bpsphoto

Walk like a Grecian

brian@bpsphoto.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:15:39 GMT

It has been requested that I share photos of the hazards of walking here in lovely Athens. Have a good time, and, uh, clean your shoes before you come back in.

http://bpsphoto.typepad.com/photos/morning/index.html

cross-posted to fshusband

And I was walking

brian@bpsphoto.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:38:59 GMT

I saw a photographer at my lab with medium format film. So I asked him where I might find some. He said, "At Photo Market in Exarchia." That sounded straightforward enough. Uh, yeah. I found two camera stores in Exarchia (a neighborhood sorta near Omonia, the University, Monastiraki and Kolonaki). I've been wanting to extend my walking route, so I headed over there - it's about as far to Exarchia as my entire regular walk. Got to store number one...no MF film. But they helpfully said I could go to this other store (which was store number two).

I was kinda tired by the time I got there (I've walked about 3 miles at this point), and my Greek came out as gibberish. "Do you have the bleakenwhite film?"

"Black and white?"
"Yes. Black and white. The Ilford in the 120 size (because all I could think of was the Russian word for medium format)."
"Ilford?"
"Yes, from England?"
"No. Just Kodak."
"Okay. Do you have the juice? For the delivery of the film? No, not delivery...the de...develOPEment of the films."
"Juice? You mean chemistry?"
"Yes. Chemistry."

At this point, a friendly man said, in English, "I can show you. It's easy. Just a minute." So he finished buying his simple 35mm Agfa 5-pack and told me to go straight up the street a couple blocks and I'd see the sign for the black & white store on the left. Holy crap! There it was, exactly where he said. That's gotta be a first when traveling.

As I walked into the shop, I could see the golden chalice glowing above the castle of the 3-score nurses between 16 and 19...wait, no, that was from a movie...but I did see developing tanks and graduates (I broke my 500cc one the other day) and bottles of Ilford and Tetenal and Kodak. Paper of various sizes and types and brands were stacked along one wall. And film! Beautiful film made of silver gelatin with no silly color dyes!

Their selection turned out not to be spectacular, however, and their prices were A little steep, so I'll probably go back to ordering from the States, but they were there. They even knew of a place where I might (might) be able to rent some darkroom time. Yea! So I picked up some film, some chemistry and a graduate and headed out.

I trudged on over to Kolonaki, picked up my knives which I dropped off a couple days ago for sharpening, then up to the farmers' market. At the entrance to the market, a knot of French tourists was completely blocking the street. I mustered up my most disdainful expression and said, "Excuse moi," which garnered a small gap to squeeze through. I got some eggs, wine, lemons, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, the largest leek I've ever seen, some bananas, some big-ass green onions and strawberries and headed home. I was exhausted by the time I got home. I'd been walking continuously for about three hours at that point, and was carrying about 10 kilos of stuff. But it sure feels good to know where I can buy my B&W supplies finally.

(cross posted to fshusband)

Market research

brian@bpsphoto.com — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:57:55 GMT

Would you pay $20 for a 7x7", 35-40 page book of photographs? Would you want them to have a theme, or would a random collection work for you? What if I made it a portfolio book, so the theme would be, "These are the photographs by me that I love the best?" What question am I not asking that I should?

Even if you're a lurker and have never said anything, say something. I'll be happy with an anonymous response that you don't want unscreened. Just don't be a jackass (you know who you are).

If you have never seen my photography, now would be a good time. BH Neely's Photography (blog.bpsphoto.com).

Thanks for your time.

well isn't that just damn frustrating

brian@bpsphoto.com — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:38:22 GMT

So I've started getting my rejection notices. The best so far was from a company that licenses art and also happens to sell a course on how to license art, saying that the work I submitted is "not at all appropriate for fine art posters." They went on to recommend a couple sites (and buying their book, if not their whole course) to have a look at. One site had only black & white photography, and damn, if I had only sent them my b&w work. The other site had a pretty good range of identical sunsets, and some cool stuff that looks much like what I sent. So that's just damn frustrating. It did give me some sense of how better to select photographs to submit.

