The inevitable cat photo(s)
I have my camera set to display black & white since a while. And for the moment, after reading this blog post of Mike Johnston, I decided to also set it back to record only jpg images, in the sRGB colour space. So what I see isn’t only what I get, but I’ll have to live with the results. Which means that I’ll have to do everything just right before I even press the shutter button.
Of course I want to test that in real life, with people, on the streets, everywhere. And with my studio strobes. Here’s a photo of Tuna the cat, my favourite model to test new things and techniques with:
Tuna die Katze – Tuna the cat, November 2015
This was taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M10 camera and with the Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25mm/1.4 fully open at f/1.4 – with the help of my two studio strobes firing at 1/16th power each. Remotely triggered using cheap Yongnuo radio remotes.
Thanks for reading. And thanks of course to Tuna for modeling like a pro.
Sarah
Here’s another photo which I like, from April 2011. Sarah is naked, tho you don’t see much of that:
Sarah, April 2011
B&W Ilford HP5 film simulation, like the one in my former post. But this was taken with my E-520 camera (10MP), and with the 50mm/2 Zuiko Digital Macro lens. Like the one of Zuzana, I took it in the Haenson studios (a bit down South from here).
Thanks for viewing.
P.S.: I dedicate this one to Eve Arnold, who always saw the woman behind the model. That’s why Marilyn trusted her more than any other photographer.
(NSFW) Zuzana
Last year in January I took some photos of a former “playmate”, as they are called by some magazine. Here’s an Ilford HP5 simulation of one of the photos I liked:
Zuzana, January 2014
Thanks for viewing.
This is kinda cool…
Just tryin’ it. Disabled Javascript in about:config. See http://www.wired.com/2015/11/i-turned-off-javascript-for-a-whole-week-and-it-was-glorious/
I’m done.
No public content anymore:
I have enough. If Henry Cartier-Bresson would have lived today, he would probably have himself seen forced to do the same.
People are just not worth it. ‘nuf said.
Update:
Ok, I know this is unfair. And some people deserve an explanation. So here it is:
– Today I was forced to remove a picture made at one of Zuleikha’s birthdays, showing her with some friends. And although the focus was clearly on our own daughter, the argument was: “You didn’t ask”.
This isn’t – and wasn’t – the first time.
So I’ve decided that enough is enough. If people want to die without anyone even remembering how they looked, it’s their choice. If they force me to remove a perfectly fine picture of our daughter so that she cannot show it anymore after she grows up, it’s another thing. Yes, I could have placed black bars across people’s eyes – but that would have ruined the shot as well.
People are just overly anal these days about having their pictures displayed, and yet at the same time they take millions of crappy phone photos themselves and post them on public (so-called “social”) networks. All well and good and their choice entirely. But I get really mad when someone forces me to take away pictures where the focus wasn’t even on their kid, and where no names were displayed, and so on and so forth. That’s why I wrote that even HCB wouldn’t have had a chance today to become the hero he clearly is.
I do have some photos of people where I also have written model releases. But these are not my strong ones; I’ve made all of them while still learning, so keeping only these wouldn’t have any merit for those models, and also not for me.
Landscapes? Our cat? Flowers and bees? All not my strong points, with maybe the exception of the cat.
So I have to think, a lot, long and hard. But what I know already is that I’ll never again show people pictures. Except of course when I have a written contract (model release) with them (or their parents), and when I also consider the photo to be worth it. So chances are that you’ll never see people pictures from me again.
Hope that explains it.
Thanks for reading.
A good and cheap keyboard
I ordered this one at work, to replace my older Logitech keyboard:
It has JK-0800 as the manufacturer’s number on its bottom, but it’s also known as KC1000, which is printed on the lower left of its top surface. It’s currently the #1 top selling keyboard on Amazon, and available there for under 10€.
Super nice, super quiet, and tho I changed keyboards with the machine running, all keys including the special keys worked as expected – even on Linux. These four special keys are: calculator, mail, browser, and sleep.
Recommended.
This. And that.
It’s going to be okay
This is one short and cool cartoon, based on a real story. Found via Zlatan’s blog which I’ve found via Planet Debian. Zlatan has written other cool things before, like this…
About seeing pictures
If you’re really into photography, then after a while you’ll start seeing pictures everywhere. Like in the magazines, catalogues, the online world, even in TV. And sometimes in real life of course. If that hasn’t happened to you (yet), don’t try to force it – you’ll get there.
There are some incredibly good photographers out there, even in the business of moving pictures. Films, TV series, ads – everywhere. But for the makers of TV programs it’s quite hard – the native wide screen 16:9 format for instance isn’t really an ideal one for portraits. Still I see photos all the time, and sometimes I quite like them. Like this:
Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Image © CBS
At work, some of my colleagues ordered the new Lenovo X1 Carbon ultrathin notebook as their new work machines for the next years. It’s quite nice, and lighter than a 13.3″ MacBook Pro. When they were setting those up today, I just came around the corner with my camera in my hands, and took this one:
Colleagues working on/with their new Lenovo X1 Carbon
I had to wait for a short moment until Gunther’s hand was in front of Arno’s machine again to catch that behind-the-scene feeling of our workplace.
Nice machines, especially if you’re a mobile worker. I’ll wait for the bigger (and much heavier) Thinkpad W541 because I’m running virtual machines on top of my Linux OS (yes, also at work).
Oh by the way – I’m just leaving the IBM club again, which I joined only because I wanted to be a member of the photo club. Why? Well I guess we’re not that compatible anymore. I just wanna go and find my own way and style. Plus I’m not really into “skin work“. Oh, I’ve done my share of it, even on myself, and later almost perfected it, but I don’t want to create false stuff. Not my world.
Thanks for reading.