Frameless

September 14, 2009

Early in the morning

September 2009, Athens

OK, this is ridiculous. ISO 400, and it looks like it went through the Impressionist filter. I knew that the LX3 has certain... issues in rendering low-contrast details, like hair. But clouds? How? Why?

September 12, 2009

Huh

2009

Still learning. I discovered that Exposure Compensation can work like setting the "wrong" ISO with a film camera. A technique I've rarely used (the Minolta detected ISO automatically and wouldn't let you mess with it, but the glorious Zenit would), and I'm only now beginning to grasp. Basically, if you know your camera's behaviour, with this little thing and Aperture/Speed Priority Mode or even Program Mode (having set your film mode and ISO of choice), you get the equivalent of full manual control - only much faster.

Of course, there are still scenes that need you to choose every single setting to get them right. I find that these scenes are becoming fewer and fewer. And I see nothing wrong with that. I'm still in control, only with a different method.

Also, I've learnt a couple of things about digital cameras in general. (Still a newb, you know.) The LX3's sensor is lacking, and that's the main reason why the noise of ISO-800 and higher can hurt my eyes. But that was almost inevitable unless I went for a proper DSLR - which was out of the question due to size. There is, in fact, a small camera which offers manual control and a DSLR's sensor (and therefore image quality) : the Sigma DP1. Unfortunately, since it's still a compact camera, I would be saddled with a 28mm F4 lens, very unsatisfying in comparison with the F2.0 Leica here.

So, though I didn't have all the data at the time, I still believe I bought the best camera for my needs. I like shooting with wide open aperture. An impromptu statistical analysis of the pictures I've uploaded here shows that 5 out of 7 have less than F4. These are the pictures I like to shoot. And I'd gladly keep that, even in exchange for a reduced quality. :)

September 6, 2009

Spear

September 2009, Patissia, Athens

If I conduct myself
with precision and grace
do I stand half a chance
of leaving this place?

~ The Astronauts, "Latin and Greek"

Who goes where

September 2009, Patissia, Athens

It's a shame
We could have gone sailing

~ The Killers, "Tranquilize"

A million miles high

August 2009, Patissia, Athens

Exodus, escape
or was it just for me to see

~ Edgar Broughton Band, "Evening over rooftops"

The Omen II

August 2009, Plaka, Athens

In the shadowplay
acting out your own death
knowing no more

~ Joy Division, "Shadowplay"

The Omen I

August 2009, Plaka, Athens

To the centre of the city
where all roads meet
waiting for you

~ Joy Division, "Shadowplay"

Upstairs

August 2009, Patissia, Athens

Go on and wring my neck
like when a rag gets wet
A little discipline
for my pet genius

~ Faith No More, "Midlife Crisis"

The walls have eyes

August 2009, Exarcheia, Athens

Fray

August 2009, Exarcheia, Athens

It's into the shame and it's into the guilt
and it's into the fucking fray
and the walls ran red around me
a warm arterial spray

~ Nick Cave, "Papa won't leave you, Henry"

August 11, 2009

Fuck off, human

July 2008, Hydra

That stuff inside your houses
And that stuff behind your eyes
Well it all ends up as stuff that you can buy

~ Chumbawamba, "On eBay"

The great undead

July 2009, Patissia, Athens

Oh my darling
will you be here
before I sputter out

~ Eels, "Novocaine for the soul"

August 4, 2009

Sink

August 2009, Souda

"Oh quarter, oh quarter"
Those pirates they did cry
- Blow high, blow low, and so sail we -
But the quarter that we gave them
Was we sank 'em in the sea

~ Traditional, "High Barbary"

Star

August 2009, Loutraki

Hippo

August 2009, Chania

They've hired men with the crab-tree sticks
To cut him skin from bone
And the miller, he has served him worse than that
For he's ground him between two stones

~ Traditional, "John Barleycorn"

The Happening

August 2009, Chania

Photography can be awfully time-consuming. You can spend hours - nay, days! - stuck in a dark room or glued to your computer screen, struggling to bring out the best of your photograph. You can walk miles and miles just to get yourself in that advantageous position, or wait for hours until the clouds move or the people move or the light falls from that exact angle you were waiting for. (Or, as Ansel Adams put it, "a good photograph is knowing where to stand".) You can spend hours setting your tripod, external flash and spotlights around your scene.

But it is also entirely possible to produce a photograph which satisfies you completely by spending exactly 1/60th of a second: Click.

Photography is widely known to be the art of the ephemeral. It's one of its charms, after all. Here's another one:

Photography is art for lazy people

Can you imagine anyone, professional or amateur, producing a worthwhile piece in painting or sculpture without investing precious time and actually working on it? Nah. But can you imagine a breathtaking photograph coming out of an instant's worth of attention, a point-and-click procedure, a fortunate timing or sheer blind luck? Man, this happens all the freaking time! Spare me the "thirty years and five minutes" clichés. Photography is the only art form that allows lazy people to express themselves with as much variety, emotion and nuance as any art form can hope for.