On the other hand, I developed my film from yesterday's excursion, and by golly if I don't still have it! By jingo it's the bees knees! Seriously, I love my photography and my skillz with the lens. Now if I'll only spend $30 for the book and $325 (that's RIGHT! only THREE hundred and twennnnnnttttteeeeee-FIVE DOLLARS!) for the course I could sell some of it.

That felt very, very good

brian@bpsphoto.com — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:46:14 GMT

I had a new low yesterday afternoon. I decided to clean the dust off my D200's sensor. I learned that no matter how careful you are, when you blow into the camera with your mouth (rather than using a little blower bulb), you just might spit. The spit didn't clean off with the swab, so I thought I scratched my sensor (well, the plastic film that protects the sensor). FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK. I felt very poorly. For several hours. About three hours after the incident, I rechecked and discovered that the spit was all gone and I can shoot again. But in that three hours, I researched film scanners for 120 film. I researched places to get film scanned. I swore at myself a lot. It wasn't fun.

So I decided it was time to shoot some film. This morning I got up and out the door by 6:30. Just me and 6 rolls of b&w film and the Hasselblad (and the red filter and the filter holder and the light meter and the cable release and the tripod). I went to the meadow near the Acropolis and shot some pictures of the Acropolis at sunrise, Lycavettos with streaks of hazy sunlight, somebody's porch from 2000 years ago, somebody's living room from 2000 years ago, somebody's cistern from 2000 years ago (suddenly, I feel like Bubba - you gotcher jumbo shrimp, yer coconut shrimp, yer lemon shrimp...). I haven't used my Hasselblad since I got the D200, and I've missed it a lot. I've missed the huge focusing screen (6x6 cm, same size as the film). I've missed the super sharp lenses (oh, man, the sharpness of the lenses). I've missed the solid weight of the camera. I definitely need to use that camera more often. Gonna develop later today and see what I got.

Do I have to spend $650?

brian@bpsphoto.com — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:00:33 GMT

So I'm a big supporter of using software other than Photoshop to do my digital darkroom stuff. But it seems sometimes that those who could be competitors want me to spend the $650 and follow all the other lemmings over the cliff. To make my commercial portfolio and my (new) fine art portfolio work on my blog, I have to make all the images 640x640, or the horizontal ones look really small. Now, things were much easier with film, because all my shots were square. But, no, I had to "go digital" as the kids say. Anyway, so to make a rectangular image square, you have to give it a background that's the same color as your blog page.

As I was working on this in Corel Paintshop Pro, I discovered that upon saving the newly formatted image, all the metadata (my copyright, searchable keywords, contact information) disappeared. Just fucking gone. It takes time to do input all that crap. Even with moderately automated systems, time is spent on the project that could be spent elsewhere. Oh well. In addition to a couple lenses that are very, very sharp, it looks like I'm going to need to take the plunge and actually buy PS3. Damn. My primary investor says the well is drying up rapidly, though, so I have to earn the money. Huh?

So if while you're looking at the portfolios you think you might like to see more like them and purchase something, brian (at) bpsphoto dot com is the email address you want. Or if you happen to be a magazine editor, I'd love to do a story for you on Greek beaches or Prague's architecture or the history of Panathinaikos Stadium...

awwwwww, crap!

brian@bpsphoto.com — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:35:45 GMT

I was doing a little printing last night, and I discovered that for the past year or so, I've been viewing my monitor at the wrong angle for effective photo processing, making everything I've done muddy and dark. crap, crap, crap, crap.

Need some critiquery

brian@bpsphoto.com — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:13:45 GMT

So I've got what I think is a pretty strong portfolio of 19 photos. Please visit http://bpsphoto.typepad.com/photos/portfolio/ and let me know what you think. If you also read my fshusband blog, there's no need to comment twice. Let me know what you like, what you don't like, and why. If there's an image style you'd like to see more of, tell me what you'd like to see less of.

