eric_perlberg

I have the second version and it's my everyday lens. Every once in a while, but rarely, changing from one length to another doesn't perfectly set the framelines and I have to be slightly more pro-active to get it in place and get the framelines correct. This rarely happens and its not a big deal. I have never had a problem with pushing the disengagement button after thousands of shots with the lens. Like any tool you learn its idiosyncracies and deal with them. The lens is very sharp even at f/4 and with fast film it gets me from dawn to dusk even in sunny London. I bought the second version over the first because of the DoF markers which I like using. It's a great all-purpose lens.

Sorry about that...

 

Greenwich, London UK<div></div>

Greenwich UK

I started my love affair with street photography when I realised that

it would be a great way to get exercise walking from my flat to

centres of interest in London like Hoxton, Oxford Street, Soho, Covent

Garden, Bloomsbury, the Tate, etc and a great way to use my camera. I

walk until I find something which interests me (people, objects,

scenes, moods), work on that for a bit, walk further, work a bit, etc.

 

But recently I've begun to feel a kind of "so what" feeling to my

work. I like what I shoot and I'm growing as a photographer.

Occassionally I find the work of a few people at photo.net (currently

ed leveckis, Tim van der Weert's work when I see it) whose shots speak

to me about larger issues than just snaps of people in compromising

moments and interesting urban scenes. But I'm starting to think that I

should be working to a more focused theme or somehow deal with larger

issues (I can't even define this well, its not just about naming, its

about revealing). In looking at my own work, I am starting to learn

something about me and how I see the world. Who was it that said, "I

write to discover what i have to say?"

 

But when I go to any of London's great gallerys or museums and look at

Gursky or Tillmans or other serious artists working in photography,

there seems to be a driving principal behind what they're doing. I

love the greats like winnograd, friedlander, HCB, etc but that's been

done and just to say I've captured something that looks like their

work doesn't excite me.

 

I'm interested in what your philosophy is of what you're trying to do

when you do street photography. Is it just have fun with the camera?

be a wannabe winnograd or HCB or are you working to themes or some

larger vision and if you are can you enlighten us on how your creative

process works?

 

Knowing photo.net there are a few people who will say, just go out and

shoot or some other dismissive comment but I hope those of you

seriously working can shed some light for me.

I generally carry an M6 even when I'm not particularly out to do photography. I have a Canon 4mp digital elph which I took out the past few days as a safety blanket. It's light, fits in my pocket and produces good photos. I think people are far more oblivious to the digital elph than the M6, at least here in central london where its extremely common to see people using a zillion variations of small digital cameras anywhere and everywhere. Too bad they're so unresponsive.

Brian, will all the forums (incl. Street Photography) be available in the drop down Category list when the problems are fixed?

I just tried to start a new W/NW thread in the new W/NW forum. I

wanted to make a post of a "dangling urban object". Logically to me it

falls under the category of "Street Photography" but that's not one of

the options listed.

 

I tried not selecting a category because the only category even

remotely related was the camera type that I used to make the photo. By

not choosing a category and clicking submit, I received the following

error:

Error

An error occurred while attempting to put your post in the forum:

 

missing " NEW

 

(I assume that's because I didn't put a category).

 

Since getting away from camera type postings as the organising

principal was the whole reason as I understand it that we moved W/NW

to its own forum I have two suggestions:

 

Either include all the forum options in the Category drop down (in my

case Street Photography but I think others are also missing)

 

or

 

Make declaring a Category optional.

 

Cheers

Eric

I'm very pleased about the new forums. They're logical and useful outgrowths of changing times. I look forward to participating fully in both.

 

Eric

Hi Dale

 

I acknowledge your bravery and fear for your sanity in doing this! Here goes...

 

As a theme, what you've outlined above is interesting. I don't think it comes across in the photos strongly enough. Taking your own words, I don't find the photos convey an element of disorientation. Perhaps some unusual perspectives or playing with foreground-background relationships might bring that out more. You write about reading the grave stones but there are none that we can read, the subjects, the grave stones and the people they represent don't feature in the photos in any way. I think, to achieve your objective you need to find some way of visually bringing that issue more to the fore.

