9.19.2011

Using inconsistency to baffle my more linear blog readers.

This is a frame from one of the Hasselblad Cameras.  We took it last Thurs. out on a highway project.  It looks much different to me than the same kinds of images I also took with my Pen EP3.  For what I need to do with this photo (above) the look is just right.  It's what I saw and what I imagined when I looked through the viewfinder.  Sometimes you want chocolate cake and sometimes you want blueberry pie.  Some times you want to wash it all down with milk and other times you want to flush it down with a mason jar full of cheap bourbon.

Cameras are interesting in that professionals and hobbyists seem to see them in two different ways.  I've got a bunch of them and they grow around the studio almost organically.  I see them as different ingredients for exciting visual recipes.  I seem them as sultry brunettes and sunny, exuberant blondes.  Some times you want to look at Rembrant.  Sometimes you want to look at Picasso.  And rarely, but occasionally you want to glance at a Jackson Pollock.  Some of my hobbyist buddies are aghast that I collect outside the rigorous boundaries of a single system.  All Leroi Nieman all the time.

Buy more cameras.  Don't watch the same episode of Star Trek over and over again.  Variety is the spice of life.  But don't go overboard.  All things in moderation......

11 comments:

AlexG said...

I just went to Rembrandt's house, wonderful place seeing where he created his work and looking close at his work.
I have a wideish variety of cameras, they all paint beautifully different images. Oddly I don't have a wide collection of lenses, on the whole one or two for each camera, I don't seem to use a lot of different focal lengths. But to see a 645 shot on Portra 160 or a 35mm shot on Fuji press is different to my digitals as they are from a Polaroid. A wonderful array of choices we have to create our art and some times a subject or project just calls for one in particular. Now I just need to get myself another Fuji S3 and a nice Mamiya Press

Anonymous said...

Apologies if this has been asked before, but what film did you use and how have you been scanning? I agree with you, medium format is a wonderful ingredient to have in the kitchen, but you have to digitize it somewhere in the chain. That step seems as critical, as the camera/lens combo that captured the image.

Thanks for the good posts.

atmtx said...

Wow, the blues are amazing. Definitely has a different look.

michael said...

Are we aghast at all your cameras or jealous that we can't write them off as business expenses, or that you don't have a wife who says, "It costs HOW much?"

mshafik said...

Haha, you aren't getting rid of me anytime soon.

fotoplek@yahoo.ca said...

Really informative!I kinda do the same and make my photo-buddies crazy..I feel many pictures with my Canon Super-Shot S590. A true extension of arm and eye. Then it's off to the shoot with my Leica M3 which looks like it belonged to a 60's Photojournalist. Me. The Nikon-F's more so..All battered and dinged like me. Then I know it's 120 film in my one(1) Rolleiflex TLR.The same model as Irving Penn used.The 75mm Tessar. OK! Mine not as effective as his.The point for me is not the gear but how to use that gear to get the image I want.You do the same. Film i am much more positive. It's only Fuji,Kodak or Ilford.Right now ready to soup some Kentmere.jason gold

Bold Photography said...

The camera and system used is beyond the reach of nobody reading this blog. I bought an almost identical camera for a blazing total of $600. And I'm not making photos for a living. I bought it to make art.

And it's fantastic for that.

The tonal ranges you can get out of film (I think that was Provia film, Kirk...?) blow my 5DII out of the water... no need for HDR - except to try to capture the image in post! Straight to print...

Jeffrey Friedl said...

People who are intrinsically curious and artistic will want to explore in their own ways... by dabbling in various lenses, settings, situations, styles, cameras, and under various artificial limitations designed to squeeze some creativity out the other end.

Collecting cameras, and exploring (and reveling in) their differences is just one of your avenues of creativity, so it's not difficult to understand. Sad is the person who has no creativity or interest in exploring and expanding...

Nathan Black said...

"Moderation in all things. Including moderation."
- Robert Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus Long

I've been shooting with a forty dollar pawnshop Yashica Electro 35 and I'm loving it. Brings a deliberation to my eye and a different look to my photos. Very enjoyable.

When I'm shooting business I still use my DSLR, but for a walkabout camera, I'm loving the simplicity and results from my little rangefinder.

Paulo Rodrigues said...

You've sold it to me Kirk, but you need to sell it to my wife. Perhaps a post on the dire consequences of insufficient cameras. "Camera deficiency may cause weight gain in spouses" might be a good headline

Frank Grygier said...

I'm just going to blame it on my third midlife crisis. I'll say I could be driving a red Ferrari and looking for a good looking blonde. Well I am looking for the blonde to make a portrait.