Primarily what I want to know is if you needed an article illustrated with scenic, travel or location photos, would you hire that guy?

And if you just want to say, "Holy crap! Those are great pictures!" You can do that. Negative comments must be supported, and bullshit like, "You suck," will not be tolerated. Not even as a joke by family.

Looking for visitors

brian@bpsphoto.com — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:11:13 GMT

I use this account mostly to look at a few of lj's photography-related communities and follow some friends. Most of my actual blogging activity happens at blog.bpsphoto.com for my photography and at fshusband. If you haven't yet, have a look at those two sites.

In photography news, I'm looking at getting a backpack that will carry my dSLR system, my Hasselblad system and a tripod, and will fit in carry-on compartments. Essentially two bodies, 5 lenses, film and some accessories. The f.64 BP and BPX, Lowepro's Nature Trekker and Photo Trekker both look good, Mountainsmith's Parallax looks like probably the best bag out there, and Tamrac has the 5258, 5256 and 752 which all look good.

The best features of the f.64 are their ability to carry multiple formats (up to 8x10 field cameras) and that it doesn't scream - "Hey! I'm a photography bag carrying thousands of dollars worth of gear!"

Mountainsmith is a hiking pack first and a camera bag second, so it should be very comfortable, and it, too doesn't announce itself as a camera pack.

Lowepro, Tamrac and Tenba all make great camera bags. I currently have Lowepro and Tamrac bags, but I'm always worried about people noticing that the name on the bag. Not that the giant tripod is a dead giveaway, or anything.

If you have any of the bags I've mentioned, and you love or hate or feel utterly ambivalent about it, let me know.

And, of course, don't forget to go to blog.bpsphoto.com.

125 Ansel Adams prints

brian@bpsphoto.com — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:26:04 GMT

If you're in DC, nearby, or will be in the next few months, the Corcoran Gallery is running an exhibit of Ansel Adams' work that spans his entire career, from the pictorialism period (until he was about 28) through the 70's. It includes a couple of pairings that show the first renditions of prints and later versions. If you're a landscape photographer, LF photographer, fan of the F64 group, or just like Great American Photography, go.

I found myself thinking a lot about a friend in Kazakhstan that had a page from a calendar with an Adams photo and how he'd stare at the picture, trace it with his fingers, and talk about how frustrated he was that he'd never be able to reach the level of work Adams did. As I left the exhibit, I was charged up to try some new things. Maybe even look for a cheap 4x5 again (I kept the lenses I had for the last one, as well as several boxes of b&w film that would be 6 or 7 years out of date now). At the same time, I empathized a great deal with my friend. I have a few moderately original ideas, but nothing supermassively overwhelming that would revolutionize an industry, an artform, the world's view of half a continent and spawn a conservation movement.

While you're there, check out the European landscape painting exhibit for a completely different view of the world.

damn lot of work

brian@bpsphoto.com — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:44:11 GMT

We got back from 2 weeks in Greece a month and a half ago, and I'm still working through the photos. I shot 1500 (almost exactly), some with purpose, some just shooting, some hoping to get a good picture. The ones with purpose are turning out to be the most difficult to work with, because I know what I saw, and I'm trying to match the post-vizualization to the previsualization. That is turning out to be more work than it is in the wet darkroom, but I can, in the end, get a lot more done in one session than using the old methods.

The biggest project I'm working on is a collection of geography shots that show how the land was warped when Greece tore away from Africa and crashed into Europe. I'm not as knowledgeable yet as I'd like to be on the subject, but I think it was a pretty recent event, happening in the past 50-100 million years. We spent a week in the mountains near Albania, which aren't very populated and have escaped a lot of development, so there are a lot of hills that look as they must have for several hundred millenia.

