Woke at 4am to arrive on the island at around 4:45am. After checking the perimeter I spotted a fisherman heading up a path. Follow the local knowledge. Sure enough I found the spot I was looking for although the sun was rising from behind the island. Unfortunately there was no way to get around and the view from that point is not as good anyway. Still, it was surprisingly busy with fishermen for 4:45am (I'm betting most of them get there at 4 or so).
Blog
The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)
Reflections
Reflections in a dam north of Sydney Australia.
Shibuya Investigation
Another scene from a different film
Like a scene from a film
This has to be my favorite photo from my archive. I have never found the same light or scene since.This picture was also published in 2008 in SonntagsZeitung (Swiss Sunday Times) in an article about flickr.
Enoshima, Pan F and Diafine
Click the image to start the slideshow (2 slides)
On my little adventure to Enoshima last weekend at 4am, not only did I manage to get sick but I tried a Film / Developer combination I hadn't seen before.
I've used Ilford Pan F on occasion and, while expensive, have liked the results I've gotten so far. My trip to Enoshima was finally a chance to shoot something at ISO100 (developing with Diafine pushes it a stop to 100) so I thought I'd try it developed in Diafine.
Well, as you can see by the results, it's pretty damn dark. But, looking at the shot of the old man (second slide), I couldn't have really exposed it more or the shirt would have been blown. The background at the time was not at all dark and the day was overcast so there were no shadows so in theory more of the background should be visible.
If you are going to use this combination, make sure you don't have any dark area's in your shot or you're likely to get blacks.
Napoleon
Sometimes you find a gem in the crowd.
Night moves
A photo from the archives. A pause in the heartbeat of the Tokyo night as a homeless guy crosses the road. Surprisingly stable shot considering it was shot hand held with a Rolleiflex.
Morning confusion
Chiba Sea
Went out the other weekend in search of a semi reasonable location to shoot something other than night city action. thoroughly uninteresting I have to say. Half a roll shot but some how I get the feeling that this place could have potential. Maybe because I walked 6km to reach this spot in the middle of a summers day my judgment of the place has been affected.
Peekaboo
This one is definitely making it into the exhibition. It's the odd shot like this that makes lugging that camera around every day worth while (or almost ;-)
In love
No,no. Not with the girl in the shot. With the camera and lens I used to take the shot. Sure it's nothing super special but the picture has a quality that all my other camera's don't have. A soft yet sharp image. A bokeh that I've not seen another lens produce. Finally after a LONG time of taking pictures for the sake of taking pictures I may have a real reason to take them again.
Great Quote
I’ve become increasingly nihilistic about photography... photography was much more interesting 50 plus years ago, and now there is just this overabundance of photography. It’s like saying “What type of art do you do?” “Oh, I do Twitter.”
-- Alec Soth Via http://www.aphotoeditor.com/
Drunk action
One of a series from the archives. Possibly more episodes to come
Infected
So yesterday I managed to have my computer infected by a very nasty Trojan that, in a matter of minutes replicated itself and took over my machine. I've gone many years of PC usage (and Mac usage for that matter) without this happening to me. No less that 84 viruses found on the drive with the OS on it. I could not get rid of them. This lead to a complete re-install of the system on a new disk. And I figured while I was in pain I'd inflict a little more by installing Windows 7. Having just gotten my machine almost to normal I have to say I'm very surprised by the performance of this new OS. All my apps seem to work without an issue. Drivers? Everything is automatic. I Did have to download a printer driver, my scanner and the Wacom driver but everything else related to the machine was taken care of by the OS. The speed of the new OS is noticeably faster than XP pro which I'm happy about and the interface seems to be an improvement (function wise) but I'll still need to get my head around these new permission issues.
Computers - fucking waste of time.
(and you mac people...spinning ball of death...yes, I know about that too).
Virus image By Solitaire Miles
Secret Door
So a few of you will recognise where this shot is taken. What you may not know about is the secret door. Evidence above. Next time you're in the area, look for the hidden keyhole.
Tour de France
Great story and even better photos to be had over at whatsthejackanory.com
Flickr response
It's interesting to see how people respond to different photo's. More often than not (80% of the time?) I find people liking shots I've taken that I think are ok but nothing out of this world. This particular shot appeals to me for a number of reasons and was ignored on flickr :-)The tones in the shot are hard to achieve in B+W film unless the exposure and circumstances are spot on. The picture was taken using the Contax 645 with the Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2 lens with a special adapter which makes the background just vanish into a smooth blur. I like this photo a great deal and it was interesting to see who fav'd it. Expect more in this series and follow up with a bit of colour too.
Dark moody Sydney
5D mk2 continued...
ok, So I might have over reacted a little when I slammed the camera. It is actually an amazing camera. Takes stunning pictures. Yes, even better that the 1ds mk3 (for $8k!) but it can't focus very well (I say not at all!) in low light / night. Some of you know I shoot events in these situations and also like to shoot the odd night candid photo. Well, seems with the 5D mk2 I was not going to be able to do any of that. It's a day time only kind of camera or night time - no moving subjects and break out the manual focus in certain situations - kind of camera. I.e. not suited to all subjects I am shooting. So, not able to aford or justify buying a 1ds mk3 or paying canon to build a special 5d mk2 for me I've opted to trade back.
I'm mentioning this so as not to kill anyones dreams of the camera being everything they hoped for. I'm sure if you've never shot with a pro camera for a while it will be. But for those that have you'll understand, read this and not learn the expensive way :-)
Expensive fuckup
Well that was an expensive fuckup. Trade the 1d mk3 for a 5d mk2 only to trade back again less than 1 month and less than 300 photos later.Lesson learned. The only reason I did not switch to Nikon is it would have cost me significantly to buy the same setup I have now. And given I make no money taking photographs it seems slightly unjustified. Moral of this story is buy Nikon from the start. Canon had the edge until the D3 then everything changed.