To the Moon!

Forty years ago, the summer before I started Middle School, my family moved up from West Point, Mississippi to Fairchild Air Force Base, near Spokane, Washington. My dad was a career Air Force man. We arrived on the base a week or more before our belongings did. This is important part of the story.

Like most kids in the 60s, the Apollo moon missions were a dream come to life. I grew up watching every cheesy sci-fi movie ever made and was a devoted Star Trek fan and I saw the Apollo moon landing as our first major step towards a life of exploring other planets. Unfortunately, our TV was in the moving van that was still making its way to the Northwest. We didn’t know anyone at this base, and I was going to miss seeing one of the most important moments in history. My only consolation was a small transistor radio. At least I’d be able to hear it happen.

But a few minutes before the scheduled landing, a guy from down the street knocked on the front door, and when my mom answered it, he handed her a small portable TV and said, “This isn’t something you should miss.” It was one of the best gifts I can recall getting in my entire life.

He came back the next day for his TV, but for a moment the people on this planet were drawn closer together. And that guy went out of his way to do something because he felt it was the right thing to do and I will never forget him and his generosity.

Here’s to the 40th Anniversary of the landing on the Moon.

Julius Shulman, 1910 - 2009

Julius Shulman, one of the best architectural photographers in the U.S., died at age 98 on July 15. Although he was more famous among architects than he was among photographers, Shulman was considered by most to be the best photographer of Modernist architecture in the 20th Century. He completed his last assignment two weeks ago and he began his career as a photographer in 1936. That's a 73 year run, which is truly remarkable in any field.

The New "Leica"?

Olympus unveiled its latest Micro 4/3 camera, the Olympus Pen E-P1. They are calling it a Digital Pen, in reference to their half-frame 35mm cameras of the 60s and 70s, most famously the Olympus Pen-F and other models. Like the vintage camera line, the new E-P1 is small, sleek, and stylish. Decidedly old-fashioned looking, in fact, but filled with the latest digital camera technology, including HD video.

What strikes me about the E-P1 is how much it looks like what I thought Leica could come up with if they tried to make a digital camera from scratch. Taking the good ideas from their M-series cameras, like small bodies and lenses and economical design, but not being needlessly married to existing designs and guidelines that are now quite ancient, which is how I see their M8.2. I don't know how this camera will perform, though Photography Blog has several images from the camera online here and frankly the results seem mixed to me, but this design has a lot of potential for serious photographers. Especially, documentary photographers. The E-P1 could be the Leica M for the 21st Century. We've needed something like this, so let's hope that this it it.

Fave Pix from SoFoBoMo!

These are three of my favorite images from the Old Aurora Colony Museum shoot. The first one of the white pitcher was used as the cover image. Be sure to check out the finished book at SoFoBoMo.

Solo Photo Book Month Project Completed!

Last night I uploaded my finished e-book for the Solo Photo Book Month event. You can find it here. I ended up with 40 images all together and I have to say I'm pleased with the final result. It looks pretty good. It also feels good to be done with it.

This really is a good project to take on because it pushes you to new extremes in photographing. To end up with 35 or more images, most people would agree that you need to shoot roughly 10 times that amount depending on the person. Over the years, that's what I've noticed in working professionals. Of course, there are those who can produce good work at a much tighter ratio, but if you count on 1 photo out of 10 as a starting point, you won't be far off. So, for 35 images you need to to shoot about 350 images.

In my case, I shot 550 images, some of them duplicates or variations of the same scene, and ended up with about 40 finals. I could probably have included more images in the final book, but I decided what I had was enough. That puts my shooting ratio at 1 in 13. I've known some pros who shoot at 1 in 36. It should be acknowledged that shooting digital encourages overshooting. When I used to shoot with a 4x5 camera, my ratio was closer to 1 in 4 or 5. With 8x10, it was more like 1 in 2. The bigger the camera, the more work it is to make an image, the smaller the shooting ratio becomes.

When you shoot 350 or more images, it takes a lot of time to edit them all down to the final images and it takes a while to prep them, sequence them, and come up with a layout, not to mention choosing typefaces. And it all has to happen within the 31 days. A project of this sort is a lot of work, but it can also be highly rewarding. While it may be too late to try it this year, keep it in mind for next year. You'll be glad you did.

Later today or tomorrow, I'll post a few of my favorite images from the project. In the meantime, check out my book at the SoFoBoMo website and check out some of the other ones as well. There's a lot of good work out there.

SPBM Update

I officially kicked off my own book project for Solo Photo Book Month (SPBM) a few days ago. Thursday the 21st, to be exact. Not too long ago, while my mom was visiting from out of town, my wife and I took her to the Aurora Colony, which is about 30 miles south of Portland, Oregon. It is the site of a Utopian Community that was founded in the mid-1800s. While I was walking around on that visit, I thought it might be a good subject for a book, and therefore would work for SPBM.

It also worked out that I finally decided to pony up the money and buy a new Canon 5D Mark II and this would be a good project to get up to speed on this new camera. So I headed out to Aurora with my new camera on Thursday morning. I spent 6 hours there shooting and came back the next day for 2 more hours. I came away with 552 images from 8 hours of work. Uh, that comes to a shooting rate of 69 images per hour, which is kind of interesting. I sat down and edited those 552 images down to a more manageable 132. Now it's a matter of picking which images will go into the book. Remember that according to the rules of the event, I have to have a minimum of 35 images, so I shouldn't have too much difficulty meeting that requirement. Of course, few of those 132 images will make the final pick.

At the moment, I'm printing out contact sheets, so I can cut them apart and start to combine them in the order that they will appear in the book. When I get the chance, I'll post a few of my favorites images. Well, the clock is ticking and I still have a lot to do and only 27 days left to do them. As I get things done, I'll you know how it's going.

Bill Jay, 1940 - 2009

Bill Jay passed away the other day. I never met him, but he still managed to have a profound effect on me, my writing, and my photography. He was probably best known at this time for his column in LensWork magazine called EndNotes. EndNotes was his random, sometimes stream of consciousness, musings about the state of the art of photography—occasionally funny, sometimes off topic, always fascinating. Early in his career, Bill was the founding editor of Creative Camera Magazine, a very influential British photography magazine. He was born in Britain. He wrote hundreds of articles on the subject and published more than a dozen books about photography. Eventually, he moved to the United States and founded the Photographic Studies Department at Arizona State University. He retired earlier this year and had just moved to Costa Rica. Bill Jay died in his sleep just the other day.

It is my hope that Bill will be remembered by future generations of photographers because of one particular book he wrote. It is a book he co-wrote with David Hurn called Being a Photographer. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of photography manuals and how-to’s that have been published over the years, but this book is special. Instead of focusing on how to use the equipment, which nearly all photography books do, he chose to write about the mental and intellectual processes that a photographer undergoes in making photographs. The result is the best book on how to approach the craft and process of photographing. When I read Bill’s book, I immediately thought that this is what every aspiring photographer needs to read, no matter their level of accomplishment. It’s the book I wish I had read when I was starting out. It would have saved so much time and effort and struggle. Even after being a photographer for thirty years, I still learned a great deal. I never had the chance to thank Bill for this gift of his experiences and insights. Thanks, Bill.