As part of the effort to get everything done (finally) between working 20 hours a week at the day job and learning Greek 25 hours a week, I've set a deadline for myself to have everything together by 9/30. And it looks like a deadline that I might actually reach. Then I have to rebuild my primary website (which hasn't been updated in at least a year). So hopefully, I'll have some more news within a couple weeks.

If you haven't been in a while, pop on over to http://blog.bpsphoto.com. I have an album there called "Photography in the Land of Achilles" that covers 30 of the 1500.

Greece

brian@bpsphoto.com — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:04:18 GMT

annesblog and I went to Greece for a couple weeks of language immersion training. The weather was fantastic (except for the cloudy afternoon one day), if somewhat hot - the temps ranged from 95 to 115F, with most of them over 100. But it was a nice, dry heat, like the American West, so if we got to some shade with a nice, cool glass of iced coffee or orange juice or water, it was nearly pleasant.

We circumnavigated the mainland, driving from Athens to Mt. Olympus, to a spot within 10km of Albania, to Lefkada, to Nafplio and back to Athens. Have a visit to my photo blog at http://blog.bpsphoto.com.

damn digital camera

brian@bpsphoto.com — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:29:46 GMT

I'm starting to get tired of the nearly-impossible-to-focus-accurately-through tiny window on my D200. That, combined with its light weight, make for a lot of blurry pictures. Some are blurry because they're out of focus (because that tiny window just can't compare to a big, beautiful, 6x6 cm (2.25 x 2.25 in.) focusing screen on an MF camera). Others are blurry because the camera's so light (only about 2.5 pounds with a lens) that the action of pressing the shutter causes the camera to move, even on a tripod (a nice, solid Manfrotto), even at 1/250 sec. with a normal lens.

I'll just have to relearn to shoot slowly and deliberately (which will continue to frustrate my wife).

Now stuff at the photo blog

brian@bpsphoto.com — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:42:48 GMT

I've added a couple collections to my photo blog. One is a gallery of Silk Road photos, the other is more generalized travel work. Have a look.

In other news, when annesblog and I go to Greece for our language immersion, I'm hoping to do some work for a Greek travel magazine. When there's more specific information, I'll post it here.

What else haven't I talked about recently?...I got a new lens. It's actually one of the reasons I went with Nikon rather than Canon when buying my digital. I've had these insane fantasies about Nikon's 50mm f/1.4 lens for years. When looking at the Hasselblad back in the mid-90's, I nearly bought a Nikon F5 instead of the Hassy, just for that lens. I'm glad I went with the MF. It taught me a lot about photography and about patience. And it's just so beautiful to use. I kinda miss using it, but I'm still in love with the sports car feel of my D200.

Anyhoo, the 1.4 - it's beautiful. The depth of field wide open is amazingly small - one side of a golf ball will be in sharp focus, the other side will be out of focus. And I can shoot hand-held in a thick fog using EI 100 - "thaaaaaavmaaaaa" as my Greek instructors like to say. Maybe I'll put together the cash to acquire 1.4's even sexier sister - the 1.2.

glad I had earplugs

brian@bpsphoto.com — Sun, 20 May 2007 20:01:41 GMT

Man, was it loud. It's been a while since I've been to a metal concert. And I (re)discovered I'm not much of a fan of the death metal. The music is fine, but the singing just doesn't grab me. For the uninformed, singing in death metal generally takes the form of a barking growl and long, low howls, sometimes punctuated with screaming. For aficionados, this is enjoyable, as evidenced by the moshing, headbanging and other forms of approval the bands received. One band, though, had a singer who sang (well, yelled & screamed, which I like) rather than growling. I could actually understand what he was yelling.

The eight bands ranged from high school age on up to middle-aged. I didn't realize how many kids my age never stopped listening to Celtic Frost, Necronomicon and the other great bands of the early death metal days (once Metallica went all soft with the release of Master of Puppets in 86, people had to go elsewhere for "real" heavy metal). I just never quite got death metal.