 

You write about juxtapositions of light and shadow but most of the images are well exposed with no real strong contrast of dark and light, charrischuro type work (I'm sure I've misspelled that but too lazy to walk to a dictionary). There are 3 or so images like the one titled Headstones which begin to play with light and shadow but i think for your goals you need to develop this contrast more. It doesn't feel spooky or ethereal or time warping to me, just like well photographed (technically) shots. Perhaps I'm being too cliched here about what cemetaries are suppossed to be but I'm trying to respond to your own goals. White fence seems to have potential but I don't feel the contrast of "fenceness", *esp in the context of "souls in a graveyard" or the interesting contrast of who/what's being fenced (certainly not the souls but this feeble attempt to keep people out, why would they want to go in?)* is developed enough. The fence doesn't stand out. I think revisiting this and thinking about these issues should help. I do like the topic and that is something that is sometimes the hardest to find. I hope these few thoughts are helpful.

Grant, yes, the "atmosphere" that Jerry liked was a bit of photoshop. I hope you were simply pointing that out to Jerry and not trying to make a "larger" point?

Karl, I just wanted to thank you for reminding us to be careful not to get so caught up in technical issues and the people who master them that we lose the photographic plot. Cheers!

Fair enough Jerry but could you, errr, post it?

A post on parole<div></div>

A post pretending to be abstract art<div></div>

Leaning post in East London<div></div>

SE 1 London, England with Leica M6

David, I use Grain Surgery and am relatively pleased with it. There is a trade-off between reducing noise and keeping fine detail. I don't know from experience but expect that's in the nature of the beast. On some images I'm pleased with the results and on others I prefer the problem to the solution. Neat Image claim to have a native mac os x product in development.

Hi Eric, I'm totally out of it... sorry.

Eric

Karim, sorry about misspelling your name! (Eric shakes his head in frustration with himself!).

Brian, many of the Forums have an About section which gives the rules for participation. The Leica forum is very generous in that while Leica photos are preferred others in the "rangefinder" style are acceptable.

 

I'm a Leica M owner and love that camera but it too has its weaker points and idiosyncracies which once you're used to them become second nature. I had a brief tryout of the D2 at the Leica dealership and rather liked it. It offers a collection of unique features, produces very good images (I saw 8x10s that were satisfying) and fits a certain niche (street shooting with the advantages of digital and the advantages of manual) like no other camera currently available. The price of course is outlandish but in today's consumer society there are plenty of other things which sell well with outlandish prices. You either want its unique blend of qualities or you don't. If you do, you pay the price (if you can).

 

There was a post somewhere by a Leica rep who claimed the firmware and settings on the Leica were slightly different than on the Panasonic. I don't know if the Panasonic warranty has been disclosed yet and that might be difference factor too.

Kerim, This photo is part of a series I'm doing which I call Feral Art, you can see the other ones in my photo.net gallery of that name. It was taken on Threadneedle Street, a narrow winding street in London's financial district (taken Sunday at about 5pm). It's a close up shot of a section of weathered, aged pavement (as are most of the others in the Feral Art Folder). This particular one needed some photoshop burning/dodging (but not much else) to bring out the colours though most of the others are more or less straight from the camera (with the usual light sharpening and curves). It wasn't taken with a Nikon (apologies to the forum) as I absent mindedly thought I was in the Leica forum (most W/NW seem to be there and they're very tolerant of non Leica shots when of the "right" type!). The shot was taken with a Canon 300D with a 17-40L lens focal length 30mm at f/4 at ISO 400. I stand directly over the pavement object with feet splayed out to keep them from showing up in the shot.

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No, you shouldn't use the suction device on the LCD. The Eye-One Display comes with a counterweight which slips over the rather longish USB cable. The puck sits against the LCD screen hanging from the USB cord which is draped over the top of the monitor and hanging from the other side on the USB cable is the counterweight. If that isn't clear, you'll see it when you get the box.

 

You might want to put very light pressure on the puck when its doing its measuring if you think stray light may be entering through the sides or not as needed.