Imsticking's Leica D-Lux 4 Blog

I post it here and it sticks.
 

Nothing Changes on New Year's Day

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Nothing Changes on New Year's Day - 5.1mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/400 sec

It's 2011 and I've made my resolutions. Have you? Do you even feel you need resolutions or are you simply content with how things are progressing for you? I think that anything that motivates you to do some good in this world, is inherently a good thing. If that New Year's resolution guilts you into action, then great. Me, I'm excited about this new year. Excited about what it will bring, and what I'll make of the time (not making of what it brings, but I suppose taking, in a way). Life is for the taking. I think I've always been too introverted or polite to even realise that up until now. Greed is something that doesn't sit well with me. 

But enough self-disclosure. The scene above was shot on Tottenham Court Road, London, in mid-summer 2010. I took it as a snap shot with my Leica D-Lux 4, while walking past. I couldn't believe my luck. The contrast between applying oneself, and not applying oneself screamed at me so loud I could no longer hear the traffic. It's easy to judge. It's human, but it's often not humane. 

The Great Leica M9 Give-Away Contest
A new year can be filled with promise, but there are no promises of course. Much like The Great Leica M9 Give-Away Contest! Musician Seal has generously provided Steve Huff with his previous black Leica M9 camera body (worth $6559 US) as a prize to a competition who's rules are yet to be published. The competition is free to enter and it is open to everyone. So help spread the word! If you're a photographer, or you own a smartphone, check-out Seal's new photo-sharing site PicOrTwo. Hrmm, I wonder if an iPhone app for the site will be released or at least an API to hook into existing iPhone photo-sharing apps.  

Exhibits
San Francisco - Henry Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century at SFMOMA until 30th January 2011.
London - Imagine: John Lennon by Tom Hanley at Proud Chelsea to 16th January 2011.

I haven't seen either, but I will definitely make the effort to see the, until now, unpublished photos of John Lennon by Tom Hanley in London. I love to see, what is often referred to by the media as, 'behind the scenes' photographs. Beyond the point where their access to someone usually ends. For me it's where the illusion ends too. I can't relate to illusion.  

Blogging inspiration provided by U2's New Year's Day ♫

Filed under  //   Leica   London   contest   exhibit   photography   street  
January 1 2011
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Faux Fair & the Taylor Wessing Exhibit

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Super Scooper - 5.1mm at f/2.0, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/320 sec

I thought I'd actually post something to my photo blog for a change. I haven't shot anything since my last post so I've been looking through the more than 400 gigabytes of RAW digital negative files I have on a hard drive, initially bought solely as a Time Machine drive. When I started this blog, it was to simply document my discovery and learning of photography, come what may and for as long as it held my interest. Along with documenting this process using a blog, I also decided to keep every frame I shot. All taken with my Leica D-Lux 4 of course.

It's rather shocking to look back at what I produced a year ago. I can't believe how bad most of it is. I'm not saying I've improved much. Maybe I've changed the way I look at images captured, or more precisely, scenes I look to shoot. I've certainly developed a taste or idea of what I do and don't want to capture. It's interesting because it's actually quite revealing. Even though I spend a lot of time chatting and sharing online, especially on Twitter, the dynamic of revealing myself through the images I choose to shoot, process, and share as well as how I choose to present them as a blog post reveals a part of me I think words would find challenging to describe. I'm not even sure I'd want it described in words. 

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Elephant Man - 7.9mm at f/2.4, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/400 sec

It's interesting, but, even though this post is almost done, it's only really occurred to me right now that I subconsciously chose to share these 3 images because each of them depicts something you'd find at a circus or funfair. I missed an opportunity to photograph a funfair that came to my home town a month ago. I was really looking forward to the opportunity to capture bright colourful lights and rides, fun and childlike wonder, and then enjoying the process of transforming them to the point where they can be presented on this blog. 

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Grease Tourist - 6.3mm at f/2.2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/100 sec

Enough about my photography though. On Friday evening I visited the Taylor Wessing exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. It was probably the least pleasant experience I've had at The Gallery. It wasn't The Gallery's fault however. There were just too many people trying to view the exhibit, and some of them were just plain rude. Four feet away from a print, and I lost count of the number of times someone came and stood right in front of me, to view the print I was looking at. Suddenly I had a fantastic view of the back of their head.

Another complaint? While I'm on a role... I can only recall seeing 3 prints in black and white. I know!! Scandal! Overall, I wasn't that impressed with the exhibit. There was very little I'd describe as genuinely thought-provoking and some of the reasons the photographers gave for their work seemed rather contrived to me. As this blog will attest, I have not been into this photography lark for long, and even I have grown tired of reading the familiar "The artist/photographer wanted to capture the subject in their environment" or something to that effect. Let's not kid ourselves. You took a photo of a guy in a cornfield. End of story. Artists eh. 

And with that, I bring down this blog post with something positive. Photographers I enjoy following on Twitter. Good people, people who don't spam, self promote ad-nauseum or tell you how awesome their life is because they just took another incredibly beautiful photograph of themselves. Nope, these are photographers you'll enjoy following because they engage with their followers (alphabetically): @bybrett, @jonathantaphous, @kate_day, @madleeeen, @photo_feature,  @pixelvixenuk, @terakopian. If you're not on this list, don't feel bad. I probably like you too, just for other reasons.

Click here to download:
ScoopCauitionD100Pro.sep (3 KB)

 

Click here to download:
ElephantManD100Pro.sep (3 KB)

 

Click here to download:
GreasyTouristD100Pro.sep (3 KB)

Filed under  //   Exhibit   Leica   London   NPG   photography  
November 22 2010
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