It turned out to be harder than I had thought it would be to shoot - when you're standing in the dark, the stage lights always look so bright. They aren't. At EI 1600 I had to manually set my camera to 1/30th at f/4.2 on my 18-70mm and 1/60th at f/2.8 on my 135mm. I shot like crazy - about 1500 pictures spread across the 8 bands - and edited like crazy - 286 pictures in the gallery.

I got home at 11:30, spent an hour downloading from the cards to the computer and got up around 7 am (because that's what I do). I'm tired, my eyes are grainy, but I have a couple pictures that are beautiful concert shots.

It was as much fun as I had hoped it would be, and hopefully I'll get to do it again sometime.

Goodness it's been a long time

brian@bpsphoto.com — Fri, 18 May 2007 19:28:44 GMT

I've been so busy with Greek and with my blog of actual photos at http://blog.bpsphoto.com that I haven't had much time to think about an update here.

I discovered existentialism recently and learned that I'm a born existentialist. In case you've forgotten Philosophy 2, never took it, or skipped that week, in a nutshell, existentialism says that the universe exists without meaning. Nothing is moral or immoral, and each person is responsible for figuring out how he or she is going to deal with that. Most of us develop or adopt some sort of ethical code to make it all sensible.

Last week we went out to dinner with some friends, next door to a local metal club (JAXX at http://www.jaxxroxx.com). You can see your hair rock (Skid Row, Sebastian Bach, Ratt), your local hardcore bands, punk (Misfits), progressive metal (Savatage, Dream Theater, Symphony X), and of course your Scandinavian death metal (Rotting Corpse, Necrotic Death). On our way out of the restaurant, I stopped to see a man about a horse, and when I came out to the parking lot, my wife and friends are talking to the owner of the club. He's telling them about the community service he provides - safe place for the kids to come and mosh, doesn't allow fighting or drug use. Then he gives us a tour of the club, and it's pretty much exactly as I remember it, except that it's brightly lit, since the show hasn't started yet.

On our way out, I figured, 'What the hell? The universe doesn't mean anything...' Out loud I said, "I'm a photographer, and while I've never shot a concert before, it's something I'd really like to do. Can I shoot on spec for you or something?"
"We have a photographer already, but you can come down and shoot. Just let me know when you're coming so I can put your name on the list."

Tomorrow I'm going down to shoot a battle of the bands night (for about 8 hours), and throughout the summer there are a few more shows (of bands I've heard of) that I might be able to work. I'm pretty excited. Maybe I'll take the picture that becomes an icon for a band you haven't heard of yet. Or get to listen to some questionable music at high volume for free.

I love & I hate

brian@bpsphoto.com — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:21:02 GMT

The clone brush & dirt/bits of cat hair/crapulence in the scanner. Short of disassembling my scanner, which is not wise, nor does it appear possible, I have crapulence that I can't get rid of. Crapulence is that collection of hairs, dust motes and other bits that collect on negatives, photographic prints and the interiors of scanners. They are the bits that aren't large enough to be fatal (like, say, a giant scratch across the bride's nose on the negative would be), but can't be removed because they will cause fatal flaws in their removal. I have these beautiful prints that I'm scanning, and I have crapulence on the underside of the glass in my scanner, on the light source in the scanner and most likely on the scanner lens. Crap, crap, crap, crap. (That's how crapulence gets its name).

On the plus side, dust spotting with the clone brush tool in digital imaging software is much easier than doing it with dyes and tiny brushes and magnifying glasses.

Don't take this the wrong way...

brian@bpsphoto.com — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:45:29 GMT

I took some negatives to get printed at a lab that specializes in (read: it's the only thing they do) wet darkroom black & white. My goal is to put together an exhibit while we're in VA called Silk Road Moments. Originally, I wanted 16x20's printed on doubleweight fiber-based paper. Yeah. It was going to run me a few thousand dollars to do that. So I scaled back to 8x10's on resin-coated paper, still of a high-quality, but much smaller and only about $500-800 to get the pieces printed.

