Category: Photography, general
-
Introducing Kids in Madagascar to Photography: Results (3)
This is the third in series of posts in which I write about introducing kids to photography, using point-and-shoot film cameras from the 1980s and 90s, at the youth center, Le Cameleon, in Antananarivo, Madagascar. You can find previous posts in this series here, here and here. When it came time for the kids to choose their third…
-
Introducing Kids in Madagascar to Photography: Results (2)
This is one of a short series of posts in which I write about introducing kids to photography, using point-and-shoot film cameras from the 1980s and 90s, at the youth center, Le Cameleon, in Antananarivo, Madagascar. You can find previous posts in this series here and here. Previously I wrote about how we had sent the…
-
Introducing Kids in Madagascar to Photography: Results (1)
I wrote last time about the youth center, Le Cameleon, we crowdfunded and built in Antananarivo, Madagascar, and the project we organized to introduce a half dozen interested kids to photography, using point-and-shoot film cameras from the 1980s and 90s. I was excited and hopeful the kids would wind up with good results, because I…
-
Twelve Months, Twelve Cameras, Twelve Decades…and One Film. #ATG365
In August 2017, the hosts of podcast Against the Grain discussed photographers’ tendency to immediately look at photos they’ve shot (chimping) and how film photography slows the process down, resulting in an increased emphasis on capturing the photo, without constantly worrying about the end result. They suggested taking this idea of removing “chimping” to an extreme by…
-
Testing Silberra’s New Film
Tell most people there’s a new kind of photo film and they’ll think you’re crazy. But there have been a number of new film types over the last year or two – some reboots by companies like Kodak, new film types by existing film companies – even companies entering the film market altogether! Silberra is…
-
Kodak T-Max P3200: My First Roll
A notification from 35mmc today with Hamish Gill’s review of Kodak’s re-released P3200 reminded me that I, too, recently shot my first roll of P3200 – I just hadn’t gotten around to sharing my results. I’m a little bit late to the game, given that the film was re-released in mid-March – but it takes…
-
More Ilford Delta 3200
I posted awhile back about my first experience with Ilford Delta 3200 film – or any high-ISO film, for that matter. I was initially disappointed, but later the results grew on me. I had no idea just how much grain would result from pushing the film to ISO 4000, given that it is actually (allegedly)…
-
Heartbreaking
As in many parts of the world, when you drive around urban areas of Madagascar, people will tap on your window asking for money. Frequently these are little people. There are many theories about how to respond – sometimes the kids are exploited by adults and sent out to beg, often carrying babies – and…
-
Introducing Analog / Film Cameras to a New Generation
You don’t have to be as old as me to remember using analog/film cameras. But there’s an entire generation entering university (depending on where you grew up) that has grown up with photography as a purely digital phenomenon – often involving phones. Awhile back when we were still living in India, a friend I met…
-
Washington, DC by Night
Washington, D.C. is an interesting place to photograph, but it goes without saying that it’s completely different from the photography environment we had gotten accustomed to in India. A couple of weeks ago we became aware that there was going to be a “supermoon” – a larger (closer) than normal full moon, and via Meetup.com…
-
Stars over Shenandoah
It’s Labor Day weekend in the Shenandoah Valley and it’s packed with tourists escaping to the country to enjoy the fresh air, nature and sunshine. I wonder how many of them noticed the night sky? I used a low ISO to cut down on “noise” – but this means a 30 second exposure. The…
-
Birdwatching from the Hotel Pool
One of the highlights from our recent trip to Jaipur was the beautiful hotel pool. On our last day there, fed up with the heat, waiting for an evening flight, we arranged for a late checkout and decided to spend the morning lounging by the pool. After reading a bit, I noticed a couple of…
-
The Ashram: Following in the Beatles’ Footsteps
One of the places we were eager to see on our recent trip to Rishikesh, in northern India, was the so-called “Beatles Ashram.” The former ashram of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, on the left bank of the Ganges overlooking Rishikesh, is where the Beatles went in 1968 to learn about Transcendental Meditation. They wrote a few…
-
It’s 1914 and Everyone’s a Photo Critic
One hundred years ago this month, much of the world was at war. But in the United States – which would eventually mobilize 4 million military personnel – public opinion in 1914 was still firmly on the side of neutrality. This was very evident thumbing through this 100-year-old issue of “The Camera” magazine, published in Philadelphia.…
-
Flower Collage
Here’s a fun photo project…and an idea I stole from my wife (I explained to her that I was improving on her idea – it didn’t go over well). Go find a green space and see how many flowers you can discover. Or bugs. Or whatever. And then make a photo collage out of them.…
-
A Brief History of Photography…as of 1912.
I have a few old camera magazines – about a century old. It’s fun to flip through them every now and then and consider how much has changed…and in some cases, how little has changed…in the field of photography. The article below, from the December 1912 issue of “The Camera” magazine (cover above), recounts the…
-
Photowalk: Gritty Black and White
One of my favorite camera/film combinations is a (relatively) cheap Ricoh Kr-5 Super II – at just over 20 years old, one of my newest cameras – and Tri-X black and white film. Lots of people go for “fine grain” black and white films, but I like the gritty look you get from this particular…
-
Shooting with Expired Film
One of the folks I often get “found film” from accidentally shipped me unused film. Typically people will discover a partially or fully shot roll of film that has been completely forgotten inside an old camera. Sometimes (rarely) the roll will be inside the camera without having been exposed at all. You know you’ve messed…
-
Multi-Camera Composites
I came across an interesting image-producing technique a few months ago, the “multi-camera composite,” on the Flickr page of Tony Kemplen. [Sidebar: Tony Kemplen is known for his “52 film cameras in 52 weeks” project, which he started in 2010 and is now in his fourth year.] The idea behind the multi-camera composite is, you…
-
At the Fair – Chennai Style
There’s a place in north-central Chennai where they set up the local “fair.” Called the “Island Grounds”, it’s the site of the 40th Tourism and Trade Fair. To be honest, we skipped most of the trade fair itself, but found the traditional rides-and-games-and-unhealthy-food part of the fair to be quite interesting, both from a cultural…
-
Two Towers, Two Cameras, Two Views on Photography
Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers make interesting photographic subjects – not because they are the tallest twin buildings in the world, but because of their shape and the textures and patterns on the outside of the building. At night, they are lit in such a way that these shapes and patterns are even more emphasized. So during…
-
Diwali Fireworks – 7 Steps to Help Photograph them Effectively (Even if it’s Cheating!)
Yesterday I posted about scenes from Diwali (Deepawali), the festival of lights, as seen during the day in Chennai, India. The firecrackers that had been steadily and constantly building over the last few days continued to build until Saturday night, when the nature of the sounds changed. Wandering up to our roof, I was amazed…
-
Going to Goa: Rome of the East
When I asked some photographer friends what I should look to photograph in my (then-) upcoming trip to Goa, I was told, “Churches! Goa is the ‘Rome of the East’”. I did some digging around and discovered that in fact “Old Goa” with its many churches is a UNESCO World Heritage site for that very…