Why? Because we shoot what we see, and we all see differently. We all frame differently. The very nature of photography allows anyone to push a button (YOU PUSHED! THE WRONG! BUTTON!) in their own unique way, and the rest (preparing to shoot, fiddling with more buttons, or image processing afterwards) are optional. Useful and vastly expanding the creative choices, but certainly not essential. The essence of photography is The Frame, freezing a part of space in time. And even lazy people can handle that.

Sometimes I think of photography as a game of fortune. Did I happen to be in the right place in the right time? Click. I didn't premeditate, I got lucky and took advantage of it. Did I happen to see a wonderful scene from where I was standing? Click. I didn't know where to stand, I got lucky. Did I happen to notice an odd shadow somewhere? Click. I don't walk around to get the perfect shot, I just enjoy finding the best angle and frame from where I happen to stand. Happen, happens, happened, happening. Sometimes photography just happens. And this brings a smile to my face whenever I think about it. Begone equipment-freaks and... hard-working people!

Photography. Just. Happens.

I was driving, doing nothing, on the shores of Great Salt Lake
When they put it on the air, I put it in the hammer lane
I soon forgot myself and I forgot about the brake
I forgot about all laws and I forgot about the rain

~ Pixies, "The Happening"

Virus

2009

Filter

2009

Focus is for pussies.

All we've ever had was now

July 2009, Falasarna

As logic stands, you couldn't meet a man who's from the future
But logic broke as he appeared, he spoke about the future
"We're not gonna make it"

~ The Flaming Lips, "All we have is now"

Signs

July 2009, Falasarna

Yonder

July 2009, Falasarna

I should have stayed way out yonder
Better off with the scorpions and snakes

~ Calexico, "The Ballad of Cable Hogue"

Swirl

July 2009, Falasarna

5 p.m.

July 2009, Falasarna

Stay sick

July 2009, Falasarna

Had all the violence and liquor within close reach
But all bars, pills and threeways lead me back to the beach

~ The Cramps, "Bikini girls with machine guns"

Enter

July 2009, Chania

Ghosts

July 2009, Chania

August 3, 2009

Return to the scene of the crime

July 2009, Chania

Other side

July 2009, Chania

You still walk among the living
but there's a place you'd rather be
with the shepherds of Arcadia
in your home across the sea

~ Madrugada, "Look away, Lucifer"

Wisdom

July 2009, Chania

Long time no see

July 2009, Chania

And so sail we

July 2009, on board F/B Elyros

"Oh, I'm not a man-o-war
Nor privateer," said he
- Blow high, blow low, and so sail we -
"But I am salt sea pirate
All a-looking for me fee"

~ Traditional, "High Barbary"

Drive

July 2009, Piraeus

Walk

July 2009, Piraeus

July 24, 2009

Vertigo

July 2009, Kypseli, Athens

Generations

2009

Windows

July 2009, Patissia, Athens

Now, to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.

~ Edward Weston

Sometimes I forget my position

July 2009, Patissia, Athens

I think we've been forced to our knees
but I can't tell

~ Magazine, "Parade"

Forensics

July 2009, Patissia, Athens

Why yes, I was in the mosh pit. How did you guess?

July 22, 2009

Alec Empire / Nine Inch Nails

"But all we know is how to learn"
~ Ursula Le Guin

In Concert
So here's one thing the 24-60mm lens was NOT built for: concerts. Unless you're backstage (or ON stage), if you want to shoot some nice "mainstream" photos in a concert, you need zoom. And when you're in the pit? Well, first of all, you need to zoom, focus and centre the picture around the artist(s). You also need to be either right in front of the stage, or tall enough to shoot past people's heads and raised hands. And last but not least, you need a goddamn battery in your goddamn camera. I failed miserably at all of the above, but at least I was able to shoot some photos. Until the battery died on me, that is.

Choosing ISO
Grain or blur? If you carry a lens longer than your arm, you can reliably say "neither". Otherwise, you have to choose and lose. I should have tried both, but this would require thinking! and deciding! - and I was too busy moshing. So I picked grain right at the beginning and stuck with it. Now, grain is a bad choice when you want to focus on a detail, small objects, or Trent Reznor's frontal vein. But since my zoomless lens already prevented me from such noble pursuits, I simply went for the hazy stuff. ISO-800, under the standard (erratic) lighting of the stage, results in grain which is just enough to make the classic smoke/spotlight combination look eerie, without fucking up the image's resolution beyond recognition. This was all well and good on paper (err... screen), until I came home and decided to do the unprecedented: crop the pictures.

Cropping
Cropping is harder than it looks, I realised in astonishment yesterday. It changes everything, and there's no "right" way to crop an image. There are millions of ways and you have to choose. This proved difficult and time-consuming. ("I'll cut here... No, wait, I should include the spotlight. Umm, no, I should keep the microphone at the centre... Oooh, I know, I'll have the amp and keyboard form a line right here... Er, what did I want to do, again?") Mix that with increased grain, and you have a problem. ("Hey,this cropping would be perfect! ...If you could make head or tail of what's left.") Because film grain is awesome: zoom in, and even if the shapes are less well-defined, the image overall is still great. But digital grain (or however they call it) is crap: zoom in, and you get noise.