When I showed annesblog the photos, she said, "Don't take this the wrong way, but they make your work look so much better than you do." Now, since I already knew that, I didn't feel insulted, but it was a funny moment. And by "much better," she means, "They make you look like a real artist." These photos are amazing, whereas the ones I printed in Kazakhstan are merely quite good.

Maybe tomorrow I'll hook up the scanner and start posting them at blog.bpsphoto.com.

Big New Blog!

brian@bpsphoto.com — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:16:05 GMT

Big changes are afoot. I've just launched a new blog at http://bpsphoto.typepad.com/! My plan, my goal, my vision is to update it daily with a large photograph and few words, though those who know me well know that not talking is nearly impossible for me.

My promise to those of you who don't enjoy looking at humans in their natural state, or who may be looking at it from a work or otherwise nudity-opposed location, that I will post nudes behind a veil.

Eventually (hopefully soon) the url will be changed to blog.bpsphoto.com, but I haven't put that together yet. Why not just keep using this one as I have? Wanted to try something new.

One last note (yeah, I'll be able to post photos without words, sure) - you'll see that my name has changed to BH Neely. That's to avoid confusion with another photographer (as has already happened). I won't ask my family and friends to start calling me BH. At least not yet.

Now go to http://bpsphoto.typepad.com/, tell your friends and acquaintances to go to http://bpsphoto.typepad.com/, and be a little patient as I work out small kinks.

Update coming down the pike and other news

brian@bpsphoto.com — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 22:01:02 GMT

Sometime within the next couple months, BPSPhoto.com will have a modified look, increased options for looking at photos, and a clearer message that you can buy, Buy, BUY!!! photos from me. The sections we're looking at include Galleries (instead of the cumbersome portfolios currently in use), Products (where you can buy, Buy, BUY!!!!! photos and other products currently in development), About the Photographer, Shows & Appearances and blog links. I'm looking forward to working on it and getting BPSPhoto.com into a state that's completely satisfying for me.

In shaping it, my primary goal is to remind you to buy, Buy, BUY!!! photos, and my secondary goal is to make it easier to go through the site, to find what you might be looking for (which, of course, often leads to greater buying). Putting my work out there for the world to see is great, but the world paying me a little for it is greater, and actually making a living at it would be greatest. If you've been to BPSPhoto.com and thought, "Hmmm, I'd buy something or return to this site more often if Brian would only..." let me know what fills in the ellipsis (...).

In other news, I recently purchased my first digital camera, Nikon's D200. I love it so far, despite a few minor issues. I've never owned a camera that did anything automatically, and I'm quite impressed by the D200's mad skills. The autoexposure is quite accurate, and when it isn't, it's about an extra 2 seconds to change the settings to what I want. I've heard people complaining about the noise at EI400 and higher, and frankly, they're smoking something. They've clearly never used a sheet of plastic covered with chemical emulsion for their photography. At 1600, the noise is far, far less than the grain you'd get on most films of the same rating.

The one problem I've had is with autofocus. I can't see to focus in the tiny little viewfinder provided by the dSLR format (I've been using medium and large format cameras for nearly a decade, and the viewfinder is the same size as the negative - medium format is larger than the viewscreen on your digital point & shoot, and large format starts out larger than a 3-1/2x5 print), so I've been relying on autofocus. It's wrong 50-60% of the time, so I guess I'll just have to get used to the tiny window and manually focus.

Anne and I disagree about which is the better image. I won't tell you who likes which...at least not yet.

Finally stepping into the digital age

brian@bpsphoto.com — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 22:14:27 GMT

I finally broke down and bought a dSLR - a Nikon d200. I think Sony's Alpha, the Nikon D80 and whatever Canon's 10 megapixel camera is would all work for me as well, but what I like most is that I can use a lot of used Nikon prime lenses (don't much care for zooms), and that it's made of metal rather than plastic. I haven't shot anything with it yet - waiting for the batteries to charge, but just holding it feels pretty good. Hard to get used to the tiny viewfinder after years of medium format photography, but once I get used to the SLR feel again, it should come pretty easily. I'm looking forward to using it and seeing what it can do on our cross-country trip.

