This Charming Man
More than just photography . . . honest :)

The Importance Of The “Happy Snapper”

Filed under: Photography, Personal — Dave @ 8:29 am

I’ve been pouring over old slides that my father has given me to scan.

These are old.

They predate autofocus cameras

They are photos of our family over the years.
Family vacations, family outings, family birthdays, family Christmases, family Thanksgivings, family births, and everything else you can imagine a family doing over time.
Each of the photos, if looked at in context of when it was taken, does not look so important or artistic or even, at times, properly composed or exposed. Such was the life of trying to use an all manual camera I guess.

As I began looking through these slides; and there are hundreds if not thousands of them I tell you, I noticed that, when put together these are very very very important photographs. I can only really relate to the images that I either photographed (my parents had eventually given me a fantastic little Kodak Instamatic 126 camera when I was a boy and I tell you, I loved that camera) or the images in which I was in or was present at when they were taken but each of these images, to me at least, suddenly had become such treasures. None of these could be replaced; none of them.

I saw images of myself and my mother and recalled how I grew up.
I saw myself at the age of nine at a birthday party with my friends and I can recall, to this day, the taste of the cake, the joy that was had and the innocence of being so young.
My grandmothers and grandfathers remain timeless and material in these photos. They are as they were and always shall be in my minds eye.
I can smell the summer air in the photos of an adventure out west in 1981.
I can feel the heat of the tropical climate as a toddler in 1966.
I see these photos and they are more than mere photos to me; they are my history brought to life. I no longer would just talk about where I am from, what I have done and where I am now; I can actually show people and help them see my life through my eyes and images.

So, why would we deem any photographs we currently take any “less” important to our clients when we photograph their wedding or event. We should be honoured to do what we have been asked to do.

The “rock stars” in the industry want to create “art” - that’s a great thing I think - it advances the status of the wedding and/or event photographer from “that guy with the camera” to “our photographer” . It helps people see the value in hiring photographers with talent over “Uncle Bob” who happens to own the latest/greatest DSLR because “Uncle Bob” happens to be a dentist and/or doctor and can afford said DSLR.

But, not every photograph is “art” nor should it be - there are many candid moments that occur during a wedding/event which are captured. The dreaded “table shots” that some photographers seem to hold in disdain; the “Oh.. photographer.. can we get a photo with the bride/groom/guests of honour??” photos, the “Can you take a picture of me and my baby?” photos; all of them are hardly “artistic” per se however they do offer that “happy snap” (as Stan from Downtown Camera would say) photograph that one can look back on with fondness.

These images, for our clients, can be equally important to those I mentioned at the beginning of this entry and no one, not even we, the “professionals” should tell our clients differently.

“Art” be damned; I would be happier if I gave my clients something that brought a tear to their eye because of a memory thanks to one of my images rather than something that was well exposed, composed and artistic.

That’s just the way I see it…

Cheers,
Dave

The Right Tools For The Job At Hand

Filed under: General Crap, Photography — Dave @ 11:34 am

On Saturday night I went out to see a burlesque show.

Yep.

No, really.

It was actually a lot of fun. There has been, over the past number of years, a bit of a revival in burlesque. This is the 1950’s style burlesque (if I have my eras correct) and not what may pass as “stripping” or “pole dancing” or “lap dancing” or such. Sure there’s a bit of skin, but it’s usually all done in a classy and fun fashion. The women, at least the ones I saw on Saturday night, are “real” - no need for emaciated silicone enhanced girls with collagen lips here!

The opportunity to photograph (along with other regular photographers) this event for my own personal enjoyment was, to be honest, a great learning experience in being able to use the right tool for the job at hand. As I said, I was not being paid nor was I commissioned or requested to photograph the event and, instead, I approached one of the performers beforehand and requested that I be able to shoot. My only instructions were not to get in the way of the other patrons watching the show.

The show was held at The Cadillac Lounge in the Parkdale area of Toronto. The lounge is small and not too wide so there was a limited amount of room to move. Basically, because I was the “new guy” shooting photos and because it was so crowded with fans, patrons and onlookers, I was relegated to crouching down, on the floor, stage right. I wasn’t too close but with the 50mm lens I could get most shots.

Now, with the limited space, and the type of show this was going to be, I felt almost “dirty” using my 5D. Add to the mix that it was pretty dark (it was a bar after all) and now I’m stuck with shooting ISO 1600. Well, I decided that it may be a good idea to bring along the M7 and my 50 Summilux, 35 ASPH Summicron and Zeiss 21mm. I could easily shoot Ilford Delta 3200 and I would hope that I would get that “1950’s / early 60’s” feel out of the B&W film.

So with these thoughts in mind, I trundled up towards the stage as the show started with both cameras. I shot quite a bit with the 5D but as the night went on I found myself using the M7 a lot more. The main reason was the ease of carrying the M7 and lenses. It was, basically, a no brainer. The 5D was great but with the battery grip and trying to carry a couple lenses, it was difficult in such a tight location. I literally had about 2 sq feet of “personal space” without getting into a patron’s line of sight or the other photographer’s shot. Add to that the fact that I was able to shoot without flash made it a lot of fun as well. And once I got into the groove - focusing on moving objects wasn’t as hard as I had thought it was going to be. Set the lens to f5.6 and I still had enough light to get by with a reasonable shutter speed.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I liked the shots I took with the 5D but I really liked the shots I took with the M7 because they made it “feel” like it was in the 1950’s.

So, in the future, I will definitely be keeping that evening in mind as something that will remind me to take along the best tool to do the job.

Here’s one of the photos from that evening: