames. ” Skip ahead to 2011, and the available technology on HD video-enabled DSLR’s is making that possibility a reality, and it really concerns, indeed alarms me, when it comes to street photography.

I think about renowned street photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and the recently discovered Vivian Maier, and how a large part of their genius was a instinctive knowledge of when a moment or scene worthy of photographic capture was developing (no pun intended) coupled with the ability to capture and create the resulting compelling image.

If one sets up a camera on a tripod at a busy downtown intersection and record 30 minutes of Hi-def video, a frame by frame inspection will reveal plenty of “decisive moments” but it’s just not the same; the photographer is reduced to an editor, at best. One no longer needs the ability to see (as opposed to mere looking). It’s like throwing a bunch of canned loops together in a program like Garageband, and calling yourself a composer, without having written a single note yourself.

It would not surprise me to eventually see someone write an application that could find “Decisive Moments” in video, to give a photographer the ultimate in convenience for generating images.

Just don’t call it art.

My attempt at a decisive moment from the 2010 Toronto Marathon

First In the Series

April 25, 2011 · 2 Comments ·

Here is the cyanotype version of my first image in the women and classic film cameras series. I am hand coating the paper with the cyanotype solution, so the brush marks will make every print unique. I like that 🙂

Stretching

April 22, 2011 · Leave a comment ·

In a previous post I mentioned that my first shoot with a hired model was coming up, and I am happy to say it went well yesterday. I am busy developing the analog film (shot with my Mamiya M645J medium format, on Trix-X black and white film), but below I have one on the reference images, shot digitally.

In the past, almost all of my photography has been reactive, in the sense that I was an observer to a story or scene when I took the image. In this kind of shoot, I need to create the story, as well as shoot it. I must provide every element, and every detail is my responsibility. It is a stretch, but fun and exciting at the same time. I want more.

The Paper Matters Too.

April 18, 2011April 18, 2011 · Leave a comment ·

Another cyanotype this time around. This picture was made at the Riverdale Zoo in Toronto, again using my Rolleicord Twin-Lens Reflex. I created a digital negative and then made the cyanotype below. The paper has a fairly coarse texture, and I like the effect it has on the image. Just one more reason why it matters to see a print in your hands, not just pixels on a screen.

Update On My Photographic Resolutions

April 17, 2011April 17, 2011 · 1 Comment ·

In my Photographic Resolutions post at the beginning of the year, I listed a number of things I wanted to accomplish photographically speaking by the end of the year, and one of them involved a photoshoot with a hired model, and I’m happy to say that item is close to being checked off, as I have hired a model for a shoot for next week.

This shoot is for a new photo project that involves portraits with vintage analog cameras (both for picture taking and prop!) As the project progresses the images will be posted here.

In the modelling world, there is a term “Guy With Camera” or GWC for short, referring to a creepy man who uses the pretext of a photo shoot to attempt to engage in a certain other kind of activity with the model. This is a real concern for many models, especially when they are working with a photographer for the first time. I am tempted to call this series “Girl With Camera,” but I’m not sure I will; it might make light of a serious problem in the industry.

Update: If you are female and would like to participate in this series just let me know; no nudity etc. required!

My Third Eye

John Meadows Photography Blog