I love the Chinese

brian@bpsphoto.com — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 02:44:15 GMT

Three scenarios for the same conversation:

American interlocuter: Hi, what do you do?
Photographer: I'm a photographer.
AI: Really? That's cool. Weddings and portraits and such?
P: No. I'm an artist. I'm working on a series called Silk Road Moments in which...
AI: So you're a professional?
P: Not really. An artist. I'd like to make money at it, but I'm not a very good businessman.
AI: So what do you do?

Russian interlocuter: Hi, what do you do?
Photographer: I'm a photographer.
RI: Professional?
P: No. I'm an artist. I'm working on...
RI: Do you use digital or film?
P: Film. It has greater resolution and...
RI: Everyone knows that real photographers use digital.

Chinese interlocuter: Hi, what do you do?
Photographer: I'm a photographer.
CI: A professional?
P: No. I'm an artist. I'm working on a series called Silk Road Moments.
CI (reaching out to shake P's hand): That is great. We have very long tradition of artists in China. Look at this silk painting for example. Do you shoot black and white or color? Welcome to Xi'an.

In other news, I've gone crazy for China. I've only shot for two of the 6 days we've been here, but I've used 13 rolls of film. The detail work in construction and monument projects is phenomenal. At the Forbidden City, I found myself looking for iconic shots (soldier in front of the portrait of Chairman Mao) as well as tight detail work (scratches on a gold-plated iron cauldron).

I only have one functioning lens right now, and it's my telephoto lens, so all the wide shots I'd love to get will have to live in my memory until we can get back here (if ever). But it does free me up from thinking about which lens to use and from switching lenses, so I can be really focused on the types of pictures I want to look for. That's been a valuable experience.

I've been sick for a couple days (something I ate), so I missed out on all the touring yesterday, and I'm going on a shortened day today. It also means the camera stays at the home, as I just don't have the strength to carry it around. Anne's little digital does a good enough job capturing photos that I can live with using just that for a day. Today's plan is to visit a temple or two and get a massage. Tomorrow is the Great Wall.

Representing my people as an artist, again

brian@bpsphoto.com — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 05:21:52 GMT

Last year I got to go to Uralsk to a masterclass and give speeches and media interviews and such. This year, it's much more low-key, and I like it a lot more. I went to Shymkent to the American Corner there and gave a talk about being a photographer, as well as showed some of my work.

An American Corner is, often quite literally, a corner in a library. It's maintained with donated books and a couple drops of tax money. They often have a collection of Great American Thought with books by Jefferson, Adams, Twain, Frost, and so on, as well as novels and current magazines. When the opportunity presents itself, they have American guest speakers come in and talk about some aspect of life. Since the one thing I know really well is photography, that's what I talked about.

It was a pretty interesting thing. I had prepared a presentation, but before doing that, I asked if there were any questions, and once the library director asked a question, it was off to the races. I had a constant stream of questions for about an hour. Most of them were ones I've answered dozens of times - where do you get your ideas, why do you shoot pictures of decay, don't you do portraits or other pictures of people (because the materials I had at hand were all of things and landscapes).

But then there was one guy who was a jackass. "This photo is completely empty. Nothing's in focus. The angle is bad. It has no meaning. Why did you even use film on it?" It was an experiment, and it's one I like quite a bit, because it's completely abstract. It's about emotion rather than something concrete. "You can't photograph an emotion. You have to shoot objects or people." I wanted to see if I could get what I was looking for, and I did. And I've found that people either love this photograph or ignore it completely.

"This one's empty too. What's the point?" It shows how you can be surrounded by people, but completely alone at the same time. "But you can't really see any of the people. They're there, but you can't see their faces or any details about them." Therefore, they're alone. And the viewer is alone. If you could make a connection with one of them, you wouldn't be alone anymore. "Well a picture of people should show who those people are." Not if the people aren't the subject.

