It's Been Weeks

It's been weeks since I have been on the streets shooting. So it was refreshing to take my camera on my walk downtown this morning - and capture some real life in Guatemala. The scene was DRESSED and LIT for me.




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And of course TIMING is everything as well. An hour after taking this pic, I walked home past the same place. The job is almost complete. Only the man on the ladder - all the interesting stuff on the street is gone and the door is closed up. Turns out the man was putting in an electric service, grooved into the wall and was now at the top of the roof hooking up the wires to the aluminum pipe connected to the meter. Not nearly as interesting.

Excellent image Robert. Wonderful composition and treatment.

Andy brown said:

Excellent image Robert. Wonderful composition and treatment.

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Thank you Andy

Lovely photo. Looks like they use the same street address system as in Colombia. One thing I don't understand is how the pole eminating from behind the pot on the ground is standing up.

Peter Dexter said:

Lovely photo. Looks like they use the same street address system as in Colombia. One thing I don't understand is how the pole eminating from behind the pot on the ground is standing up.

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Thank you. I think the pole is a hoe used for mixing the cement. Just balancing on the large blade I presume.

Robert Watcher said:

It's been weeks since I have been on the streets shooting. So it was refreshing to take my camera on my walk downtown this morning - and capture some real life in Guatemala. The scene was DRESSED and LIT for me.--------

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Robert,

Kudos!

This meets and perhaps exceeds the best of your Nicaragua pictures. Stay alert or such captures will escape!

Now I know you love 4/3 cameras. It makes so much sense as the are so well developed, relatively inexpensive and perfect for the traveler. Still, given that you arer a serious professional photographer too, wouldnt a Sony A7RII or even a Fuji GFX makes sense for such special circumstances so that these unrepeatable images can be printed large, museum quality?

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Robert,

Kudos!

This meets and perhaps exceeds the best of your Nicaragua pictures. Stay alert or such captures will escape!

Now I know you love 4/3 cameras. It makes so much sense as the are so well developed, relatively inexpensive and perfect for the traveler. Still, given that you arer a serious professional photographer too, wouldnt a Sony A7RII or even a Fuji GFX makes sense for such special circumstances so that these unrepeatable images can be printed large, museum quality?

Asher

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Thank you Asher.

I'm not really sure why you would think a Sony or Fuji camera would make any difference in my images. The Olympus equals them in image quality. I have never desired the best or highest technical abilities from my gear just based on sales hype from manufacturers. I have 30 and 40 inch prints of cropped images taken on my Olympus gear, purchased and hanging in people's homes as fine art. My favourite sizes are 12x18 with wide matting for large sizes. Those prints are stellar from my Oly files.

This is a 36"x36" print I sold that looks amazing on my clients wall. It was taken with my 4/3 Olympus and kit lens of a 1 inch strip of burnt paint on the end an iBeam in an old factory. The crop is about 2/3 of the complete file size. As it is with all of my images, it was shot in Jpeg:



As well a 24"x36" print that is on a clients wall - taken from cropped section of a 4/3 file:



The comfort level that my gear provides, affects the images I take. So my work would be slightly different with different gear, and in all probability I would not take my cameras with me if I had the larger bodies and lenses of the brands you mention. In fact one of the reasons I haven't been shooting as much is because my small Olympus body is broken till I get back to Canada ---- so I dragged out my pro Olympus EM1 for shooting on this day. But I still used the small versatile kit lens to keep things as light as possible.

These are just street snapshots for me. I make little effort to find the best lighting or angle. I am literally walking by, notice something interesting, pull out my camera and take one or two shots and move on. The composition happens without thought when I look through the screen on the back of the camera. I don't see any of the 200,000 images I have taken in Central America as special. Each is just another to add to a massive collection that will never be seen by many people. My motivation? I simply have a need to take pictures each day. I do process my images for maximum visual impact and so that has nothing to do with the camera I shoot with. As a result a few images are sold, a few hang on people's walls, a few are used as teaching aids by Universities around the world. That is nice to know as well.


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Robert Watcher said:

Thank you Asher.

..........The composition happens without thought when I look through the screen on the back of the camera....


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Robert,

As much as you might think that your pictures are taken, "without a thought", remember, 9/10ths of our brain processing in preparation for a picture is not something we are aware of, but below our consciousness radar.

A person who has composed myriads of shots in a professional career, has developed fine automatic skills that call on memories, knowledge, esthetics, experience and eye, brain motor coordination, so what would take a good enthusiast 20 seconds, you can accomplish without any apparent effort in a fraction of a second!

You have a large resource of worthy works of art to mine.

And yes, 200,000 is a vast number to go through! So get a curator volunteer, perhaps!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Robert,

As much as you might think that your pictures are taken, "without a thought", remember, 9/10ths of our brain processing in preparation for a picture is not something we are aware of, but below our consciousness radar.

A person who has composed myriads of shots in a professional career, has developed fine automatic skills that call on memories, knowledge, esthetics, experience and eye, brain motor coordination, so what would take a good enthusiast 20 seconds, you can accomplish without any apparent effort in a fraction of a second!

You have a large resource of worthy works of art to mine.

And yes, 200,000 is a vast number to go through! So get a curator volunteer, perhaps!

Asher

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Thanks Asher. So kind of you. ?

Your pictures do not require being subject to foolish eyes 10" from the print look for flaws. I have seen that in exhibitions with prints that are selling for $60,000. People imagine they are buying the next Mona Lisa!

For my own interest, I like to be able to print full length images 40-50" wide and have the density and detail of the image be fully rich and adequately detailed. I have discovered that there was no practical gain for my work, so far, going from 36 MP, (Sony A7R), to 80MP, (Phase One), with head and shoulders or full length art model pictures, when printed that large.

Asher

I must say Excellent work Robert with perfect timing and composition which is so colorful.

Roshni Patel said:

I must say Excellent work Robert with perfect timing and composition which is so colorful.

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Thanks so much.