Sunday, December 21, 2008

Seasons in Chicago

What's there with the summer in Chicago?

It's a strange season, in which people really let it all hang out, dress strangely and meander in packs.  Look at this family crossing a street in the loop.  Only the kid noticed me.  The rest?  Lost in that summer daze... (M6TTL, Hexanon 35/f2, T-Max ISO 100)


Then comes winter... and the Kris Kindl Markt (aka Christmas Market), with its expensive, fancy trinkets that make Chicagoans feel nostalgic if they've been to Germany, and touristy if they haven't.  It's the best moment to watch people... (same gear, but in Scala film).


And then, there's that weird anticlimactic spring: wet, cold and unpredictable.  There may be beautiful days followed by others, gray, rainy and cool.  Of course, for an adopted DeKalbian, a rainy day in Chicago beats any rainy day in DeKalb (M6TTL, Elmarit 28/f2.8, T-Max ISO 400). 

The possibilities are just endless...  But, for now, the next one will be the seasons in DeKalb! 

Friday, December 19, 2008

Winter

These are trying circumstances. What to do with winter?

However trite it may sound... the best is to open one's eyes to it, face it and take it.  Speaking of "taking things," I was very tempted to ditch the slide above until my wife told me it looked like the University of Iowa football symbol: an eagle.  I had not seen an eagle here... but it saved the slide (Canonet G-III QL17 and Ektachrome 100). 


Now, I did go out on a night like this, looking an image like the one above.  Luckily, it made it to an exhibit assembled later that year (M6TTL, Hexanon 35, T-Max ISO 100). 


Not the place and time to abandon your bycicle (M6TTL, Summicron 50, Scala ISO 200).   

Winter should make us think, reconsider and ponder.  Instead, the wonderful light and the quirky weather (I'm being nice here) force us out, and so we walk, shake, complain and guess exposures in the bitter cold, instead of doing other things.  Why?  Any idea?  

Monday, December 15, 2008

Challenges (again, Denver)

How to make the ordinary look extraordinary?

With long lenses... (Windows in Larimer Square, Denver, M4-2, Summicron 90/f2, Superia ISO 400)


Moving fast... (Hotdog vendor in 6th Street, M4-2, Hexanon 35/f2, Superia ISO 400)


Acting quickly... (a view of Michigan Avenue, south of the river in Chicago, M3, Summicron 50, Ektachrome ISO 200)


Looking for the weird...  (Performing Arts Center in Denver, M4-2, Hexanon 35/f2, Superia ISO 400)

Some time ago, a photographer let me in his secret for succesful street photographs: visualize your shots.  Sounds easy... until one leaves the familiar environment.  That was my lesson (one of them, the other was that meters don't have it all with them) to take to Denver, CO, with my M4-2.  In Chicago, it is relatively easy for me to determine what is ordinary and common as opposed to what is not.  I can easily decide what details to pick and photograph and which ones to leave as done and overdone by other photographers.  However, Denver didn't offer me that choice... simply because I don't know what is usual to photograph there.  The challenge I faced, just like I do when in Chicago, was to render the familiar unfamiliar.  Otherwise, why bother photographing?

Here are some of my results.  My window shot, done with a Summicron 90, takes the windows and their awnings away from their surroundings.  They're no longer a "Denver sight" but rather a line of windows with a conforting routine about them.  Then, the hotdog vendor is so common and ordinary that he couldn't be any commoner.  Yet, the people around him steal his protagonism from the photograph.  My view of Michigan doesn't look any different from any other shot, except for the fact that it was done at dusk.  My favorite here is the yuxtaposition of a bear (apparently a begging one) and a nice VW Beetle (weren't they known as "Bugs"?), in a photograph that screams "postmodern" to me: irony, clashing categories (urban vs wild, or idealized view of nature vis-a-vis the equally idealized urban life in the VW).  I don`t know, but the VW in the forefront, and the bear in the background look so incongruent that I should frame the shot.

If you don't agree... just let me know! 

Monday, December 8, 2008

More Denver citiscapes & signs

More images with the M4-2... Can these be public art?

Nice coffee shop near our hotel. 

An example of public art (sign of life).

Thinking girl near the library. 

Let me brag... I metered these shots.  With my eyes, only.

Well... I also had some help from my meter.  Every time I had my doubts about lighting, I pulled out my faithful black Leica M4 meter and checked the lighting.  However, most of the time my guesstimate fell in the correct area, so for situations like the ones above, I relied on my memorized settings (applicable with ISO 400 film).  Proof that photographers in the past were guys with good memory!  

That, or I'm going to be a tough candidate for Alzheimer's.