Someone asked about my equipment, why I don't shoot digital, so I talked about the nice, slow feeling of setting up the camera, taking a light meter reading, and..."I thought you were a professional." I'm sorry? "A professional photographer doesn't use a light meter. He knows, from experience, exactly what he's looking at and doesn't need a machine to tell him what the light is like." You can know some features of the light, but you need a basis. And if you want precision, you need a light meter. "Real professionals have told me they don't." Anyone who says that is lying. "What?" Lying. Not telling the truth. (this brought laughter) If you have access to a tool, you use it. If you want accuracy, or to see all the subtlety the light has to offer, you use a light meter to make sure you aren't missing a nuance. If you're in a situation you've been in a thousand times before, you can make an educated guess, but for precision, you use a precision instrument.

I may be going to Ust-Kamenogorsk to do it again. I've actually seen the American Corner there, and it's pretty big by comparison. If it's well attended, I'll feel like a professor giving a lecture to an auditorium rather than being a small, stuffy room that gets increasingly hot as the jackass gets more jackassy.

Great shoot yesterday

brian@bpsphoto.com — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 05:50:02 GMT

I had a very enjoyable figure shoot yesterday. The model was someone I had worked with about a year ago, and very much wanted to work with again, but she has consistently been too busy. I gave up trying, and the other day she called and asked if I was still doing figure work.

So yesterday we shot, and it was excellent. I shot 4 rolls of film, which is a lot for me in a portrait/figure session, but the ideas were flowing, and she made a few suggestions that led to further ideas.

One thing she wanted to try, which kind of surprised me, was a variation of Vitruvian Man. We spent an entire roll as I went through different lighting schemes to make it work well. Why did it surprise me? It's a very open, exposed pose, and generally speaking, people don't like to be that exposed.

Unfortunately, Iskak went on vacation (rather unexpectedly, and without saying for how long), so I don't know when I'll be able to print the contacts. Oh well.

The Abandoned City

brian@bpsphoto.com — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 04:31:34 GMT

I'm working on a project right now that's both exciting/uplifting and depressing. I've noticed in my morning walks that before about 7:30 am, when Almaty starts to come to life, that it looks abandoned. There's garbage just sort of laying out everywhere; the drainage ditches have trees, saplings, stands of grass and huge marijuana bushes growing out of them; park benches all sit askew. It's as though 15 years ago everybody disappeared from where they were, and didn't have time to pick up their beer bottles before disappearing.

Almaty is potentially so beautiful that it hurts to see this. This morning, for example, as I walked through a park, I passed a monument to a pair of girls - 13-15 years old - who'd done something great for the USSR, and on one side of the grassy slope at the base of it there were 5 grocery bags, 10-15 beer bottles and a bunch of other garbage. And it wasn't in a pile, it had been randomly thrown about, all over the slope, covering an area about 10x20 feet.

In an effort to at least try to do something about it, I'm working on an exhibit to bring attention to the problem. In the US, we had a huge trash problem that required a massive ad campaign in the 70's to get children to pester their parents into not throwing crap out the window and such. The exhibit (and maybe a calendar) will be called "Almaty: The Abandoned City" (покинутый город), and will show places that are falling apart, trash-ridden and otherwise unpleasant to look at. I expect it'll make a lot of people angry, but if I can get a little attention on this, do a 5-minute news program, maybe it'll wake a few people up and lead to a tipping point.

The irony is that when I'm working on shots for it, I'm looking for really trashy places. This past Saturday, as I was getting ready to shoot in a park, the "street cleaner" truck came by with its firehose while I was loading film, and blasted all the bottles, potato chip bags, grocery bags and other junk off the sidewalk (where it was glittering beautifully in the rising sun) and into the grass. At first, I was pissed, because it was going to be a gorgeous shot. Then I had a laugh at myself and found that the bottles laying in the grass were nearly as glittery as they had been on the sidewalk.